Journal

Week 10 Cooking Results

Another week of cooking out of The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio's Award-Winning Food Show turned out pretty well...I'm still fairly impressed with this cookbook. It's quite the collection.

Chicken Curry with Gentle Spices (p 205)

This was light, delicate and flavorful. I wasn't so strong that it left the lingering curry smell in the house. I did make my own paste, which was interesting...I may experiment with this further in the future. It talked about breaking the paste, which is to have the oils separate out. I think I accomplished this but seeing a picture of it would be kind of handy. I also could make my own mix of curry powered...hmmm...The only problems with thinking about this experiments is that you often have to test things one after another after another, so when it comes down to it, you may be eating the same thing over and over...it would be kind of obnoxious. I also am starting to enjoy the chicken thigh. Cheaper and more flavorful then the breasts. However my problem with it is that at Hy-Vee they don't have chicken thighs in the lower sodium, organic chicken.

Scilian Corkscrews with White Beans (p 159)

This is like many of the white beans + pasta that I've made this year. Who knew something so simple could be good? I do tend to add things on top of this, but it's good buy itself.

Filipino-Style Chicken Adobo (Chicken in tart Garlic sauce) (p 208)

I marinated the chicken for about 24 hours. This again used the marinade to reduce down and make a sauce. It was quite good, tasty and definitely tart. Holy smokes. The only issue that I had with this is when I reduced the sauce (by half or so) I had a lot of that smell just sort of permeate the kitchen... The kitchen still vaguely smells of this.

Black Pepper-Honey Steak (p 252)

This was good, simple and quick. I did cook steak at a medium, rather then the medium rare that I was going for, but even with that it created a nice crust and a flavorful taste to it. I served it with fries.

Tamarind-Glazed Pork Chops (p 239)

On this, I couldn't find the Tamarind paste...I found nectar (juice) and bought it, but beyond that I was unable to find this at Dahls, Hy-Vee, or Gateway Market. I know there is an asian market around here somewhere, but I'm not sure where. So I ended up not making this.