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"Zuni Cafe" Cookbook by Judy Rogers

Mottmott

By Mottmott
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Smithy

Smithy

Posted
Posted

I like the panade (the sorrel version) but, now that you think of it, always find myself taking far longer than I'd expected to make it. Maybe I'll try rewriting it and see how that works. I like the way she writes, and enjoy reading the book, but the recipes seem more complicated than I think they're supposed to.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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  • 2 months later...
dockhl

dockhl

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I've got this gorgeous little chicken salted and drying in my fridge for the past two days........tonight I get to cook it!

Question:

do I need to bring it to room temp before I stick it in the 500' oven ?

Can't wait............ :smile:

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snowangel

snowangel

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dock, on page 392, she mentions that with large roasts, she usually takes it out of the fridge at room temp for a few hours before roasting.

I'm not sure how this applies to chickens, but I know I've usually taken my chickens out a while (an hour or two?) before I put them in the oven.

Edited to add: Please let us know how this turns out!

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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  • 4 months later...
ludja

ludja

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Has anyone made the citrus risotto (w/grapefruit and lime)? If so, how is it and do you think it might work with sauteed shrimp as Rodgers mentions in the recipe forward?

I'll probably have to try this slightly improbably combination myself just to satisfy my own curiosity but I thought I'd also check with other's experiences. I thought that with the shrimp it might make a nice first seafood course for Easter.

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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LindaK

LindaK

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I haven't tried the Zuni recipe for citrus risotto--I've pretty much given up on the book--but have had similar variations based on lemon. Very good. I'd be careful with grapefruit and lime, both can be overly bitter or tart. Perhaps underlining earlier comments about the success of these recipes relying on a need for local ingredients? But I agree with your instinct that a citrus-based risotto would pair well with seafood.


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snowangel

snowangel

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Soup looks great!  Did it taste as good as it looks?  Don't have my book here at work.  How long does it take to cook this up?  I'm shopping, then cooking with friends all day tomorrow and wondering if I could whip this up with them for dinner.

This is a wonderful soup. There are nice textural contrasts, and the black pepper just makes it pop. And, this soup is fast. Sweat the onions, add the stock and rice and while that is cooking, crisp up bacon or pancetta, slice the asparagus and give it a quick toss with the bacon, add to the soup and voila! Dinner. Start to finish 45 minutes tops, including chopping and gathering ingredients. Plus, it's really pretty.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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  • 8 years later...
FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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I received a large orange cauliflower and a bunch of broccolini in my farmer's market bag, so I decided to try the Pasta with spicy broccoli and cauliflower from Zuni. I liked the technique where the vegetables are sliced thin and browned to create flavor, with the other elements added towards the end so they maintain a sharper flavor (sliced garlic/anchovies/etc).

 

The end result was a little oily, even though I had reduced the amount of olive oil that the recipe called for. Also there was something in the flavor that kept bugging me which I realized was the fennel seed. For me it distracted from the other flavors, even though I only used a pinch or two. I will completely skip it next time.

 

Excluding the fennels seed, I noticed that the various aromatic elements (olives, garlic, anchovies, capers) are actually what is used to make tapenade and that's why they make sense together. I garnished with toasted breadcrumbs as recommended in the recipe which gave a nice texture.

 

My favorite tapenade recipe incorporates almonds as well, and now I am kicking myself because I had some fresh green almonds that would have been nice in there, as a counterpoint to the sharper flavors in the dish.

 

14182779684_2becdec9fa_z.jpg
 

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

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Soba,

 

That seems like the kind of food you would enjoy based on what I've seen you post. I would also recommend the books by Suzanne Goin if you don't already have them. She acknowledged Judy Rodgers as an influence on the way she develops recipes.

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FrogPrincesse

FrogPrincesse

Posted
Posted (edited)

Here is the Boiled kale on toast that I made this winter and previously posted in the Dinner thread.

 

Boiled kale doesn't sound especially appealling. You end up with a pot full of greyish green material floating in liquid, surrounded by semi-toxic fumes. The opposite of sexy.

 

First impressions aside, this dish was surprisingly good. The boiled kale was served on a piece of toasted rustic bread that was dipped in the kale broth. Shaved Parmigiano was tucked under the duck egg for a little extra burst of flavor. There is something deeply comforting about this dish.

 

9737027545_87a2c2d62c_z.jpg

 

9737034275_c40a660c9e_z.jpg

Edited by FrogPrincesse (log)
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  • 1 month later...
Smithy

Smithy

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the roasted artichokes with onions is very good, the way the recipe is written drove me crazy, no i did not massage the oil into the artichokes and inspite of this, the dish was well received.

I tried this recipe last night, massaging and all. Artichokes are fiddly to begin with, and I rarely mess with them because the finger-food aspect doesn't appeal to the other human in the household. Nonetheless *I* like them, and indulged myself when I found some on sale.

I ended up discarding a lot of outer leaves (more than I'd have predicted) that were tough, despite long cooking; a lot of the onions got a bit too caramelized for my liking (read: it took forever to clean the Le Creuset gratin dish afterward). Despite these issues, the dish was a hit. "I like these!" said my darling, spearing yet more artichoke, and I hardly got any. The melted butter for dipping may have been a factor. In fact, next time around I may add melted butter as a garnish before serving. I do think I overcooked it in the hopes of getting more edible artichoke fraction. Next time, if there is a next time, I'll use a different pan and more liquid so that the artichokes are sitting atop a deeper reservoir of liquid. The flavors were good.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

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"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Mottmott

Mottmott

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Funny to see this thread up again. Just last night, at dinner with my 18 yr old gd, she told me that my poached peaches and pickled onions were favorites of hers. Guess where the pickled onion recipe comes form? Yup.  Zuni.  The bad news, I use the more labor intensive versionm of the two.

 

"Half of cooking is thinking about cooking." ---Michael Roberts

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  • 1 year later...
blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

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Resurrecting an old thread here. 

Last week, Anna mentioned the pickled red onions from this cookbook.  It's a much praised recipe that I've never tried, because it seemed rather bothersome but I had some nice sweet onions from my CSA box and based on Anna's feedback, I decided to give it a go. The process involves dividing the sliced onions into 3 groups.  Each group gets 3 separate baths in the boiling sugar:vinegar brine  followed by draining and cooling steps.  This provided me ample opportunity to distribute droplets of sticky liquid throughout my kitchen.  The end result is indeed a lovely pickled onion.  Almost 2 quart jars full of lovely pickled onion.  And much kitchen cleaning, surely due to my own ineptness.  I may change my mind if they become even more marvelous over time but at this point, I would not follow the recipe exactly as written again.  I would probably make a smaller batch and increase the volume of the brine if necessary so everyone could swim together rather than in separate sessions.  Or I could become a more tidy cook :blush: !

Looking further into the book and based on an earlier comment from trillium in this thread, I tried the pasta wth preserved lemon and tuna as adapted for canned tuna since I didn't preserve my own but used some lovely canned tuna belly.   Starting by gently warming olive oil to infuse it with garlic and other seasonings makes it my kind of recipe but it just gets better with the preserved lemon, capers and tuna.  Most excellent! I will certainly make this again and again.

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Anna N

Anna N

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Posted

Resurrecting an old thread here. 

Last week, Anna mentioned the pickled red onions from this cookbook.  It's a much praised recipe that I've never tried, because it seemed rather bothersome but I had some nice sweet onions from my CSA box and based on Anna's feedback, I decided to give it a go. The process involves dividing the sliced onions into 3 groups.  Each group gets 3 separate baths in the boiling sugar:vinegar brine  followed by draining and cooling steps.  This provided me ample opportunity to distribute droplets of sticky liquid throughout my kitchen.  The end result is indeed a lovely pickled onion.  Almost 2 quart jars full of lovely pickled onion.  And much kitchen cleaning, surely due to my own ineptness.  I may change my mind if they become even more marvelous over time but at this point, I would not follow the recipe exactly as written again.  I would probably make a smaller batch and increase the volume of the brine if necessary so everyone could swim together rather than in separate sessions.  Or I could become a more tidy cook :blush: !

Looking further into the book and based on an earlier comment from trillium in this thread, I tried the pasta wth preserved lemon and tuna as adapted for canned tuna since I didn't preserve my own but used some lovely canned tuna belly.   Starting by gently warming olive oil to infuse it with garlic and other seasonings makes it my kind of recipe but it just gets better with the preserved lemon, capers and tuna.  Most excellent! I will certainly make this again and again.

I have been re-reading the Zuni book for days and last evening read through this topic. I am amazed again at the differing reactions to the book. Some would happily chuck it while others, like me, wouldn't part with it. I can't help but think that anyone who attempted even a dozen recipes would emerge a far better cook. Being on the Island is no place to commit to cooking from Zuni. When red onions and decent chicken are in short supply what possible hope can there be of finding persimmons? Still I love reading through each and every recipe in a way that I never do with other cook books.

I am so glad you attempted the pickled red onions. If you can fit it into your plans the romesco sauce will open your taste buds to what "complex flavour" can really mean.

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

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  • 2 years later...
blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

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Pasta with Corn, Pancetta, Butter & Sage p 201 in the Zuni Café Cookbook

IMG_8256.thumb.jpg.feeb05176155fca83d07104eed7298c3.jpg

With excellent fresh corn from a local farm and gobs of butter, this can't help being delicious.  I substituted prosciutto in for the pancetta, as allowed in the header notes.  

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Smithy

Smithy

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8 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Pasta with Corn, Pancetta, Butter & Sage p 201 in the Zuni Café Cookbook

IMG_8256.thumb.jpg.feeb05176155fca83d07104eed7298c3.jpg

With excellent fresh corn from a local farm and gobs of butter, this can't help being delicious.  I substituted prosciutto in for the pancetta, as allowed in the header notes.  

 

Dang it, I thought I'd worked out the menu for our dinner party in a couple of nights. Now you've added other possibilities!

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
Host, eG Forums - nsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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  • 7 months later...
blue_dolphin

blue_dolphin

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Inspired by @snowangel's earlier post, I made the Asparagus & Rice Soup with Pancetta & Black Pepper from Zuni Café Cookbook p 166

IMG_0263.thumb.jpg.aa0ffedb84ef51316b2995c455c19754.jpg

Quick and easy, the flavors are both rich and fresh.  I'd prefer less pancetta - the recipe calls for 3-4 oz for ~ 4 cups of soup.  I went with the lower amount but though it was still a bit much.  I'll cut back further next time. 

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