Cookbook Roulette

[snowangel]

Another winner from The 150 Best American Recipes (my finger landed on this one yet again this morning as I was having coffee):

Pork Chile Verde with Posole. Now, I took a couple of liberties with this. I had a package of leftover smoked butt (Freezer Gold). And, I didn't make a fresh salsa, rather used some that a friend had made and given me last weekend.

Another winner! And, enough for the freezer for an emergency meal.

[dockhl]

Having problems with this Rick Bayless Book.. All the recipes look good, I just am really not familiar with Mexican Cooking.. Has anyone made anything from this book, Mexico One Plate At a Time..  I just purchased a whole bunch of dried peppers this morning and have some frozen habaneros.. Most of the meat dishes take 24 hours to marinate so I am shooting for a big Mexican dinner this Friday or Saturday..

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Daniel~

what kind of problems? I've used this book a moderate amount and like it a lot. What is your stumbling block?

Kathy

[Daniel]

Sorry I havent gotten back to everyone.. Its just that I did not grow up eating Mexican Food.. My limited experience has been in the ChiChi's growing up or several taco's for a dollar at places in college.. I dont think I have ever made a salsa before.. So, it was a bit scary not knowing how the dishes I was making were going to taste..

But I think thats why I wanted to do the roulette.. Its to force yourself to try new things.. I made a chipotle pork taco with this sun dried tomato salasa.. This involved getting chipotle from a can in adobo sauce.. Blending it and rubbing it on flattened out pork loin.. I let it marinate for a day.. The salsa recipe called for soaking sun dried tomatoes in orange juice and then adding olives and onions.. I did not attempt to make tortillas.. Although next time I will..

I also made shrimp in a green almond sauce.. This called for blending radish greens, parsley,cilantro, with almonds chicken stock and peppers.. It cooked on the stove for awhile and I added grilled shrimp to the mixture.. The dish was creamy and spicy.. I really enjoyed it..

For dessert we made the churro dough but were too full to think about deep frying dough.. All in all I am happy I got over my fear of Mexican Cooking.. I look forward to looking through more of his recipes.. I think this book is a keeper..

Edited November 12, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[lapin d'or]

Daniel those mexican dishes look really tasty.

My roll of the roulette wheel this week came out with another soup recipe. This time from Lorenza de Medici's ' A Passion for Fruit'.

With no husband around this week to do a random pick for me I counted up the number of cook book shelves I had and got the computer to give me a random number. Then I counted the number of books on the shelf and got another random number. That picked out the Passion for Fruit book but when I opened it at random I hit on a page of fresh fig recipes. No fresh figs in my part of Devon right now so I split again and hit the crab apple section. Now this was really lucky as I have a crab apple tree in the garden with just a few fruits left on. So this weeks recipe was Crab Apple Soup.

This is actually a lightly curried soup with crab apple, poached chicken breast, rice and cream. The soup base is pureed and then the chicken pieces added at the end with the cream. I also added some parsley for colour but it has quite a nice warm yellow from the curry powder anyway. I think the crab apples added just the right amount of tartness to the otherwise quite creamy soup but I loved it and it was the first recipe I have done from the book so it has encouraged me to try a few more.

I cannot get any pictures worth posting at the moment but will keep trying.

[Chufi]

Daniel, your mexican food looks great!

lapin, that soup sounds delicious!

I let Dennis pick out another book and 3 times, he picked a book that I cook from often, so I decided to pick one myself. Not randomly, so I hope I'm not cheating.

It's Savoring spices and herbs by Julie Sahni.. I've had this book for years and I often look through it to see if anything looks interesting, and some things do, but there's something weird about the recipes.. they all seem contrived, complicated (not technique- but flavor-wise).

But I want to give it a try so tomorrow I'm cooking a couple of dishes from it.

[judiu]

Lapin d'or (golden rabbit, am I right?) welcome. I don't much like curry, but that soup sounds yummy!

[Chufi]

It's Savoring spices and herbs by Julie Sahni.. I've had this book for years and I often look through it to see if anything looks interesting, and some things do, but there's something weird about the recipes.. they all seem contrived, complicated (not technique- but flavor-wise).

But I want to give it a try so tomorrow I'm cooking a couple of dishes from it.

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here's my weird dinner:

lentil soup with bayleaves and turmeric

savoury millet cake with rosemary

celeriac/pear/carrot salad with chillies and celery seed.

The millet cake was supposed to red pepper, broccoli and zucchini in it, but I forgot to buy the broccoli and zucchini, so it had red peppers and eggplant!

The lentil soup was really delicious, but I suspect that had much to do with the lovely duckstock from my freezer.

The milletcake was interesting, and I can see this has potential, but it would be much better if the vegetables were sauteed first before mixing with the millet and baking. It's all just a little bit too bland and healthy.

The salad was just plain weird. Celeriac, carrots, pears, pinenuts, balsamic vinegar, chillies, coriander. No oil no salt (I did add salt!)

Edited November 13, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Daniel]

That looks great Chufi.. Whats the cream in the lentil soup?

Mondays selection is.....

A Return to Coooking by Eric Ripert and Michael Ruhlman..

[Pontormo]

Well, I'm playing again. This time I chose Deborah Madison's Local Flavors, not randomly, but because I had used only two or three recipes in the book before despite how much I turn to two of her other books. This particular publication appealed to me primarily because it documents visits to farmers markets throughout the United States, with wonderful photographs. The chapters are organized by season and primarily types of available produce, though meats, local cheeses, eggs and dairy products also receive attention. It's a good source of inspiration if you want to know what to do with the persimmons you just picked up.

Report here since it's a vegetarian meal of root vegetables braised in a wonderful, thick but light red wine sauce, with little beady, black lentils and rutabaga mashed with potato, and in my case, a little buttermilk and celery root.

Edited November 29, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Lori in PA]

After reading Susan's glowing report, I checked Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens' The 150 Best American Recipes out of the library. I made Braised Green Beans with Tomatoes and Fennel, using frozen green beans. Yuh-hum. Even better with a little heavy cream stirred in at the end and allowed to reduce a tad. I've got to do more with this book.

[Eilen]

I didn't necessarily intend to play, though I have been reading this thread and enjoying the random cookbook titles and inspiration. But the other morning before work I was browsing through my meager cookbook collection and grabbed Nigel Slater's Appetite, which, though I've read cover to cover, I've not yet used. Randomly opening the book took me to the pasta section, and a recipe for creamy orrechiete (sp?). I scanned the ingredients--so simple--just roasted garlic, thyme, cream, and pasta. I even had everything on hand, though my pasta was a differet shape. The nice thing was that I was able to roast the garlic while I was getting ready for work, throw it in the fridge and basically put everything together when I got home that night in the time it took to cook the pasta.

So all said, not a spectacular meal, but once I realized I followed the rules of cookbook roulette, I had to share!

[Kouign Aman]

Anyone up to start the game again?