Queezle_Sister's Reviews
28 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 28Sort by: Title 
| Date | Rating
Website: Cooking
This is a fantastic cake! Be warned that it will rise a fair bit (or at least it did at my mile-high elevation). I split out a bit of batter for an additional pan, and am glad I did so.
I used the entire 2 tsp of freshly ground cardamom, and the flavor was great - not at all overpowering. The almond aroma during baking is powerful enough to bring teenage children out from behind closed doors, and earn their appreciation.
I prepared this for my 17 1/2 year old daughter's half birthday. We skipped the pistachio because we didn't have any - but some additional decoration would have been nice.
I should also note that this cake is EASY. If you keep ground almonds on hand, the most difficult part is opening the cardamom pods and grinding them.
useful (0)
This recipe actually worked, and the tortillas were delicious.
In the past, I tried pressing tortillas using masa that had already been made (could purchase in the refrigerated section of the hispanic market). However, I could never get the tortilla to release from the plastic that you use to line the press.
This time I changed two things - I used a bag of masa harina and prepared it according to this recipe, and instead of plastic to line the press, I used parchment paper. I am pretty sure the parchment made all the difference in pressing, but the resulting tortillas were delicious.
My only quibble with the recipe is that it states that its enough for a taco party. That is true if your party is only for three people! The three of us had no problem demolishing the tortillas, which we used to prepare Smitten Kitchen's charred corn tacos, which I previously reviewed here. It was a delicious summer dinner.
useful (0)
This recipe will produce a lovely meal in around 30 minutes! Cooked soba noodles are tossed with a pesto-like mix of pine nuts, lemon zest, lemon juice (both replaced with lime) and garlic. This is served alongside fish, oven roasted with olive oil and cumin seeds.
I appreciated that you didn't have to grind the cumin, but instead toasted the seeds and then sauéed with the oil. We substituted salmon for the char, and the oil topping did make the fish super moist. However, I didn't think cumin tasted right with the salmon.
The soba, on the other hand, was easy and delightful.
Next time, I will use an alternative spice for the salmon, and keep the soba exactly the same.
useful (0)
Surprisingly good and takes minimal effort. An onion, sauteed in olive oil, has barley added, then herbs and water. The recipe does not have the incessant stirring of typical risotto recipes. While the barley cooks (takes about 35 min), you crisp up some mushrooms and cook (or cut up previously cooked) turkey. At the end you mix it all together along with some parsley. This looked nice, smelled good, and made a satisfying main.
useful (0)
This was easy to prepare, and the mint sauce was delicious. One of the mint sauce ingredients is Dijon Mustard, and I used a very pungent one. Next time I will use a more mild mustard, and cut less of the membrane off the serrano pepper.
I followed instructions from the Kitchn for cooking chicken breasts so that they were not dry. It worked perfectly, and the spice mixture made the chicken breast look much more appetizing.
This is a rather elegant dish!
useful (0)
This was not as good as I had hoped. It was a bit too salty, and the flavor of the corn was lost. Of course that could have been the cook's fault ;)
useful (0)
This recipe does not work at my altitude. This recipe has a lot of butter, chocolate, eggs, and a bit of flour. Ours rose and fell, and then were a greasy chocolate mess. Too bad.
useful (0)
These tasty morsels are the love-child of a peppermint patty and a chocolate shortbread. They are not terribly difficult to make, but it does require time.
First up is a chocolate shortcake. I read the comments on the NYT, and learned that they should bake 5 minutes less than the recipe - so only for 20 minutes. My shortcake was delicious, and not over-cooked.
Next up was a peppermint patty filling. This was a bit troublesome for me. The ingredients (powdered sugar, peppermint extract, butter, and heavy cream) were supposed to come together to form a "smooth paste". Following the recipe, I ended up with something significantly thicker than toothpaste. I added about 1T extra heavy cream, maybe a bit more than that. And it was still quite stiff. Nevertheless, I went with it, pressed it onto the (cooled) shortcake, and refrigerated an hour.
The final step is to temper some chocolate and put it on the tops and sides (it seals the peppermint filling in place, as well as tastes delicious). The recipe calls for 9 oz of chocolate. I used 6 oz, and I cut my cookies much smaller (100 cookies from the 9x9 pan). I had plenty, and still some chocolate left over.
The downside of making tiny cookie-candies is that putting the chocolate on top required a lot of work. Close to 2 hours. But these are impressive little items.
useful (1)
Though I am not a fan of mashed potatoes, my daughter (now 17) is a big fan. I used this recipe to surprise her - the recipe is basic, and the comments include some important reminders - such as after you boil your potatoes, keep the pan on the heat for a little while to drive off the excess moisture. I also should add that use of a ricer is a quick route to fluffy mashers.
useful (0)
Super easy to prepare, this cake had a light texture, a tight crumb, and good flavor. It is prepared in the food processor - first to grind walnuts with sugar (wow - super yummy), then butter added, then flour mixture. Finally coffee (instant) + milk added. Baking was quick - 25 minutes - and though my toothpick came out clean, the cake fell slightly in the middle - so you might consider giving it a couple extra minutes in the oven.
The frosting is also made in the food processor - with just butter, powdered sugar, and coffee.
Both the cake and the frosting would have benefit from some salt, and the frosting was not enough to properly cover the cake. That said, grinding the walnuts with the sugar gave a lovely flavor to this cake.
I prepared this for my daughter's half birthday. She was out with friends, and was delighted to come home to half a birthday cake. I cut the recipe in half, baked a single circular cake, sliced it in half, and layered it.
useful (1)
A wholesome and filling salad - with one of my favorite ingredients, beets. I substituted barley for the farro, and for the fresh herbs, used parsley, mint, and tarragon. The salad flavor was complex - the fresh herbs really added a great note. A bit of crunch from walnuts, some salt from feta - really quite spectacular. Would award it 4.5 if I could.
useful (0)
An excellent cake that showcases fresh figs!
This recipe comes together quickly - I started with raw almonds, grinding them in my food processor. Very few additions to get the cake batter: 1/4C sugar, 1/4C flour, baking powder and salt - plus some eggs and butter. The halved figs are set on top of the cake, and as a final flourish, you sprinkle sugar over the top.
The cake came out beautifully - a browned top and lovely texture.
At first I thought 12 fresh figs was overkill, but it is actually perfect. Nearly every bite has some fig, and the almond-fig combination is fabulous.
By the way - although not gluten free, with only 1/4C of flour, I would think it would be an easy recipe to convert.
useful (1)
I had high hopes for finding kumquats in southern California last week (for a traditional marmalade), and was initially disappointed to only come home with five Meyer lemons. Then I found this recipe, which calls for exactly five meyer lemons. I was wondering if I had time to both shop for grapefruit and prepare the marmalade when there was a knock on the door, and a box of grapefruit - lovely pink grapefruit - arrived! Fate!
Here, you first peel the grapefruit and slice slivers of the skin. This wasn't too bad, I probably completed the task in only 20 minutes. Then you supreme the grapefruit (5 lbs), and save the interior membranes. The lemons are a bit trickier - you cut the ends off, and then you cut sections of lemon - skin on. I had some difficulty guessing where to cut to get on the correct side of the membrane, but it worked out. The sections are then cut into 1/4 inch pieces.
Then the usual ensues - the peel & sections of grapefruit are cooked with the lemon sections, along with water and more lemon juice. The membranes are put into a jelly bag (I made one with a piece of an old lace curtain) and cooked along with the rest. After about 30 minutes, you remove the jelly bag membranes, and squeeze it to extract pectin. This was not easy for me, as the bag was very hot - it worked to push the bag against the side of a bowl, and pour out the pectin mixture. This then goes into the marmalade, along with sugar, and more cooking.
I think altitude gave me a bit of a problem. The instructions say to cook for 25 - 30 minutes to a temperature between 225 and 250. After 35 minutes, my temperature was holding steady at 205. I cooked at this temperature another 15 minutes, and then just proceeded with the instructions (into jars, etc).
Initially the marmalade was really bitter. I like bitter, but it seemed too bitter. I learned from Cook's Illustrated that you can reduce the bitter taste with salt, so I added 1/4 tsp salt, and that did it!
In the end, the marmalade didn't set up as much as I would have liked. It did set up some, though, and it was fine on an english muffin. Maybe I should have cooked it longer, but it is still delicious.
useful (0)
A very nice sandwich! My DH saw this recipe in the newspaper and actually prepared it! We deviated only slightly by warming the baguette before filling the sandwiches. The parsley/olive/olive oil/anchovy spread was amazing. My DH cut down on the olive oil, but I found the sandwich to be a tad dry. Perhaps going full tilt on the olive oil, and adding some additional moisture, would elevate it to the full five stars.
This sandwich also reminded me of how nice it is to include hard boiled eggs on a sandwich!
useful (0)
My potatoes came out cooked, somewhat crisped on the outside, and the sprinkle of rosemary made it a bit better than usual.
useful (0)
This is a simple dough, though with at least twice the ingredients as tortillas or pizza dough. Its a yeast dough that also includes eggs and some yogurt.
The instructions were a bit confusing. I was to broil them on a pizza stone, and wait until the bottom was brown. For me, the top burned before the bottom was browned, but perhaps I didn't warm the pizza stone up enough. Nevertheless, it was easy enough to cook till the top was browned and bubbly, flip, and cook the other side.
Once done, we were to brush with melted butter. The results (that were not burned) were tasty. Its been a long time since I've eaten Indian food out, though, so I cannot comment on how it compared to restaurant dishes.
useful (0)
This is the classic no-knead bread recipe; it contains only flour, water, salt, and yeast. Flavor development benefits from a long ferment.
I prepared this dish using white whole wheat flour (which is an oxymoron, in my opinion), and I hurried along the process to produce a loaf in a single day (a 6 hour and a 1 hour rise). This forgiving recipe allowed me to make something good enough to serve with dinner.
Prepared according to the recipe it would have been much better, though I've nicked the rating a notch because other recipes call for an addition of beer or vinegar, which noticeably enhance the flavor.
useful (0)
This was just ok. Butternut squash is grated, sautéed with salt and pepper, and braised by addition of small bits of water. The recipe specifies a cut pasta, I used penne. Hue pasta and squash ate tossed together with some salt, pepper, nutmeg, and Parmesan cheese. It tastes like it sounds, ok but a bit boring.
useful (0)
If you do not like your pie sweet, then this might satisfy. I, on the other hand, expect a bit of sweetness. This recipe calls for only 4T sugar in an entire pie, and it has the wrong spice balance. I added more ginger, more cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and more sugar.
useful (0)
I prepare black-eyed peas every year for new years day, and so when this recipe hit the NYT web site, I was excited to try something new. I couldn't find their suggested purple-hull peas, and substituted black-eyed peas (which was suggested in the recipe). I found the flavor to be too sour - probably from the greens. I wonder if I added too many greens? The recipe specified mustard greens. I am probably too much of a botanist, because I thought about the fact that there are many different mustard plants. My market had gorgeous turnip greens, and so I went with those.
Next year back to my old standard.
useful (0)
This Ottolenghi recipe is excellent, and I think I might have reviewed other versions of the recipe that were published elsewhere. This time, I prepared this in my mother's kitchen, for my mother, and omitted the tahini sauce for lack of tahini. It was still good, but I think it would have been better with the sauce. I also substituted pecans for the pine nuts, and that worked just fine.
useful (0)
I made these lovely marshmallows for Easter. The saffron (which I doubled) gave them a lovely pink color, and it was like magic to make these. It was easy! I used a local dark honey, which with the saffron, gave these a lovely flavor.
useful (0)
I prepared these as an additional dessert for the holidays, selected mostly because it looked easy and odd. Happily they turned out to be delicious, too. You need a strong food processor, by 25+ yr old food processor nearly croaked trying to pulverize soft black licorice, and I felt that I was failing when trying to melt the small fragments on my cooktop. But the recipe said to not worry, so I didn't, and the end result was quite good. The licorice is mixed first with sweetened condensed milk, and then with unsweetened chocolate. After refrigeration, balls are formed and then rolled in chocolate sprinkles, and flaky sea salt applied. The end result is an interesting combination of licorice and chocolate.
Be sure to try it unsalted before you salt all of them. The salt brings out the licorice flavor, and you might like them better without.
useful (0)
Incredible. This recipe was amazing - - - sausage, vegetables cooked very slowly, tomatoes added, etc. Really a deep flavor - so much more than the sum of the parts.
I did use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, which led to a runny sauce and meant that it took almost twice as long to cook. Nevertheless, it was well worth the wait.
The family ate thirds!
I have made this again several times - its the recipe that nobody forgets. So delicious. Even with canned tomatoes.
useful (0)
I love crispy roasted Brussels sprouts, so this cooktop recipe caught my eye as something easier than the cooktop-to-oven strategy. Well, maybe its because we didn't use as much oil as called for, but after the specified time the sprouts were nicely browned but still much crunchier than we like. Still, with a longer cook time it did get closer, and this is fine in a pinch.
useful (0)
Rich, crispy, and delicious - this recipe is a winner. There is a lot of butter, which helps a lot for crisping and flavor. Its a bit different from other yeasted waffle recipes in that the eggs and baking soda are added after the over-night rise, whereas most recipes only the soda is added at the end.
My only quibble is that the recipe says is prepares 8-10 waffles. I needed to feed 5 people, and so made a 1.5x batch, and everyone was stuffed after I used less than half the batter.
The batter seems to keep pretty well, though, and nobody minds being served waffles two days in a row.
useful (0)
This chili recipe is amazing. It has great depth of flavor from beer, coffee, tomato paste, and cocoa powder, as well as chili sauce (I used asian Chili-Garlic sauce) and spices. I prepared a 5X batch for my daughter's lacrosse team. She was worried that most of the girls do not want spicy food. I cut the Serrano pepper and the cayenne to 1/4 of that called for - its mild but very flavorful. For the purist, be forewarned this contains beans. We used the option of ground turkey instead of bison.
useful (0)
My garden, on the plate. Oh how delicious - this risotto captures the garden-fresh tomato and basil flavor, and elevates them.
I also want to say that an induction cooktop is a risotto-cooker's best friend. In the past, I've tried to make risotto on my gas cooktop. I have to admit that I also purchased new pots and pans, but this time, it cooked so evenly that preparation was no sweat.
Tomatoes are added both as grated pulp and finely diced. basil added at the end. We served this with a simple avocado-kale-spinach salad, and it was a very satisfying dinner.
useful (0)