southerncooker's Profile

From: Boomer, NC USA

Joined: January 3rd, 2010

About me: I collect cookbooks and love to cook and try new recipes. I tested recipes for Leite's Culinaria for almost eight years. I learned to cook from many good southern cooks including my Mom, Dad, several Aunts and my Grandmothers. My children and husband also like to cook and try new foods and recipes. My son still lives with us but our daughter is married. She often visits to cook with me. We are adventuresome eaters willing to try new things.

Bourbon Roasted Pork Loin from Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook

This was delicious. I know she says in the book not to use the good bourbon but all I had was Woodford Reserve so that's what I used. I marinated for about 8 hours in fridge. Loved the apples and onions... read more >

recipe reviews (2277)
book reviews (117)
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southerncooker's Reviews

28 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 28Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse

By Mimi Thorisson
Clarkson Potter - 2014

The Apple Tart with Orange Flour Water was very good despite the fact I made a few switches. Since I can’t find orange flour water in our little neck of the woods, I decided to do what I did the last time I made one of Mimi’s recipes that called for it and substituted orange liqueur. The only thing was my orange liqueur was blue (Blue curaçao) and it turned the cooked apples green.

My daughter commented that it looked like a science experiment gone bad but it didn’t affect the taste. I also forgot to get some raw brown sugar so I just used regular brown sugar.

You do need to plan ahead when making this tart as the dough needs to rest in the fridge at least one hour or overnight, which is what I did. While the dough was easy to make it wanted to crumble a bit when I tried rolling it out so I ended up having to press some of it into the tart pan and then smooth out a bit.

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Since we were in a nearby town that has a Trader Joes recently, I looked for some fresh artichokes to make this dish. Since they didn’t have any and I didn’t have any luck any where else I went, I opted for the artichoke hearts in a can. A couple of the employees there recommended them highly. While there I picked up some Comte cheese as well for the souffle.

Once I had my Mise en place and got the bechamel made and cooled it went quickly. I loved how nice they looked straight out of the oven, puffed high and golden brown. The canned Trader Joe artichoke hearts made it take less time, since I didn’t have to cook my artichokes and remove the choke part. Not sure if I sacrificed any taste by going that route, but I thought they tasted amazing.

I decided to make a half recipe and baked them in my 8 once Le Creuset mini cocottes. I ended up with three. Hubby and son wouldn’t touch them so I ended up eating two for my supper. They were delicious.

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Made these for mine and daughters lunch. I still haven't been able to find fresh artichokes so I used some canned artichokes hearts from Trader Joes. I also used store bought puff pastry. Delicious!

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I had trouble finding Comte cheese but upon doing some research I found that Gruyere is a good substitute so I got that. The recipe calls for a double recipe of the tart dough from page 79. The dough didn't seem to want to come together at first and was a bit crumbly. After refrigerating for the called for time I got it to roll out to the desired size for my pie dish. I opted not to make the decorations for the top.

My daughter fell in love with this pie and I though it was fantastic as well. Son didn't care for it as he's not a big fan of cooked onions. I liked Mimi's tip to use a chop stick to poke a vent hole in the center of the pie, as it worked perfectly.

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Of course I was unable to find Black Pig but got a really nice looking pork loin. Instead of wrapping it in pork belly I used the alternate of bacon. I was a bit sceptical that it would be done in an hour and 15 minutes at 275, but I shouldn't have been. I used one of my largest cast iron skillets for my roasting pan.

I almost over cooked mine waiting on my family to return home from visiting hubby's brother in the nursing home. It ended up staying in the oven for about an hour and a half. The juices kept it from being dry though.

The garlic mashed potatoes went perfectly with the pork and I put a roasted clove of garlic from the pork on each serving of mashed potatoes. I also cooked some green beans and carrots to go with this and everything went together nicely. A delicious almost fall Sunday supper.

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My daughter and I halved this and ate the whole thing for our supper. It was delicious. I did end up using Swiss cheese since my store didn’t have Comte Cheese. Also my stores chives looked awful, so I used some green onion blades instead. My squash took longer than the time said to get softened before adding to the gratin dish, no problem though since it all turned out great. I will definitely be making this one again. It’s the perfect fall dish.

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This was amazing. I couldn't find orange flower water and after searching on line found that orange liqueur was a good subsitute. Since I had some blue orange liqueur on hand I used that. Also vanilla beans are so out of my budget at the moment I used pure vanilla extract instead. I did opt to leave in the pits as suggested by Mimi.

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Daughter, a co-worker and I loved this one. It reminded us of a chocolate truffle which daughter and I love. I opted not to go for all the bells and whistles by not making the Vanilla Mascarpone Cream nor the Salted Carmamel and just serve it plain. Maybe next time I’ll go all the way and add all the toppings. We loved the crust as well which was the recipe from pag 207 and had almond flour and all-purpose in it. The almond taste went great with the chocolate.

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This crust with the almond flour and all-purpose, lots of butter an an egg when so good with the the chocolate tart filling from page 205. I didn't have almond flour so I took a hint and ground up almonds really fine. This recipe makes two crusts so I used the other one to make a pumpkin pie for son since he doesn't like chocolate.

With the only liquid being the softened butter and an egg it took some time to get it to come together in a ball but it was worth the effort.

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It’s been a long time since I’ve tried making cream puffs, so I was delightfully surprised how easy this was and how great they turned out. The time for the baking was a bit off for my oven though since when I checked with 10 minutes left on the timer mine were golden brown.

I did decide to only make a half recipe since it says they are best eaten on the day they are made. I knew we’d never eat 30 of these little gems, even as delicious as they turned out. I ended up with a bakers dozen (thirteen). I was a little over zealous with my filling, so I ended up with two without filling, which worked out great since son-in-law didn’t want any cream filling.

Being the stingy, thrifty person that I’m trying to be because our vacation is coming up soon, I decided to not purchase a vanilla bean and used pure vanilla extract instead. I found no need to make an insert before inserting the tip on the pastry bag, since it went in nicely with a gently nudge. I will definitely be making these again and maybe even trying out some different fillings as well.

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What fun it was to make this cake. I had hoped to find some red bud blossoms to add to my cake but couldn’t find any trees close enough to me that wasn’t hard to get to. It’s been quiet cold her lately, with some freezing temps so flowers were a little harder to find than they should be. I ended up getting dogwood, Rose of Sharon, Peach, Dandelion, and Violets, which I forgot to use. I did remove the flowers and leaves before we ate the cake, even though I know most of the flowers were edible. I added more berries once the flowers were gone. I used blackberries and raspberries for my berries.

My daughter assisted me in forming the meringues into circles on the Silpat I used instead of parchment paper. Once baked and cooled the meringues were a bit hard to remove from the Silpat to the wire rack to finish cooling while I made the whipped cream. I had a little crack-age, but was able to hide most of that with the whipped cream. The cake was quiet tasty as well as pleasing to

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Made this one for daughter and my lunch. I made a half recipe. We loved it. Was surprised we liked it as much as we did since it had a turnip in it and neither of us are big fans of cooked turnips. Loved the tomato, garlic, olive oil garnish on top.

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I had to make a few substitutions. Couldn’t find either Armagnac nor Langoustines so I used shrimp and brandy. Mimi suggests head on shrimp if you can’t get langoustines, but those weren’t available to me either. I made these one night when it was just hubby and I. We had it with corn on the cob and hush puppies (loved by hubby). The cooking liquid would have been great with some crusty bread which I forgot to purchase, but it was also good to just drink, which I did.

I prepared my shrimp in a cast iron skillet and instead of switching to a baking dish just put that into the oven. We loved the flavor the white wine and brandy, with a few other ingredients gave to the shrimp. I couldn’t get my brandy to flame, but it was delicious anyway.

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This was so good, even hubby enjoyed but kept calling it a dessert. I used vadalia onions. My store was out of fresh thyme so I used dried. Still delicious.

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I had trouble finding skin on, bone out, chicken breasts so I just deboned my own. Not sure we have Jura wine here but I did have the other choice of dry sherry for the pan sauce so I used that. Not many ingredients to this recipe, but it still was flavorful and delicious. I did crank up my oven a bit more that the recipe stated to finish cooking my chicken, since I knew it'd never be done in 8 minutes at 325. My breasts were a bit on the thicker side and after browning in the pan, I cooked them for about 15 minutes to get them completely done. They were still tender and tasty. I served mine with cooked baby carrots and a microwave baked potato, a lovely spring supper.

I'm cooking my way through this book with an on line cooking group. If you'd like to join us info at the following link:
http://weekendsinafrenchkitchen.com/guidelines-faqs/

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I had trouble finding Comte cheese but upon doing some research I found that Gruyere is a good substitute so I got that. The recipe calls for a double recipe of the tart dough from page 79.

My daughter fell in love with this pie and I though it was fantastic as well. Son didn't care for it as he's not a big fan of cooked onions. I liked Mimi's tip to use a chop stick to poke a vent hole in the center of the pie, as it worked perfectly.

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I only put caramelized onions on half of this dish since son, and son-in-law don't enjoy cooked onions. Daughter and I loved the ones with the onions on top and son and son-in-law loved the others. Hubby didn't eat any. These potatoes are cooked three times but worth it. Boiled, sliced, fried in butter then topped with the onions and baked in the oven.

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While daughter and I enjoyed this very much at first we weren't sure we liked it. We kept compairing it to one from Crescent Drangonwagon that we adore. Once we stirred in the topping of sour cream, walnuts and chives and dipped our rolls into the soup we decided it was delicious. I had to make a few subs with the parsnips (store didn't have any so I used carrots), sour cream instead of cream fraiche and purple onion instead of shallots. I'd give it another go sometime with the parsnips to see if that made a difference.

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Daughter, son-in-law and I loved this chicken. I did use sour cream instead of creme fraiche. I served it with some broccoli and the Potatoes al a lyonnaise from page 192.

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My used to raise guineas and we enjoyed eating them and their eggs. I no longer have a source for them so I substituted a chicken. I also used the option of EVOO instead of Duck Fat since that was a choice. Simple but delicious. I headed the note at the bottom of the recipe and surrounded my chicken with quartered potatoes drizzled with olive oil to roast with the chicken. Also delicious.

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This was the perfect weekend to make this wonderful soup since it was a rainy Autumn one here in NC. My daughter and I loved this soup but hubby, son, and son-in-law wouldn’t touch it. Their loss.

My grocery was out of leeks so I just used the onions. Three onions seemed a bit much so I did two large and instead of just slicing them like the author suggests I cut mine in half before slicing to have more manageable pieces in the soup. I used small shells instead of small elbows since they’re just more fun, don’t you think? I used Roma tomatoes and didn’t seed the ones for the soup but did for the Pistou. I peeled them for both by immersing them in boiling water for a few minutes then into cold. After that the peels slipped off very easily. I loved using my mortar and pestle to make the Pistou.

Be aware that this recipe makes a huge quantity. Daughter and I had huge bowls and we still had about three quarts leftover to divide between us. I took a hint from one of the other food bloggers and stirred the leftover pistou into the leftover soup before putting in storage containers for daughter and I. We both plan on taking some for our work lunches this week along with some extra Parmesan for sprinkling on the reheated soup.

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I made a double recipe of this tart dough for the Potato Pie with Comte Cheese from page 231. The dough didn't seem to want to come together at first and was a bit crumbly. After refrigerating for the called for time I got it to roll out to the desired size for my pie dish. This was a nice tart dough.

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This was a fun project. I've always wanted to try making these after seeing them on some show on TV. I only did half the amount of eggs but the full amount of tea mix so I'd have enough to cover the eggs. I didn't really get a nice marbling. I peeled three of the eggs on the day I made them. Then steeped the other three over night in the fridge and then reheated as suggested in the book to see if it made a difference. They were a bit more detailed but not much and I didn't taste any difference either. The inside of the peels sure looked good though. The first picture is of day one, next is after soaking over night and the third is the inside of the shells.

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I found some wonderful heirloom tomatoes at our local Friday night Farmers Market. I used some chocolate cherry, yellow cherry, a beautiful yellow tomato and a Cherokee Purple for my salad. Loved the simple dressing of flat leaf parsley, Dijon, shallots and Olive oil. This salad made a great accompaniment to the fish and potato dish from Cafe Boulud Cookbook.

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I really enjoyed this tart. It's a bit different than tomato pies and tarts I've made before. It uses grainy mustard, basil oil, and tomato paste on the dough before adding the tomatoes, a little more EVOO and a drizzle of honey. After it's baked the mozzarella and basil and put on. Son said he didn't care for the honey on it but I though it was a nice touch. To me this was just as good the next day cold for my lunch.

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I didn't make this one for the week it was due in my online cooking group that is cooking through this book and the Cafe Boulud Cookbook since I was sure I'd be able to get tuna belly in one of seafood markets on the Outer Banks. I didn't have any luck so ended up getting a fresh tuna steak and making it with that. This was delicious on black pepper and olive oil Triscuits and also with Muenster Cheese on a sesame seed bun as a tuna melt.

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I had to get a little creative with this one. Daughter and I don't care for eggplant but I was going to try it anyway but store didn't have any. I used some extra zucchini and added yellow squash instead of the eggplant. Didn't know my garlic had gone bad until I started the dish so I brushed the pan with olive oil and sprinkled on some garlic powder. Also added more garlic powder where the sliced garlic was called for. I only made a half recipe so I used an 8x8 pan instead of an 8x12. I got flat leaf parsley just for this recipe and then forgot to put some on when I removed from oven. Daughter and I still enjoyed this dish.

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I had a half pound of frozen puff pastry in my freezer so I decided to only make half of the pastry shells to hold the recipe, since it would only be son and I eating them anyway. I knew hubby wouldn't touch this as he doesn't like chicken. I did make a whole recipe of the chicken, but only half for the sauce and mushrooms since at first I'd only planned to do a half recipe. I used a wild mix of mushrooms I found at my local grocery store. It would have been nice with the whole amount of mushrooms though. I used Brandy instead of the liqueur called for since I read that it was a good substitute and that's what I had on hand.

I also omitted some of the spices since I'm not a fan of cloves in savoury dishes. I did use the nutmeg though. Also I used sour cream instead of Crème fraîche. I ended up having to use dried thyme since somehow between the grocery store and home I managed to loose a package of fresh thyme. I really loved this dish, but son said he didn't care for it and I was really surprised at that. The chicken was super tender and I loved the flavors.

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