aj12754's Reviews
15 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 15Sort by: Title 
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Website: The Food Network
My new favorite show on the Food Network is French Food at Home -- Laura Calder makes classic French dishes -- and she makes it look easy.
These cakes -- which I served as a main course but which the website categorizes as an appetizer -- were pretty easy to to. It was my first experience using salt cod and -- based on my experience with it here -- I'll be buying more and trying other dishes. The three rating is really based on the fact that I am not overly fond on anything fried, but there is enough of the brandade mix left that I am going to try baking some of these small patties for lunch tomorrow. Kind of like an upscale fish stick.
Also, my pepper/tomato mix was caramelized in a little less than two hours at 300 rather than the three hours the recipe mentions. If I do this again, I will reduce the oven temp to 275 since some of the peppers and garlic burnt and made the mix a little bitter.
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I'm in a phase of cooking for someone who canont eat much in the way of solid food -- so it's been mostly soups and pastas the last week. This sauce, over cheese tortellini, was just fine although, to be honest, when it comes to the combo of brown butter and sage, I really don't need any lemon juice in the mix. Even though the recipe only called for the juice of half a lemon, I still though it was a bit too much.
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Another Google dinner ... I enter whatever is in the fridge that I want to use up into the Google search engine and see what pops up. Tonight I had bacon and mushrooms that I wanted finish up ...
And this Emeril Lagasse recipe from the Food Network popped up. I made no changes other than dropping the pastry crust to turn it from a quiche to a frittata.
I make a lot of frittatas because I like "breakfast for dinner" and this one is a little different -- more eggy (5 large), less creamy (1/2 cup).
Simple to make, smells great while cooking, good flavors. Although next time I will pour off even a bit more of the bacon fat before caramelizing the onions.
Took about 35 minutes to make.
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There could not be a simpler version of this classic soup. Comes together quickly and it's perfect to serve someone you love who is suffering through a bad cold and needs some comfort food followed by a nap.
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I rated this very good although my version was really only good to fair. With really good ricotta and marinara this is probably a very successful recipe. I was using up the last of some supermarket ricotta, toscana rather than parmesan cheese, and an 8 oz. can of tomato sauce instead of marinara, so my results with this recipe are about what I would have expected.
On the other hand ... I think that the recipe would be tastier and healthier (with an easier clean-up) with roasted or grilled eggplant, rather than fried.
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Nice mix of toppings -- caramelized onion, garlic, kalamata olives, rosemary, parmesan and sea salt. Easy to make and very tasty although the texture of the foccacia after it was baked seemed a bit closer to a deep dish pizza dough than a foccacia. Still -- we managed to have more than one piece.
2/20 -- it is now several days later and this focaccia has held up beautifully -- as delicious as the day it was made.
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This is a wonderful Tyler Florence mashed potato recipe and easy to modify to your taste. The recipe calls for Yukon Golds but works just as well with russets. It also calls for a boatload of whole milk and half and half but it's worth it. The potatoes are gently boiled in milk to which smashed garlic cloves (don't be shy about adding one or two more if you are a garlic fan), fresh thyme and a bay leaf have been added. When potatoes are done, you simply drain and reserve the warm milk/cream, add butter, salt and pepper and enough of the reserved liquid to obtain the texture you want. I have never added the mustard because my family likes the traditional approach when it comes to mashed potatoes. But I suspect it's no less delicious.
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Some of the reviewers at the FN site don't like this sauce because of the inclusion of 3 T. of chopped fresh thyme in the recipe. I love thyme and I loved this sauce, not finding the thyme overpowering at all.
I used this sauce in making Spaghetti and Meatballs from the January 2009 issue of Gourmet. I liked it enough that I will be looking for other uses (pizza sauce maybe or in a baked pasta dish). Next time I will also put the tomatoes through the food mill as I'd like to try it with a smoother texture. I found the flavors in this sauce surprisingly subtle...in a good way. Guess I always think of Batali as a very robust flavor kind of guy.
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This recipe is a perfect example of why I am so happy to have found cookbooker. I know I never would have googled kale in search of a salad (or any other kind of) recipe. I made this after reading southerncooker's review. I was intrigued enough that I had to try it. And I have to say -- this was very good.
I followed the technique for massaging the kale but used sections of two honey tangerines instead of the mango since that is what I had on hand -- and then made a vinaigrette with tangerine juice, a little champagne vinegar, some honey mustard, and EVOO. I would have added some toasted slivered almonds but didn't have any, so I tossed in some toasted sunflowers seeds and they added a nice bit of crunch.
I loved the bitter/sweet contrast, the color contrast of the dark green and orange, and the texture of the kale. I will definitely make it again, using the mango and pumpkin seeds the recipe calls for.
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I changed this one up more than a little bit, but the basic flavor profile here is delicious and it is a perfect seasonal salad.
This is a Robin Miller recipe and she uses just the orange and fennel and some dried cranberries with a red wine vinaigrette. I shaved my fennel really thinly and tossed with mesclun. Then I added the orange wedges and a different vinaigrette -- used a 1-3 ratio of champagne vinegar to grapeseed oil, added about a tablespoon of fresh orange juice, a tsp. or so of orange blossom honey and about the same about of dijon mustard. Then some salt and pepper and that's it. I forgot to add the dried cranberries but I'm sure they would be delicious.
It turned out to be a very light and fresh-tasting winter salad.
Since I shaved my fennel, it was probably less crunchy than Miller's version, so next time I may add some toasted slivered almonds for crunch.
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In spite of a day marinating in the spice paste, the pork was underwhelming and the romesco a bit overpowering.
In fact, I preferred dipping toasted bread into the romesco, so I'll be keeping it around for snacking purposes.
This was the first romesco I've made and probably the first I've eaten, so I will try a couple of other recipes to get a better feel and basis for evaluating this sauce.
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I often fall in love with eggplant at the grocery store -- and then get it home and dither about what to make with it. This recipe turned out to be quite a nice way to enjoy the bounty of the season, although I ended up using the "spread" as a pasta sauce for penne.
Very simple to make -- one inch pieces of eggplant, red pepper and red onion (I had to use a yellow onion since that's what I had on hand), two cloves of garlic minced, all tossed with 3 T. EVOO and salt and pepper then roasted in a 400 degree oven for 40-45 minutes. Dump it all in a food processor with a tablespoon of tomato paste, process and season to taste.
In order to make it work a bit better with my penne, I added a bit more EVOO and some pasta water when saucing the pasta. Finished with some feta and basil and it was good enough that we were both very glad I'd made enough for small second helpings.
If I do this again -- and I probably will -- I will roast fresh tomatoes along with the eggplant and other veggies and skip the tomato paste.
The recipe is also available in the Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook.
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If every healthy dish tasted like this one, I'd eat healthy every night. The grapefruit-shallot-ginger -basil sauce is just delicious over the roasted salmon ... and it can be made start-to-finish in just about the same amount of time as it takes to bake the fish (about 16-18 minutes).
The recipe serves four -- I was cooking for two but made the full recipe of sauce and was glad I did.
Served over white rice with a side of roasted Brussels sprouts drizzled with EVOO and a sprinkle of lemon juice.
Served with a NZ Sauvignon Blanc that was a little too tart and competed with the sauce ... an oaky or buttery chardonnay (J. Lohr maybe) would probably have worked better.
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Spanish flavors (sherry vinaigrette) on a salad composed of potatoes, string beans, garlic, olives, scallions, and fresh oregano (I used marjoram because that's what I had and it's close enough).
I tasted this just after it was pulled together and had mixed feelings -- but Annie is right -- this is a salad (like most potato salads) that just needs some time to assert itself.
Served as the side dish to Annie's Spanish style pork kebabs with romesco sauce. Appetizer is some Campo Montalban cheese, a few Marcona almonds and some olives.
Recipe is a little confusing in that she has you chop two garlic cloves and toss them into the water in which the potatoes are boiled. And then later you are apparently supposed to fish the garlic out of the water and toss it in the salad. If the recipe called for smashed garlic, I might have fished it out, chopped it up and tossed it in (that's what I'll do next time I make this) -- but I was not going to mess around with trying to get chopped garlic out of a pot of hot water. I just chopped up a couple more cloves.
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There may be no finer use for the mini food processor than the making of fresh herb mayonnaises in the summer. It only takes maybe extra five minutes to throw a garlic clove, some basil, one cup of mayo, 1 T. of EVOO, 1 t. of lemon juice and salt and pepper into the mini-chopper and push the on button. But the result is totally worth it. Really elevates the classic BLT or -- the sandwich I made it for --a turkey, tomato, arugula and avocado sandwich.
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