hipcook's Reviews
260 recipes reviewed. Showing 251 to 260Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
By Shirley O. Corriher
Scribner - 2008
Shirley does it again! The texture on this gingerbread cake is about as perfect as I can imagine - moist and springy, chewy without being tough. It's dead easy and quick to make. Spice-wise, it is indeed "serious stuff" - my 5-year-old finds it "funny tasting." I was using blackstrap molasses and I'm glad I ran a little short; I think that flavor might have gotten excessive for my taste.
I'm tempted to play with sauce or icing options on this one, but the right play might be to stay simple and go with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
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Website: America's Test Kitchen
Terrific meatballs. I'll definitely be using the technique of mixing panade with meat in the food processor, not by hand. These seemed to pay off my labor better than other meatball recipes I've tried. (The recipe also makes enough meatballs that I can get 2 or 3 meals out of it.)
The sauce is fine, but forgettable. I'll probably just open a jar in future. That may be a comment on the quality of my supermarket crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce.
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Website: America's Test Kitchen
Certainly the most Instagram-worthy chicken I've ever made; this was a pretty dish. And darn easy to boot.
Instead of tenting the bird, I just put the lid on my cast iron; I think that was a bad choice because the skin, while well browned, wasn't particularly crisp.
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Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen
By Alton Brown
Stewart, Tabori & Chang - 2008
Tater tots, bacon, blue cheese, cream of mushroom soup and meat. It seems ridiculous, but everyone I've served it to enjoyed it. And what's not to like? We usually substitute ground turkey for ground beef, and up the thyme and garlic a bit.
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A pretty good take on the classic. Warm, smooth, and refined. I found it needed salt; that probably depends on how much is already in the stock you use.
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Website: All Recipes
Why have I not seen these before? They should be a staple of appetizer menus! Well, it says they're an appetizer, but we put them on sub rolls with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and remoulade for a vegetarian po' boy sandwich. (The brine of the artichokes, and their texture, is somewhat reminiscent of a fried oyster.)
I used panko bread crumbs, which didn't stick as well as I'd like - next time, either a finer crumb or I'll look into the battered recipes. I also only used enough oil to come about half-way up an artichoke heart. The timing stayed consistent, it was just 2-3 minutes per side.
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Website: All Recipes
Chef John's blog and video point out that you really should use russets on this recipe, and sure enough, I think Yukon Golds were too waxy to get a good crust. That said, it's a really neat approach - potato cylinders are fried on one side to make a crust, and then braised in stock to complete cooking and add flavor. (I also suspect that the second side should get a longer fry than I gave it - but that's the side that's going to be in the braising liquid so I don't know if it matters.) It's more effort than just baking up some home fries, but I'm interested enough to try it again.
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Website: All Recipes
Terrific technique which I'm looking forward to trying with chicken and pork. I even overcooked the steaks to try and get enough color on the crumb coating, but the pounding out (and the coating) saved them from being rubbery. I did apply a second coating of crumbs, just massaged in by hand, to return some texture after pounding in the first layer.
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Website: About.com: Thai Food
Very nice satay marinade. I was making this for a child's birthday party, so I used approximately 7 tablespoons of brown sugar to balance the mild heat (the recipe calls for 5-6, which would have been fine for the adults). It was a big hit.
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Website: 101 Cookbooks
An excellent soup. The ginger and sweet potato add a subtle depth without overwhelming the character of the greens.
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