goodfoodhunter's Reviews
8 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 8Sort by: Title 
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High Flavor, Low Labor: Reinventing Weeknight Cooking
By J.M. Hirsch
Ballantine Books - 2010
Beautiful green sauce!
We both liked this dish. I have a cold and was looking for something with strong flavors to breakthrough the cold medicine and stuffy nose. This was a great recipe for that.
As promised, easy to make. I used jarred garlic to save time and substituted some fancy zinfandel vinegar which is still red wine vinegar but in a special bottle. Also, I used fingerling potatoes. To me, those are the same as new potatoes, thin-skinned and waxy.
The only thing keeping this from five stars was the one-note dimension, sort of, of the recipe. There are great flavors here- the warm cumin and oregano counter the bright grassy cilantro and parsley but its all the same flavor on the plate- for the chicken, potatoes and asparagus.
Its dark and overcast here in Michigan so I didn't take a great picture. The chimichurri really is a beautiful green color.
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This has been the only really disappointing recipe we've made from this book so far. The spinach lets out water which then made the mustard drippy. We may not have made the best choice in mustard variety (I could open a store with the number of different kinds we have here.
I like the concept so I may try doing this again with a tomato-based sauce, maybe a sun-dried tomato pesto and mixed Italian cheeses version.
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Four-Mushroom Penne with Goat Cheese : page 172
This was very good but I feel like it needed something a little more, maybe textural? I think serving this as a side dish along side something more crunchy would also be good.
To make this a one-dish meal and meet the needs of my meat-loving husband, I sauteed some chicken, cubed, then cooked the mushrooms and combined the mixture with the pasta and the rest of the ingredients as listed.
I did not have to add the cornstarch slurry because the sauce with just the cheeses and a little pasta water was more than enough. That may have been due to use of chicken and the amount of water cooked from the mushrooms.
For the mushrooms, one of our grocery stores sells pre-packaged 'gourmet' mushroom mixes. I bought two of those- mostly porcini and crimini with a little oyster thrown in. If the season was right, I would have used morels.
To serve, I topped with fresh parsley and some crunchy fried onions I had in the cupboard.
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Garlic-Lime Steak with Avocado Salsa : page 74
The hits keep on coming for us in this cookbook. As in top of the chart hits.
Tonight, we had this steak and salsa with leftover horseradish mashed potatoes (also in this book, reviewed).
First, super-quick to put together. I think the longer you can leave the steak in the marinade, the better it will be. I only marinated this for 15-20 minutes because we are having storms and I was slightly concerned we'd lose power. Thunderstorms in November- you never know what could happen.
Second, this is a pretty affordable dinner that looks fancier than it is. Flank steak is not an expensive cut and as long as avocados stay under two dollars a piece....
The mashed potatoes were a great companion to the sweet and tangy salsa and steak.
My husband's comment was "add this to our master cookbook". I'm supposed to be maintaining a master cookbook?
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This recipe received 4 stars as a compromise. My husband really liked them, I thought they were above average. On my own, I would have rated the recipe 3 stars.
I don't know if it was the potatoes I used or what but following the recipe exactly resulted in a porridge-like consistency. They did firm up after a bit of time in the pot but still pretty soft.
I would probably add extra horseradish, maybe another tablespoon. And be sure to add salt to bring out the flavors.
We had these with the sloppy joes, also from this cook book.
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Easy, relatively low labor and delicious.
I did not peel the potatoes to save time and I don't think it mattered one bit. This was very good and looked gorgeous coming out of the oven. I really wish I had better lighting!
This one will definitely show up on our dinner table again. AND, I am setting some aside right now for tomorrow's breakfast. This dish would be great at a brunch too.
The manchego cheese is pretty mild but melts beautifully. I would try this recipe again with a mix of manchego and something a little stronger (but still buttery-nutty)- maybe a artisan cheese that I otherwise wouldn't buy in large quantities.
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Sloppy Joes : page 196
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop- surely there is one recipe in this book which we won't like.
Not yet!
We used ground turkey because I am not a fan of ground beef. Also, I used chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (1 pepper, a tablespoon of sauce) in lieu of the jalapenos.
To serve, I topped the meat mixture with some sliced red onion and fresh cilantro.
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I marked this recipe during my initial peruse through the book since we eat a lot of asparagus. Tonight, though, we were trying to use up stuff in the fridge and that included a bag of green beans.
I decided that green beans would work just as well as asparagus. And I do believe I was right! The beans did need to cook a bit longer so I put those in first for about 2 minutes then added the shredded carrots.
I used a little more red pepper flake than the recipe called for and thus the salad had some definite heat but it was a good counter to the turkey salad we are also using up from the holiday weekend.
Note: I cut the recipe in half since its just my husband and I. I made the full dressing amount though and just used about half on the beans and carrots, saving the rest for a fresh batch in a day or two.
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