kaye16's Profile

Joined: December 21st, 2009

Pasta e Fagioli from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

An easy and delicious soup. I used lardons for the meat. We were thinking that chicken sausages would be good, saucisse de volaille or merguez de volaille, cut in quarters lenghtwise, then into little... read more >

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kaye16's Reviews

48 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 48Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century

By Amanda Hesser
W. W. Norton & Company - 2010

I made a half recipe with all the spices -- still pretty lightly spiced according to the way we like things.

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Looking for a quick cake, preferably chocolate, I found this. Easy to make. Was still moist on the third (and last) night.

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Very tasty, but ...
- I had what I thought were three smallish (Chiogga) beets, so made a half recipe. This was enough for four, so I expect the whole recipe would serve 6-8.
- My beets did not get done in the time indicated. I think it would be better to roast them than steam-bake them.
- Forgot to buy chervil so omitted that.

Will definitely make this again, roasting the beets instead.

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At least it was a 5 as I made it, an instant family favorite. I had two coquelets (little birds), totalling the required weight. I spatchcocked them for marinating and cooking, but ended up halving them to serve.
I cooked them under the grill, about 15 minutes per side.
They were extra yummy.

The accompanying Cilantro Sauce is also excellent, although there's way too much of it.

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A very good banana bread with a nice crispy crust.

- Mixed all in my cuisinart.
- Used butter instead of shortening.
- Used sucre de canne (a brown sugar), slightly more than 1/2 cup.

Really more-ish.

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I made a half-ish recipe with 8 chicken thighs. Easy and very good. Delicious sauce.

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I had only five little chops, so made a halfish recipe for two.
- The mint-yogurt sauce was a nice touch, but we thought it was too sweet even though I cut back the honey. Next time I'll skip that altogether, but maybe add a teeny bit of finely minced garlic.
- The eggplant slices were oiled, S&Ped, and had minced garlic pressed into the side that was down for the first bit of broiling. They were good and not as oily as they can be. A good way to cook them.
- The lamb chops were coated with coriander seeds, black pepper, and salt. Instead of crushing and grinding these, I whizzed them all in my spice grinder, stopping before it turned to powder. The chops are broiled, then rested while the eggplant cooked.
Very nice flavors, attractive presentation, a nice meal.

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Pretty tasty. Easy enough to make, but a bit time-consuming for a weeknight.

I made a half recipe. Two of us ate this as a generous main dish; maybe it would serve three. Four servings, as suggested, would be pretty skimpy unless you had a starter.

This isn't quite a vegetarian main, because of the chicken stock (unless you're Ken Hom who seems to think chicken stock is vegetarian), but you could use a vegetable stock, or even plain water, I expect.

I think this might make a nice side dish also.

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DH insists this is a 5.

For two, I had about 400g/14oz of tuna in two thickish pieces; that's a little more than half of what was asked. I chunked these, intending to skewer them, but DH, the bbq man, said he'd rather do the chunks, so that was what happened.

I mixed the herbed tuna chunks directly with the oil and S&P, rather than adding these after marinating.

I made more or less the whole salad and topping, with one avocado to share between the two of us. The corn in the vinaigrette was good-quality canned, rather than fresh which is difficult to find in France.

Altogether a very nice meal.

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A super tasting and super easy recipe. This was the first dish that Hesser's husband cooked for her. I realized that I had marked it in one of her earlier books, Cooking for Mr. Latte. (I also realized that I left lots of tagged pages in this book and haven't been back to cook from it.)

It's simple to make and present nicely.

I made half a recipe for two, i.e., one skinless, boneless chicken breast half per person.

Stir together some mayo, sour cream, chutney, curry powder, and lemon juice. Pour it over the chicken bits. Pop in in a hot over for 15min. Serve.

N.B.: There is another review of this recipe, but on another page (p481 instead of p480).

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Made a half recipe of this, to serve four (or two on two nights). I have an old recipe for a Blender Bavarian Chocolate Mousse which is almost the same (without the rum) and dates from about the same time, so I guess this was a popular kind of technique in the 60s.

Anyhow, it makes a nice dessert with minimal effort. Depending on the dishes you use, it can be quite dressy.

I thought I might prefer something like cognac or brandy for the liquor, rather than the rum.

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I made a half recipe of this; this should serve 3 but we thought it would serve four since it's rather rich. I reduced the sugar in the pudding by 1/3 and it was plenty sweet.

The coconut-rice pudding was quite good on its own (says the cook who did a bit more tasting than was strictly necessary).

The lime syrup business was nice, dressing up a plain dish, but not strictly necessary.

We decided not do the burnt sugar on top business. Seemed like gilding the lily, and would make it even sweeter.

And of course we sang a round of Nilsson's song after we ate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbgv8PkO9eo

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Yum! The only problem I have with this recipe is that it says it serves 2-4, so we split one for dinner. We could each have easily eaten a whole one, especially because it was so good!

Easy to make. I had the powdered sugar and lemon juice ready at the end, but used only about half of each. That was enough. It was perfect.

Got out maple syrup and jam and cream and the fruit I'd cut up for dessert. Used none of these for the pancake. It was just DEElicious as it was. Will definitely be making this again, maybe using another dish with similar surface area for the second skillet.

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Easy, easy, and tasty. Indeed it probably makes enough for 2 pounds of pasta as Hesser suggests. (Only two red bell peppers were one pound and made 4 cups coarsely chopped.) I expect it will be useful to have this bits of this sauce in the freezer for a last minute dinner, either as main or side.

I wonder if this sauce wouldn't make a good pizza topping also. (We have have a tomato allergy in-house, so alternative pizza toppings are interesting.)

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Yum! Made a half recipe. I really liked it; my husband who's not really a lemon fan, thought it was OK. It definitely needs a wider pasta like fettuccine or tagliatelle, rather than spaghetti. Very easy and fast.

My preserved lemon was homemade, but not from this book.

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This was pretty good, but doubt if I'd make it again. My half recipe still made an enormous amount of veggies. We didn't manage to eat them all. Easy to do, but lots of chop-chop.

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Very good. Interesting way to cook salmon, slow, rather than medium/fast as you might ordinarily. It's quite pretty with the mound of potatoes topped with the orange fish and drizzled with chive oil.

I made a half recipe for two. Serving size was fine.

Easy to make, although perhaps a bit long for a weeknight dinner. However none of the work is hard or time-consuming, so you could be doing other things.

I did not find the fish done after 10 minutes. I think it took two 5-minute overtimes till it seemed right. It never reached the 120F temp, but that could be my thermometers. I deemed it ready when the skin was ready to peel back and the fish flaking. The color stays more orange than you might be used to. The fish had a surprising, almost silky texture.

Very tasty.

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There were fresh sardines, gutted, at the shop today and I bought some on impulse, since it's something I've never had (that I know of), let alone cooked. I had only four sardines and served this as a sort of starter for the two of us. The sardines are full of very fine bones (however could you fillet such small things), but the cooked bones were not a problem in the eating.

This was quite a good way to do sardines. Fresh ones are much better than canned, less salty and not so overwhelmingly fishy. The marinade is quite good. They only took two minutes under the broiler, not two minutes on each side.

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Thanks to donnakay for the heads up on the incorrect salt amount. (And I am impressed that anyone would make this salad for a midnight snack!)

We liked it. It's easy and would make a nice starter, since it can be prepared a bit ahead and then just wait for serving.

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I've had my eye on High-Temperature Roast Leg of Lamb in Craig Claiborne's New New York Times Cookbook (fp209) for a long time, just never got around to doing it. Turns out the same recipe is in this book as High-Temperature Roast Lamb.

This is a really easy way to cook lamb. While your oven heats to 500F, stick your lamb leg full of garlic slivers and rub it with salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, and a broken bay leave. Pour slogs of olive oil and vermouth into the pan and pop into the hot oven for 15 minutes (for rosé), then turn off the oven and let it sit undisturbed for 3 hours. (Timings are given if you prefer your lamb more done.) Result: a beautiful, delicious leg of lamb with next to no effort.

My oven would only go to about 475F, so I left the leg an extra five minutes in the hot oven, trying to compensate for the missing heat. Three hours after that there was a perfect rosé lamb ready to eat.

The sauce remaining, once defatted, was minimal, so I wouldn't plan on having lots of gravy here.

The only minus point is that the meat is relatively cool after sitting in the oven for so long. If you like piping hot meat, this isn't the recipe for you.

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Interesting, but ...
- Hot pasta, cold tomato sauce --> lukewarm everything. The sauce is very tasty, but think it would be better to warm it a bit.
- There's an error (i.e., missing words) in my book; the sauce is prepared and then nothing happens to it. Found the recipe online and the second sentence of step 4 should be: Divide the pasta >>and sauce<< among 4 shallow bowls.
- The cooking time given (3min per side) does not give tuna steaks that are rare inside. Mine were almost 1" thick, but they were just barely pink inside. I will try 2min per side next time.
- I made a half recipe for two. It's lots of food. Tasty, but lots.
- I'd consider using this sauce on its own over tagliatelle (or any pasta) as a vegetarian dinner.

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I cut my potatoes too small and they were very crispy at the end. But tasty. Next time I'll either cut them bigger or cook them a shorter time.

I was worried about cooking garlic cloves so long, so stir them in about 2/3 of the way through. They were perfect.

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Very good, easy, and fast. I slipped into recipe-halving mode at one point, so only used half the cream and one egg. There was plenty of sauce (for 6 oz spaghetti), so I think I'd do the same making it again. I also didn't use the full complement of butter, maybe only 4 of 6 tablespoons listed. But it was very tasty, definitely a do-again.

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This was really good for a minimal amount of work. I served it as a starter. The leeks did not marinate ovenight, but they were still good.

Tying the split leeks together with a string was quite a nice trick. I had a long "tail" which made it easy to lift the whole bundle from the boiling water.

A very nice first course for a company meal. Or maybe on a picnic.

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Good, but a bit runny maybe. A smidge less milk might be better. Very tasty though.

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Very good lentil salad. Serves 4 probably. Would be a good vegetarian main for 2. Also a good potluck dish.

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Not as tasty as I expected for some reason.
- I didn't brine the meat, nevertheless the thighs were quite good, tender and tasty. They, and the whole recipe, needed salt, since there was no other source of it. (My chicken stock was homemade and I usually don't add salt.)
- I thought the onions had a sweet taste that didn't blend well. Maybe browning them a bit first would help?
- Without the brining, pretty easy to do, and done well within an hour.
- Think I would halve the olives next time, making an easier bite.
This must be pretty lowfat as written, since there's not added fat.

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Very late 50s/early 60s-ish, but still quite nice. I made a half recipe, using two 4" square dishes for individual servings.
- I halved the artichoke hearts, but would suggest chopping them very coarsely instead (maybe in cutting them in eighths would do).
- Although the regular worcestershire sauce was fine, next time I might try the "white" worcestershire sauce (the one that started out being called White Wine Worcestershire, but I think is now called Chicken Worcestershire -- sorry too far to go to look at the bottle).
- The sauce seemed a bit thick as I spooned it on, but it was fine, since the artichokes give up a bit of liquid.
- Might be nice to mix all together and serve it over toast, top with cheese, and run under the broiler (rather than baking in a casserole).

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Pretty so-so. I made a half recipe. My halibut did not have its skin, which I think only meant that it was tending to fall apart in moving from the broiler rack to the plate.

We thought this was OK but nothing I'd want to do again. But maybe my miso isn't the "mellow white" kind and wasn't the right flavor.

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Very good soup, easy to put together. The base is a simple thing with leeks, potatoes, and chicken stock (preferably homemade). This is brought out of the ordinary by the addition of the sorrel cream. Definitely a do-over.

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These were good, if tedious to make. For the fat, I used fat rendered for a duck breast I cooked recently.

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Quite good, this. The sauce was very tasty. I served this with a good dose of spaetzle for the sauce.

I used two hind quarters to make a half recipe as dinner for two. It's fairly easy to make, but takes a bit of clock time, so not a weeknight dinner.

Would be good for company, since there's a long, relatively unattended simmer, and I'm sure that a bit longer wouldn't hurt.

Hesser suggests boning the meat after it's cooked, to make it easier for guests. Actually, you'd then have quite a good pasta sauce, if you want to go to that trouble, served over fettuccine or tagliatelle.

We found it finger-lickin' good!

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Really yummy. I made a full recipe with six legs, 1.36kg, ~3lbs. Time-consuming, but easy to do. The serious work part can be done well ahead, so it would be a good company dish.
Two of us ate more or last half. I'd guess the servings could be 4-6, rather than 6.
I made some wide-ish tagliatelle, rather than pappardelle.

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We're not a family that's used to eating compotes or fruit sauces with our meals. (That's right, no applesauce with our ham.) But this was a nice complement for grilled salmon and was excellent with Rhubarb-Soy-Marinated Duck.

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Super dish. Easy to do. You can prepare the marinade early in the day, then pop the breasts in for a soak later.

I made the whole marinade amount for two very small duck breasts as dinner for two. (Actually they were billed as "entrecôtes de canard".) This was actually a bit too much, since you just want a dab of the sauce at the end.

Unsuprisingly, the smaller breasts needed a bit shorter cooking time.

The Rhubard-Ginger Compote was an excellent go-with.

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Very good stuff. It takes a bit of time, but nothing is difficult.
- I had about 1.25# meat, 5% ground beef and Hazan's Homemade Sausage, so adjusted quantities for this.
- No carrots in house; I added some dried celery leaves to the carrots and onions.
- Takes a bit of time, but there's nothing difficult here.

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Only so-so, nothing as special as Hesser promised in the intro.

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The result of this recipe was quite good, but there are problems with the recipe itself. I had about 300g of salmon, about 2/3 of what was required, and made about a half recipe. When all was mixed, the result was soup. I had to add a lot more fresh bread crumbs to to get to a consistency that would make patties. I suspect something is wrong with the mayonnaise measure (1 cups seems like an awful lot), so I would consider adding that by the tablespoonful at the end of mixing until a good consistency is reached. On the other hand, my husband thought the patties were perfect as they were, and thinks I should just add the extra bread (probably three times again what was asked, but I didn't really measure this). So ... which approach is right?

I put the patties on parchment paper, with no grease, oil, spray, etc. They didn't stick at all.

The sauce asks for "1 or 2 canned chipotle chiles, depending on the heat desired, seeded". For my half recipe I used 1 chili, not seeded. The sauce was not at all hot. I will increase this next time.

My extra-bread version made 7 main-course patties.

All in all very tasty, but frustrating that the recipe didn't work as advertised.

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Or 3.5? This was pretty on the table, but disappointing in the eating. Seemed like a good idea, the sweet of the peas should complement the sweet of the scallops. But it didn't work for either of us. Both parts were good individually (the scallops were yummy with the cornstarch coating), but not together.

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Very good, very fast, very pretty (and seasonal), with its red, green, and white look.

I made a half recipe, no basil in the shops, so I used parsley. And dried thyme, since I was too lazy to go outside for fresh.

Neither of us are big fans of bell pepper. We didn't find that the bell pepper here was overwhelming.

Served with orzo, but I think that spaghetti or linguine might be nice.

31jan21: Served this with polenta, a good alternative to pasta or potatoes.

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Another winner on this page! :-)

Tuna coated with black pepper and seared, served on a bed of spinach and cannellini beans, all topped with a little lime vinaigrette. Sounds a bit odd but was a really good combination.

There's a bit of prep, not a lot really. Cooking beans from scratch is recommended. But once all is ready, it comes together fairly quickly and easily, so would be a good company dish. Very attractive on the plate, even though I didn't slice the tuna as instructed.

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Good stuff, easy. A Bittman recipe.
- Used about 1/3 flat parsley, the rest curly parsley, because that's what I had.
- Used shallots instead of scallions, there being none of those in rural France.
- Used some lemony chicken stock left from a roast chicken.
Served with polenta, which liked the sauce.

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I tagged this recipe the first time through the book, and it was on my shortlist. After the recent positive reviews, it got moved to the top of the list.
So I'm joining the praise for this recipe. It's very good, very easy.
I made a half recipe with 4 kip filets (skinless, boneless chicken breasts halfs). Broiled, but would be good bbq-grilled I'm sure.

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We really liked this. I used two smallish (and thin) rumsteacks (no idea of the US equivalent), so didn't need to finish the cooking in the oven.

Having none of the swanky peppercorns, I used black peppercorns, long pepper (which I bought out of curiosity at some point), and pink peppercorns I bought for something or other. Put them in an old ziploc and mashed with a rolling pin.

I made half the sauce and there was lots. But it was good.

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A recommended go-with for Bademiya's Justly Famous Bombay Chile-and-Cilantro Chicken. Very nice and easy.

Ahead of time, you can prepare the green beans and chop the ginger and garlic. The final preparation then takes just minutes.

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This was really delicious. (Maybe everything with pomegranate molasses is delicious?) Quick and easy to make, although you don't have much spare time for fiddling with other courses. Definitely a do-me-again.

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A cake that lives up to its hoopla. Really easy to make. And to eat. Amazingly light textured. Used more or less the full amount of sugar, since it's the first sweet I've made from this book, and it was fine -- which is unusual for a U.S. cookbook. (For many US recipes I cut the sugar back up to 1/2 so it's not excruciatingly sweet.)

Definitely a make-me-again cake.

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Very simple. Very good.
I defrosted 2 cups of grated zucchini. As a side for two, probably 3 cups would have been better. Will definitely do this again.

Made this a second time and liked it again. It is probably a good idea not to overdo the vermouth. However, the vermouthed zucchini went really well with the chicken and blueberry sauce that it accompanied.

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