Culinary goals for 2014

[FrogPrincesse]

I season mine with olive oil, salt, pepper, and herbes de provence (pre-roasting).

[FauxPas]

I recently tried a recipe - not sure now where it came from - for roasted cauliflower that was dipped first in a spicy yogurt mixture. The spice mix, as I recall, was something like curry powder, coriander, pepper, maybe smoked paprika. Roast until the yogurt coating is dry and golden. The only thing I didn't like about it was that, in the interests of being easy, the cauliflower was roasted whole. I thought the yogurt coating was so good the it needed more - as in, cut the cauliflower into chunks first. If I remember where I spotted the recipe, I'll report back here with more details and a link.

 

Kind of like this one?

 

http://www.purewow.com/entry_detail/recipe/8821/Forget-florets--roast-the-whole-damn-cauliflower.htm

 

The only thing i didn't like was that the inside was a bit too hard even when the outside was ready. So I agree with you, I think cutting it up a bit is better. 

[cyalexa]

So it's just about two months before the year is up. I gave up on Zucchini for roasting. I still need to find one more veggie to try roasting. I big-time dislike gourd-type squashes so they aren't  in the running. The very smell of sweet potatoes and yams cause a gag reflex in me.  I have no idea if broccoli roasts up very nicely or not. I'm just not sure what to try to fulfill my 2014 culinary goal. Am I missing something obvious to try?

Broccoli is very good roasted. Especially tossed with a little garlic when almost done then dressed with lemon juice and parm when removed from the oven. 

[gfweb]

I recently tried a recipe - not sure now where it came from - for roasted cauliflower that was dipped first in a spicy yogurt mixture. The spice mix, as I recall, was something like curry powder, coriander, pepper, maybe smoked paprika. Roast until the yogurt coating is dry and golden. The only thing I didn't like about it was that, in the interests of being easy, the cauliflower was roasted whole. I thought the yogurt coating was so good the it needed more - as in, cut the cauliflower into chunks first. If I remember where I spotted the recipe, I'll report back here with more details and a link.

Kerry Beal did it, I think, in a Steam Boy.

Edited October 29, 2014 by gfweb (log)

[Porthos]

Cauliflower was the choice. I went for "the basic": olive oil, salt, pepper, spread out on the baking sheet; 425 degrees for 45 minutes. We all enjoyed it.

 

 

Edited to add: I used herbes de provence on something a couple of years ago and my DW clearly indicated that not using it in the future would be the right thing to do.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Porthos (log)

[Smithy]

Kind of like this one?

 

http://www.purewow.com/entry_detail/recipe/8821/Forget-florets--roast-the-whole-damn-cauliflower.htm

 

The only thing i didn't like was that the inside was a bit too hard even when the outside was ready. So I agree with you, I think cutting it up a bit is better.

That's the one. I'd forgotten about the crunchy interior, but that was another reason we thought cutting would be better. That marinade is a keeper.

[Smithy]

 

Get a really good sourdough starter established, and keep it fed, and use it.

 

Learn how to make an olive oil/rosemary bread at least as good as the San Luis Bakery Sourdough Olive Oil and Rosemary bread that I can get from, of all places, the Save-Mart stores in Visalia.  It sounds like heresy, but I think that bread is better than the La Brea Bakery version we get here in Duluth.  Surely I can do as well?

I'm so pleased! My own homegrown sourdough starter

and my second loaf of sourdough bread from that starter

Thanks to member bethesdabakers and his topics on Baking Bread from Scratch in France and Establishing and Working with Homegrown Sourdough Starter.

Olive oil and rosemary loaf by the end of the year? Maybe!

[Smithy]

So: we're on the countdown to the New Year. How did we do?

I've had some success with stuffed pasta, but not enough for confidence.

I have my own sourdough starter and have made some very good loaves and some passable loaves and some...well, not so good loaves. :-) I haven't graduated to the rosemary/olive oil sourdough loaf that was my year's-end goal, but I blame it on an oven failure (still to be rectified) a month ago. I can't claim total success, but I think I've learned to get a better consistency than I found in my latest purchase of this, my target (latest grocery store purchase of San Luis Sourdough Rosemary and Olive Oil Bread):

Mine

Theirs

How have the rest of you done?

[Porthos]

Made my goal of roasting 3 new veggies. Haven't done much lately. Now for a goal for 2015 (besides hoping to still live in our house through 2015).

[pbear]

Funny, was thinking about this thread the other day.  Pretty much succeeded in my goal of incorporating low temp into my recipe file (which I maintain in Word).  Main challenge was recasting the braises and stews so the sauce could be readily prepared separately from the protein.

[gfweb]

I did more with duck.

 

Goose in 2015!

[Darienne]

As for my 2014 goals...not so good.  We did start to have folks over for lunch again now that DH is well again, but not much.  And I did find a good bean salad recipe with no sugar in it. 

As for working through the Power Hungry cookbook.  I kept it up for a while but then found an excellent recipe for me personally, figured out how to quadruple the recipe with my limited food processor, and stopped trying new recipes and thus stopped posting. 

 

Win some...lose some.  Right gfweb...time for a 2015 thread.