andrew's Reviews
174 recipes reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Book Title | Date | Rating | Recipe Title 
C is for Cooking: Recipes from the Street
By Susan, M.S., R.D. McQuillan, Sesame Workshop
Wiley - 2007
These are nice, fluffy cupcakes, and as with many of the recipes in this fun cookbook, cut out a bit of the fat with plain yogurt, with no loss to moistness or taste. They're not any easier for kids to help out with than any other cupcake recipe - unlike some of the recipes in this book, but I find that my 3 1/2 year old can crack eggs with a bit of practice and even hold the electric mixer.
One note - for the pink frosting, chop the strawberries very finely and only beat them into the butter for the 30 seconds it recommends, then very gently as you add the powdered sugar. The first time I made these I figured I'd use the beater to break the strawberries up, but it ended up ruining the frosting; it broke apart into tiny little globs.
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Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
By Heidi Swanson
Ten Speed Press - 2011
They tasted great, but I did have some problems with these, and I think that if I didn't have a good idea of why there were problems, I'd have given them a 3.
The issue is that she uses Greek-style yogurt as well as butter in these biscuits, but also suggests using regular plain yogurt. I had homemade yogurt which was a little runny, and the resulting dough, used with exactly her measurements, was extremely sticky. Since she doesn't suggest how sticky the dough should be (something I really appreciate in Peter Reinhart's bread recipes) I forged ahead despite my misgivings and ended up with scones that were more like modest buns - they didn't have the laminated layers that look so lovely in the recipe photo.
Doing this again I would cut back on the yogurt, or add more flour and work to get a dough which was tacky but not overly sticky. Then I would be able to pat / roll it out in such a way that the butter would be flattened and layers would be formed by the folding the recipe specifies.
That all said, I did really like the tangy taste of these, and the mixture of whole wheat and AP flour also added a taste and texture I liked a lot.
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
I'll just add my hurrahs to this recipe. These are very, very good cookies. I've done them with fleur de sel and the little nuggets of saltiness are just perfect. I imagine kosher salt would work just as well.
I was extra careful not to overmix them and they ended up tender and crumbly. They didn't look too much like Deb's smooth versions on Smitten Kitchen, however - mine are fissured and cracked. Taste trumps all though.
I did one batch on parchment and one batch on Silpat and preferred the parchment ones. I find that buttery cookies on Silpat have a tendency to spread out more and sometimes get too thin and burned at the edges.
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Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2007
A good, solid recipe for a very decent loaf of whole grain bread. It uses two techniques that Peter highlights in this book - a soaker and use of a pre-ferment, retarded by refrigeration. A soaker is simply a mixture of flour and water, left overnight at room temperature. The pre-ferment is mixed up with a small amount of yeast and left in the fridge.
Together they help make a more flavourful loaf. I've had good success with this recipe, and like this sort of whole wheat loaf better than trying to make a sandwich loaf, which I find troublesome (tend to fall apart when sliced).
Last made, November 12, 2009 with Red Fife wheat; didn't have much oven spring for some reason.
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Website: 101 Cookbooks
I made these last night after seeing the previous review and being intriguted by the idea of baking a giant cookie in a skillet. My daughters were too!
It is a stiff dough, and best to work with a stand mixer paddle attachment if you have one. I found that I underbaked it a little and had to pop it back in the oven to make sure the center had set - with such a thick cookie you do have to watch out for this. Especially since with whole wheat flour it will look fairly brown before it's actually done.
Also, make sure your skillet is clean! I use our deep cast iron skillet for bacon and onions and usually just give it a rinse before putting it away. Luckily I checked and made sure it was as minimally bacony and oniony before making this!
Update - I have since made the original recipe just as regular sized cookies, and I prefer it. The large one was good, and might be fun for a party, but regular cookies are just so conveniently sized (and you can freeze them, etc).
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Ad Hoc at Home
By Thomas Keller
Artisan - 2009
Unlike many of the other recipes in this book, this one didn't involve extra steps beyond how I'd normally roast a chicken. It really is fairly simple, and the result was very good, with one caveat. So, with something like chicken (and this is how you can tell a chef by the quality of their chicken), what brings it to a high level is the quality of the bird itself, the preparation and the roasting.
I used a hormone and antibiotic-free, free-range chicken, and let it rest at room temperature for a couple of hours as he suggests. I took it out of the oven just as it hit 160 degrees F at the thigh (make sure you start checking early - last time I made this I checked 30 minutes after I turned the heat down and it was already over 160) and let it rest for 20 minutes, also part of the recipe. This resulted in a particularly juicy bird (so often people overcook and dry them out, worried about not getting them hot enough).
My caveat is the roast vegetables; they ended up soaking in about an inch of chicken fat, butter and canola oil, and some of them were less roasted than a sort of confit. Also roasted leeks didn't really work for me. Now, I might have had a particularly fatty chicken. In future I'll check earlier and drain off much of the fat - not that I'm against chicken fat, but that I like roast veggies to be fairly dry.
I will do it again though, it was quite tasty, and crucially, provided leftovers for a wonderful pot pie (page 24).
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American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2003
This makes a very rich and creamy sauce, perfect to use as a base for sauteed mushrooms. It can be a bit too rich, almost - depends on your feeling about heavy cream! Over time, we've reduced the cream and used onions which have been cooked more slowly so they become naturally a bit creamy, and it's still just as good. The thyme is a necessity - it's just the right flavour note here.
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Ad Hoc at Home
By Thomas Keller
Artisan - 2009
An excellent vanilla cupcake recipe. These are made with butter and egg whites, and the resulting cupcakes are a similar to angel food cakes - light and moist and delicious. The difference here is that the egg whites and sugar are beaten into a meringue before being folded into the rest of the batter. I made them exactly as the recipe states and got 24 standard-sized cupcakes.
These will be my default vanilla cupcakes now - they're better than any other I've made.
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The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
By Peter Reinhart, Ron Manville
Ten Speed Press - 2001
A great, all-purpose enriched bread recipe. This is what I use to make burger buns, using Peter's knot technique from Artisan Breads Every Day (essentially you make the dough into a 'snake' and then knot it to get a nice looking twisted bun). I always add some whole-wheat flour - 25-30% most usually, and find I go on the low side of the liquid recommendation (13 oz) as well as sometimes add a little extra flour on kneading as it's a damp dough.
If you have a warm kitchen you can start these and be ready to bake in about 3 1/2 hours, which is great for prep for a barbecue, for instance. They freeze well and I often make a batch and put most of them away for later.
I always do the egg wash and sesame seed sprinkle.
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The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories
By David Lebovitz
Ten Speed Press,U.S. - 2007
These are the mix-in for the Maple Walnut Ice Cream. Very simple, just walnuts toasted and then cooked in maple syrup, but sooo delicious!
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Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
By Heidi Swanson
Ten Speed Press - 2011
A good basic curry recipe, useful for all sorts of vegetables. I found it a little underspiced, however, compared to some of her other recipes, and in future would add a bit more curry paste. It's also not as complex or innovative as some of the other recipes in the book, hence my 3 stars.
I used red potatoes, red pepper and cauliflower as my vegetables rather than the zucchini and asparagus she suggests (she does say it's her 'refrigerator curry' for leftover veggies, so I felt this followed in the spirit of the thing.
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Vij's: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine
By Vikram Vij, Meeru Dhalwala
Douglas & McIntyre - 2006
This is a very mild chai recipe. We followed the directions exactly, using green cardamom pods and fennel seeds straight from our garden, with orange pekoe tea. The taste was quite subtle, more subtle than I remember from visiting the restaurant, so maybe next time I'll boil the spices a little more slowly when I make it.
It's definitely not the aggressive chai flavour you'll get from some places - no cloves, cinnamon or ginger. They do it this way deliberately for the restaurant, so they can keep it hot and not overspiced. It's definitely pleasant, but I think I'll experiment a bit with some additional spices in the future.
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Ad Hoc at Home
By Thomas Keller
Artisan - 2009
I'm giving this five stars as it is an exemplary vanilla ice cream recipe and the resulting ice cream was rich and creamy and truly excellent. However, the recipe for vanilla ice cream is pretty much the same all over, and Keller doesn't do anything here that's different: cream, milk, sugar, vanilla bean and egg yolks. The only differences are minor variations in the amount and ratios of each.
For example, he adds a pinch of salt, which some recipes leave out. He also does something very useful, which is to give a weight for the amount of yolk required. When I made this, I only needed 8 yolks instead of the 10 in the recipe to get the same weight.
When you make ice cream yourself, you're pretty much guaranteed to get something superior to most ice cream you've ever had.
Oh, and if you need something to do with all those leftover egg whites, make some of his white cupcakes - they need 6 egg whites, and the icing needs another 6.
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This is an egg-white buttercream (also known as a Swiss buttercream), and the first one I've made. Previously I'd made the simple 'American' butter and icing-sugar versions. It's more work, but it has a creamier, lighter result.
You combine sugar and egg whites in a bowl over a simmering water bath, bringing the temperature up to 150 degrees F or so (this safely pasteurizes the egg whites), then beat in a mixer, adding butter to stabilize it.
It makes a very creamy, soft, not too sweet frosting. Adding vanilla at the end makes this a Vanilla frosting; adding a little melted chocolate gives it a delicate chocolate flavour.
It is, however, a very sticky icing - it's hard to work with it without getting globs all over the place. It's delicious, but definitely messy.
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Website: Martha Stewart
This is our go-to pumpkin pie recipe for all fall/winter holidays. It's a nice mixture of spices, a good ratio of egg to pumpkin to condensed milk, and I always get compliments on the flavor of it. It's not hard to make (one bowl) and I often cheat and use a frozen pie crust if I'm in a hurry.
I do find that with a frozen crust, even a deep dish one, I have some filling left over. I make several ramekins full of it, bake them for 25 minutes or so, and my daughters prefer them to the pie itself.
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
As the other reviewers have said, these are nice, simple to make oatmeal raisin cookies. I like them with a bit of kosher salt to make them taste a little more 'adult', and I made the recipe as written.
Update: I've also made these with chocolate chips and walnuts and they're excellent.
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How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman
Wiley - 2008
I was quite pleased with how these turned out, and the recipe (like many in this book) has enough variations to serve as a source of future veggie burger explorations. I ended up making these with a little more of the bean-cooking liquid that I should have, and may have pureed them a little too long - they were a little less chunky than I think the recipe specifies - but they had a good flavor and they cooked up quite nicely.
My 8-year-old gobbled hers up and my wife and I agreed that we'd try them again. Though these are definitely frying pan burgers - they would disintegrate on a grill.
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The Pie and Pastry Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Scribner - 1998
It lives up to its name (though being Canadian, I'd like to take a little license and call it the best 'North American' apple pie!
Using one of her excellent crusts, I've made this several times, and it's always great. She has two very simple secrets to this pie: the first, collect the juices from the apples as they sit in a colander macerating, mixed with some sugar, lemon and spice, then boil them down into a syrup. The second is to ensure the apple slices are all 1/4 inch or less to reduce any gap between the crust and the filling.
Oh, and I have to mention her recommendation to bake pies low in the oven on a baking stone. This had never occurred to me before, but it's brilliant - you get a nice crisp bottom crust and slightly less chance of the top pastry burning.
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The Best of BetterBaking.com: More Than 200 Classic Recipes From the Beloved Baker's Website
By Marcy Goldman
Whitecap Books Ltd. - 2009
I made these exactly as written in the recipe and they were just perfect. The cookies are nice, and the addition of ground almonds makes them a little crumbly, but not so much they are not strong enough to sandwich. And of course dulce de leche is excellent pretty much anywhere.
I made dulce de leche the easy way - I gently simmered a can of sweetened condensed milk for about 3 hours. I know it says on the can not to do this, but I've done it many times with no explosions, and a quick search online found that many people from South America do this also and as long as it's completely covered with water, it seems to be fairly safe. Note however that I take no liability for caramel explosions whatsoever...
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Italy the Beautiful Cookbook
By Lorenza De' Medici
HarperCollins, Advantage Publishers Group - 1999
Very simple, very tasty - if you use good ingredients, that is. Classic Italian cooking relies on the primacy of good ingredients and simple cooking techniques to produce potentially great food.
We use only ripe garden tomatoes or fresh market tomatoes in season to make this recipe. From looking at the ingredients: olive oil, onion, tomatoes, pancetta, basil leaves, pepper, you might think this was overly simple. But simmering them all together for an hour performs an alchemy on the ingredients and makes a wonderful, if a little wet, pasta sauce.
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American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2003
I'm not sure why this isn't simply named caramelized onions, as it's a fairly straightforward recipe for them, but nevertheless it's a good one, and one of our favourite pizza bases - we use this instead of sauce sometimes.
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Website: Dinner With Julie
This was a 3 1/2 - not quite very good, but better than 3 stars. It's a simple version of Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes) which substitutes sweet potatoes for the regular potatoes. It definitely makes for a sweeter curry because of this. It contains chili powder, which doesn't seem totally Indian; but then chili powder is just ground chilis, so I guess it's close enough!
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The Pie and Pastry Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Scribner - 1998
This is a very nice pate sucree recipe, with Rose's customary detailed directions and exact measurements. Easy to make, and hard to mess up. I skipped the step where you pour it into a freezer bag to knead it and just dumped it onto a large piece of plastic wrap; it came together quickly after that.
I put it in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes after putting it into the tart shell I was using, then blind baked it with weights for a bit shy of her recommended time.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Truly succulent, dark, and flavourful stew. It's not unlike a version of Boeuf Bourguignon with venison. We used venison shoulder steak from a wild deer, given to us by a farmer friend. I cut about 700g of meat from the steaks and then did the recipe pretty much as written, just adding a little more carrot and some mushrooms I wanted to use up. A great way to deal with a tougher cut of venison.
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The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories
By David Lebovitz
Ten Speed Press,U.S. - 2007
An excellent pairing of flavors. I never would have thought to use sour cream in ice cream, but it goes perfectly with strawberries. You chop and macerate the strawberries in their juices and 3/4 cup of sugar for an hour beforehand (he also recommends vodka or kirsch, but we had neither on hand), which apparently brings up the redness of the berries.
It makes an attractive ice cream, with that strawberry pink and chunks of frozen berries scattered throughout. And it tastes wonderful. We used the first local berries of the season, which were not quite perfect, but still pretty good, and they made great ice cream. I'm looking forward to trying this again when the really ripe berries are at the market.
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The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
By Peter Reinhart, Ron Manville
Ten Speed Press - 2001
A delightful Christmas treat indeed. These are larger than you'd think - the photo makes it hard to estimate, but they're quite a bit larger than the sort of Stollen you buy in the store (at least 50% larger). I made these with marzipan in the centre. The only change I'd make is not soaking the fruit in brandy in advance - I prefer these non-boozy. I didn't have orange or lemon extract and just used zest instead.
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Website: Food.com
Simple, easy to prepare and tasty noodle salad. Very good warm or cold. I added julienned carrot, cooked the pepper a bit longer than the recipe calls for and also cooked the green onion lightly as my wife doesn't like them raw. I also found the dressing to be a lot for the amount of noodles so didn't use it all. Finally, I jazzed it up a little by adding some Thai sweet chili sauce rather than cayenne for spice.
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Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006
By Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker
Scribner - 2006
Nice and simple, easy to make and just throw in the oven. Very much comfort food. We had this with some tortillas with refried beans and cheese, and it made a perfect dinner for a wet and chilly fall evening. I also used some fresh tomato. We didn't have cayenne, which would have given this a nice little bit of heat, and no bacon, but maybe next time.
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Website: Chocolate & Zucchini
This is a great recipe, and like her Natural Starter Bread before it, an education on how to produce excellent natural starter breads. I particularly like the flexibility of this one, which allows you to slow ferment the dough in the fridge anywhere from 12-24 hours.
Translating her French flour instructions, I made these with 40% whole wheat and 60% unbleached white flour. I also added a little gluten to compensate for the whole wheat.
My starter may be a little slow, as the dough hadn't doubled in size after the overnight rise, but after about 4 hours out on the counter I just went ahead and baked them and they turned out very well.
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Ad Hoc at Home
By Thomas Keller
Artisan - 2009
A very simple cracker recipe - just flour, water, yeast, salt and butter. You can go from start to eating crackers in 45 minutes.
I found the recipe as written didn't quite work for me - Keller suggests 10 minutes at 350 degrees, but I needed closer to 15. He also suggests rolling them out to 1/8th of an inch, but I found this too thick to make a crispy cracker. Something like a 1/16th was better - just before it became transparent. I also found them a little saltier than I like, so in my second batch didn't sprinkle fleur de sel on top. You may want to keep an eye on them near the end, as unless they're all exactly the same thickness, some will brown faster than others.
I plan on trying these with some parmesan rolled into them, and maybe some rosemary too, and I think this will lift them to a 4.
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Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
By Peter Reinhart
Ten Speed Press - 2009
These worked out perfectly for me - and they are now my official go-to summer bun recipe. I tried several other enriched dough recipes from other sources, and then finally turned to Peter in frustration with the results, and was delighted to get just what I was looking for.
These are soft, tasty, and perfect for small sandwiches and burgers. They're not quite as fluffy as restaurant burger buns maybe, but they hold up well. I used them with pulled pork and they were excellent.
The overnight fermentation gives more flavour than the quick recipes (though his quick recipe from BBA is also quite good). I added 50% whole wheat with no issues; still light and airy. I did the knotted buns, and after a few odd ones, got the hang of it - they impressed the heck out of my dinner guests the first time I did them.
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Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006
By Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker
Scribner - 2006
I'd never tasted, let alone made, a snickerdoodle before reading the reviews here and deciding to give them a try. What are they? They're very simple butter cookies, but the addition of cream of tartar gives them a slightly different flavour. The recipe here is straightforward and I made them with no tweaks. They came out thin and flat, and only a little chewy. The flavour seemed to improve after a day or so in the cookie jar.
Definitely worth trying out, though I'm still more of a fan of classics like chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
I was looking for a quick apple dessert, saw the reviews of this one and decided to give it a shot. This came together quick quickly - it only took a few minutes to make the pastry and then when it chilled in the fridge I peeled and cored apples. I weighed out two pounds, but was left with 2 1/2 apples after I filled my tart dish, so next time I'll cut back on the fruit a bit. I also used Gravensteins, which I'd bought from a local farm, forgetting that they're better for sauce - so the filling ended up rather squishy. Still, very nice flavour and a nice presentation.
If you like your apple desserts sweet rather than tart, I'd mix a bit more sugar in with the slices before assembling it. I like a bit of tartness, though, so I was fine with a couple of tablespoons of sugar on top. It also took less than an hour to cook - more like 45 minutes.
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
I made tonight this based on aj's recommendation below and I have to agree - this was excellent pizza. The asparagus and cheese went together perfectly, and the asparagus was perfect - not soggy, not raw, but just lightly cooked.
I used Peter Reinhart's Neo-Neapolitan dough for the crust and then followed the directions as written, though we didn't have scallions to put on top once it was out of the oven.
I found that our vegetable peeler worked fairly well on the asparagus, though I had to press pretty hard. I also found that our pizza didn't take the 10-15 minutes she recommends in the recipe - more like 7 or 8 in our oven set at 500 degrees.
Update: I've made this a few more times since first reviewing it, and it continues to impress. It's a great appetizer, and we served slices of it cold as part of several different types of nibbles for a summer party, to lots of acclaim.
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Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
By Dorie Greenspan, Alan Richardson
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - 2010
I made this for brunch this morning, taking into account aj's notes from the previous review. I made sure there were lots of chives, skipped the walnuts, measured the cheese by weight to be sure I was putting enough in, and for good measure added some left over caramelized onions (about 1/3 cup). I also mixed the cheese up a little, adding 1 ounce of gruyere and 1 of parmesan I wanted to use up from the fridge.
The result was quite cheesy, nice and savory and went very well with our brunch. Even though I used a lot of chives, it could easily have had more - without the onions it might have been missing flavor - in the recipe she suggests scallions as an alternative, and I'm sure they'd be nice too. Also I found that adding the sharper cheeses intensified the flavour. I'll definitely be making this again.
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Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen
By Heidi Swanson
Ten Speed Press - 2011
This is a simple and quick soda bread recipe, with about 60% rye, the rest being white flour. You can, as Heidi writes, whip it together and have fresh bread cooling on your counter in about an hour.
However, you do have to like the particular taste of soda bread. I don't mind it, but I don't love it. My kids didn't like it at all, and they usually love all breads. My wife, however, thought it was great. So, your mileage will vary. I've tried to review this to reflect this varied level of opinion in our household.
I do like the way she cuts it before baking - almost through, in 8 pieces, so that it bakes up lovely and crusty. Also note, it was quite sticky and not easy to knead - I was a little concerned it wouldn't work out, but it turned out just fine.
If I did this again, I'd consider adding something to contrast the baking soda flavour - maybe caraway seeds.
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Moosewood Cookbook
By Mollie Katzen
Ten Speed Press - 1992
This is a hearty borscht, heavier on the cabbage and potato than some variations. I have made this a few times and agree that it improves the recipe to use an immersion blender or similar to make it more of a puree. I also find I can hardly taste the recommended 1-2 Tbsp of cider vinegar and have to double it to give it that borscht tang I like.
I sliced the beets quite thin but still had to cook them for longer than 30 minutes, and just cooked the soup longer to make sure they were soft after putting them in.
After blending, it's very thick and you can easily add another cup or more of water to thin it.
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HomeBaking : The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World
By Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid
Random House of Canada, Limited - 2003
This is the first yeasted pancake recipe I've tried, and it's truly delicious. I make it with a blend of whole wheat and white flour (3.5 oz each) and I usually prepare three apples, as two, unless they're quite large, don't provide quite enough apple for the bottom.
One issue, though: the timing of the recipe is complicated, and detracts just a little from it. If you want these for breakfast they requires a primary fermentation of 30 min to 2 hrs, then 6 to 8 hours or overnight in the fridge plus 2 hours out of the fridge (whew!).
So, it's difficult to get the timing right, unless you're having a brunch at 10 or 11am. I actually got up at 5am once to take the batter out of the fridge. What I've found is that if you can do a longer pre-fridge fermentation, before you add the salt (as salt slows yeast growth), then you need less on the other end.
My most recent breakfast timing: 90 minutes to 2 hrs first fermentation. Add salt egg and butter, then refrigerate overnight. Take out for 30 minutes to 1 hr (batter should be frothy and have risen) before cooking.
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The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant
By Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2002
I've made these a couple of times now, once with fresh rosemary and once with dried. I'd definitely recommend fresh, and the 'bruising' method she details in the recipe. Also, salting the water fairly liberally when you initially cook the potatoes is a good tip, since I find salting roast potatoes during or after can be hit or miss. I also found that it took a bit longer to cook than the recipe - probably just increasing the temperature to 425 would do the trick (I don't have a convection oven, so I have a feeling this may some impact).
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Fresh: Seasonal Recipes Made with Local Ingredients
By John Bishop
Douglas & McIntyre - 2007
This is a very adult tasting soup. What I mean is that it's not one of your sweet, kid-friendly soups. It takes a strong flavour note from the sherry (1/2 cup) and is really quite delicious. I'd give it 3 1/2 stars, but not quite 4. I think it's not quite something I'd make regularly for myself for sheer comfort, but it would be a nice one to serve at a fancy meal.
Didn't make the accompanying biscuits.
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The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry
By the Editors of Cook's Illustrated
Clarkson Potter - 1999
This is a comprehensive and very useful guide to roasting a goose. We used it to roast our very first goose and it came out perfectly. I read various directions in other books and online, and this one was the most straightforward and detailed, so it was a perfect guide for a first-timer, especially since it's important to roast a goose correctly, to drain the thick layer of subcutaneous fat.
We did not use the stuffing they recommended, simply putting onion, garlic and lemons in the goose. Otherwise we followed this exactly and got a perfectly cooked bird. The only thing I'd wish they added was a bit more information about saving and using the fat - goose fat is quite healthy and highly prized for cooking and one of the best things about roasting a goose, but all they say is to bail it out of the roasting pan as it collects. We collected and strained it, keep it in a jar in the fridge, and use it for roasting potatoes.
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How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman
Wiley - 2008
This is a pretty good pilaf - the currants, pine nuts, cumin and cinnamon give it a middle-eastern flavour. It didn't cause fireworks of flavour though - I'll try some of his other (seven) variations on pilaf and see if I like them better.
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Moosewood Cookbook
By Mollie Katzen
Ten Speed Press - 1992
We accidentally used a tablespoon of cumin instead of a teaspoon when we first made this, and now we make it this way every time! These are so much better than store-bought refried beans; the secret is in slow cooking dried beans. Once you've had them this way, you can't go back.
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The Best of BetterBaking.com: More Than 200 Classic Recipes From the Beloved Baker's Website
By Marcy Goldman
Whitecap Books Ltd. - 2009
Very tasty, fluffy muffins. The mixture of cornmeal, lemon and rasbperry is very nice indeed.
However, a caveat. You must use large/jumbo muffin liners with this. I didn't, assuming (foolishly) that the silicone muffin pan I had would make it easy to remove them. Incorrect! They have a tendency to fall apart when they're warm and steaming.
I used whole grain cornmeal, which has a nice crunch to it. I didn't have lemon oil, but the zest of one lemon seemed to do just fine. It's a very wet batter, but rises relatively well - not as much as her Lawsuit muffins though.
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Website: Epicurious
This is a deceptively simple recipe, but the completed pie is greater than the sum of its parts. The tartness of the rhubarb and the sweet / tart flavour of the raspberries are softened by the pear. Then there's some orange peel and cinnamon to round it out. It's incredibly delicious.
The recipe calls for store-bought crusts, but of course it's easy to substitute your favourite recipe. The only thing that's an issue is that these three ingredients are never in season at the same time. What I do is freeze rhubarb in the spring, raspberries in the summer and then when pears are in season in the fall, out come the pies!
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Website: David Lebovitz
Like pumpkin pie in a cone! This is delicious ice cream, and I followed the recipe almost exactly, with the exception of the optional liquor at the end. I used roasted butternut squash, like David did, and it worked out just fine, though mine was a bit lighter in colour than the photos on his blog - I think he may have roasted the squash for longer.
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The Pie and Pastry Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
Scribner - 1998
I had to make this after reading the glowing reviews, and I was not disappointed. I made the recipe almost exactly (to the gram) following the directions, with only one change (see below).
As usual, Rose provides incredible detail, and although it takes more time than whipping up a standard pumpkin pie, the result is more than worth it.
I used gingersnaps (Anna's brand) for the crust, with pecans. My mother-in-law told me this was the best pie she'd ever had.
Note: my one change was that I heated the egg whites for the chiffon, using the 'new safe meringue' technique worked out by Alice Medrich, but using the quantities here rather than the ones in the technique I linked to, and not bothering with the cream of tartar.
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The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2008: The Year's Best Recipes, Equipment Reviews, and Tastings
By America's Test Kitchen Editors
Boston Common Press - 2007
Oh yes. This is Roesti as it should be done. I have searched for a good Roesti recipe for a while, as I had it done properly in a Swiss restaurant in Toronto and it was heavenly - crispy, brown and buttery on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside.
When I tried doing it at home using recipes I'd found online or in magazines, it just didn't work. It would either be too raw on the middle, fall apart in the pan or just be somehow off.
This recipe gets it right completely, as far as I'm concerned. In typical Cooks Illustrated fashion, they isolate the main points to getting it right: correct potatoes (Yukon Gold); getting rid of water from the potatoes; adding starch back in (corn starch or starch from the potato water itself - which I prefer) and then cooking it at the right heat for the right length of time.
A nice wedge of this with scrambled eggs and sausages makes a fantastic brunch.
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The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread
By Peter Reinhart, Ron Manville
Ten Speed Press - 2001
This is a fascinating bread. I'm still a bit wobbly with sourdough, and the first two times I made it, it came out very well (it received compliments from a French teacher of one of my daughters). The third time, it was a terrible flop - and I realized that I still have a lot to learn about wild yeast. I still don't know if it under or overproofed, but after all that work it was a bit dispiriting.
It makes a huge loaf (4.5 lbs), very dark and chewy. It's a bit of a challenge to work with that much dough, and the kneading will help with your arm muscle development! Definitely one to impress people with when you master it, and one to be shared with a group.
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Williams-Sonoma Mastering: Frozen Desserts
By Melanie Barnard
Free Press - 2006
This is an ideal recipe if you want to make home-made ice cream in a hurry or you don't have any eggs. It's simplicity itself: cream, milk, sugar and vanilla, and nothing else. Since you're using cold milk and cream, it doesn't require the long cooling of a cooked custard ice cream and can be made in one day if you start early enough.
Compared to a classic French vanilla, it lacks depth, but as the recipe says, it's great for cones and other ice-cream based desserts, and as usual with home-made ice creams, you're still better off than buying commercial!
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