Cooking with "This Will Make It Taste Good", by Vivian Howard

[blue_dolphin]

22 hours ago, curls said:

Now the waiting begins...

 

I am beyond impressed with the citrus graphic on the label and the coordinating jar lid!

 

Today I used the Can-Do Kraut in the Krautcakes with Fried Apples & Dijon from This Will Make It Taste Good p 79.  

Drained kraut mixed with a bit of pancake-type batter, fried up and topped with Dijon mustard and apple slices sautéed with ginger, butter, brown sugar and lemon juice.  

These would make a great side for grilled sausages or roast pork or chicken. I wish I'd spread them out more to get more lacy, crispy bits but they were still quite good.

f you use a 1/4 cup measure for these, you'll probably end up with 8 rather than the 6 that the recipe indicates.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Soon perhaps I can play too.  I had thought to wait until a Kindle sale, however amazon is currently having a 3 for 2* sale of hardcover.  Does this mean I will have to buy a blender?

 

 

*The other two titles I ordered were The Flavor Equation and Nose Dive.

 

[Shelby]

6 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Soon perhaps I can play too.  I had thought to wait until a Kindle sale, however amazon is currently having a 3 for 2* sale of hardcover.  Does this mean I will have to buy a blender?

 

 

*The other two titles I ordered were The Flavor Equation and Nose Dive.

 

Do you have a food processor?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Just now, Shelby said:

Do you have a food processor?

 

Yes, but I wouldn't say a food processor and a blender are interchangeable.

 

[Shelby]

12 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Yes, but I wouldn't say a food processor and a blender are interchangeable.

 

What recipe are you thinking about?  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

5 minutes ago, Shelby said:

What recipe are you thinking about?  

 

No recipe in particular, but from reading the online preview she seems to be a blender fan.

 

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

No recipe in particular, but from reading the online preview she seems to be a blender fan.

 

I did a quick search for “blender” and it would seem that you could be quite challenged without one depending of course on the recipes that you chose to make. 

[Shelby]

I guess I always just use my food processor in place of a blender...I have a stick blender that I use for making mayo.....

[blue_dolphin]

17 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

No recipe in particular, but from reading the online preview she seems to be a blender fan.

 

 

So far, the Herbdacious purée of roasted garlic and fresh herbs is the only thing I used a blender for.  It does make for a silky smooth result but there's no reason why you couldn't make it more like a pesto with a mortar & pestle.

 

Per Vivian on p 222, adjacent to a dressing recipe where she recommends using a food processor or blender:

Quote

ATTENTION: If I recommend a piece of equipment to do something you could otherwise do by hand, it's because that gadget makes the work much, much easier.  So, while it is totally possible employ only a cutting board, knife, bowl and whisk to emulsify this dressing, I highly recommend you lean on a food processor or blender to do the work.  Emulsification by hand is a pain in the rear.  End of story.

 

That makes it sound fairly optional.

[blue_dolphin]

More Can-do Kraut here with the Avocado Toast on Coronation Day p 76

 

This is pan-fried toast topped with avocado (prettily sliced and fanned in the book photo, scooped out of the shell and mashed in mine) and a small pile-o-kraut.  I thought this would be lacking compared to kimichi-avocado toast, but it was pretty good.  

Because I liked the combo of cheese & kraut in yesterday's omelet, I shaved some Jarlesberg to melt on to the toast before I mushed on the avocado.  Perhaps not necessary, but good. 

[Anna N]

9 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

That makes it sound fairly optional.

On the other hand there are a number of recipes where a blender might make the difference between good and great.  I am thinking of the bean dip, the sweet onion cauliflower purée and the But-A-Nut soup.  I don’t think the lack of a blender should be a dealbreaker as there is plenty in this book to be enjoyed whether or not you have a blender.

 

[Anna N]

 

Breakfast was a (purchased) garlic naan spread with some LGD, grated Gruyere cheese and chopped cherry tomatoes. 
 

My kraut is beginning to smell very strongly like rotting cabbage. Please tell me this is not the way it should smell. 

[Shelby]

Anna, I hope the kraut isn't going bad! 

 

This morning's breakfast:

 

 

Angel hair tossed with a bit of butter, a bit of pasta water, furki and lime juice.  I ended up putting even more furki on it.  Good stuff.

 

BTW my cats go absolutely nuts when I open the furki up.  Newman kept trying to drag pasta out of my bowl and eat it.

[blue_dolphin]

@Anna N I like the naan/LGD/cheese/tomato combo but can't say the same about your cabbage report 🤢!

 

I was looking at the book to see if Vivian specified a brand for the small dried shrimp for the furki.  

I missed any specifications in the recipe but spied them in the accompanying photo:

At first glance, reading sideways, I thought they were called "Dried Shrimpkins" and thought that was terribly cute!  🙃

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, Anna N said:

My kraut is beginning to smell very strongly like rotting cabbage. Please tell me this is not the way it should smell. 

I am hoping somebody will address this. Is it just me? I have read up on sauerkraut making and it seems the smell is a major problem for a lot of people. To put it in context, I love pickled daikon but I absolutely refuse to make it because it smells so bad to me. Even in a well sealed jar it seems to take over my whole refrigerator. Am I being overly sensitive to these smells? 

[Smithy]

57 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I am hoping somebody will address this. Is it just me? I have read up on sauerkraut making and it seems the smell is a major problem for a lot of people. To put it in context, I love pickled daikon but I absolutely refuse to make it because it smells so bad to me. Even in a well sealed jar it seems to take over my whole refrigerator. Am I being overly sensitive to these smells? 

 

I can't answer your question regarding being overly sensitive to the smells - maybe you are - but I can tell you that my kraut has never smelled like rotting cabbage unless it really was. Fermentation smells different than rot. Think pickles vs. the garbage left too long. Oh, dear.

 

Edited to add: I think your garlic naan "pizza" looks delicious!

Edited November 14, 2020 by Smithy
Added comment on garlic naan (log)

[heidih]

Agreed. Daikon pickle smells on a 1 to 10 scale at about 8 (clear room as jar opened), while kraut should be a 2 homey/pleasant/familiar.

[blue_dolphin]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

My kraut is beginning to smell very strongly like rotting cabbage. Please tell me this is not the way it should smell. 

 

My kraut experience is pretty much nil.  Ditto rotting cabbage.   I didn't open or sniff my kraut until the 2 week point when it smelled pickle-y but not rotten. 

I did happen upon this site that discussed a lot of kraut issues without going off into the phases of the moon after the first frost.  You'll have to scroll down to get to the odor part:

Quote

Pungent Odors

If, however, your sauerkraut smells like rotting or putrid food, you’ll want to toss it. Putrid is an unmistakably awful odor that might even make your eyes water. Usually, molds, yeasts or an off-color accompany truly putrid-smelling sauerkraut.

What to Do When Overpowered by Smelly Sauerkraut

 

 

• Be patient. The strongest odors occur during the first few days when the various acids, are finding their way out of your jar. After that, odors will be less noticeable.
• Compare odors with some store-bought sauerkraut. If you are totally new to sauerkraut and not sure how if what you smell is putrid or normal, buy a jar of sauerkraut to get a sense of what sauerkraut smells like. Look for raw, unpasteurized sauerkraut in the refrigerated section of a natural foods store. Compare its smell to what you have fermenting and nibble on it while you wait for your sauerkraut to ferment.
• Trap odors. Keep a dish of baking soda next to your fermenting sauerkraut where it will absorb some of the odors.
• Relocate. Move your ferment to another room in the house – or even the garage –  where it is out of the way, or even ventilated.
• Use water-sealed lids. Invest in water-sealed fermentation lids or a water-sealed fermentation crock that tend to trap most of the offensive odors.

 

 

 

Maybe asking over in the Sauerkraut topic might get more expert responses? 

[Martin Fisher]

LOL

My sister makes a sells a lot of radish pickles.

Boy, do they stink, but they sure are tasty

[Martin Fisher]

I don't consider sauerkraut stinky.

[Anna N]

Thanks everybody. I think this is another time when the sauerkraut is going into the compost bin. I suspect the problem might be that the ambient temperature is just too high. Damn. 

[blue_dolphin]

This is 40 Fettuccine from This Will Make It Taste Good p 223

In my book, it's only worth frying things if they are going to end up crispy and that's not the case here so while it's a nice pasta dish, it could have been quicker, easier and probably just as good. Half the "golden brown" fried zucchini goes in the blender with the Herbdacious where it dulls both the color and flavor of that brilliant green sauce and unnecessarily uses a blender. The other half of the fried zucchini gets tossed in at the end. 1/4" slices of zucchini fried to golden brown are pretty soft so there's not much textural contrast with the pasta.

I love the Herbdacious and think its a perfect for a veggie pasta dish but I'll try steaming a mix of colorful veg and adding a squeeze of lemon juice to accent the bright flavors.

[rotuts]

@blue_dolphin 

 

interesting points about crispy-ness

 

what about browning for the maillard'd flavors ?

 

streamed colorful veg might be excellent ,

 

but browning them might give the dish something w more depth ?

[blue_dolphin]

Just now, rotuts said:

@blue_dolphin 

 

interesting points about crispy-ness

 

what about browning for the maillard'd flavors ?

 

streamed colorful veg might be excellent ,

 

but browning them might give the dish something w more depth ?

 

The "brown" flavors go well with the roasted garlic in the Herbdacous so you make a good point.  

Also, my whining about frying mess and blender washing should be taken with a grain of salt.  My kitchen drain is clogged so I've been hauling dishes out to the garage to wash in the laundry sink out there.  Then the water heater in the garage started leaking so I've also had to heat water on the stove and haul THAT out to the garage, too.  Cold water just doesn't cut it when washing greasy dishes.  My 2-week wait for a plumber should be over tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that he can fix at least one of those things!

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Also, my whining about frying mess and blender washing should be taken with a grain of salt.  My kitchen drain is clogged so I've been hauling dishes out to the garage to wash in the laundry sink out there.  Then the water heater in the garage started leaking so I've also had to heat water on the stove and haul THAT out to the garage, too.  Cold water just doesn't cut it when washing greasy dishes.  My 2-week wait for a plumber should be over tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that he can fix at least one of those things!

I am always impressed with what you manage to accomplish but now I am totally gob smacked that you forged ahead given these limitations. Wow.