wester's Reviews
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The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant
By Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2002
Sometimes you are making something and you're quite certain you will like it, and still the end result totally blows you away. This is one of those cases. The spices and lemon zest give a really spicy and fragrant (but not overly hot) result, and they go really well with the tuna.
As I am not "burdened or blessed" with leftover fresh tuna, I used canned. It was still very lovely.
If I have any criticism, it's that I don't really feel the pine nuts add much to the recipe. They could be left out without diminishing the dish.
useful (2)
This recipe is a bit elaborate, but it did have everyone asking for more. It's not difficult though, she really takes you by the hand, she tells you when to taste, and what to pay attention to.
Do read the recipe carefully before you start, even when you have made it before. I didn't and I thought I was close to finishing off the salad when I still had to cook the scallions and put the bread in the oven. And there are other small details that are easy to miss if you don't read carefully.
In the book the salad is given together with the roast chicken for two reasons. Good reasons, but not so essential that you can't make this without the chicken. One, you need to put the bread in a hot oven for a few minutes and it's good to use the cooling-off heat for that. Two, you are supposed to put a bit of the pan juices of the chicken in the salad, which makes it even more delicious.
I have also tried this with flat-leaf parsley instead of the greens suggested, and it's very good like that as well. This is a well-balanced recipe though and I wouldn't want to change too much.
useful (4)
This does not have the surprise value anymore that it must have had when this book first came out, but it is still a very good dish with bold flavors.
Not too complicated to make. The main difficulty is not burning the vegetables while not being afraid to let them caramelize nicely. The slicing technique given is nice as well.
useful (3)
A really good mashed potato recipe. Buttery, light, tangy. The mash does not really taste of buttermilk in the end, that just adds a lightly acidic note.
I melted the butter in the same pan I used for heating the milk. As the amounts are small, that doesn't take much time, and I think dirtying three pans for mashed potatoes alone is a bit much.
useful (1)
It's great to see that something as basic as potatoes baked with rosemary can still be improved with a few small changes. This produced lovely baked potatoes with a crunchy-crumbly crust and a nice rosemary aroma.
The oven time given was much too short. I increased it by about 10 minutes, next time I might double it.
useful (2)
I don't roast whole chickens that often, but this one was excellent. It was really succulent and very flavorful. It wasn't that difficult to make either, if you take the time to read the recipe, and don't forget to salt the chicken one or two days before roasting it. I made the bread salad with it as well (with flat-leaf parsley), and a tomato salad. The bread salad was finished way before the tomatoes.
I did have a problem with fitting the bread salad and the chicken in the oven at the same time: you might want to check the size of your baking dishes.
useful (1)
Simple and nice. The wilting takes only a very short time - don't try to do anything else at the same time.
I thought the amount given was much too small - I easily ate two portions and I wouldn't have minded more, and escaroles are usually not too small either.
useful (2)
The kind of recipe that's simple not because it started simple, but because everything superfluous has been weeded out. Just egg yolk, garlic, salt and oil. I found it a bit sharp, but I think I should have added a bit more oil.
I did find it difficult to pound the garlic finely enough in the mortar, next time I will chop it finer before starting to pound.
I did like the extra bit of advice on what to do when you've added too much oil, even though I did not need it this time. It's always good to know that kind of thing.
useful (2)
This was quite good, crunchy and flavorful. It reminded me of good bacon and eggs, but of course it's vegetarian.
I used Panko crumbs, no herbs. My eggs were sunny side up. My husband and children did not like the balsamic vinegar on it, but I did. I will make this again.
useful (1)
Good winter fare. Sweet, starchy and rich. The children (4 years old) loved it too.
I made it with frozen peas and diced bacon. I think my sprig of sage was too small - next time I'll use a bigger one.
I served it with Buttermilk mashed potatoes from the same cookbook, which was good. I'm sure they would be great with pasta as well - the cookbook itself suggests gnocchi, which sounds great.
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I noticed this recipe and I was intrigued by it. And I happened to have all ingredients on hand (except the mascarpone, which I replaced with whipping cream).
It was good, with a clear but not overwhelming citrus flavor. It looks pretty too, with those flecks of pink grapefruit.
The preparation technique was easy with the lime but trickier with the (thicker-skinned) grapefruit. Still, the preparation of the whole thing was not difficult. You do need to stay around while it cooks, though.
I served this with a lamb stir-fry but I am sure it would be really excellent with white fish and/or the suggested shrimp.
useful (1)
Together with Barbara Kafka's high-temperature roasting this made an amazing turkey - succulent meat, brown crispy skin, and very tasty throughout.
If you can find enough room in the fridge (or another sufficienly cool but not quite freezing place) for a week, and if you can start a week before roasting, you must try this with your next turkey.
We used a baby turkey (6 pounds) and brined it for 4 days.
The amount of brine given in the recipe is not enough to brine even such a small turkey, we needed three times that amount. Better to see it as a ratio.
useful (1)
This was an interesting combination of bitter and sweet, of soft and crunchy, and we all enjoyed it.
I used walnuts as well, and Sharon fruit, which I understand to be basically the same as Fuyu persimmons. If I have endive and / or persimmons again, I will make this again.
useful (1)
The ricotta in the sauce was brilliant, it made a smooth creamy sauce, but not as heavy as it would have been with cream. The amount of salt in the pasta was much smaller than I usual use, but it worked out fine. However, I was not very happy with the addition of peas. They were not bad, they just didn't add much, so I thought they just distracted from the brilliance of the rest of the sauce.
In short, I will make this again, but without the peas.
useful (2)
This was good but not as special as some of the other recipes in this book. It turned out quite sweet, to the point that my four-year-olds loved it. Maybe I should have taken an even dryer wine. I added quite a big splash of Pernod, but it blended in nicely enough.
It did need longer in the oven and a higher temperature than mentioned in the recipe.
useful (0)
This was really easy and made a lovely applesauce, not too sweet and with a hint of caramel. It's also quite forgiving of things like keeping the apples in the oven a bit longer. If I make it again this way, it will be because it's easy, not because it's brilliant. My kids thought it was OK, but they preferred the zucchini pickles.
useful (0)
Day-glo indeed! This makes a very pretty pickle, bright yellow with bright green. Almost a shame to keep it in the fridge - a cool place where it can be seen would be better. It is also very easy to make. And it tastes good, although it could have been a bit less sweet. My children loved it, probably partly because of the color.
useful (1)
Yes, you can call the process of dunking these onions in brine for a few seconds and taking them out a again tedious, or you can call it meditative. I think it's quite doable to spend a few minutes on doing a batch, and then do other things while they cool down, and come back when you have a few more minutes to spare. And the kids loved helping separate the onion rings: when they are a bit older they can help dunking as well.
I did not quite know what to do with the whole spices during this process. They come out with the onions - do I put them back in the brine again? (I did.) Or is it supposed to have infused with the spices enough earlier? (I'll see, sometime.)
The end result is good, very pink, quite sweet, which is enhanced by the spice mix, and still with a bit of crunch.
useful (3)
As with the other pickles, these were good and easy to make, and I really like how the differences in spices and method are geared to the vegetable being pickled. The end result is quite soft, but as the skin is still on, not overly so. It is also quite sweet, but the it does still taste of green peppers. They are not as pretty as some of the others pickles either - green wrinkly flaps. I can see this combined with any kind of meat (probably great on a hamburger), or with cheese. A good way to use up green peppers if you have a glut of them.
useful (0)
I thought this was good, but not as brilliant as some other dishes in this cookbook.
I agree with aj12754 on most points:
It definitely needs much more coriander - doubling it is not enough - and it needs to be toasted for longer.
It is very pretty even when you don't follow the plating instructions, with its contrast of dark red and bright green.
I was fine with the oil/vinegar ratio of the vinaigrette.
I made some scrambled eggs with herbs to go with this, some nice bread, and called it a nice summery main course.
useful (2)
This is a lovely chicken salad, although I wouldn't roast a bird expressly for it.
A nice combination of different colors, flavors and textures.
I used about 3/4 arugula and 1/4 parsley as greens. I think next time I want to put in more parsley, or try something else. Celery could be nice in here.
I do think it makes a difference whether you use red peppers, which added a nice sweet note, or green ones. I might use both colors next time, to add even more different flavors.
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I found this disappointing. It was quite good, but not much more than that - a sunny Mediterranean soup/stew.
The recipe didn't tell what to do with the clove of garlic to be used if not using the aïoli. I rubbed it against the bread, which was exactly what the dish needed, so it probably was the thing I was meant to do.
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A good, tasty, robust soup, but not as brilliant as I had hoped. Still, it is nice to find an onion soup without cheese.
I did use the duck fat.
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Simple, vegetarian, cheap, and tasty. Just not as brilliant as some other recipes from this book.
useful (1)
You Say Tomato
By Joanne Weir
Broadway - 1998
I thought the crust on the trout was too thick and did not really taste of almond, which I would have liked.
The salad was quite nice, but I thought the taste was a bit too strong to go with the subtle trout-almond combination.
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The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Vegetable
By Marlena Spieler, Chuck Williams
Free Press - 2002
A classic recipe. Also works well with other greens or lettuce.
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Wild, Wild East: Recipes and Stories from Vietnam
By Bobby Chinn, Jason Lowe
Barron's Educational Series - 2008
This is a very interesting idea and I might work with it some more, adding much more ginger and much more egg. But as it was, nobody here liked it at all - a strong taste of fish sauce with nothing strong enough to balance it.
Also, I disliked that he talks in the recipe about using high quality fish sauce, while nowhere in the book he says anything about how to tell if your fish sauce is high or low quality, not even an "I use this brand and it works for me".
useful (1)
What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes
By Deborah Madison, Patrick McFarlin
Gibbs Smith - 2009
Very simple, very tasty, very good.
The simple rustic taste of the most basic Italian pastas, and you still get your veggies as well.
And literally made while the pasta boils.
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Very simple to make, lovely fresh and complex taste.
Those handfuls do add up, so be careful you don't make too much of this salad. And don't even think of making it with those tiny supermarket packets of herbs - you need to grow your own herbs or have a greengrocer that sells his herbs in big bunches.
I prefer cutting the herbs with scissors to tearing them.
useful (1)
Website: The Wednesday Chef
www.thewednesdaychef.com/the_wednesday_chef
This has to be my very favorite recipe of last year. It is very quick, very easy, and tastes totally amazing: light, subtly spicy and fragrant. It has an Asian feel to it, but very subtle. It's probably pretty healthy as well!
All ingredients of this have an amazing synergy. Make enough basmati rice and resist the tempation to do anything more fancy.
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Website: A Veggie Venture
kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com
Lemon on lemon doesn't sound very exciting, but this salad is (as the website said as well) more than the sum of its parts.
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The Vegetarian Bistro: 250 Authentic French Regional Recipes
By Marlena Spieler
Chronicle Books - 1997
A pretty simple salad but it does pack a punch.
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A very nice soup, simple and tasty. The children loved it too.
The recipe did say to first cook the vegetables "until tender", and then to add stock and then boil for a further 15 minutes "until tender", so the first one was probably a mistake. The times given were fine to make them tender after the further boiling.
Tweaks: used no flour, cream instead of milk, and chicken stock.
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Very nice. Subtly different from other celery salads by a hint of cumin.
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A nice combination of flavors and textures.
I used only parsley and a pinch of dried thyme, and I'm not sure that adding more herbs would improve the recipe, as there are plenty of flavors already.
Don't use too much garlic, it gets overpowering easily.
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Nice, but too spicy for the children due to the mustard.
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Vegetables (Good Cook)
By Richard Olney
Time Life UK - 1979
The spices were very nice. I'm not sure about the technique, I think that with a bit of tweaking it could be simpler, tastier, or both. I would also have liked more sauce.
The page number is of my Dutch version. Feel free to change it if you know the right one.
useful (1)
Very simple, excellent taste. It does need a big casserole - I halved the recipe and I already needed a pretty big one.
Substituted whipping cream for milk + flour. Do salt enough - there is not really enough anchovies to make any difference in saltiness.
The page number is of my Dutch version. Feel free to change it if you know the right one.
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Veelzijdige eiergerechten
By Wina Born
Zomer & Keuning BV - 1991
Recipe in Dutch.
Eggs in spicy brine. Great for a quick snack, or for unexpected guests.
It is great to have a recipe for these, but it could still use some tweaking. Next time I will boil the eggs only 6 mins, as they were a bit dry. And I will also put in slightly more vinegar, make it half/half vinegar/water.
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Recipe in Dutch
If you have the ingredients for bacon and eggs, and you know how to separate an egg, you can make this one instead, where the egg whites are made into a luxurious fluffy omelet with the whole egg whites almost hidden inside. A really good lunch or light dinner.
I think whipping cream would be better than sour cream, and leaving out the cream altogether is a possibility as well.
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Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. Recipe in Dutch.
A classic, and with good reason. A great lunch or light supper. Nigel Slater gives a slightly more elaborate description of how to scramble the eggs, but you can probably do without.
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Chinese tea eggs. In Dutch.
A recipe that can be found in many other places, but this one works fine. The eggs are beautiful and taste very good.
Do take care not to crack the eggs themselves when you crack the shells. It is probably easier to keep the eggs whole when cooking them a bit longer, but you run the risk of making them too dry that way.
I prefer using a bit more five-spice powder than the pinch she says, about a teaspoon.
I suppose it should be possible to do more than one batch of eggs with the same tea.
useful (1)
I didn't care for this at all - it was very salty and didn't taste of much else. Also, the instructions didn't work well, the egg stayed liquid in the middle.
However, I did like the structure of the end product, which was a bit like bread pudding. So I definitely will experiment with different flavors.
useful (1)
Recipe in Dutch.
I liked the basic idea of this, but I thought the eggplant had too much bite even after tripling the cooking time, and the spices were too sharp and a bit "thin". Won't repeat this.
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Valentina's 4 Seasons Cookbook
By Valentina Harris
Cassell Illustrated - 2000
Simple and good. I did find it difficult to brown the meat with all those leeks in the pan though.
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While tasty, this was not as refreshing as some other herb salads I've tried. I'm not sure the egg is needed in here either.
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Excellent. The anchovy butter is robust but not too overpowering.
I cut the white fish into small pieces and mixed it with the anchovy butter, and served the mixture with squid ink pasta. Very tasty, and it looked good too.
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Tyler Florence Fresh
By Tyler Florence
Clarkson Potter - 2012
I used this as inspiration rather than following it to the letter.
I fried the eggplant like I usually do and added the vadouvan halfway and the sesame oil in the end. I halved the amount of vadouvan and sesame oil, and this was plenty. A nice change from other ways to flavor eggplant.
I used the vegetables I had: cucumber, celery and cauliflower. I did not use the bath of yogurt given in the recipe, two or three tablespoons was enough. This made a nice fresh summery salad.
There was not much synergy between the two components. Maybe this would have been better if I had used some of the sweeter vegetables in the recipe, the carrot and/or the squash.
Two good recipes that I will make again, but not necessarily together.
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TV Dinners: In Search of Exciting Home Cooking
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Boxtree Ltd - 1996
Very lemony - more like a savory lemon curd than a mayonnaise. Which is not a bad thing. The saffron wasn't very noticeable, but maybe I just used too little. Always a tricky thing with saffron - you never know how much a pinch is, and any other way of measuring will probably give you too much of it.
Next time slightly less lemon zest, more saffron.
useful (1)
Turn it Up! 50 Fiery Recepies
By Janet Hazen
Chronicle Books - 1995
This was a lovely and very gingery salad. Nice contrast of textures as well.
The recipes uses ginger both to boil the chicken with and to add to the salad dressing. I found boiling it with ginger didn't change the taste of the chicken that much. Maybe if you would have it on its own, but not in this salad with so much more ginger in the dressing. The ginger in the dressing seemed a bit much, so I started with two thirds, tasted it, and decided to add the last third as well, to give a good strong (but not overly hot) ginger taste.
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