32 posts tagged “regrettable”
Oh dear.
I've been trying to recreate a fish au gratin dish from my childhood. I loved the crispy crust on this dish so much that I always tried to scoop up a bit more than my fair share... But I'm having problems recreating the crust. Last time, the filling was too wet, and I poured too much oil over the crumbs, so they ended up completely soggy. So this time I left the filling (the sauce) a little thicker, and used a lot more breadcrumbs. Way too much breadcrumbs. And not enough cheese.
The breadcrumbs did far more to spoil the look, than the taste (well apart from the crust, which obviously was a complete failure), so overall it was really very tasty.
I sautéed some lightly floured potatoes to brown the edges (the crispiness would obviously fade, but that browning does create a little extra taste) and set them aside — same with a small dice mirepoix and chopped tilapia. This was put in a baking dish with a thick Béchamel sauce flavored with dill, thyme, Dijon mustard, white pepper and salt. Topped with lots (ie., far too much) of homemade breadcrumbs, and some commercial Italian seasoned breadcrumb, and finally some grated Jarlsberg.
This was a mistake. I should have added the taters at the start, but held off on the carrots until at least half an hour in. In total, the roast took almost one hour to reach 140°F on the roasting thermometer, and it rose to 153° while resting. This was a little more than I would have liked, but it still got a nice, pink color, even if the picture doesn't really show it.
But the worst disaster was the sauce. I deglazed the pan with a nice, rich Cab Sav, and some beef stock, but as I reduced it, it just didn't thicken much. So I decided to create a roux to thicken it. Then, I squeezed out the garlic into the sauce and ran it through a strainer, straight into the roux. Disaster. It separated instantaneously... It tasted fairly good, but was far too rich for the flavor of the lamb — and it also seemed extremely salty.
Oh well, another meal, another few things learned. Hopefully.
This is another recipe from the "Curry Cookbook." I'm getting some good results from this thing -- although in this case, I found some contradictory statements: the recipe description says that kerisik (a paste of roasted, grated coconut flesh) isn't normally used in rendang -- but a dozen pages earlier, the book mentions kerisik by describing it as an ingredient used in rendang... So I ended up leaving it out.
The recipe is very simple. Basically, you just simmer some stewing beef in coconut milk -- uncovered, so the liquid evaporates -- for a total of 2-3 hours. While that's going on, you add a few things to it: two finely chopped onions, a chunk of galangal, kaffir lime leaves and a paste of ginger, garlic, chilies and a little turmeric. That's it.
... However, while I was adjusting the seasoning (salt and pepper), I found the liquid to be pretty bland, so I went off the recipe, and added some fish sauce, and also some lemon grass paste.
I was very satisfied with this, and will definitely make it again -- but with red chilies, though... Appearance really does matter.
Still, this looks even worse in picture, than in real life -- I didn't think that could possibly look any worse... Sadly, I didn't go back and check on the entry for my last attempt, and thus I failed to take my own advice -- to roll these these things up, rather than sautéing them flat... But I'm not entirely sure if that's a good approach though -- it would be hard to cook the whole thing through properly. Veal scallopini is so thin, it has to be cooked VERY quickly.
Sadly, the sorry appearance of the dish is far from the worst thing about it -- I overcooked the veal, and it ended up really though. I hardly ever cook this dish, so I guess it's understandable, but I'm just disgusted by having made such a bonehead mistake -- especially since veal scallopini is so damned expensive (as is prosciutto, of course). One good thing that I did learn, however, is that there's absolutely no need for toothpicks -- the prosciutto clings to the veal pretty good, and the sage leaves are stuck in between. Works really well.
The mashed potatoes were made with plenty of parsley (parsley has a distinctive taste of its own, that isn't appreciated much, I find. The asparagus was sautéed with freshly ground pepper. And the sauce was made by deglazing the pan drippings from the veal, with some cream, and adding a touch of Dijon mustard. I did let it reduce for too long though, so it ended up a bit too thick.
Mix yogurt, honey, vanilla extract, cinnamon and some bruised mint leaves together and leave in fridge overnight -- then remove the mint leaves. Toss grapes in oil, sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes (15, for "normal sized grapes). Serve hot grapes over cold yogurt. Very interesting taste -- and very refreshing -- I think I'll try to find ways to expand on this idea.
This cheesecake thing is gonna be the death of me... What I'm dreaming of, is a fluffy cheesecake. Airy and light -- not dense and heavy. But I'm having some major problems getting there. This was my fourth attempt, and I did learn something -- but not anything that'll help me create a fluffy cheesecake...
I've been experimenting with two different recipes: Cooking for Engineers (direct link to recipe) and the CIA book -- page 1116. The difference between the two is that the latter uses five eggs, while the former uses six, plus two additional egg yolks. Of course, there are other differences: the engineer method recommends starting the baking process at a whopping 500ºF, before reducing it to 200ºF, which burns the crap outta my cheesecakes (see this previous attempt).
The one thing that I've always done differently with both of these recipes, is to whisk the egg whites separately (to stiff peaks), and then gently fold it into the rest of the batter. This is supposed to help create that airy, light, fluffy texture that I'm after...
Also, I've always thought that six eggs, plus two yolks sounded like a bit of an overkill (plus, it meant throwing away two egg whites -- that's a bit wasteful), so I tended to go with just five, or six eggs, period. But this time, I followed the recipe diligently. And it didn't work out too good... Maybe I was too gentle when folding the whipped egg whites in. Maybe I shouldn't have whipped the egg whites at all. Who knows. This remains a mystery to me.
The closest I've gotten to success was this Strawberry Cheesecake, and that one was from the CIA book. I love this book to death, but it being a commercial kinda deal, you always have to scale things down (their recipe is for six cheesecakes. Most other recipes in that thing tend to create ten portions) -- so as superb as it is, it isn't always the first place I look for recipes.
I've got a funny story about that CIA book, though -- "The Professional Chef." I ended up with this thing (the 8th edition -- copper colored) after I gave it to a friend of mine -- I think it was the 7th edition; silver colored. This guy is a much better cook than me, and well worthy of such an ambitious text. I'm not. Still, this buddy of mine doesn't cook as often as I do -- and experience can go a long way to make up for a lack of natural talent. So I'm almost as good as him -- but not quite.
Well, one night, he put together a great dinner... And he has this fantastic kitchen layout where the stove isn't placed against a wall, but stands in a peninsula out in the middle of the kitchen -- so people can gather around, without getting in your way. Ie., you can draft guests into service, and have them stir the pots. Which is wonderful -- a communal cooking experience. Well, this night, we were stirring in some butter, into this sauce. A lot of butter. A helluva lot of butter... Eventually, we asked him -- how much more butter are we supposed to put into this thing?
He opened the fridge, and pulled out this big bowl -- filled to the rim with diced-up butter. There was like, two pounds of butter in that bowl... Now, the reason why this dude is a better cook than me, is because he's relaxed. He's laid back. I'm too neurotic. I worry too much. I think too much. But in this case, I was right. I sounded the alarm -- this dinner was for four people, and that amount of butter for a sauce just didn't jibe.
So I went to check the recipe, in his CIA book -- and lo & behold: the recipe made something like a gallon of sauce...
This recipe is from Cooking For Engineers. Apart from the burnt top (which I intended to cover up anyhow), this recipe was excellent. It did end up collapsing a little in the center, but I think that was the result of me not allowing it to cool properly, and also that I put the glaze on long before it had cooled down. All in all, I liked the texture of this case far better than my second attempt, which was from the illustrious CIA book. The CIA cake was less airy and fluffy. I will definitely do this cake recipe once more -- but I'll probably go with a single temperature, which created a nice, caramelized looked on my second attempt.
