Thanks for getting the ball rolling! The photos do look great (gotta up my photo game).
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GREEN RICE - p. 142
Unlike the spinach rice I already posted, this is you more typical rice pilaf with herbs. The herbs called for are parsley, cilantro, and mint, and that is what I used, but I swear there is dill in the dish pictured in the book. Sigh. The Batali problem. Dill would undoubtedly be great here in addition to the aforementioned herbs, or maybe in place of one (my vote would be the parsley). I strayed a bit from the recipe on the technique. The author has you just combine rice, water, butter, onion, bay leaves, and salt in a pot, and start cooking. I melted the butter and sautéed the onion first, then added the rice, sautéed a bit more, seasoned with salt, tucked in the bay leaves, then added the water. Shoot me. I also reduced the water:rice ratio a bit. I only made one cup of rice, and used 1.5 cups of water. I did the optional toasted pine nut garnish, a bit overtoasted, if I’m honest. We liked this as made. I might like it more with the dill.
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ONE-POT SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATOES, CAPERS, AND BASIL - p. 152
I just had to try this to see if it worked. Spoiler alert: it works. I made a half recipe plus used gluten-free pasta (Barilla GF spaghetti), so I wasn’t sure how the change in quantity and pasta would impact the process or results. I really wish I’d made a note of how much water I used! I used a 6-qt. rondeau to make this, and I chose it because it is wide enough that spaghetti will lay flat without having to break them. The recipe actually calls for you to break the pasta in half, and I would do that if my pan weren’t wide enough for them to lie flat, but in this case it didn’t seem necessary. For this dish you start by sautéing garlic in olive oil with a bit of salt. Then you add the pasta to the pot, and add enough boiling water (electric kettles, folks) to cover by 1/2 inch. Nope, I did not get out a ruler. Bring to a boil, which should happen quickly because you were adding boiling water. Drop in cherry tomatoes. This gets cooked uncovered until the pasta is done. The dish is finished with capers, more olive oil, chile flakes if desired (we desired), torn basil leaves, salt, and pepper. This dish is super quick & easy, and it’s good. Nothing earth-shattering, it’s just simple pasta. I think more salt should have been added with pasta and water - I add to stir in quite a bit at the end.
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You have mentioned this several times @MelMM. I can’t believe I am the only one who is curious what it means…
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Both that and the SPANAKORIZO you posted above look so appetizing and yummy to me!
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It’s when a cookbook’s photos don’t match what’s in the actual recipe, whether extra or different ingredients or because it’s seemingly prepared in a different way by the food stylist. So designated because it was a frequent issue in a Batali COTM back in the day.
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Thanks @CaitlinM and a hearty welcome to Hungry Onion!!
I love that it’s known as The Batali Problem.
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@GretchenS , It was before we knew what the REAL Batali problem was. But I have continued to use the phrase for the photo problem.
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SALMON IN LETTUCE LEAVES WITH HERBS & CITRUS CREMA, p. 74
This can be served two ways: the salmon, herbs, and crema placed onto lettuce leaves, or serve everything separately and allow people to assemble their own. I did the latter.
A side of salmon is seasoned with olive oil, a & p and baked for 12-15 minutes at 400. I had a few salmon fillets and adjusted the timing.
While the salmon is roasting you make a simple crema consisting of sour cream, salt, and the juice and zest of two limes. It’s bright and tart, as the recipe indicates it should be, and super delicious. I made mine about an hour before starting the rest of the meal, so the flavors could meld more.
To go with the salmon & crema, you wash the inner leaves of a couple heads of red leaf lettuce, and a mixture of leafy herbs (I used parsley and cilantro).
We are this lettuce wrap style, placing salmon, crema, and herbs inside each leaf, rolling it up, and eating it, messily, with our hands.
I loved this and will make again in warmer months.
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TZATZIKI, p. 30
I have never made tzatziki before and I think that’s mainly because I often make various Persian yogurt sauces such as mast-o-khiar (with cucumbers) and mast o musir (with shallots). This was a really nice change. You peel and grate a hothouse cucumber (called English here), season with salt, and let it sit to drain. Then you press out the excess water and mix it with plain, whole Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. You put a peeled garlic clove in the yogurt, rather than mincing or grating it. I was worried this wouldn’t impart enough garlic flavor, but I was wrong. And then you let the tzatziki sit in the fridge, covered, for 1-2 hours. Remove the garlic before serving, and drizzle with olive oil and optional mint, which I did not use.
As with other yogurt sauces, letting it sit for that amount of time (I did longer, about 4 hours) is absolutely crucial and I would not skip that step. This makes a lot, as it uses 2 1/4 cups of yogurt. The leftovers were great to have around.
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OATMEAL AND BANANA PANCAKES, p. 224
The pancakes I make every weekend are Marion Cunningham’s buttermilk pancakes from The Breakfast Book – I make the variation with whole wheat flour. I know this recipe by heart, my kids love it, and it’s dear to me. I also love that it doesn’t call for any sugar, since we top the pancakes with maple syrup, obviously.
But I wanted to try this because I was intrigued that she makes them in a blender. And I like that the recipe calls for 2 eggs, as it’s always a struggle to get my kids to eat enough protein.
In a blender you combine 1/2 cup of almond or other non-dairy milk (but I used whole cow’s milk) with 2 eggs, a banana, some oat flour, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and then cook in melted butter in a skillet/griddle. As with other pancakes, you flip when bubbles appear and cook briefly on the other side.
My kids loved them and said they wanted them again. I’ve made them again since. They are very good. The sweetness from the banana is lovely. They are heavier than our usual pancakes though. I recommend making them on the smaller side.
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TZATZIKI - p. 30
The prep has already been described. Somehow my brain jumped over the whole garlic clove part, so I used the alternative given in the recipe, which was to grate the garlic in (I used less than a clove, because garlic is very strong when you do this). I was also veganizing this, so I used Kite Hill yogurt, which I left to drain for a while in a fine mess strainer to thicken it a bit. It doesn’t get as thick as Fage, though. I did use the mint, stirring it in, rather than as a garnish. I do make tzatziki with some regularity, and to me this was a pretty standard version. I would make it again, and try the whole garlic clove thing, since those of you who did that seemed happy with the result.
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I adore fennel, and this sounds amazing. I’ve never heard of either pickled or blistered raisins and am very intrigued. Would you mind sharing how to blister raisins? I know copying the recipe is problematic, and I don’t mind winging the rest of it, but need some guidance in making the raisins.
Thx
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Isn’t muhamarra without pomegranate more or less Romesco? Regardless, it looks great!
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Couldn’t be simpler, just toss in a hot pan with the oil of your choice (I used olive oil). They will lose their wrinkles and puff up. Remove when you get some browning. I like a slight blister, just before burning.
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I have been reminded of a somewhat similar treatment of dried fruit–sates broiled with saffron:
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These sound so good. I’ve made banana/egg pancakes in the past but never thought to add oat flour.
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@biondanonima Romesco usually has tomato in it, and this didn’t. It’s also quite acidic from the lemon, more so than romesco that I’ve had. It was quite good, but I’ll include some pomegranate in the future.
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PASTA WITH TOASTED ALMOND AND LEMON PESTO - p. 148
The photo for this recipe is a prime example of the Batali problem. It shows pasta tossed with chopped almonds, garnished with parsley. The recipe calls for all the almonds to go into the pesto, where they are finely ground. There is no parsley or any other herb mentioned in the recipe at, even as a garnish. But you know, I’m sure the dish is a lot prettier with the parsley and chunky almonds. What you are asked to do here is toast some almonds, then they go into a food processor or blender with lemon zest, lemon juice, EVOO, and water. This gets blended up “until thick and creamy”. Um, milky was maybe a better way to describe the texture I got. This gets tossed with your drained pasta and is to be finished with freshly ground black pepper. That’s it. But because the picture looked good to me and some texture sounded like a good idea, I did top with toasted sliced almonds and parsley. This is very lemony - the lemon really dominates the flavor here. I was glad to have the texture from the sliced almonds. It was good, not incredible.
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TUNA SALAD WITH FENNEL, APPLE, AND PARSLEY - p. 71
This one was calling to me because of the fennel. The only problem was that I had to figure out something to do for the tuna. The vegan “tuna” analogues are not very good. I’ve had good luck using lobster mushrooms in place of tuna in spicy pasta dishes, and I recent tried a ceviche from Charity Morgan where she used soy curls. Soy curls can have kind of a spongy texture, so I didn’t want to use them on their own. I had the idea of rehydrating my lobster mushrooms and soy curls together, then squeezing out the excess liquid, and pulsing in the food processor until in shreds. This was then marinated in lime juice, salt, lemon pepper seasoning, and a bit of kelp granules. This worked beyond expectations. Far better than any vegan “tuna” I’ve ever tried. To make this salad, you mix your tuna or “tuna” in my case, with diced fennel, diced apple, lemon juice, and EVOO. It seasoned with salt and black pepper, and some parsley goes in at the end. I also included some minced fennel fronds, because why not? We loved this. Just loved it. Crunchy and tart and everything I want a salad to be.
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