Naan

Recipe: Naan
Page: 873
Rating: *****

If you like Indian food, Mark's Naan recipe is the way to go! They're delicious and stay pliable for a while (something most homemade versions do not do). They are not hard to make, but they do require some rolling action so plan around that. They cook in just a few minutes, so once you've done the rolling out you won't have to wait long to eat them. We serve them with curry dishes usually. MMmmmmm

Simpler Baked Brown Rice (Variation)

Recipe: Simpler Baked Brown Rice (variation of Simper-than-Pilaf Baked Rice)
Page: HTCE p. 453
Rating: *****

I've cooked A LOT of brown rice in my day, and I've tried several methods. For a while, my favorite was a Cook's Illustrated version where you baked it, but first, I had to bring some water and butter to a boil, then pour it over the rice in a different pan, then cover the pan with 2 layers of foil, and then I had kids... and any extra pot/step was thrown out with the baby's bath water.

So, I started boiling it and just draining off the extra water at the end. Not bad. In fact, Mark gives us this version somewhere--actually, it's the very first recipe in the grains chapter. And, it's easy and predictable.

But then.... I tried this recipe. And. It's. AMAZING. PERFECT brown rice--distinct grains, good flavor, frees up an eye on the stove, even reheats well. I leave out the cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, use the butter, and add 1 t. salt and a sprinkle of pepper per batch. Good news: you can even triple this recipe with the same timing and results!!! I use my Le Creuset wanna-be enameled cast iron 5-quart dutch oven from Aldi so that I have a nice, heavy, tight-fitting lid--that's important so the steam can't escape. I think Mark's liquid allowance is a little generous and may cut it back a touch next time.

Highly recommended!!!

Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw

Recipe: Spicy No-Mayo Coleslaw
Page: HTCE p. 207
Rating: ****

We really liked this! The first time I made it a year ago, I wasn't crazy about it. But this time, it was delicious. Not sure what the difference was. I definitely recommend making it at least an hour before and tossing it periodically during that time--the cabbage softens a touch which adds to the finished product. It is yellow as the picture indicates (that's not just my photography!). It's heavy on the mustard which makes it very different from the usual idea of "slaw," but it also helped my husband really like it and he usually hates slaw! So, if you're not a typical slaw fan, this is a good one to try. I think the servings are spot on; we halved it and got 4 generous servings. If you're taking it to a potluck, you'd probably get 10 or more servings out of it.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (variation)

Recipe: Sandwich Bread, 5 Ways: 50 Percent Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread variation
Page: HTCE p. 859ff
Rating: *****

This is my go to sandwich bread recipe these days: quick (via food processor magic), doubles well, nourishing, tasty, easy, reliable, cheap, .... We make it with one primary change: subbing water for the milk called for. I've found this gives a softer, chewier bread, which we like better. I always use honey and oil (not butter). It's a leisurely process as far as rising time, but super quick to pull the basic dough together. It's a great all-purpose bread and makes terrific raisin bread. It also freezes well.

Muffins, Infinite Ways

Recipe: Muffins, Infinite Ways
Page: HTCE p. 832
Rating: *****

If I've rated these before, then just know they merit AT LEAST 2 ***** ratings. I make these almost weekly. You can't go wrong. They're delicious and just the right size. I've made muffins regularly for 15 years now--I even have a cookbook that is just for muffins. But this is now my go to recipe. I usually use oil instead of butter because I'm lazy. Otherwise, I follow directions per.

Oh--I also usually use half white whole wheat flour.

Variations that our family loves: Banana Nut Muffins (using half whole wheat flour and skipping the nuts), Blueberry Muffins (a real fave around here; leave out the cinnamon, the lemon zest is wonderful but I don't always have time/lemons), Cranberry Muffins (another fave), Coffee Cake Muffins (yum yum yum!), and the Savory Muffins (good with cheese in them instead of the onion).

Enjoy!

Chicken Scampi

We're fans of Olive Garden's chicken scampi around here and found a recipe that recreates it nicely. After I'd made our version a couple of times, I was making Mark's Sauteed Chicken Cutlets and noticed a definite similarity.

If you want to turn the Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Wine Sauce (p. 679) into Olive Garden-style Chicken Scampi, make the following additions:

Saute 3-6 cloves minced garlic, a sliced red bell pepper (and a green if you want) and a sliced red onion either first or sort of in the sauce near the end.

Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano with the chicken stock as part of the sauce.

That's it! Same directions otherwise. Enjoy.

Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Wine Sauce

Recipe: Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Wine Sauce
Page: HTCE p. 679
Rating: ******************

I make this frequently and my family licks their plates, scoops more sauce onto potatoes (or green beans or whatever's left on the plate) and keeps eating. It's the same method as the 1997 edition of Joy of Cooking Simple Sauteed Chicken recipe, but the ingredients vary a touch. Both cookbooks have the same basic sauteed chicken cutlets recipe, but the wine sauce recipe is where Mark shines: SO SIMPLE.

As Bridgette does, Mark calls for you to pound the chicken slightly--I just do it a touch to even out the thickest part. He calls for 1 cup of flour; you really only need about1/4-1/2 a cup. And, don't oversalt your chicken; the sauce is reduced so much that it will be too salty; just salt the chicken a touch before cooking because you can always add more later.

Incidentally, we're not sure we can taste the wine a lot. I've done this with Scotch, Reisling, whatever's on hand that's white/light in color. I think it would be just as good with chicken broth plus an herb or two (if I'm using wine, I don't bother with the herbs much--usually too busy on a weeknight).

It makes a terrific entree for a nice dinner that still only takes 1/2 an hour to make. Serve it with some mashed or roasted potatoes (you'd have to start the potatoes first), some green beans, and some bread: classy meal on a weekday that's easy to make and inexpensive!

Whole Wheat Pasta with Roasted Potatoes

Recipe: Whole Wheat Farfalle with Roasted Potatoes
Page: HTCE p. 523
Rating: ****

This was a terrific, simple dish. We added some Parmesan and didn't use the red pepper flakes. I also sauteed the garlic in the olive oil before tossing it with the cooked pasta and potatoes. Yum yum yum! Inexpensive, simple, and tasty.

Variety = The Spice of Life

Sometimes, I wonder if the grass is greener in another cookbook.... For instance, I often turn to my trusty 11th edition Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook for cookie recipes. But, time after time I come back to Bittman for regular ol' grub. Why?

Variety!!

I bought a large family-pack of pork chops a while back, stuck most of them in the freezer in smaller my-family-size portions, and have been slowly cooking them. I keep looking in other cookbooks for pork chop recipes, but always come back to Bittman. Why? Because he has a great skillet pork chop recipe with tons of variations--and, I nearly always have the ingredients for at least 3 of the variations on hand. Variety! The other cookbooks have variety at the expense of learning new methods, having non-normal ingredients on hand, and so forth. Tonight, we'll be be trying a third version of the Skillet Pork Chops--keeps our meals from being too old hat, but gives me the confidence of preparing something I'm already pretty familiar with.

Just had to share!

Pork Chops with Onions and Peppers

Recipe: Pork Chops with Onions and Peppers (variation of Skillet Pork chops, 8 Ways)
Page: HTCE p. 721
Rating: ***-****

The peppers and onions were terrific and a nice topping for the pork chops. Our particular pork chops weren't that great, but we decided it was more a feature of the chops themselves than the recipe. That being said, this recipe would be a **** or perhaps a ***** if the chops were really high quality. Ordinary, mixed pork chops from your average grocery store? ***

Easy and some nice unattended time in which to get other meal elements ready.

Skillet Pork Chops, 8 Ways

Recipe: Skillet Pork Chops, 8 Ways

Page: HTCE p. 720

Rating: ****

These were a touch dry, hence the 4* rating. I think cooking pork chops this way makes it very easy to overcook them. Nonetheless, they were tasty, and the pan sauce was delicious. Easy, too. I added some Italian seasoning to the pork chops with the salt and pepper since my mom used to cook them that way. Can't wait to try some of the variations.

Blueberry Cobbler

Recipe: Blueberry Cobbler

Page: HTCE p. 883

Rating: ****

Easy! I used a pastry blender and then a fork to mix the crust instead of a food processor. I used 3 cups of blueberries and 1 cup of peaches. The crust/topping was great--kind of like a biscuit. The filling was quite runny since there was no cornstarch in it. We enjoyed it a lot; if you want a thicker filling base, you might need to add cornstarch to it.

Pasta with Bacon and Dried Tomatoes (variation)

Recipe: Pasta with Bacon and Dried Tomatoes (variation of Pasta with Pancetta and Pecorino)

Page: HTCE p. 506

Rating: *****

Since I've rated Pasta Carbonara highly, it should be no surprise that our family enjoyed this as well. This is easier and the dried tomatoes add a nice flavor dimension. Mmmmm

I used thick sliced bacon, didn't use any additional oil when I was cooking it, and just kept adding ingredients to the drained pasta as they were ready. I added a bit of reserved pasta cooking water at the end.

French Toast

Recipe: French Toast

Page: HTCE p. 794

HTCEV p.177

Full Recipe
Rating: *****

This was truly amazing.... I should confess that I used day old (homemade) French bread that I sliced and left sitting out all night. I also made sure I soaked it well in the egg/milk mixture. I didn't add the optional sugar, used whole milk, and cinnamon instead of vanilla. My daughter wasn't a huge fan (don't know what her problem was) but my boys ate it up. I personally loved it. We served it with syrup.

Fish Baked in Foil (or a Casserole Dish)

Recipe: Fish Baked in Foil

Page: HTCE p. 571

Rating: *****

This is a terrific summer recipe to have on hand. Cooking time is minimal and the dish can be assembled ahead of time! I followed the suggestion to "toss it all together in a covered casserole" because I was feeling too lazy to wrap everything in little packets. It was delicious. My camera's memory card is full, or I would have snapped a pic of this recipe for sure; it's very pretty.

I used frozen cod fillets. I used fresh oregano instead of the parsley or basil--I think the parsley and/or basil would have been more flavorful and next time will go with those. I also put some thin lemon slices on top as suggested under the "Fish Baked in Foil with Vegetables" variation (I used almost one whole lemon for this). Definitely added a nice touch.

Oh--and my kids ate it up like crazy! Added bonus.

We ate it with salad, peas, and leftover pita bread with hummus. Next time, I'll serve some good bread with it instead of the pita (unless I have it leftover again!).

Coffee Cake Muffins (Variation)

Recipe: Muffins, Infinite Ways--Coffee Cake Muffin variation

Page: HTCE, p. 833

Rating: *****

These were yummy--every bit as good as the quick coffee cake. I didn't mix the topping in the batter; I wish I had done that and left a bit less for the tops of the muffins because the topping crumpled some as I removed the muffins from the pan. I used half of the quick coffee cake topping since I had it left over. I also used half white whole wheat flour and added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter (since I knew I wasn't using the topping in the batter).

A definite Sunday morning option in our "coffee cake tradition" that we've begun.

Blueberry Muffins (Variation)

Recipe: Muffins, Infinite Ways--Blueberry Muffin variation

Page: HTCE p. 833

Rating: ****

I don't always use muffin cups anymore, but these muffins could have benefited! They're heavy on the blueberries, and trying to remove them from a warm pan was a challenge... one I failed (although the bits of muffin left in the pan were good to nibble on...).

I didn't use the cinnamon or the corn meal. I did use the lemon zest and used half white whole wheat flour. These were great! Perfect for everyday blueberry muffins. The lemon zest really adds a nice hint of flavor. These aren't Otis Spunkmeyer giant streusel topped blueberry muffins, but, frankly, I'd rather have the smaller, not-too-sweet muffins here. My kids didn't eat them up as much as the cranberry ones, but I really liked them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Page: HTCE p. 880

Rating: ****

We are big fans of chocolate chip cookies at my house, but we are also chocolate chip cookie recipe snobs. It takes a really great chocolate chip cookie to please us: a touch of salt in the dough, bittersweet chips, good texture--a cross between chewy and crispy....

These cookies make the grade: they are chewy in the middle and crispy on the outside. The crucial salt is present in the dough and Mark even recommends bittersweet chocolate. They're a touch sweet. I might use a bit less vanilla next time.

Our biggest problem was cookie spread: in the oven, the edges practically ran over the cookie sheet leaving a small clump of dough (and the chips) in the middle of each cookie. This made for pretty good texture overall, but I like my chips to be evenly dispersed. I tried them as little frozen dough balls, too, thinking the chilled butter would work better. It did help. Next time, I think I'll chill them in the fridge for a bit, then form them into balls and flatten them once they're on the cookie sheet (one might almost think I'd just seen the folks on America's Test Kitchen do this to one of their cookie recipes the other night...).

So, 4 stars as is. If they work better in the oven once I try my newest theory, I'll update this.

Oh--my batch yielded exactly 2 dozen, and my cookies are generous scoops of dough. It's hard to measure the final cookie size because I think they'd be smaller around and taller/puffier if I tried the flatten-before-baking trick mentioned above. I'm guessing they're about 5-inches in diameter! (but, Mom, I've only had two...)

Baked Beans

Recipe: Baked Beans

Page: HTCE p. 416

Rating: ***

I've made these twice, now, and both times the beans weren't quite as soft as I wanted them to be. I've read that homemade baked beans are frequently not as mushy, but I think mine could have been softer. The flavor was *** when prepared exactly as written. I made a few changes the second time around and definitely upped the flavor component to ****. I think there are some tricks, here, if you want to make homemade beans that taste like the canned/restaurant variety:

1. cook your beans until almost as soft as you want them before baking them with the seasonings and/or plan to bake them a while. They will soften in the oven, but it could take hours.
2. Plan to bake them several hours--the seasonings just get better and better that way.
3. They'll reheat fine, so you may want to make these the day before serving and leave them a touch runnier than you need (they'll get drier as they sit). Then, you can be sure they're as tender as you want and you can just reheat the day you need them.
4. You won't need 8-oz of bacon. I used about 1/3 of a pound or so and chopped it. I sauteed the onion with the bacon and poured the whole mess into the bean pot :).
5. I also added 1/4 cup of brown sugar, reduced the mustard to one teaspoon (ground), and added 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (mentioned in the "Ideas for Baked Beans" part). I tasted them as they cooked and made sure there was enough salt once the bacon flavor had permeated (I didn't want to oversalt accidentally since bacon is pretty salty).

I recommend trying them. I'll try them again for sure. It's just one of those recipes that will take some practice/tweaking since everyone has different ideas of what the best baked beans taste like. They're much cheaper than canned and do taste better overall. They're also quite easy; they just take a bit of time to cook.

Yogurt or Buttermilk Biscuits

Recipe: Yogurt or Buttermilk Biscuits
Page: HTCE p. 845 (HTCEV p694)
Rating: *****

I've made these so often, I don't even need the recipe. We LOVE these. They remind me of Cracker Barrel biscuits. I usually use 4 tablespoons butter, half whole wheat flour and add a bit more yogurt (I always use yogurt) than he recommends (I'm sure that's because the whole wheat flour soaks up more moisture). I love that he tells you to pat these out instead of rolling them out. Somehow, that little extra step saved helps. I often cut these into squares to save even getting out a circle cutter (read: drinking glass).

I've made the Baking Powder Biscuit variation as well as the Drop Biscuit variation--both are good substitutes, especially for savory biscuits to go with dinner. For instance, tonight I added 1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese, some garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon or so Italian seasoning; I combined the Baking Powder and Drop variations and had biscuits to go with dinner so easily! (And they were YUMMY.) In the main recipe, I've also left out the baking soda with no ill effects.

I've got the recipe on my recipe blog for those interested: "Cracker Barrel Biscuits"