aj12754's Reviews
10 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 10Sort by: Title 
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Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients
By Ina Garten
Clarkson Potter - 2008
Bagels w/Smoked Salmon and Whitefish Salad : page 238
I will preface this review by saying that I grew up in a "white bread, meat and potatoes" environment. And I am not big on the flavor of smoked food. Which means that I probably never would have made this dish. But my daughter was going through my cookbooks one week-end morning and picked this recipe to make. So off we went to the grocery store, picked up the smoked salmon and smoked whitefish it called for, and headed home. And we all loved it. I liked the flavor of the whitefish so much that I am looking for other things to do with it.
One little warning -- be judicious with the addition of salt.
useful (1)
Baked Sweet Potato Fries : page 180
It's barely a recipe but -- as usual -- the Contessa is spot on with her flavor combos and this is a very nice, easy and pretty healthy side dish for a weeknight.
useful (2)
Easy Sole Meuniere : page 131
I agree with other reviewers -- I thought the recipe could do with both less butter and less lemon. On the positive side, the flavors are simple and delicious and it will be easy to find a balance that works to our personal taste. And it really is about 10 minutes from prep to serving. And the frozen fillets I used only took about 20-25 minutes to thaw in tepid water.
I had been wanting to try this recipe for a while, but sole fillets don't seem to be available very often -- or at all usually -- at my grocery store. So I was pleased to find some individually frozen and packaged wild caught sole fillets from The Great American Seafood Company at my local A&P recently. I have to say that the quality of these fillets was very high and I hope that the store will begin keeping these on hand regularly.
useful (2)
Italian Wedding Soup : page 72
I debated reviewing this recipe because I made enough changes that it might be considered too different from the original recipe. But the variation produced such a wonderful soup that I decided to go ahead. I made half a batch of this soup (it easily divided), used parsley instead of dill (my husband hates dill) and Swiss chard instead of spinach (the chard was gorgeous when I went shopping yesterday). I also used a different meatball recipe simply because I had some leftover meatball mix (Gourmet, January 2009) from the last time I made spaghetti and meatballs.
I chopped up about a half cup of the chard stems and sauteed them with the carrot/onion/celery the recipe calls for and it added a really nice subtle sweet flavor to the base veggies. The chard leaves are added in the last few minutes of cooking. BC calls for adding spinach at the last minute but the chard greens take a bit longer than that to soften up.
Finished off with grated Parmesan, this soup basically defines Italian comfort food.
useful (2)
Mache with Warm Brie and Apples : page 98
This was strangely disappointing. The mache with an aged balsamic was fine but the warm brie was disappointing (maybe not a very good brie?) although the drizzled honey was nice. The pistachios didn't add much in my opinion. Served with a red pear rather than the recommended Granny Smith apple (the latter would have been better).
On a more positive note -- really pretty presentation.
useful (0)
Mustard-roasted Fish : page 136
This has to be the easiest main dish ever. Ina uses red snapper but I only had tilapia in the house the night I decided to try this and it was delicious. Served with steamed haricots verts as Ina suggests and it's a nice match-up.
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Parker's Beef Stew : page 124
This recipe makes a huge amount of stew as it starts with 2.5 pounds of beef. And browning all that beef is a not insignificant effort so I was kind of hoping this would completely wow me ... which it did not. On the other hand ... still really tasty thanks to the addition of sun-dried tomatoes (not sure about these but a really nice savory addition I think) and tangy Worcestershire sauce. And plenty of freshly ground pepper. Should be even better day two.
Two modifications -- I didn't have a can of beef broth on hand (and not driving on icy roads to get some) so I just replaced it with about two cups of water. And I skipped the addition of peas since neither my husband nor I care for them.
Ina says to remove 1 cup of liquid from the stew and whisk with 2 T. of flour and then return the thickened liquid to the stew pot. This did not result is as smooth a sauce as I would have liked and I think next time, I will mix flour with warm water and slowly add to stew pot and see if that works better for me.
useful (1)
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad : page 88
Really tasty fall/winter salad. The addition of the dried cranberries to the roasting squash is a great idea. The warm cider vinaigrette is just wonderful. Had enough left over to use it (unwarmed) the following night on a salad with arugula, apples and cheddar shavings, and it was just as delicious with that combo.
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Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese : page 96
A lovely fall salad, wonderful what roasting adds to the classic pear and blue cheese pairing.
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Tomato and Goat Cheese Tarts : page 92
This tart is just perfect when you have a friend over for lunch. It calls for two sheets of store-bought puff pastry to make four servings. I made two servings from one sheet and -- had I needed a third -- I could have made one from the leftover pastry after I cut out the first two 6 in. circles.
You do need a little lead time -- the onions are sauteed over low heat for about 30 minutes before putting them on the pastry, topping with cheese and tomato (I used thinly sliced grape tomatoes since that is what I had) and baking for 20-25 minutes. Next time (and I will make this again), I'll probably brush the pastry with a beaten egg to get a more golden (rather than brown) final product.
Served with a side salad of mixed lettuce, orange sections, candied pecans and a pomegranate-orange vinaigrette.
useful (2)