Cookbook Roulette

[CaliPoutine]

Susan, I missed the name of the cookbook you used for the maple toast eggs.

(Everything is looking wonderful.)

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The 150 Best American Recipes by Fran McCullough and Molly Stevens. I've checked it out of the library, but have a feeling it will go on my Christmas wish list.

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I've made the yeasted waffles from that cookbook and as I recall, they were good.

[snowangel]

The shrimp at the Asian market were odd. Very fresh, some looked "tigery" and some very regularly. So, I bought some. So, tonight for dinner:

A shring with garlic sauce recipe from "Breath of a Wok," along side a long bean and pork dry curry (sans long beans, I sub'ed regular green beans because even the little old Hmong ladies were dissing the quality of the long beans at the market -- rusty and limp) and along side, chinese broccoli ala HSSS. Peter chose the shrimp dish, but I wish it had been spicier and less sweet.

Peter has chosen for tomorrow. I love this guy. He's all about "somethine new every night. Just leave it to me, mom."

[Daniel]

I picked a books, blindly, from my stack of books from the library which was precariously high (tall enough to sit on easily) and let Peter make the decision, which was a baked egg in a maple toast cup.

A definite winner, and one that will become a staple.  He's busy choosing another recipe from this delightful cookbook!

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Wow.. How pretty great job Snowangel and the shrimp dish too..

Edited November 6, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[Daniel]

Here's dinner:

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This too looks great.. I should have eaten lunch..

[Daniel]

P.S. Regarding Miz Lewis and her shrimp and grits, does the recipe call for scooping them onto toasted bread? I know that Sicilians deep-fry rice balls coated in breadcrumbs, and that gravy on biscuits has a lot of flour, but that seems awfully bountiful when it comes to starch.

She does not prepare her shrimp and grits this way.. However, I saw a photo from Scott Peacock's restaurant where he serves a bowl of shrimp and grits with a plank of French Bread over the bowl... Although,it might seem to be too starchy and perhaps it is too starchy to be healthy, it tasted awesome. Really, it was not overwhelming at all..

[Daniel]

Ok.. I forgot to mention.. I chose a book last night while walking in the door from Montreal.. I purchased a book from a restaurant I was eating at that had the entire menu from that night.. And although I will be making things this week from that cookbook, that would not be fair to the game.. So I did a quick little spin and grabbed a random book.. I got Rick Bayless Mexico- One Plate at a Time.. This will be interesting because I had to move my entire fridge and freezer to my office in New Jersey.. So anything I make will have to be purchased that day.. I have not made anything from this book before.. But I have been wanting to make his masa boats for some time..

Edited November 6, 2006 by Daniel (log)

[Abra]

Ok, I closed my eyes and waved my hand over a seldom-used section of my cookbooks, and it landed on Barbara Kafka's Roasting. This isn't bad, because a) the weather here is miserable, which is perfect for roasting, and b) I have a pork loin rib roast in the fridge. So I'll be making her Garlic Roasted Pork Loin.

I have duck confit in the oven and it probably won't be done in time to make the roast tonight, but I'll do it tomorrow for sure.

[dockhl]

Ok.. I forgot to mention.. I chose a book last night while walking in the door from Montreal.. I purchased a book from a restaurant I was eating at that had the entire menu from that night.. And although I will be making things this week from that cookbook, that would not be fair to the game.. So I did a quick little spin and grabbed a random book.. I got Rick Bayless Mexico- One Plate at a Time.. This will be interesting because I had to move my entire fridge and freezer to my office in New Jersey.. So anything I make will have to be purchased that day.. I have not made anything from this book before.. But I have been wanting to make his masa boats for some time..

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Great minds, etc......

I picked that book for Round Two this AM and have Pork in Salsa Verde simmering as we 'speak'. I've cooked from it before, altho not this recipe, and have liked it quite a lot. Rick gives alternatives that help if you don't quite have the ingredients or want a little bit different approach.

[dockhl]

Ok, I closed my eyes and waved my hand over a seldom-used section of my cookbooks, and it landed on Barbara Kafka's Roasting.  This isn't bad, because a) the weather here is miserable, which is perfect for roasting, and b) I have a pork loin rib roast in the fridge.  So I'll be making her Garlic Roasted Pork Loin. 

I have duck confit in the oven and it probably won't be done in time to make the roast tonight, but I'll do it tomorrow for sure.

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Abra~

I lvoe that book, and have used it many times in the past.......once I figured out how to keep from setting off the smoke alarm !

[JAZ]

Ok, I closed my eyes and waved my hand over a seldom-used section of my cookbooks, and it landed on Barbara Kafka's Roasting.  This isn't bad, because a) the weather here is miserable, which is perfect for roasting, and b) I have a pork loin rib roast in the fridge.  So I'll be making her Garlic Roasted Pork Loin. 

I have duck confit in the oven and it probably won't be done in time to make the roast tonight, but I'll do it tomorrow for sure.

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Abra, if it's not too late, you should consider the roasted potatoes from Kafka's book to go with your pork. (I think they're called "melting" -- or at least, "melting" is in the title or description; unfortunately my copy is packed right now.) They're potato wedges rolled in butter and oil (or chicken fat, which is what I used), roasted on high heat, braised in some chicken broth and then finished again at high heat with more butter. I'm not a huge fan of her Roasting book, but I keep it around just for this potato recipe.

[racheld]

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Were it not for the fancy-painted bottle, I'd have thought you played fairy-cook in my kitchen---little arm-prinkles and Twilight Zone music here---I have that BOOK, the napkins to match that tablecloth, those CURTAINS (do they have a little scallopy edge and more pattern at the bottom?) AND a set of those green plates!!!

Where ARE you, anyway---mine all probably came from MY store---Goodwill, and I gathered them up over several years. Odd to look at my stuff on someone elses' screen.

LOVELY dinner, by the way, so homey and comfort-foody.

And everyone---you're picking just the right things to cook; just lovely.

One last thing: Daniel, if this were golf, you'd have a handicap of 100. You have to commute to your FRIDGE and FREEZER???!!!

[annecros]

Were it not for the fancy-painted bottle, I'd have thought you played fairy-cook in my kitchen---little arm-prinkles and Twilight Zone music here---I have that BOOK, the napkins to match that tablecloth, those CURTAINS (do they have a little scallopy edge and more pattern at the bottom?) AND a set of those green plates!!!

Where ARE you, anyway---mine all probably came from MY store---Goodwill, and I gathered them up over several years.  Odd to look at my stuff on someone elses' screen.

LOVELY dinner, by the way, so homey and comfort-foody.

And everyone---you're picking just the right things to cook; just lovely.

One last thing:  Daniel, if this were golf, you'd have a handicap of 100.  You have to commute to your FRIDGE and FREEZER???!!!

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LOL! I would be freaked too! Want to compare Turkey Platters?

The painted bottle was a gift from my stepdaughter a couple of Christmas's ago. Everything else was put together between things my mother gave me and trips I took going through used furniture stores, garage sales and thirft shops with my Mom. I am in way South Florida now, but originally from Southwest Georgia (Albany) and much of my (large) family is scattered all over the Southeast.

Want to get rid of those napkins? I picked up that table cloth only about a month ago at a thrift store for 50 cents. Best buy I've made in a long time, but matching napkins would be cool!

Mom was given the cookbook in 1971 by a cousin of hers, according to the notation in the frontsipiece. Isn't it a blast to read? Good thing hubby didn't pick one of the woodcock recipes. We just had the leftovers a few minutes ago.

The green glass I've mostly collected on my own, with some help from a sister and Mom who kept an eye out for it and would pick something up if it looked like a deal. I have six full place settings, cake plate, two platters, egg plate, two sets of six wine glasses different shapes, two vegetable bowls, and the full three piece cannister set. My other stepdaughter recently used it as the containers for her flowers at her wedding, but my daughter has called dibs on it and is willing to fight to the death.

Yes, the curtains repeat the pattern and have a scalloped hem. Hey, good taste is good taste.

They are lovely when a breeze is blowing through them, aren't they?

Anne

Edited November 6, 2006 by annecros (log)

[Sony]

I played!

My pick was Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. With only Muir Glen fire-roasted tomatoes, a small onion, canola oil and 1 lone habanero pepper, one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted resulted: Essential Simmered Tomato-Habanero Sauce.

With long work days, I haven't been able to pick up the ingredients to make a full-out dish from the book. But in the last 24 hours, I've eaten this sauce on baked fish, on top of scrambled eggs, out of the pot...

It's delicious. And makes me wonder why this book has sat on my shelf, unused, for so long. Thanks for the inspiration, Daniel!

[Kim Shook]

I am having such fun reading this thread. I am not doing much cooking lately and reading this thread and the others like it, drooling over all the wonderful pictures and descriptions is such a great vicarious pleasure. Thank you all so much! Kim

[Toliver]

Damn, I would have loved to play but all my books are in a storage box in Sydney . I miss them so much .

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I think we could include RecipeGullet in the mix. For kicks and giggles, click on the "three random recipes" button on the left side of the screen.

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For those without access to cookbooks, can I also suggest using the bountiful "Dinner!" discussion as a source for this cookbook roulette? Many of the dinner descriptions are almost as good as recipes. Just pick a number between 1 and 17,582 (the last post as of this time ) and give yourself the leeway to go backwards or forward 5 posts from your pick depending on the substance of the post.

[Pontormo]

P.S. Regarding Miz Lewis and her shrimp and grits, does the recipe call for scooping them onto toasted bread?...

[No, but...]vI saw a photo from Scott Peacock's restaurant where he serves a bowl of shrimp and grits with a plank of French Bread over the bowl... Although,it might seem to be too starchy and perhaps it is too starchy to be healthy, it tasted awesome. Really, it was not overwhelming at all..

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Oh, I believe you. I do. I don't think you're in danger of worrying about too much starch at this point in your trim life and you do seem to eat your vegetables...

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Toliver: Great idea about blindly selecting post (or page) from Dinner Thread. Could also do a blind search for one word in that thread, say "lamb" or "parsnips" if that's what you've got in your fridge. However, Shalmanese is fortunate to live in a city with a public library where he might find something he knows he neglected in those boxes back home. What I like about Daniel's idea is that it forces us to pick up books we own but don't put to use.

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Just a brief note to say that I cooked another recipe in the book I selected last week (Second Helpings... by Meyer & Romano). Nothing truly revelatory since it's rather close to the kind of recipe I am drawn to at this time of year: Minestra di ceci, a bone-coating Tuscan soup of puréed chickpeas flavored with lots of rosemary (a bit too much only because the herb makes me think there ought to be roasted fowl, pig or lamb or at least potatoes), garlic, the usual aromatics and sun-dried tomatoes. The latter surprised me since they weren't too assertive and of course, lightened the weight of the dried beans. Surface is sprinkled with parsley and Romano (Siena, especially is known for its sheep's milk cheese) and drizzled with olive oil. Little pasta shapes and reserved chickpeas lend textural diversity. Solid.

Edited November 8, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Abra]

I made the Garlic Roasted Pork Loin from Kafka's Roasting, and remembered why I stopped cooking from this book almost as soon as I started, years ago. Here it is, with apologies for the crummy photos. The light in my kitchen sucks now that it's dark at dinner.

As it came out of the oven. She says you can roast potatoes in the pan with the meat. I did some celeriac and parsnip large dice instead. They turned into croutons, as you can see, but they were tasty croutons. She also wants you to sliver up some garlic and slice zillions of tiny cuts in the meat, inserting a garlic sliver and one NEEDLE of rosemary into each cut. Uh, no thanks. That's the sort of instruction that turned me off the book originally.

But now I'm a much more experienced cook and can improvise freely without changing the character of the recipe. What I did was to chop up a bunch of rosemary with the garlic and a little olive oil, then pierce the meat with a metal skewer a couple of times, then stuff the herb paste into those holes.

Now let me say that on the plate

with a celery root and apple puree, the parsnip and celery root croutons, and some apples and onions glazed with a little Tupelo honey and tossed with fresh sage, drizzled with the wine pan sauce she recommends, it was total heaven. Oh yeah, she calls for "wine." Not white wine, red wine, or any sort of specific wine, which is another of the things that used to drive me crazy. I used a pinot gris because I didn't have a Riesling, which is what I really wanted to use.

My husband gave it the ultimate compliment when he said "those nights when I say I don't know what I want for dinner, what I really mean is, I want this!"

[Daniel]

Abra,

That roast look beautiful and really well done.. You said you remember why you stopped using this book? Was it because of all the finite details that could easily be done another way? Because the end results by your description and images looks fabulous.. What made you stop using the book?

[Lori in PA]

I'm curious about Kafka's Roasting, too, Abra, because it has been on my mental wishlist for awhile. I have to eat a lot of protein, so I'd thought I'd get a good deal of use from it.

[Abra]

It was the combination of directions like "1/2 cup wine" with no suggestions about what kind of wine she had in mind, and "insert a sliver of garlic and a needle of rosemary" which is a silly waste of time. However, the result was outstandingly juicy and flavorful (and I didn't brine) so that speaks for itself. I'm going to try a couple more things from this book and see whether it grows on me.

[Toliver]

My biggest complaint about the Kafka Roasting cookbook is that everything is cooked on high. Which is great if you have a self-cleaning oven but I don't so that makes for an awful lot of oven cleaning.

Or I guess I could leave the oven as it is and just move.

[Live It Up]

I don't own Kafka's book, but my mom has it and really likes it. I think it is one of the only books in her cookbook collection that she actually uses. From what I've read of it, it seems like a really good book for learning technique, without having to be a slave to the recipes themselves. I made the maple sweet potatoes (don't know if that's what the recipe is actually called) for thanksgiving a few years ago, and I make them all the time at home now without the book to refer to. And personally, I really like the high heat roasting thing--I just have a really dirty oven.

[Daniel]

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..

[Abra]

Daniel, I don't have that book, but I have done lots of Mexican cooking. Just holler if you have questions.

[Aileen]

Daniel, I regularly make the Chicken Tostadas With Tangy Romaine (not sure if that's the exact title), they're wonderful. I've also made a few of the taco recipes (one called for chorizo and avocado salsa), they've been very good as well. I need to note that I live in a town with a large Hispanic population, though, and can easily get wonderful Mexican ingredients.