Weekend cooking

[readsalot]

I've been meaning to start making notes about cooking, so I can remember which recipes I've tried and what I thought about them. I do my major cooking on weekends, and make enough to have leftovers for at least one more meal, so that I can just reheat things during the week.

The weekend before last, I made Jerk Chicken on Saturday night (that was easy--take a bunch of boneless skinless chicken thighs, smear them with my favorite jerk rub, and roast). I made slow-cooked carrots (using a method from Anne's Food), which is also very easy and quite tasty--the carrots get nicely caramelized, and there are random bits of garlic scattered throuhout. (I've made that recipe several times before--it's quite reliable.) That was all good.

That Sunday, I made Beef Rendang using the recipe in Molly Stevens' All About Braising. It was tasty, but not spectacular, and it didn't work quite the way she'd said--she implied that after 2 or so hours of very gentle cooking at low heat, the braising liquid would have reduced a lot and you'd be essentially frying the beef. That never happened. After about 3 hours I gave up and raised the heat. The meat was tasty, and very tender, but the flavors just weren't that intense. I might try that again and just increase the amounts of all of the flavorings (things like lemongrass, ginger, and shallots), while using the same amount of coconut milk.

This weekend, I made Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs from The Wednesday Chef. It was amazing, and very easy--you just make a paste out of garlic, ginger, lemon, jalapeno, tomato paste, cumin, and coriander, smear that on the chicken, and roast. Definitely a keeper. However, I made the millet that she suggested to go along with it, and that was kind of mushy and blah. I'll probably try millet again, because there was something interesting there, but I'll look for another way of cooking it. There was also sauteed zucchini with garlic to go along--I'm trying to eat more vegetables, and garlic makes everything tastier.

Last night, I made Asparagus Pesto with Pasta from Simply Recipes. Also very easy, and very very tasty--cook some asparagus, and make it into a paste with spinach, pine nuts, parmesan, and garlic, and toss over fresh pasta. Incredibly yummy (though maybe not if you don't like asparagus.)

You may be noticing a theme here--I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately, and getting recipes from them. I like this method, because the bloggers always talk about how well the recipe worked, and whether it tasted great or not, and mostly they've been more reliable than the similar remarks in actual cookbooks.

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Someday I will find a beef redang recipe I like. I'm still experimenting.