BethNH's Reviews
18 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 18Sort by: Title 
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The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook: 2,000 Recipes from 20 Years of America's Most Trusted Cooking Magazine
By Editors at Cook's Illustrated Magazine
Cook's Illustrated - 2011
Best Baked Potatoes : page 284
It seems silly to follow a "recipe" for baked potatoes. Nonetheless, I decided to take a look to see what CI had to say about the humble baked spud.
CI says to wash, dry, rub with vegetable oil and bake in a 350 oven for 75 minutes. Only then is one to poke holes in the potatoes to release the steam. I was worried that my potatoes would burst in the oven without poking them ahead of time.
Sure enough, one of five potatoes burst open during cooking. It made a mess in the oven. The other four potatoes were very good - fluffier and drier than most baked potatoes. Next time, I'd be sure to poke at least one hole in my potatoes before baking.
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Best French Onion Soup : page 75
Made during the Blizzard of 2015.
At the last minute we braved the grocery store lines before the blizzard hit to pick up the ingredients for this soup. Basically, onions, chicken broth, beef broth, some French bread and some Swiss cheese.
Despite what Serious Eats says, caramelizing onion in the oven in a Dutch oven worked wonderfully. Although it doesn't really cut down on time, it is certainly easier as you need to pay them almost no attention. Once I moved the onions from the oven to the stove they caramelized much quicker than the recipe suggested.
I omitted the the sherry because I didn't have any and I can't say we missed it. I also left out the thyme because I find the taste overwhelming. I also couldn't find Gruyere cheese at the store so we used Swiss. I didn't want to broil the soup in the bowls so I toasted the bread slices, toasted them again with the cheese on them, and then put them in the bowls and ladled the soup on top.
This was delicious and just what we needed on a snowy day.
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Chicken Tikka Masala : page 130
I've never cooked Indian food and I believe I've only ever eaten it once. For reasons known only to him, my youngest son decided he wanted me to cook something Indian.
Chicken Tikka Masala seemed like a good place to start as it's fairly simple and made with ingredients my boys already eat with just a few new spices. This recipe was very well laid out and easy to follow.
The end result wasn't very spicy but had a lot of flavor. Everyone liked the meal enough - my youngest said he "appreciated the effort". I'd have preferred it a bit hotter. My husband was the biggest fan.
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Cranberry Nut Bread : page 577
A delicious and very pretty quick bread that's just perfect for the holidays.
This quick bread is made in the typical fashion of adding the liquid ingredients to the dry ones. The liquid includes buttermilk and melted butter - mmm! In addition, chopped cranberries and nuts (I used walnuts but the recipe calls for pecans) are added last.
The bread is slightly sweet and slightly tart. The cranberries makes it quite festive looking.
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Cream Cheese Frosting : page 681
A nice tangy cream cheese frosting. Made with cream cheese, butter and just a bit of sour cream (and of course confectioners' sugar). It was smooth and spreadable with a very nice consistency.
This was a nice addition to the spice cake.
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Easy Chocolate Cake : page 672
While she was pregnant with me, my mother lived on chocolate mayonnaise cake that my grandmother baked. It was the only thing that settled her stomach.
This is not my grandmother's recipe as is evidenced by the addition of bittersweet chocolate that is melted by hot coffee before being added to the batter. Nonetheless, this is a simple cake that comes together with basic ingredients and just two bowls. It uses mayonnaise in place of oil or butter but still uses one egg.
The cake was chocolatey and moist and was just the right thing after graduation.
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Fish and Chips : page 440
Perfect fish and chips!
Okay, to be honest, I didn't actually make the chips because I didn't have the time and I didn't want to spend that much time frying.
I did, however, follow the recipe for the fried fish and it came out beautifully. This is a beer battered fish that is first dredged in a flour, spices and cornstarch mixture, then in the beer batter, and finally in the flour mixture again.
The two secret ingredients - cornstarch and baking powder - contributed to a very crunchy exterior on the fish. The triple coating stayed on the fish nicely while the inside was nice and moist.
Delicious!!
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Foolproof Double-Crust Pie Dough : page 708
My pie crust making abilities are temperamental at best. I was happy with one recipe I was using but the last two times it's been more like cardboard.
This recipe is super easy. The addition of vodka for part of the moisture prevents gluten from forming. The dough is weird - like play dough - and very sticky. For best results, roll out between two sheets of well floured waxed paper.
This is the tenderest, flakiest crust I've ever made and it will be my go to recipe from now on.
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Fried Rice with Shrimp, Ham, and Shitakes : page 153
Homerun!
This fried rice can serve as a complete meal. I used the rest of the Easter ham and some small shrimp but left out the shitakes as my middle son does not care for mushrooms.
I prepared the rice in the morning and left it in the fridge to cool. Once all the ingredients were gathered and chopped, the whole meal came together in just minutes. The directions were spot on and the rice came out perfectly without that greasy feeling that fried rice often has.
Neither of my boys care for cooked eggs or peas and they devoured this rice and gave it high praise.
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Glazed Spiral-Sliced Ham : page 425
Spiral hams don't seem to need much of a recipe as they are already cooked and really only need to be warmed. That being said, I always end up with a dried out ham that is only partially warm.
Following the method outlined in this recipe, which involved soaking the ham prior to baking and using an oven bag, I was left with a wonderfully moist ham that was warm all the way through. I'm not very fond of ham but this was truly delicious. I'll never cook a spiral ham any other way.
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Grilled Sausages with Onions : page 506
This is one of our favorite family recipes from Cooks Illustrated Magazine. I'm pretty happy that it's been included in this compendium so I don't have to find the correct magazine every time I want to make it.
We loved grilled sausages but always have a hard time grilling them as they either burn or remain raw in the middle. This method has the sausages cook in a disposable pan on a bed of onions. After this, the sausages are moved to the grill to brown while the onions remain in the pan until the liquid evaporates.
In the end, you get nicely cooked sausages and well flavored onions. It's a perfect summer time dinner.
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Indoor Chicken Fajitas : page 466
Chicken breast are marinated in a mixture of lime juice, oil, cilantro, garlic and worcestershire sauce before being cooked on top of the stove. The onions and peppers are fried separately with some of the marinade added for flavor.
This wasn't our favorite fajita recipe. The chicken really didn't have much flavor from the marinade and cooking the chicken breasts whole meant that it was difficult to keep the outside from over cooking before the interior was cooked.
We have had better fajitas which involved a dry rub and cooking the chicken after it had been sliced. These fajitas were fine but I wouldn't bother cooking them again.
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Quick and Easy Cream Biscuits : page 560
These have to be the easiest biscuits ever.
Remembering that I had some heavy cream in the fridge that needed to be used up, I did a quick search for cream biscuits. The dough comes together in about 2 minutes - including gathering ingredients and measuring flour. Basically, the cream is added to the dry ingredients. This is mixed and then kneaded for 30 seconds before patting out the dough to be cut.
20 minutes total time gave us delicious, surprisingly flaky biscuits for dinner.
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Scalloped Potatoes : page 290
Excellent! Sliced potatoes are simmered on the stove top with onions, spices, chicken stock and cream until the potatoes are fork tender. Only then are the potatoes put in a gratin dish, covered with cheese and put in the oven.
I made this in my small Dutch oven which meant it was a one pot dish. Cooking on the stove top sped up the process and ensured the potatoes were cooked through and tender before putting them in the oven to get brown and bubbly. This makes for a much quicker side dish.
These were loved by one and all.
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Simple Broiled Asparagus : page 243
Simple broiled asparagus. Young, tender asparagus are tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and then put under the broiler for about 8 minutes. They were perfectly cooked in the amount of time the other dishes needed to rest.
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Slow-Roasted Beef : page 389
It's easy to make an expensive roast taste delicious. It's much more difficult to take a cheap roast and cook it so that it's moist and tender.
Eye of Round roasts are always marked down at my supermarket. I've never known quite how to cook them so they don't turn into leather. This method has you salt the roast for 24 hours prior to cooking (actual time was more like 19 hours). The roast is then cooked in a very low oven and finally finished in the oven with the residual heat after the oven is turned off.
At the end of the appointed time, I had a wonderfully cooked roast that was pink, juicy and tender.
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Spice Cake : page 683
I've only ever had spice cake from a box so I found this recipe tempting when I found it.
This is a simple cake baked in a 9x13 pan. The spices for the cake were bloomed in browned butter before being added to the batter. In addition to the dried spices, there was a tablespoon of fresh ginger and some molasses added.
The top of the cake browned more than I thought was good and I was a bit worried. I needn't have worried a bit as the cake was quite moist with a very nice crumb. The spices were quite noticeable but not overwhelming.
The cake was frosted with a cream cheese frosting. Some of the spice mixture was supposed to be added to the frosting and I'm quite sure it would have been delicious but I forgot to add it.
Overall, a very good cake that was quite easy to make.
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Strawberry Shortcakes : page 742
A neighbor dropped off a beautiful basket of strawberries that she picked this morning so I decided to make strawberry shortcake.
This recipe has all three necessary parts of this quintessential summer dessert.
1. Strawberries - after being cut up, a portion is mashed while the rest are left sliced. They macerated on the counter while the rest of the dish came together.
2. Whipped Cream - I had some shelf stable cream from Trader Joe's. I put it in the freezer to cool it before whipping it. Sadly, I left it in there too long and it froze. I was able to thaw it AND keep it cool at the same time and it whipped up fine.
3. Biscuits - These biscuits are made with baking powder, half and half, and an egg. Eggs are an unusual addition to biscuits but they came together easily - even in the heat of a summer kitchen - and rose beautifully in the oven. The tops are nice and brown due to being brushed with cream and sprinkled with sugar. These are seriously the best dessert biscuits I have ever had. They are a bit sweet and a little crisp on the top but nice and flaky in the middle.
This recipe required many dishes but came together easily and relatively quickly.
Delicious!!
And, because my ridiculous boys don't like berries they ate the biscuits with whipped cream in the middle and homemade hot chocolate sauce on the top.
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