My Perfect Vanilla Cake. I made a half recipe of this, so one 8” pan. It’s a bit like a hot milk sponge cake, but with butter melted into the milk, and more mixing after the milk/flour additions. I liked it, but didn’t love it. It was ever so slightly stodgy at first, and I was expecting something lighter. I may have forgot to halve the vanilla, as there was a bit of an aftertaste, so that was my fault. This cake grew on me over the week and I had the last slice this morning. Still moist and fresh after 5 days at cool room temperature.
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Thank you!
I made the chow mein from the book, but with beef and really enjoyed it as well. So much so, that the next day, I took the remaining sauce and fresh noodles to my mother’s and made her a batch with chicken and different vegetables. Both delicious.
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Made the Everyday Chicken Stir Fry a couple of weeks ago. I like the idea of having the sauce in a jar in the fridge. This was tasty and quick.
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Finally made the beef chorizo empanadas I have been lusting to make but not able to without a collaborator for the pastry (hands kind of worthless). My neighbors and I decided this would be a fun way to while away a very snowy Sunday and it was!!
I made a double batch of the filling (excellent but my chorizo was a bit wimpy - if using that one again I would up garlic and spices by 50%) and trudged over to their house through the snow with it. They had made the pastry (not sure how closely they followed the recipe) and rolled it out and assembled the empanadas once I got there, with me sprinkling olives on each one.
These were very good but the pastry didn’t have much flavor. Would like to try again, adding some annatto and turmeric to the pastry. We pigged out last night but there were plenty of leftovers (another tray of them besides the one shown). I reheated a couple tonight for dinner and thoroughly enjoyed.
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FYI the Recipe Tin Eats cookbook is currently $2.99 on Kindle in the U.S.
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Ho boy.
ONE POT GREEK CHICKEN AND LEMON RICE – from the Recipe Tin Eats blog.
Here’s my take on the recipe.
I ended up using a Le Creuset brasier with a tight-fitting lid. I used 3 large chicken thighs (about 1 ½ lbs.) and ¾ of the marinade. If I were to make this again, I would use all of the marinade, as it turned out it is more of a paste than a marinade and since you need to reserve some for later in the dish, you need the full amount. I wiped off the thighs before browning, but there was still some scorching of the remaining garlic.
The recipe calls for browning the chicken (both sides) until golden brown - I went about 12 minutes total, by which time any remaining garlic was burning, while the chicken (in my opinion) was just barely “golden brown”. I removed the chicken and browned some lemon slices in the chicken fat. By the time I finished, the pan needed (not a wipe, but) a wash. I strained what fat I could from the pan before washing.
I sauteed the onions in the reserved fat, and toasted the rice along with it for a few minutes before proceeding.
For the rice, I reduced the liquid to 1 ¾ c. (not the 2.25 c. called for) - this after reviewing several third-party recipes, and also her own similar recipe for One-pot Mexican Chicken and Rice. It turned out to be the right amount, and I suspect it is a matter of how tightly your lid fits your pan.
At the point where you are to remove the lid and roast for another 10 minutes, everything was done. So, I hit the broiler for a few minutes for extra color, and called it good.
In the end, everything was delicious and perfectly cooked. The chicken thighs were juicy, and the rice neither hard nor mushy. That said, while it’s engaging to try a new dish, I’m wondering: do I think this is any better, any faster, and any less fiddly than my usual pan-roasted chicken thighs with a lemony rice pilaf on the side? Uh…no. Bottom line: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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Thanks for this write up, especially about the rice. I was considering braving this, but given the issues I sometimes have with cooking rice in the oven, I’ll give it a pass.
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Yes, thanks for this!!
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(post deleted by author)
Time to nominate a book for February:
The February voting thread is here:
(post deleted by author)
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Sausage Ragu with Pappardelle (from the blog)
This was very good not great. I am going to punch it up before freezing the rest in single serving portions. I made pretty much per the recipe, adding a bulb of fennel, diced small and sautéed before the other aromatics to get some color. Since beef sausages are not available around here I used some ground bison to make my own which worked out well. I left out the grated cheese this time so I could really taste the ragu but will add it next time. Maybe that’s all it needs to take it to great.
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What a difference adding some lovely gelatinous veal stock, slivered sautéed leeks, Red Boat and a shower of Pecorino Romano made!! Now fabulous.
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Taco Soup (from the blog)
I had exactly 20 minutes free of calls and needed to make something I could eat for dinner and then for several lunches. By skipping any chopping or measuring I got this delicious soup made in the time I had. I used granulated onion and garlic (no chopping) and eyeballed amounts (no measuring) and pink beans instead of black because that is what I found first, but otherwise followed the recipe closely. I got it made (without corn) up until the simmer part in my 20 minutes then threw it in the “auxiliary fridge” (screen porch at 37F) until after my late call. Twenty minutes’ simmer with frozen corn added with 5 minutes to go and I had a lovely dinner. This recipe has an insane deliciousness to effort ratio! Highly recommend!!
Even sad dried out cilantro and cheese toppings worked. Luckily I had fresh Tostitos.
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BUTTER CHICKEN (e-book, but I think page 48)
This is my first recipetin eats recipe, but it won’t be my last. This was dead easy, and absolutely delicious. I cut the chicken and marinated it on Tuesday, and that was easy - simple spices, garlic, yogurt, ginger (no salt, which made me nervous but it was fine adding it when cooking), and then it took maybe 30 minutes to heat up with some tomato sauce and cream on Wednesday. Served with basmati and a cucumber/yogurt salad for a raved about meal.
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I just had the last serving of taco soup that I froze from the batch I made in March. This time I garnished with diced radish and sour cream. So good! Meanwhile my sister has made it twice - she agrees, crazy deliciousness to effort ratio.
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