Cooking from "Dining In," "Nothing Fancy," and "Sweet Enough" by Alison Roman

[FrogPrincesse]

I was in the mood of something very chocolate-y the other day. I made the chocolate-sour cream pound cake from Sweet Enough and it delivered. I had tried other chocolate pound cake recipes in the past, and that one was a notch above with its intense chocolate flavor. I included the optional chocolate chunks and it was quite a large cake, pretty much filling my loaf pan to the top! I would absolutely make this again.

 

Before the oven

 

[FrogPrincesse]

The Perfect asparagus with garlic and salted olive oil from Dining In. Is it overhyped? Probably. Unexpectedly fussy? For sure. Peeling and blanching asparagus before dirtying a pan to make an olive oil / garlic / Aleppo pepper drizzle... it's a fairly big production for a side dish.

 

I used way less than the 1/4 cup of olive oil it calls for (a few tablespoons was enough) and the drizzle in a pan to which I added the asparagus so I could coat it well, rather than making it in a small saucepan as described in the book.

 

This was a nice accompaniment for steak, but not something I will likely make again any time soon. I liked her roasted broccolini much better!

 

 

 

[&roid]

On 4/12/2024 at 9:29 PM, FrogPrincesse said:

The Perfect asparagus with garlic and salted olive oil from Dining In. Is it overhyped? Probably. Unexpectedly fussy? For sure. Peeling and blanching asparagus before dirtying a pan to make an olive oil / garlic / Aleppo pepper drizzle... it's a fairly big production for a side dish.

 

I used way less than the 1/4 cup of olive oil it calls for (a few tablespoons was enough) and the drizzle in a pan to which I added the asparagus so I could coat it well, rather than making it in a small saucepan as described in the book.

 

This was a nice accompaniment for steak, but not something I will likely make again any time soon. I liked her roasted broccolini much better!

 

 

 

They do look good though! I reckon you could trim the prep down and have  an even better dish by skipping the peeling stage and simply microwaving them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.
 

This is probably my favourite way of dealing with asparagus as it gives beautiful bright green spears, with none of the flavour leached out into the boiling water. It’s easy to get doneness just right too. 

[FrogPrincesse]

59 minutes ago, &roid said:

They do look good though! I reckon you could trim the prep down and have  an even better dish by skipping the peeling stage and simply microwaving them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap.
 

This is probably my favourite way of dealing with asparagus as it gives beautiful bright green spears, with none of the flavour leached out into the boiling water. It’s easy to get doneness just right too. 

Thank you! They tasted good. Just not sure they were worth the extra dishes to clean.

Interesting suggestion about the microwave... for those who have one (I don't! 😄). Maybe steaming would achieve the same result?

[FrogPrincesse]

It looks like I have been in the mood for pineapple lately, because after Nik Sharma's pineapple serrano gin, I made the pineapple upside down cake from Sweet Enough! It's something I have had of course, but I don't believe I had ever made it.

It's quite easy. I used 1/2 pineapple and a 10" springform pan. It starts with a heavy sprinkle of brown sugar on the buttered pan, that is covered by a mosaic of pineapple (I had just enough). I skipped the cherries because I am not a fan of maraschino cherries, even the good ones. Then you drizzle with rum (I used pineapple rum, because I could), and pour the batter on top. (Note: I had a little bit of rum leakage during cooking because of the springform. If you use a regular cake pan, this shouldn't be an issue.) The batter also has rum, plus vanilla extract. She says to bake for 40-45 minutes. At 40 it wasn't ready, at 45 min the toothpick test said it was ready but when I cut the cake, the center wasn't entirely cooked. Next time I would bake it for 50-55 minutes. 

Warm, this cake is absolutely delicious! And the larger cake pan is the way to go in order to maximize the pineapple to cake ratio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16 by FrogPrincesse (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

I made the quick kimchi from Dining In with napa cabbage, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, rice vinegar, a crisp (red) apple, and salt. I didn't have gochugaru, the Korean chili powder, so I used piment d'espelette instead (vive la France!). It was very easy (I used gloves to give it a thorough massage before jarring it).

 

I tried it right away, it was already good but missing something. A couple of days later, it is better, but I think I would tweak it a bit to make it exactly to my liking (more ginger maybe). I also miss the fermented more funky flavor of the real thing, to be perfectly honest.

 

 

 

I made another kimchi omelette with it. It's growing on me!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:15 PM by FrogPrincesse (log)

[haresfur]

On 4/17/2024 at 8:20 AM, FrogPrincesse said:

It looks like I have been in the mood for pineapple lately, because after Nik Sharma's pineapple serrano gin, I made the pineapple upside down cake from Sweet Enough! It's something I have had of course, but I don't believe I had ever made it.

It's quite easy. I used 1/2 pineapple and a 10" springform pan. It starts with a heavy sprinkle of brown sugar on the buttered pan, that is covered by a mosaic of pineapple (I had just enough). I skipped the cherries because I am not a fan of maraschino cherries, even the good ones. Then you drizzle with rum (I used pineapple rum, because I could), and pour the batter on top. (Note: I had a little bit of rum leakage during cooking because of the springform. If you use a regular cake pan, this shouldn't be an issue.) The batter also has rum, plus vanilla extract. She says to bake for 40-45 minutes. At 40 it wasn't ready, at 45 min the toothpick test said it was ready but when I cut the cake, the center wasn't entirely cooked. Next time I would bake it for 50-55 minutes. 

Warm, this cake is absolutely delicious! And the larger cake pan is the way to go in order to maximize the pineapple to cake ratio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would never have thought of using a spring form for upside down cake. Always used a cast iron fry pan. We have a family debate about using crushed pineapple (me) or rings (her). Both work. Cherries are only if you are making it with kids. Is there anything unusual about the cake recipe? It looks quite dark inside.

[FrogPrincesse]

11 minutes ago, haresfur said:

 

I would never have thought of using a spring form for upside down cake. Always used a cast iron fry pan. We have a family debate about using crushed pineapple (me) or rings (her). Both work. Cherries are only if you are making it with kids. Is there anything unusual about the cake recipe? It looks quite dark inside.

I liked using the springform; the cake was very easy to remove from it (and the leak was minimal). The book just says to use a 10-inch cake pan. The pineapple caramelized just fine in the springform. Fresh pineapple is much better than any canned product, in my humble opinion.

She says the recipe was inspired by a "yellow cake from a box" recipe, which sounds very typical. The dark color is from the light brown sugar. Also I used coconut palm sugar instead of the regular granulated sugar that's called for in the recipe, for another flavor boost.

If anything it looks even darker in the book - see below.