Recipe Review 12/7/07

Two book reviews in a row! Time for a recipe review and a pantry reduction update. My oh my, December is zipping by quickly. I don’t know that I am going to meet my goal of 120 new recipes for 2007 this year! It’s going to be close, that’s for sure.

Here’s what got made this week:

Chunky Two Bean and Beef Chili (Ckng Lght Sept 07, pg 140) 7
I haven’t had chili in a while, and the Hubby wanted to make some. So we collectively picked out this recipe and made a few modifications. I don’t care for stew meat, so we used a sirloin steak instead. Neither one of us cares for kidney beans (I’ve tried...just can’t get past their pasty texture) so I subbed black beans. The spice mixture in this recipe was really good - cumin, chili powder, red chili powder, cinnamon, and oregano. I think this combination really made the dish.

We realized later, while reading Cooks Illustrated, that we screwed up the browning of the meat. We (*ahem*, me) put too much meat into the pot which caused it to steam rather than brown. Then we dumped the remainder of the chili ingredients in and I think the meat was a tich overcooked. Learning experience, but the chili still turned out very good.

Greek Style Gyro’s with Tadziki Sauce (Cooks Illustrated, July/Aug 07, pg 13) 7
The Hubby found this recipe while trying to find a stuffed pork chop recipe. The subsequent recipe was fairly quick to assemble, tasted darn good and made a nice amount that could be eaten in a reasonable amount of time by two people - ie two meals. Garlic, onion, a partial slice of pita bread and seasonings are combined in a food processor, then gently mixed with ground chuck and shaped into patties. This is then fried on the stove top to create the nice crust that tastes so good. The meat patties, tadziki sauce, lettuce, tomato and feta cheese all get wrapped in a pita fold, and if one wishes to get fancy, you can wrap them in aluminum foil just like they do in a restaurant.

The tadziki sauce is whole milk yogurt that has been strained for 30 minutes, then combined with cucumbers, lemon juice, garlic and dill. I have not had whole milk yogurt before and was a little apprehensive to have to buy a whole quart tub for a mere 1 cup. But, much to my delight, I actually liked the taste of whole milk yogurt as much as my usual 2% homemade variety or the low-fat that I occasionally buy. I strongly recommend the Stonyfield Farms brand - 6 active cultures, no strange chemicals or HFCS.

Cranberry Pancakes (Eating Well, Nov/Dec 07, pg 30) 6
I had errands to run Thursday with the Hubby, so as a morning treat I dug out this recipe (literally, I couldn’t remember where the recipe was so I had my piles of recent magazines stacked up on the table!). This is from Eating Well’s "Cooking for Two" section, which I didn’t realized until after I made a batch, but please note, this can easily be doubled or tripled.

½ cup of cranberries is tossed in boiling water for two minutes, drained, and set aside. AP Flour, WW Flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder are mixed together. Milk, egg, vanilla and oil are whisked separately. Chop the cooled cranberries, add to liquid, add to dry ingredients. That’s it!

The cranberry flavor was more subtle than I thought it would be, and this made exactly 5 pancakes. I decided this wouldn’t be enough for the Hubby so I quick did small bowls of yogurt, granola and banana. This was a nice change from our usual variations on steel cut oats or old fashioned oats. I would make the pancakes again, but double the recipe.


And what, pray tell, you ask, was the pantry reduction for this week? You are going to like this one: Raspberry Pie! I made a raspberry pie this summer and set it aside for later, and later was this week. My only regret was it turned out really, really runny. I had added extra flour to the berries, but I think I should have added some arrowroot as well. Oh well, it still tasted really good.

Here's a peek at what's coming up next week, I started menu planning last night:
Pumpkin bread
Pumpkin and cranberry muffins
Beef and beer chili
maybe veggie enchiladas
"Choup" (a vegetable chowder soup from Every Day with RR)