hipcook's Reviews
260 recipes reviewed. Showing 101 to 150Sort by: Book 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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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Website: The Food Network
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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The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors
By Jeff Smith
Avon - 1992
I think of this as a fun recipe for mini-meatloafs - "sausage" really gives me different ideas. Easy and fun to make, and an ideal size if you like "meatloaf" sandwiches later in the week.
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I made this as an activity with my son, so the fact that it baked up dense and kind of doughy is probably from overmixing. That said, the flavor isn't quite what I'm used to for soda bread. I suspect my mom used more sugar than this recipe calls for. Maybe that's the difference between an Irish rustic quick bread and an Irish-American special occasion dish. I will make it again, if only to see if I can get the texture right.
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What a keeper of a recipe! It had never occurred to me that the rich, spicy taste of bulgogi came from a mere 30-minute marinade. My first attempt came out too salty; notice that "sesame salt" is made of far more sesame seeds than salt. I might also play with the heat a little; a sweet-spicy sauce like Sriracha might mellow the spice a little more to my son's liking. Definitely would benefit from an acidic side dish.
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Pretty solid recipe. I might like a little more advice on good seasonings to add to the sausage. The technique of flouring the hard-boiled eggs to make the sausage stick to them better is genius and I don't know why every recipe doesn't include this trick. We also found that, if you don't want to deal with deep-frying, it's perfectly acceptable to use enough oil to get about halfway up the Scotch egg, and flip them at about 4-5 minutes.
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The German Kitchen: Traditional Recipes, Regional Favorites
By Christopher Knuth, Catherine Knuth
Interlink Pub Group - 2013
It says it's a winter soup, but the broth is light enough for any time of year. My wife says the Saxon version of this soup is more sweet-and-sour; a small bit of rice wine or rice wine vinegar makes a nice table addition if you're going for that taste.
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My wife called this a "very German" cake - meaning it's dense, with a tight, slightly dry crumb. Cinnamon is the dominant flavor, with chocolate and raisin notes behind it. (I'll probably back off the cinnamon and boost the cocoa next time.) Very pleasant with a little iced cream or whipped cream, and perhaps a cup of coffee.
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It's a nice dish; a more custardy take on a frittata appropriate for brunch or breakfast-for-dinner.
Unfortunately, the recipe really doesn't help on the technique - no guidance on how long on the stove and how long under the broiler; no suggestion that the flour should be mixed with a little milk first to make a slurry, not just thrown into the bowl. Basic points, yes, but they would greatly improve the instructions.
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This recipe is hampered by the lack of any timing on the sauce. It took me more than 20 minutes of simmering for the flavors to come together. I also had trouble with the mustard wanting to fall out of solution. That said, it's a very pleasant cream sauce, with the aromatic sage able to stand up to the mustard flavors. I feel like it needs tweaking, but also that it will be worth it.
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A good but rather standard version of the classic vinegar and cucumbers dish. Adding the dressing at the end allows the cucumbers to retain some of their crispness and fresh flavor, unlike the marinated versions which really become a quick pickle.
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Not crazy about this one. I found that the mint took over and the parsley got lost. I also found the carrots dominated the cabbage. But it's a fast hot salad with ingredients I'm often looking to use up, so I might try it again.
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Shortbread cookies are layered with a simple chocolate icing and some almonds. It is a simple family treat; I can imagine this as something I'd make to dress up ingredients I had on hand anyway.
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Pleasant; more of a technique than a recipe. Needs salt and possibly other seasonings. Generally a hit in my house; we had some debate over whether it needed a sauce or whether that would make the coating go gummy.
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Nice approach; went over well with my family. Very similar to a paprikash, but I've not had pork served that way. I also like the more rustic sauce you get with the thinly sliced peppers, though I think the recipe's call for 4 green peppers would be overkill if you're using American supermarket bell peppers. I used 2 sweet peppers the size of Hungarian wax peppers, and that was plenty.
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The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great American Cooks
By Edna Lewis, Scott Peacock
Knopf - 2003
The recipe as written looks like a cool way to whip up just enough cranberry sauce to coat a couple of pork chops. However, my wife believes in making always making enough cranberry sauce to put some up, so I cheated and used sauce we already had on hand instead of fresh cranberries and sugar. The flavor combination is certainly a winner; I really liked the way the cranberries developed a different depth of flavor while baking with the pork. Practically, I'm more likely to make panfried pork chops with a quick heated cranberry sauce in future, but this is a really cool inspiration. (And I suppose it's possible we might run out of cranberry sauce.)
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"Effortless" is right; simple to prepare and delicious. It feels like there's more butter in this recipe than I'm used to - and as the nursery rhyme says, "butter makes the batter better."
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The Great Sandwich Book
By Anita Borghese
Rawson Associates Publishers - 1978
On the one hand, you've pretty much got the whole recipe right there in the title. It's not like it's groundbreaking cuisine here.
...except when's the last time YOU had sauteed apples on a sausage? Because I don't think I ever have.
(The serving suggestion says to add a scrambled egg for a hearty meal. I might also suggest a glass of red wine and a Lipitor... but again, you're not using a cookbook from 1978 if a strict diet is really your top priority.)
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On the one hand, this technique for home-made flatbread couldn't be easier. On the other hand, it couldn't be more bland. (The ingredients, literally, are flour, water, and a pinch of salt.) I imagine I'll return to this idea, but with an addition of something like minced garlic or scallions in the dough, or a brush of flavored oil at the end.
Cooking notes: either Borghese's idea of "medium" heat is lower than mine, or 2 minutes per side isn't enough time.
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Tomato paste and brandy are added to a bechamel, and then cooked lobster is warmed in it before the mixture is spread on toast, topped with cheese, and broiled. It's a refined sandwich. The grape flavor from the brandy plays nicely with the lobster and tomato, although we did get a couple of boozy bites. It seems like something you might find at a semi-formal New England lunch.
So why only 3 stars? Quality vs. effort. It's not that this is a difficult dish - it's just a bit fiddly, compared with the simplicity of a buttery lobster roll. If I have to do the work of cracking a lobster shell, I probably will pick the easier recipe and enjoy the purity of fewer ingredients instead of the nuances of a bigger sauce.
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I don't understand why this recipe calls for 3 slices of bread per sandwich. I guess it makes it a little more filling, and you might argue it's a little more refined, but I prefer the more obvious flavors of the 2-slice version. In particular, I think the egg batter gets downplayed when there's an unbattered slice of bread in the middle, and that's a key to a good monte cristo. (I also like a little mustard in the sandwich, though you could always serve that on the side.)
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Grits (Short Stack)
By Virginia Willis
Short Stack Editions - 2013
I didn't actually make the migas as directed, but the grits cakes which stand in for the tortilla chips are a big winner. (In a nutshell, cooked grits are spread out, cooled, cut, and baked.) I've added the grits strips, crumbled a bit, to scrambled eggs with some hot sauce for an ersatz migas, and it's a nice breakfast, adding texture and some richness to the eggs. Even better, though, was sausage gravy served over them like a biscuit.
I made them on a cookie sheet, instead of in a baking pan as directed, so I think were significantly thinner than expected. That said, I like this thickness.
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I wanted to like this more than I did. At the end of the day, it was a pretty fair Swiss steak or even something like a pot roast. There wasn't enough Cajun seasoning called for, in my opinion, to give it any particular Louisiana flavor. Also, my gravy came out rather oily; I should have run it through a gravy separator. Serving Swiss steak with grits as a starch is a pretty neat idea, though.
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A little lackluster. Using some corn grits to give crunch to baked wings was a neat idea, and I liked the little bit of corn taste, but my family didn't care for it. I also got a slight raw flour taste; it could have used a little more time in the oven (or a hotter temperature?) but the chicken was about perfectly done.
I didn't make the sauce, which was a mistake. The cumin and pepper don't come through nearly as well as I hoped.
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I'm Just Here for More Food: Food x Mixing + Heat = Baking
By Alton Brown
Stewart, Tabori & Chang - 2004
One of my go-to recipes for party desserts. It makes a fabulous, light, crumbly shortcake which serves as a perfect base for any fruit. I do have a note right next to "bake for 20 minutes, or until golden" where we've written "start checking at 12." Maybe my oven runs hot.
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I know 2 or 3 people, plus myself, who've tried this recipe and, as near as we can tell, it's just broken. The dough comes out wet, almost soupy, and makes something like a biscuit-flavored muffin top. It doesn't hold its shape and it spreads out tremendously in the oven, gaining almost no height. It's a pleasant enough bread (especially if you're partial to crumbly biscuits instead of flaky), but it sure ain't no biscuit. At the end of the day, turn to page 138 and make the biscuits according to that beautiful bulletproof White Lily recipe (which is the same as the one on the sack of flour).
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This recipe makes high, light pancakes still rich with the flavors of egg and dairy. Plus, I've noticed that most recipes call for less buttermilk than I buy... so either this is a great way to use up the extra buttermilk, or a good reason to make one of those other recipes.
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There is one compliment which I prize higher than any other for my cooking: "as good as my grandma's."
This recipe got me that compliment. And from a Texan who doesn't normally eat upside-down cake because his grandma's spoiled him for all others.
The cake is both airy and chewy, the sugar syrup is rich but not sickly, the fruit holds up. If you've never had a fresh upside-down cake (like me, who'd mostly had it in cafeterias or from supermarkets), it's a revelation.
Warning: step 1 is, essentially, "make caramel." This can become a black and useless mess easily, and there's nothing you can do but throw it out, wipe out the pan, and start over. But that's part of learning, and it's about timing, not anything hard to do - you just have to watch the sugar and move quickly when it looks like time.
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This is the recipe from the While Lily flour bag, and it's darn near bulletproof. Why would you bother with anything else?
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I am not a fan of whole wheat pancakes. Light, fluffy, regular white-flour pancakes are a special weekend treat, reminding me of my parents' love and the pleasures of youth. Whole wheat pancakes, dense and strangely nutty, are enforced moderation; a reminder of encroaching middle age and the fact that my cholesterol number is higher than my area code.
So now that you know where the bar is, these are actually pretty good for whole wheat pancakes. The flour I used does not have too much bran in it, so while not exactly "light and fluffy", the cakes were not dense. The nuttiness was on a par with whole wheat sandwich bread, which I eat all the time.
This recipe is exactly the same as Alton's regular buttermilk pancake recipe 2 pages earlier, so it seems that the issue is finding a flour I like. I still can't see myself choosing whole-wheat pancakes over white flour pancakes, but given I've still got over a pound of this flour to use, I probably will make these pancakes again.
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I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat = Cooking
By Alton Brown
Stewart, Tabori and Chang - 2002
Rice cooking is one of my great struggles - I seem to have either wet mushy stuff or a burnt layer at the bottom pretty frequently. But Alton's approach to pilaf is darn near bulletproof, including the facts that it's flavorful, and saves well in the fridge.
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A delicious dish of very slow-fried chicken (almost like a confit) with garlic, shallots, and herbs. One of those great recipes where a small amount of effort looks like a big production number. Save the oil for reuse, now that it's infused with chicken, garlic, and herbs!
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Any recipe which starts with "1 pound 12 ounce package frozen hash browns" looks like trash cuisine. But it's a fun take on breakfast casserole meets the morning after a big party.
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This is an excellent recipe for eggplant parmesan. The panko crust cooks up light and crunchy, a nice contrast to the meatiness of the eggplant slices. The sauce and cheese work nicely with the crust, but they don't overwhelm it in either taste or texture. It's also a perfect balance of work and time to quality.
A lot hangs on the quality of your tomato sauce here. Get the absolute best you can. I'll also suggest using a mandolin to get consistent eggplant slices, and the 12-inch skillet was definitely the way to go.
I do want to ding this recipe on one issue, though. Perhaps Alton thinks a "medium" eggplant is a lot smaller than I do, but I needed double the amount of panko and parmesan. (Which, of course, I only discovered when I ran out of breading and had half an eggplant left.) I also needed extra sauce for plating; the one cup called for only lasted me through assembly.
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Once again, Alton shows that a dish I usually make on the stovetop is actually better suited for the oven. The recipe takes more than 4 hours, but most of that is baking time which doesn't need supervision. The texture of the collards comes out terrific, and it's a very forgiving recipe.
So why only 3 stars? Because I prefer more vinegar and some heat in my collards. Of course, you can dress with hot sauce at the table. Also, because it takes 4 hours, and while the tradeoff of effort to dish is good, it also makes collards not a weeknight dish, which is a shame.
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Alton starts off by saying there are 300 ways to make a meatloaf, and this is just one of them. Well, it's a pretty nice base, heavy on the Worcestershire and ketchup. I added strips of bacon on top because my wife believes that's what makes it a meatloaf. (Probably just a typo that they were left out of the book.)
I baked it free-form, instead of in a loaf pan. I find this makes the loaf a lot less greasy, but I have to remember to cut 10-15 minutes off the cooking time. (My wife also suggests... wait for it... more bacon, as a heat shield. Reader, I married her.)
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Certainly tasty, but I'm not convinced it was worth the extra time and work. How close could I have gotten with a bottle of liquid smoke?
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Very nice take on applesauce. I made it to use up some overripe pears, and it worked just fine. It's also amazingly easy, and using the microwave means no worrying about whether the fruit's going to scorch.
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This is a fabulous technique, producing ribs which are ready to fall off the bone nicely perfumed with the spice and cooking liquid.
I say "cooking liquid" because I completely deviated from the recipe. (Tomato juice and lemon made delicious ribs, but I gave up on reducing it into a glaze and just used a bottled sauce.) I'd like to do some more experiments with different flavor profiles.
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