Happy Valentines Day!
Just three recipes last week. We had quite a bit of leftovers and were out of town over the weekend. I have a three day weekend coming up so I plan on doing a bit of baking to warm up the house a bit. Plus I decided to make our Valentine's Dinner on Saturday. I don't know exactly what I'll be concocting, but it will have fresh mussles in it.
Banana Cake with Browned Butter Pecan Frosting (Culinary i/t Country Blog) 4As Rachel Ray would say, Yum-O! What elevated this from a standard banana cake to delicious was the frosting. Melt a partial stick of butter while stirring constantly (very important!) until it starts to turn brown and smells nice and nutty. It looks like it is burning, but that’s where that stirring comes in. And I didn’t screw it up! Mmm! What could be a basic cream cheese frosting is elevated to new levels of flavor. Usually I don’t like nuts on my baked goods, but there was something about the toasted pecans that really brought the fluffy cake and creamy frosting all together into one very harmonious dessert. I would definitely make this again.
Southwest Tomato and Pepper Soup (Fine Cooking, Feb/Mar 08, pg 57) 3.5I confess, I am used to canned tomato soup, even though I have been buying the Muir Glen or Amy’s varieties, so this was a bit of a departure for me to make my own. It turned out good enough that I would make another. A red pepper is toasted under the broiler until the skin is nice and black, then popped into a zippy to steam and cool for a while. A large onion is softened and combined with cumin, chili powder and corriander. To this is added large can of diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and the now peeled and diced red pepper and brought to a simmer. Near the end toss in one diced zucchini and simmer till softened. Serve with sour cream mixed with lime juice and zest and fresh cilantro. Very refreshing. I served with some of Duane’s sourdough bread and cheese slices.
Crisp Roast Chicken (Cooks Illustrated Mar/Apr 08, pg 7) 3.0This...was a good recipe but not one that we would necessarily bother to make again. A roasting chicken is cleaned and patted dry, then patted with a baking powder mixture and allowed to sit in the fridge overnight. The idea behind this is the baking powder will help make the skin nice and crispy. This is then baked, doing the breast-side down bit, until internal temp hits 175*. While the skin was indeed nice and crispy, it lacked flavor. We can get crispy skin with much better flavor using our grill, salt, pepper and olive oil. The bird itself was nice and moist. No complaints there.
Where the recipe lost points was in the baking - when I arrived home the house had a layer of smoke floating by the ceiling, the upstairs fire alarm was going off and the dogs refused to come inside. The grease from the bird was hitting the pan and smoking, causing all sorts of commotion. And to top it off, the Husband cut his finger trying to rip the battery out of the smoke alarm. No, he was not a happy camper.
So we might employ parts of this recipe in the future and cook the bird outside. My house might be aired out by that time too...
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