Final entree for "Off the Shelf"

I wish we could have ended on a better note...

The Crispy Spiced Thai Chicken was ok. The dipping sauce was the savior. It had a crispy breading of sorts that had a difficult time staying on the chicken - what's the secret to keeping the coating on anyway?? Well, this recipe didn't reveal it. But the tangy soy-lemon-brown sugar sauce was good and we'll probably use it again with chicken or stir fry.

We enjoyed the meal with steamed broccoli, rosemary potato bread, and the chicken was served on a bed of watercress. There is no point to the watercress - it provides neither an interesting taste or texture. It's just for looks which is totally unnecessary in most situations.

Rating: okay
Reheat: who knows - we threw out the leftovers...

It's JT's birthday next month so I'm letting him pick what cookbook we cook from for February. It's been narrowed down to two:

"The Best of Martha Stewart Living: Favorite Comfort Food", home of our favorite BLT and toasted oatmeal. I'm not the biggest fan of Martha's cooking because like so many things in her publications, it looks great on paper, but falls short when you try to do it. I have higher hopes for this one.

and...

"The Perfect Recipe" by Pam Anderson, which we know has excellent macaroni and cheese and a great formula for making stir fry. Ms. Anderson is/was an editor of Cook's Illustrated, but I won't hold that against her.

What would you pick? :)

Prawn Stew

What's the difference between a prawn and a shrimp?

Nothing! They're just typically bigger.

We made Tomato and Garlic Stew with Prawns last night (from "Off the Shelf" of course). Again, it was a good. A strong good, but only a good. It was pretty basic stuff so not too much to talk about. I would have used cut canned tomatoes instead of whole if I'd read ahead and saw she wanted them mushed with a for anyway... We took her recommendation and served it with warm bread. We also drank the rest of the wine that was in the soup: Forestville Chardonnay 2001 (California).

We're at the half way mark!

Only two more weeks left for "Off the Shelf" and then it's judgment day!

So last weekend we made two dinners. One was Beef and Caramelized Onion Couscous Salad. The beef was just beef. She suggested rump steak which turned out too chewy, even at medium rare. No matter, the feature of the recipe (from the "grains + lentils" section) was the couscous. Boy is couscous easy!! Just let it soak in hot water or chicken stock and in 5 minutes you have couscous magic. The onions took for-ever to cook - I recommend separating out all the rings and maybe using 2 pans. When the steak was done cooking we transferred half the onions to that pan (and consequently picked up all the yummy browned bits left behind). The couscous was good and we'll probably make it again because it's an all purpose side dish.
Rating: good

The second meal was just soup. And it was great! The Coconut Crab Soup had good textures and different flavors that somehow went together. I never would have thought to add green beans... Other recipes add cilantro (coriander) to soup as a garnish and don't actually cook it like she has you do. Just add the cilantro to your bowl at serve time and keep the rest in the fridge ready to toss on the leftovers.

This soup prompts me to add another rating category: Reheat Results (ta da!)

Some dishes are meant to be eaten once and once only. Some dishes are just as good reheated. And some...are even better after the flavors have more time to meld. Chili, spaghetti sauce, salsas, soups and dressings for example. See side bar for new reheat values. :)

The crab soup gets...
Rating: great
Reheat: same

Why does everything taste like chicken?

Because chicken tastes like NOTHING. What chicken really tastes like is cheese, or marinara, or cream sauce, or whatever. I have a low opinion of naked chicken. You can sear a nice steak with salt and pepper and be good to go. How interesting is cooked chicken with salt and pepper?

Don't get me wrong. I like many chicken dishes...just not this one. Green Olive Baked Chicken from "Off the Shelf". Despite all the added flavorings, the chicken meat was mostly bland. The tomatoes that baked on the side were yummy, but hardly made up for the whole dish. It does present well and is cheap and easy. So if you're looking to impress on a low budget, it's not a bad way to go.
Rating: ok

And on the side, it was Pine Nut Brown Butter Noodles - these were good. And easy side dish that goes with lots of food.

Salmon

Again from "Off the Shelf" - and we even had one of the ingredients already in the pantry! Woo hoo!

So we had the Seared Salmon on Coconut Spinach with a side of steamed white rice. We like salmon, but this recipe didn't do much for it. The spinach was yummy with a spicy kick. I recommend saving the leftover coconut chili sauce and mixing it with rice later as leftovers (which is exactly what I did).

If the salmon wasn't coupled with the spinach in the recipe, it might get a higher rating. But it's not, so it gets a good.

No fuss, no taste

The No Fuss Blueberry Muffins (short order) were indeed without fuss. They were also bland. I'd also like to point out that the majority of batter recipes say "stir until just mixed" because there is a chemical reaction yet to happen with that unmixed part that will make the end product fluffier. (Don't ask me, ask Martha...) So I find it odd that Donna recommends sifting and mixing well. I didn't and the muffins came out okay on that front. For some reason, the muffins tasted like they needed salt??

From "Off the Shelf: Cooking from the Pantry" by Donna Hay
Rating: OK