Whole cauliflower with tomato and olive sauce

From Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie" (on my bookshelf), page 345.

Given that I am a newcomer to the world of anchovies, it was difficult for me to immediately fall in love with the final dish. However, it definitely grew on me; and by day 3 of eating the leftovers, I thought it was quite tasty!

It is a excellent mix of classic whole vegetables and unfamiliar sauciness.

During the final seasoning process, I couldn't tell whether it was over or under salted. I think the anchovy flavor (umami) was confusing me.

Scalloped potatoes

Another recipe from "Best light recipe".

The final result was slightly disappointing: I think the potatoes were slightly overcooked; to the point where it was difficult to distinguish between the layers of potatoes. It almost had texture of mashed potatoes. I know my housemate Mike disagreed with me on this point. I ended up cooking it in the oven longer than suggested because the top had not browned, yet.

In any event, there were tons of leftovers and we had no problem finishing it all over the next couple of days!

Slicing the potatoes with the Cuisinart was very easy and the recipe, overall, was fairly low maintenance.

Buttermilk biscuits, Fluffy

Another recipe from "Best light recipe".

Final verdict: I took these to the office on the day that I made them and they got thumbs-up reviews. In my opinion, they were decent but not as flexible as many of the fluffy biscuits that I've had in the past. Surely, that is just the cost of being a "light" recipe.

Cornbread, Southern style

The recipe comes from Cooks illustrated "Best light recipe". This is code for saying that the recipe is low in fat, which is not generally a goal of mine, but good to shoot for every now and then.

The one detour I made from the recipe was to use "polenta" instead of standard cornmeal. My understanding is that polenta is a larger-sized grain. The effect was noticeable -- the bread had a definite course, slightly grainy/crunchy texture.

All in all, the final product was quite decent. My housemate Mike gave it excellent reviews. My one other complaint is that it didn't rise very much and was fairly dense (because we used polenta?).

Update ( 7/28/10):
Made successfully with following substitutions and got good results with nice Browning on the exterior:

• 3/4 cup 2% milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1.5 tablespoons butter
• used preheated 8" cast-iron skillet (perfect volume)
• Reduced oven to 425 from 4 50°F and cooked for 19 instead of 20 minutes

Barley Risotto

The recipe comes from Cooks illustrated: "Best light recipe" (?). (See the included images of the recipe.)


The official recipe implies that roughly 50 minutes of cooking time will be needed once the first broth has been added. I, however, had it going for at least 70 minutes and it still turned out very firm (firmer than al dente). Was it the particular batch of barley that made it so slow to cook? Should the heat have been higher? (I feel like I kept it at a very vigorous simmer.)

Nonetheless, the result was hearty and satisfying, especially with the beef short rib leftovers that I threw on top.

Coleslaw -- Jamie Oliver's favorite

The recipe comes from "Cook with Jamie", which sits on my bookshelf at home.

The base vegetables are white cabbage, red onion, carrot, and apple. I thought it would be simple to Julianne and slice all of these vegetables in the Cuisinart, but that was not quite the case. Slicing is straightforward, but julianning is a pain in the ass because you have to slice first, then gather up the slices from the Cuisinart bowl and reinsert them into the feed tube in the "opposite" orientation. Clearly, I need to get myself a mandoline.

Since I was short on lemon juice for the dressing, I ended up using some oranges, squeezed from our garden as well as some apple cider vinegar (it's all fruity right?).

I think the final result was quite good. The crowd at Chu's pulled pork/chicken basketball-viewing party gave excellent reviews for the coleslaw -- especially the lightness of the dressing and the sweetness of the apple.

Mexican omelette

Mmm... what a great way to use the leftover Mexican food supplies.

It's been a few weeks since I made this, but I believe the bass was sautéed white onion, chopped coriander stalks, chopped chipotle peppers, and yellow bell peppers. For cheese, we used left over "Oaxacan cheese" (Mexican melting shoes) and put some bottled red salsa and coriander leaves over the top.

Verdict: in taste, fantastic!

Salad: beet, citrus, jicacama, and cilantro

This combination is slightly Mexican inspired. For the dressing I used left over Chile-lime-cilantro and it all came together very well: the meatiness of the beats; the zing of the dressing and orange; the crispness and refreshing quality of the jicama; and the aromatics of the cilantro. Next time, maybe I would add some cheese on top like feta or farmers?

Pork-filled enchiladas with orange-red mole

I knew the finale of my Mexican theme run had to be a mole dish. Since I was cooking for a crowd (the Friday dinner group) this Coloradito mole seemed a good fit since it is one of the less spicy ones. It is considered one of the "classic Oaxacan 7". The recipe comes from "Authentic Mexican" by Bayless -- originally published some 20 years ago.

I was a little bit disappointed that this version does not include any ground nuts or seeds like many of the other complex moles do, but it certainly made it a bit easier. For comparison/verification purposes, I also looked at Diana Kennedy's version of the Coloradito mole in "The art of Mexican cooking", which is a fairly intense and authentic cookbook. Her version is similar but also includes sesame seeds and a little bit of chocolate. Also, instead of using "ancho" chilies, she uses "guajillos", which are a little bit spicier.




A new technique I learned during this dish was the boiling of stewing pork (pork shoulder) and getting a nice broth as a result. After removing the pork, the cooking liquid was strained to remove the big chunks and then after sitting for 30 minutes or so, the excess fat was skimmed off the top. I took a sip of the broth as is, and it was delicious. (Is it weird that I think pork water is tasty?)

After finishing just the mole sauce part of the dish, I must admit that I thought (and my friend thought) it was very intensely bitter flavored (despite several tablespoons of sugar been added). However, once combined with the mild filling (which contained some sweet plaintain) and the comforting corn tortillas, the balance of flavors was near perfect in my opinion.