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Monday, February 12, 2007

Recipe Review 2/12/07

I had plans to be in the Cities last week for a yoga workshop, which fell through in a spectacular fashion which included, no less, getting stuck in a snowstorm in rush hour traffic...precluded much in the way of new recipes. I consoled myself with another batch of homemade pudding. This time, appropriately, it was chocolate.

Chocolate Pudding (Ckng Lght Annual 07, pg 293) 7
This was another recipe from the pudding article from what was the August issue. This was also incredible easy to make. Boil some milk, add a mixture of sugar and eggs, boil again - at this point I was dancing around the kitchen because the time to bring the mixture back to a boil was almost instantaneous and it threatened to overflow - and add semi-sweet chocolate and vanilla. I think I'm missing a couple of ingredients in my description but you get the gist. It was tasty warm, and good after a couple of hours chilling though super rich. After sitting overnight it was darn tasty. I topped it off with some Reddi Whip and we were good to go!



And once the weekend rolled around and life calmed down, I fit in two more quick recipes:

Catfish Amadine (Eating Well, Jan/Feb 07, pg 17) 6
I was in the mood for something other than stew, risotto, or other creamy casserole-ish type dishes and this one fit the bill. A very quick recipe to assemble: slivered almonds and thinly sliced garlic are sauteed until nicely browned in olive oil and butter. A catfish fillet (I quartered the recipe) was dipped in egg and lightly dusted with a flour, salt and cayenne pepper mixture then lightly pan fried. The almond mixture was gently re-heated with a splash of lemon juice and sprinkled over the top of the fillet. The result was very satisfying. I would have had an accompaniment but I had a pudding recipe going on my second burner and thus, no veggie for me.



Vanilla Bean Pudding (Ckng Lght Annual 07, pg 293) 7
I'm still on my pudding kick - this is what happens when one doesn't have an oven, you get creative in the desert department! Saturday's selection was Vanilla (who doesn't like a good old fashioned vanilla?). Assembly was the same as the chocolate - bring some milk and vanilla bean seeds and bean to a boil, add a mixture of sugar, egg, cornstarch and half-n-half, bring back to a boil, quickly cool, then cover and put in the refrigerator. I chose this recipe in part because I actually had some vanilla beans in the cupboard. I had bought them for an angel food cake that never got made -in many ways, it's almost been more fun picking out other recipes where this rather expensive spice is required. I would also like to say this pudding was absolutely divine warm.



For those of you following my stove drama, I have an update! The new stove was ordered and I got the call on Friday that it has arrived at the store! Stay tuned for further updates.

2 comments:

Sarah O G said...

Now that all looks very delicious but why did you go through all that trouble with the chocolate pudding to put ucky reddi whip on it when homemade whip is so easy and yummy?

Kristin said...

Hi Sarah!

Good question - I would love to use homemade whip more often, but because it's just me in the house, it just doesn't last in the fridge and I end up throwing most of it away.

I have found that Reddi Whip is an acceptable compromise between "Cool Whip" (full of partially hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup - bleh) and heavy whipping cream. Reddi Whip has a *very* short ingredient list that contains no PHF or HFCS. And if you look at the Extra Creamy Reddi Whip it is basically heavy cream with a propellent. Just like they use on the cooking shows when they 'foam' something.

So that's why I buy Reddi Whip (Extra Creamy of course!).

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