hipcook's Reviews
26 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 26Sort by: Title 
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Website: The Food Network
Everybody likes bacon on top of meatloaf, right? Well, why not put it inside instead of on top? And what goes on ground beef but mustard and ketchup - so the traditional meatloaf glaze gets a tangy kick. The cheese part can probably be completely customized to your taste; what was in my fridge was feta and mozzarella instead of cheddar, so that's what I used and it came out fine. (I actually suspect the recipe might call for more cheddar than I'd enjoy, but the point is, I'd be willing to try it and find out.)
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Very little effort and it makes a dish as good as you'd get in a restaurant (and better than some). I think it needs just a little hit of black pepper in the marinade, just to wake up the beef a little.
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Interesting take on cole slaw, with cauliflower playing the part of cabbage, and a flavor profile that's close to tabbouleh with its mint and parsley. I suspect it's a little overly salty, although that diminishes as the vegetables purge and the salt works its way more evenly through the dish.
It is important to break the cauliflower into reasonably small florets - I didn't, and ended up with slices of cauliflower which were a little bigger than I wanted. They broke up by hand easily enough, but it was a step I wouldn't have needed if I'd done a better job of coring and breaking up.
I also substituted pecans for pine nuts, because, frankly, I'm not crazy about pine nuts. My wife pointed out that almonds would fit the dish better, and she's right.
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I'm in favor of anything that makes me break out the pressure cooker. This is a pretty quick approach to the classic dish, although I suspect getting the dumplings the right size is just a matter of repetition.
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Pretty good pudding. Nice with a few slices of pear or apple. It's a good strong chocolate bomb; use the best you can. I wanted it to set up a little more firm than it did; that may be because I added more maple syrup than called for to get it sweet enough, or it just may need a little less water. (Or both.) The texture of chia seeds could be an acquired taste but my family liked it. All in all, it's better than a mix and easier than a cooked pudding.
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Short review: classic comfort food, with absolutely picture-perfect mashed potatoes. I think this has just become my go-to method for mashing potatoes.
Snark review: the recipe is basically melted butter and milk with enough potato, cabbage, and pork to hold it together. Clearly, that's a 5-star recipe.
Quote of the night: me: "I'd like to try it with ham; I think the bacon is taking over." Wife: "And what's wrong with that?"
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I think this just became my house margarita recipe. It's just a hair sweet; I'll probably go with 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of sugar in future instead of 2. I also left off the cilantro. But the cucumber is delightfully refreshing, and it's dead simple (compared to many of the cucumber margarita recipes which start with making cucumber juice in your blender).
It says this makes one, and hey, if you're not driving, who am I to judge? But you could split it and still have a respectable drink.
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A perfectly serviceable recipe for a sugar cookie base for cutout cookies. I found the dough a little too dry; perhaps it's the hazard of winter baking.
And don't tell your 3-year-old it's time to use the cookie-cutters before the dough is made! Unless, of course, you were looking forward to him asking at every step whether it's time. (See also sturlington's review of what I assume is the same recipe but in a Nigella cookbook...)
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We call this kind of recipe "refrigerator Velcro" - make it once to get the flavor profile, then in the future use the basic recipe as a background for cleaning leftover meat and veggies out of the fridge.
It's not exceptional or authentic, but it is tasty and quick, and it turned a dish I thought was restaurants-only into something I can pull off for a quick weeknight meal. That counts for something.
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I think of gnocchi as a rich, hearty dish, and this is one. But with the fresh flavors of lemon and thyme, it's also light and fresh. I don't quite get how that's possible, other than with a fabulous balance of kinds of flavors. It's very important to give the dish a few minutes at the end to "allow flavors to blend" - this is a dish that actually improved markedly over a couple of minutes, basically as the lemon got less aggressive.
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I'm not crazy about these granola bars. They're OK, but not great. I find they have a little too much honey sweetness and not enough grain and nut flavor. They also don't hold together as well as I'd like, though that may be because I keep forgetting that my square pan is 8x8 not 9x9, so they're a little extra thick.
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Simple, inexpensive comfort food. Make it with your favorite sausages - our experience is that generally high quality is more important than the flavors of "Italian" sausage. I do wish it made a little more sauce, and I find it usually needs salt (though that may reflect the sausages we use).
Presumably, this is the same recipe as the one in the Nigella Bites cookbook.
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This was a hit in my house, and the recipe is drop-dead easy. I'm trying to figure out what the right fixings are for a salmon burger - the dill mayonnaise is good, but I suspect something with more brightness like a lemon-butter sauce would be better.
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One of my go-to desserts for parties. It's tremendously easy to make, and to make ahead. It takes well to virtually any flavor that goes with chocolate - the recipe calls for coffee liqueur, but straight coffee, hazelnut liqueur, and berry schnapps all work well. Plus, the tofu is 100% hidden, so there are wonderful elements of a prank in it. Bring it to a barbecue or other festival of cooked meat, just to watch your friends' faces.
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I associate brines with salt, but this one is mostly sugar. That makes the turkey skin come out with a pronounced sweetness, almost similar to a sugar-cured bacon. It also gives an interesting flavor to the meat, though I miss a little more saltiness on the meat. It did come out nice and moist, though.
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More of a technique than a "recipe", really, but I have to admit that I would have tried to split the trout into 2 fillets if not for this recipe telling me to pan-fry it whole. I suspect that frying both sides with their skin keeps the meat moist and avoids sticking to the pan.
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A recipe for the creole staple, pickled pork is an excellent addition of meat, heat, and acidity for dishes like red beans and rice. This is a quick brine to put together, and then a long pickle in the fridge. It also makes enough that you will probably use only part of the recipe, and freeze the rest... leading, in my house, to a happy discovery some months later as you dig around looking for something else.
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A nice approach to comfort food. Hearty and rich, but simple and appropriate for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Saves well.
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Turns out I do like quinoa, if you cook it in enough half-and-half and cheese. Alton's right; this is squarely in comfort food territory.
This serves up a lot like the old classic broccoli and rice casserole, but I find the flavor and consistency closer to a terrific dish of cheese grits. I left out the mushrooms, because my kid wouldn't eat them, but I should have added some extra broccoli to balance the casserole a little better. I found a little tiny bit of hot sauce at the table brightened it up a bit.
It makes a ton and is perfectly suited for a main course, but it would be quite at home as a side dish as well. It might make my Thanksgiving table.
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Red beans and rice isn't my go-to dish when I think of Creole cuisine; that spot is held by the more complex dishes like jambalaya and gumbo. Yet every time I make this dish, I wonder why it isn't higher on my list. The brilliant mix of savory beans and gravy over sweet white rice always feeds my soul as well as the more opulent dishes do. Alton Brown's recipe brings the flavor in at just about 2 hours of cooking, assuming you've already put in the 3 days necessary to pickle the pork. (And if you haven't... well you should, but I won't tell anybody if you substitute a nice link of andouille or the like.)
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A terrific cabbage treatment, easy to whip together and finding the balance between bringing out the sweetness of the vegetable without turning it into mush. However, I do think Alton's definition of a "small" head of cabbage must be smaller than mine... I sometimes end up feeling the cabbage didn't get enough dressing.
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Alton, you know you're my boy. There are terra cotta tiles in my over because of you. I eat barbecued tofu because of you. But, my friend, sometimes you just gotta rein it in.
Like this steak recipe. I mean, it's broiled steak! The point is simplicity. And here you go telling me to move the dang oven racks after 10 minutes of cooking. Not the steaks, the racks! I don't know what dinnertime looks like in your house, but in mine, it doesn't involve messing with hot oven racks.
Maybe I'm overreacting. But let's try a little less "mad" in your "mad genius."
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A hearty dish which comes together with a lot less work and time than I thought it would. It's almost a 4-star recipe, but I'm dinging it a bit because the gravy didn't thicken in the oven as much as I thought it would. (It's my fault, though, that I gave the sauce more time in the oven and the chops got tough.) I didn't have a Vidalia onion, so I used one medium-size white onion. The flavor worked, but it would have been more "smothered" if I'd gone for 2 onions.
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These were a big hit at Thanksgiving dinner. The chipotle powder and garlic help cut through the richness. If you're looking for a spicy savory alternative to a sugary sweet potato dish, this works well.
We substituted a chopped chipotle and some adobo sauce for some of the ground chipotle powder, and our friend with the lowest tolerance for heat pronounced it "just right." We doubled the recipe and put it in a lasagna pan; this seemed to work well (though we didn't get the promised "crisp edges" on the potatoes, or think there was any chance of it with all that cream in the dish).
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OK, I took some liberties. Kind of a lot of liberties. It's still a good cake. I'm really impressed with the way the graham crackers don't go soggy (even after 2 days) but do soften into a cake-like texture.
I didn't have strawberry jam, so I used a mix of blueberry and a blackberry/raspberry preserve. These are delicious, but they were pretty substantial homemade preserves and I wonder if assembly would have been easier with a few teaspoons of water mixed in to loosen it up. Then again, free water might have made the cream collapse so maybe not.
I also didn't use the cream cheese icing, opting instead for whipped cream stabilized with gelatin, with a little vanilla and almond extract. (The process is described in the chocolate mocha refrigerator cake recipe from the same episode.) This worked just fine; I suspect it helps that the preserves were a little tart.
Would definitely make again!
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The taste on this was fantastic - peanut butter and jelly plus a glass of warm, vanilla-scented milk, all at once.
But the pudding didn't come out right for me, I think because "half a loaf of challah" isn't a very clear measurement. I definitely should have added bread; I got something loose, more like pudding than bread. I also suspect I should have chosen a more rustic loaf of bread; the dense, soft loaf I used pretty much disintegrated at serving.
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