Soft Pretzel

I got a free vegan cookbook recently and my 2.5 year old girls found a recipe for pretzels and demanded that I make them. Sure, why not, sounds like fun to me! Except that I don't really trust a vegan recipe so I go back to my favorite Cooks Illustrated!

The dough part was very straight forward, similar to making bread. The most challenging part was shaping the dough. It was a very tight one and it shrunk while sitting on the baking sheet. At the end the pretzels looked like little piles of poop. Regardless of the shape, the pretzels were very tasty while they were fresh and it was very easy to make multiple toppings since these were added at the last moment. The four flavors we had were:

Cheddar
Kosher salt
butter
cinnamon sugar

I will definitely make these pretzels again and again. Maybe in different shapes though.

Penne Alla Vodka

It might be the drop in temperature that awakened my carb-cravings. I have been thinking about penne alla vodka for days and finally I got all the ingredients.

There were several versions of this dish in Cooks Illustrated but I went straight to the "Penne Alla Vodka" recipe. Another day I might try other versions. Although it took me several attempts to acquire all the ingredients, it really was a simple recipe that involves mostly kitchen stables such as whole peel tomato, tomato paste, onion, garlic, heavy cream, basil, onion, garlic and chili pepper. Oh wait, and some high quality vodka.

The result was amazing. Given the simplicity of the recipe, I wasn't expecting much, but WOW, it was tasty! My girls even thought it was their beloved baked ziti. Now why would I go through all the trouble and calories to make baked ziti if I can spend 30 minutes for a tasty and hearty penne alla vodka! I highly recommend this recipe!

Now that I have my very first bottle of vodka, what should I do! I am seeing apple pie with a special dough involving vodka!

Crepe with Ricotta, Ham and Spinach Filling

Friday is our "Breakfast for Dinner" day. I was inspired by the video on the Cooks Illustrated website and decided to make crepes.

The ingredients required for the savory crepe were very simple: egg, flour, butter, milk, water and salt. The only thing to keep in mind was that the batter needed to be refrigerated for 2 hours prior to cooking. Using the technique shown on the video, the crepes came out beautifully golden and thin. None of the crepes ripped when stacked on a plate.

The ricotta, ham and spinach filling was also very simple to make. I sauteed fresh spinach leaves (instead of using frozen spinach) after cooking the onion and garlic and it worked well.

I wasn't quite sure how to fold the crepes since the instruction only said "fold as desired". The first crepe was folded in fourth but it looked very thick. After trying a few different ways, I preferred to stack the fillings with additional layers of crepe and tuck in the sides. (Sorry no pictures. Maybe next time!)

One little confusing point on the Cooks Illustrated recipe: the recipe in the crepe video was not the one shown in text. Both the sweet and savory crepe recipes required refrigeration for 2 hours whereas the video said the batter didn't need to be refrigerated.

Overall I liked the recipe and I would definitely do this again with all sorts of fillings. In fact, we put homemade strawberry jam in the extra savory crepe and it was delicious! There was a recipe for sweet crepes, but I think the savory flavor nicely complemented the sweetness of the jam.

Spinach Pasta with Alfredo Sauce

I had some baby spinach that didn't look good enough for a salad anymore so I decided to make some spinach pasta.

The pasta recipe came from a cooking class and included:

2 cups of all purpose flour
2 eggs
3 oz of spinach blanched and pureed

Not all the flour got incorporated into the dough; however I had to add lots of flour back during the rolling step to prevent sticking. My pasta maker rolled out sheets beautifully but the fettuccine cutter was broken. I ended up cutting the pasta into 1/2 x 2 inch strips so that my baby girls could eat them easily.

The Alfredo sauce was made based on a Cooks Illustrated recipe. It seemed extremely unhealthy: cream, butter, cheese plus seasoning. The dish was quite a hit with the husband but I found it way too rich for my taste. My baby girls were intrigued by the green noodles initially but felt full pretty soon.

Overall this was a fun experience. I suspect that the consistency and texture of the pasta cannot really be described in a recipe and I might have to take a pasta making class again if I want to make it better. Alfredo sauce really isn't my favorite, so I shall also try a healthier sauce next time!

Creamy Mexican Pudding

I came across this recipe from Cooks Illustrated when I was making the beef stew. In general I love "Mexican Chocolate" anything.

The recipe involved many ingredients but was very easy to make. Two things I did differently: 1)I accidentally used semi sweet chocolate instead of bitter sweet, 2) I didn't strain the pudding before chilling because it was already 11pm at night.

The pudding turned out rich and spicy but I think it would have been even better had I used the right chocolate. I guess I need to do this again soon!

Beef Stew

When I bought the fancy kobe style beef from a Japanese store I was just going to make a simple beef soup for my girls. Then I realized that I didn't really know how to make a tasty beef stew. Of course I went straight to Cooks Illustrated and found this "Best Beef Stew" recipe.

Here's my modified ingredient list:

American Kobe style beef
1/2 onion, sliced
1 carrot, chunk
tomato paste + minced garlic
Port
Chicken broth
1 Bay leaf
Dried thyme
Potato
Frozen sweet peas
Israeli couscous

Mainly, I am missing the anchovy, salted pork, pearl onions and the gelatin part. I followed closely the cooking time indicated in the recipe except for the potato part since I was running late.

The stew was served with Israeli couscous which was cooked in chicken broth. It was delicious and hearty. The stew was thick enough that I didn't feel the need to do the gelatin step. One day I'd like to try this recipe again with all the secret ingredients and maybe serve it with homemade spatzle.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

I had a big chunk of fancy ham that I didn't know what to do with. After a huge batch of potato salad (Japanese style with ham) there was still more than a pound of meat left.

The Cooks Illustrated has a very straight forward recipe for Split Pea and Ham soup and I happened to have all the ingredients except for fresh thyme. I used dried thyme instead. The split peas I used actually came from the famous Pea Soup Andersen's (home of the split pea soup!), thanks to my friend Haruka!

The result was a hearty, tasty soup but not all that impressive. However, when I added a bit of balsamic vinegar to the leftover soup 2 days later, the flavor really popped. Interesting!

Ginger Oatmeal Cookies

It was a decision between chocolate chip oatmeal and ginger oatmeal cookies. It should have been a no-brainer, but the ginger one was picked because the husband is on a weight loss challenge and I don't really give my little girls chocolates.

The recipe came from the Cooks Illustrated and there were several variations of the oatmeal cookies. All of my tasters liked the cookies which were rich in ginger flavor and had a good texture of crispy on the outside and chewy in the center. To me, it seemed to lack something, like raisins. Maybe I should try to chocolate chip oatmeal recipe next time.

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

We have three sick people in the house this week so I decided to try the "Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup" recipe from the Cooks Illustrated. It seemed pretty complicated but didn't require hours of cooking.

I got an air chilled whole chicken from Whole Foods and asked the butcher to remove the breast and cut the rest of the chicken in 2 inch pieces. The guy replied "we can cut it any way you want". I was dumbfounded when I saw my bag of chicken pieces. Where are the breasts?! I also couldn't decide which piece was actually 2 inches. Anyway, I picked out pieces that had "rib like" bones or boneless and designated them breasts.

The recipe was followed closely except that I substituted homemade spaetzle for the egg noodles. The substitution worked well and did not require too much additional time. It was a tasty chicken soup with good flavor; however I personally prefer the chicken fricassee recipe from the Joy of Cooking for my sick days. The main difference was probably the thickening step in the Joy of Cooking recipe which makes the soup much more fulfilling.

As the only healthy person left in the house, I suspect that I will get to make another chicken soup to my liking soon. Stay tuned for the chicken fricassee.

Chicken Pot Pie

This was made for my sister's birthday dinner. Chicken pot pie is one of my favorite American dishes; however, most pot pies I've tried were disappointing. After looking through several recipes on Cooks Illustrated, I decided to use their pie crust recipe but combined it with my mother-in-law's filling recipe. It was easy, and I knew it was tasty.

The pie crust recipe from the Cooks Illustrated was meant to be for the top crust of a 13x9 chicken pot pie. I divided the dough in half and made a double crusted round 9 in pie instead. For the filling, I cooked boneless chicken thigh in chicken broth for 20 minutes as described in the Cooks Illustrated recipe, cut it into cubes, and combined it with 2 cups of cooked veggie (3/4 cup each of peas and corn, and 1/2 cup of carrots), and 2 cans of Campbell's cream of potato soup (concentrated. Do they actually sell the straight-up version?). The pie was baked at 350F for 1 hour.

The resulting pie was tasty, although a bit on the dry, salty side for me. Perhaps I should add a bit of broth to lighten it up. The crust came out beautiful and flaky, although the flavor was a bit flat. A slightly sweeter crust would probably off set the saltiness of the filling.

This is definitely a fun dish to make and full of possibilities for various combinations of filling and crust. It will be put on my "experimental dish" list.

Carrot (Cup) Cake

As much as I bake, I have never made carrot cakes before. This time I had way too many carrots in my fridge so I decided to try the "simple" rather than "light" carrot cake recipe from Cooks Illustrated.

Shredding carrots with a food processor was a breeze, and I liked it even better that I got to use the same bowl for making the cake. The recipe called for a metal 13x9 baking pan, which I don't have, so I made cupcakes instead. The cooking time was about 23-26 minutes.

The cupcakes were popular, with or without the frosting. I personally thought it was alright. The texture was lighter and fluffier than I expected, but the flavor was kind of one dimensional. It was tasty but not quite a "wow" piece.

Spaetzle

I had the strongest craving for dough today.... sent husband to pick up Chinese dumplings on the way home and I started making spaetzle. My original plan was to follow the recipe from the Smitten Kitchen; however, I did not have 7 eggs. I consulted three sources: the Smitten Kitchen, the Cooks Illustrated and the City Tavern Cookbook. I decided to try my most trusted Cooks Illustrated recipe for spaetzle, followed by the chilling step and saute instruction from the Smitten Kitchen after seeing that the City Tavern Cookbook took similar steps too.

Note: The Cooks Illustrated recipe said to put boiled spaetzle into a warmed and butter bowl whereas the other two sources instructed to put cooked spaetzle in an ice bath and tossed with oil.

Here's what I did:

1) Mixed the ingredients for the batter and let it sit for 10 minutes
2) Prepared an ice bath and a bowl with a small amount of olive oil
3) Scraped a small amount of the batter through a colander using a hard spatula into a boiling pot of water (lightly salted)
4) Took out the floating spaetzle and dunked into an ice bath, followed by a light toss in the oiled bowl
5) Melted a small amount of butter in a pan and saute the spaetzle until lightly golden. Sprinkled with chopped parsley

The process of scraping the batter through a colander was very labor intensive. I was not sure if everything was done right, but the consistency of the batter was very stretchy. It was hard enough moving the batter from one bowl to another, let alone pushing it through little holes to form little long strings of noodles. Fortunately, the spaetzle turned out great. I loved the nutmeg flavor in the spaetzle and the texture was awesome. The husband loved it.

So, I've already order me a spaetzle maker and will definitely make spaetzle again. It would be so cool if I could make spaetzle the good old fashion way, but I think I will spend my time looking for good sauces to go with the spaetzle.

French Toast Casserole

To save a nice baguette from the ACME bakery, I decided to turn it into French toasts. Both the Joy of Cooking and the Cooks Illustrated have recipes for French toast recipe that can be prepared the night before. The Joy of cooking calls for "slices of white or egg bread" while the Cooks Illustrated calls for "supermarket French or Italian bread". I picked the Cooks Illustrated recipe because my baguette resembled French bread more. Personally I also prefer thicker French Toasts.

The preparation was relatively simple. The cut bread pieces were toasted in the oven until golden brown followed by a soaking in a mixture of egg, milk, sugar and vanilla overnight. There's also a topping involving pecan, brown sugar and corn syrup. Unfortunately I had neither pecan nor corn syrup so I skipped the topping all together.

The French toast came out pretty crunchy on the outside, but a little blend in flavor. I am sure it was because it lacked the nutty sweet toppings and more liquid was evaporated without the protective toppings. It wasn't as good as I expected, but I had faith that it would have been great if I followed the recipe completely. This is definitely a good dish for brunch parties or special breakfast, so I will give it a try again!

Gazpacho

This is a recipe from the Cooks Illustrated. It was definitely better than most gazpacho I've had, but was still on the salty side. Perhaps I should have used Welch's tomato juice as suggested in the recipe. The red bell pepper added a very nice sweet flavor and the overall ratio of the veggies were good.

Couscous

On a quest to find new food options for my girls, I tried two couscous recipes from Cooks Illustrated. Couscous is one of the most nutritious grain product. It is made from semolina durum wheat and is high in vitamin B's and low in fat content.

Couscous with carrots, raisin (and pine nuts)
This one is very tasty and refreshing (from orange). The actual recipe contains pine nuts but since I don't usually have pine nuts in my kitchen and the girls don't really care for nuts, I am skipping it for now. The recipe is very simple and the only labor intensive part is the carrot grating and herb chopping. There's a lot of room for adjustment for personal taste. I like to double the raisins and add more orange juice.



Aromatic curried couscous for two
I don't love this one as much as the one above. The smell of curry was everywhere in my home except in the couscous. Perhaps this has something to do with the curry powder I had, but the end product was very boring. This dish is more suitable as a side dish, but not good enough to be a stand alone main dish.

Shortbread Cookies

I am not a big believer in Valentine's day, but this year I got all excited about making cute little pink cookies for my twin girls who are almost 2 years old.

Just to show you how much I don't care for heart shape things, I actually had to buy a set of heart cookie cutters for this. Of course, all the normal metal single heart cookie cutters were sold out at Sur La Table the weekend before Valentine's day, so I ended up with a set of plastic cutters made by Cuisipro.

As much I love making cookies, cut-out cookies are not my favorites. They take too much time and are not all that tasty. Excessive food coloring and sugar used for the decoration are also big turn-off for me too. Somehow I stumbled upon the "Best Shortbread" recipe from Cooks Illustrated. It wasn't meant for cut-out cookies, but the dough was simple to prepare and very easy to cut. I love it!

I followed the baking temperatures and timing instructed in the recipe even though my cookies were much smaller than the pie form described. For thinner cookies, the baking time can be decreased to prevent too much browning. I baked the first batch in its natural color and added red gel food coloring to the second half of the dough. Both worked well and produced very flaky and buttery cookies. The dough withstood my multiple rolling and shaping and it stored well in the fridge for a few days. Perhaps the very first batch was the best, but the subsequent "worked" batches were pretty tasty still.

This recipe is really awesome. I love not only that neat ingredients (oatmeal and corn starch) were added to improve taste and texture, but these items are usually available in any pantry!

Other Recipes I Tried From Cooks Illustrated

Maybe I will write up more detailed reports later, but for now, here is the list.

Recipes I liked from Cooks Illustrated
Baked ziti
Black bean soup
The Best banana bread
Corn muffins
Curried egg salad
Hummus
Monkey bread
Penne and chickpea soup
Silky butternut squash soup
Sweet potato oven fries
Roasted green bean and potato salad with radicchio- I like the recipe for roasted potato

Recipes I didn't like from Cooks Illustrated
Indian-style curry with potatos, cauliflower, peas and chickpeas
Thai chicken soup- maybe substitute with a low fat coconut milk

Quiche Crust

On a quest for better "pizza crust" for my babies, I tried a Quiche Lorraine crust recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The ingredients are simple (flour, butter, shortening, sugar, salt and iced water) and the instruction was easy.

The resulting crust was awesome. Very flaky and has a very nice, balanced flavor. It was a savory crust with a little hint of sweetness. This is not only great for a quiche, it can be used as little tarts for hor devours.