Food Montage

Date: 08/28/11

At the beginning of this year, I set a goal for myself. I wanted to write about all the good stuff I was going to cook and bake this year. Unfortunately, as will many things, I am completely and totally invested for a couple months and then lose my ambition. The work becomes too time consuming and other things begin to take priority. Ironically, because of my initial enthusiasm, I am pretty close to my goal of 1 post per week. However, there are some other "projects" included in this mix and not just recipe reviews.

I admit that I have been neglecting my duties of maintaining this log. However, I have neglected my goal of eating much less. New recipes continue to make it into my kitchen and onto the plate but just not onto these pages. As a result, I do have a couple of pictures to share with my comments. However, this post will dilute the formality even further.

Most recently, these are the dishes that have found a temporary residence on my table:

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/355292/chile-sauce

Chili Barbeque Sauce

This sauce was a recipe I found early in the summer. The weather was nice and it just sounded good. I am not much of a fan of spicy foods but it just sounded that good. Like most barbecue sauces this one is a combination of a lot of different flavors with sweet and sour and some heat and depth from Jalapenos, dried chilies, and molasses. It was a nice change to bottled sauce. Some of the sauce was used to marinate steaks and some to flavor grilled chicken. Good stuff. Definitely want to try it one some of my brother-in-law's ribs!

Source: http://www.marthastewart.com/340853/mediterranean-chickpea-burgers

Mediterranean Chickpea Burgers

I like burgers. It doesn't have to be a beef burger and, in fact, bean or veggie burgers are often my preference. However, new recipes for burgers always peak my interest. It seems that the word burger allows for so much creative license, there are very few burger recipes that are the exact same.

I've not cooked with chickpeas too often and -beyond hummus- am not a big fan. They typically seem more mealy or grainy than other beans, granted they are probably different family or species or whatever. I'll have to look into this. In any case, my inexperience with this ingredient led me to try this preparation.

The concept is good, but the delivery is a bit odd. Even after pureeing the chickpeas thoroughly, the texture of the burger is slightly dry and coarse. The fresh veggies and sauce do provide some moisture but not much in the way of flavor. Not my favorite burger but an interesting dish nonetheless.


Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/linguine-with-avocado-and-arugula-pesto-recipe/index.html

Avocado and Arugula Pesto with Toasted Almonds

 A good friend and foodie sent me the recipe for the Avocado and Arugula Pesto. It is a very nice summer dish. The absence of olive oil is fabulous. I'm am not a big fan of pesto because they always seem to be dripping in oil for me. Granted, I've not made my own pesto before, so I get what I pay for.

This preparation combined avocado, arugula, and a lot of basil (I had to buy my own plant!), and lime juice to make a bright and light pesto. The flavor was interesting and refreshing for me.

The "difficult" part of the dish is figuring out the temperatures. The pesto is more or less cold but the pasta is hot (or warm anyway). Personally, I didn't have much of a problem with lukewarm pasta and the cool pesto but my lady likes things to be one way or the other...understandable. The flavor seemed to change drastically when the pesto was reheated and not altogether enjoyable.

There were reviews of this recipe online where other cooks didn't feel the pesto held up well for leftovers. I must have put extra lime in because my sauce was as bright and green as it started. It was still pretty good the second day, but the lime was pretty strong. It bordered on being too acidic to unenjoyable.

Toasted nuts are always a good addition and the toasted almonds were no exception. The crunch was important to provide some contrast to an otherwise soft dish.

I'd make this again, but perhaps as a cold dish with short pasta noodles (Rigatoni or Penne).

Source: http://www.thaikitchen.com/Recipes/Rice-and-Noodles/Easy-Chicken-Pad-Thai.aspx

Semi-homemade Chicken Pad Thai

There is nothing too remarkable about this recipe at all. In fact, I included it more just because I thought it was a pretty good picture more than an endorsement for the dish. At the time I had been wanting Pad Thai from work for a few weeks. At a loss for something to make for dinner, I decided to take the easy road and buy Pad Thai sauce and rice noodles. Not a particularly cost effective choice in the long run but convenient, anyway. The recipe was right on the label for the sauce. Scrambled eggs, peanuts, cilantro, and some added chilies for heat.

I like noodles, so this was fine. The sauce lacked something and the meal seemed a little "one-note." It was food in my stomach but probably won't make it onto my table again soon. I found it -ironically- boring. I put some heat in the dish which was unwelcome the second time around as leftovers.

But my purpose was fulfilled in my dish, expanding my culinary horizon to different flavors. Next time, however, I will make Pad Thai with fresh sauce and skip the canned sauce.

Source: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/07/blackberry-buttermilk-cake

Magazines have a way of making things look particularly appetizing. I have never been much of a blackberry fan but couldn't convince myself to substitute other berries...this time. In hindsight I would have absolutely substituted blueberries or raspberries. I did get to use the 10" spring form pan that has been sitting in my cupboard for years, which made this even more exciting.

The finished product had a nice golden top (which ends up being the bottom) but the middle was slightly underdone. I wasn't sure if the softness was due to not enough baking time or because of the berries. The sponge was nice and moist, but blackberries have such hard seeds (for me) and it really kept me from fully enjoying this dessert. I'd make it again but with a different selection of fruit: strawberries and rhubarb, thinly sliced lemon or raspberries. Good concept but the execution didn't stand up for me.