Category: food

Since last week my brother-in-law called me out on being biased toward Asian food (which I guess I am except when it comes to desserts) this week I reviewed a non-Asian cookbook, Complete Comfort Food. And luckily, it was GREAT.

This book is one of the best in this bargain cookbook series AND you can currently get it from Amazon in hardback for $5.20 which is totally worth it.

I made the Spaghetti Bolognese recipe and it turned out quite tasty. I normally prefer a thicker sauce like my mom’s but it was a nice change of paste (har-har).

Spaghetti Bolognese from Complete Comfort Food
(According to the book this recipe will bring back happy memories of flat-sharing and communal eating!)

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 lb ground beef
• 14oz can chopped Italian plum tomatoes
• 3 Tablespoons ketchup
• 1 Tablespoon sun-dried tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 3/4 cups beef or vegetable stock
• 3 Tablespoons red wine
• 1 lb dried spaghetti
• salt and ground black pepper
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a medium pan, add the onion and garlic and cook over a low heat, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes until softened. Stire in the mixed herbs and cayenne and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Add the ground beef and cook gently for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently and breaking up any lumps in the meat with a wooden spoon.
2. Stir in the canned tomatoes, ketchup, sun-dried tomato pasted, Worcestershire sauce, oregano and plenty of black pepper. Pour in the stock and red wine and bring to the boil, stirring. Cover the pan, lower the heat and leave the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Drain well and divide among warmed bowls. Taste the sauce and add a little salt if necessary, then spoon it on top of the pasta and sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan. Serve immediately.

The Verdict
4 1/2 (out of 5) stars. This book is a fantastic deal. For under $6 you get a wide collection of comforty-type dishes ranging from pot pie to soups to crepes. A few ethnic dishes like Chinese Fried Rice and Vegetable Korma are thrown in for good measure. It also includes a dessert section that with drool-inducing dishes like Sticky Toffee Pudding and Marble Chocolate Cheesecake. Each recipes includes a photo of the finished dish as well as several photos of the steps involved. Nutritional information isn’t included but for the price it’s not a big deal to me.

This week’s dish was one of my favorites so far. Granted, I love noodles so it’s not unexpected. The Noodle Shop Cookbook by Jackie Passmore covers a wide range of Asian noodles from countries like Thailand, Singapore, China, and Japan.

I hadn’t had udon in a while so I decided to make this simple recipe. It’s kind of like a cold soba dish where you dip each mouthful of noodles into a sauce before you eat them. There’s not much to it other than sauce and noodles so we had some crunchy radish kimchi along with it which turned it was a perfect light summer dinner. I’m definitely going to make it again.

Sama Age Udon from The Noodle Shop Cookbook by Jackie Passmore

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pounds dried udon, or 1 3/4 pounds fresh udon
• 1/4 cup minced whole scallion
• 1 1/4 tablespoons wasabi paste or powder

Dipping Sauce:

• 1 3/4 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon instant dashi stock granules or powder
• 2/3 cup tamari or light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil, add the noodles, and bring the water back to a boil. Add 1 cup of cold water, return to a boil, and add another cup of cold water. Return again to a boil, then cook until the noodles are tender, testing frequently after 2 1/2 minutes to ensure they are done just right; they should be just slightly chewy. Drain and divide among four large bowls. Place each of these on its own tray.

Best each bowl place a small dish containing some of the minced scallion and a knob of wasabi paste. (If using wasabi powder, mix to a paste with a little sake or water).

Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat almost to boiling. Remove from heat.

Bring a large kettle of water to a boil. Pour about 1 1/2 cups of boiling water into each of the bowls of noodles (I didn’t see the point of this and just poured some of the hot water left over from boiling the noodles into the bowls). Pour the warm sauce into four other bowls, place on the serving trays and take immediately to the table.

To eat, sprinkle scallion onto the sauce (I added mine directly to the noodles instead), add wasabi paste to taste, and stir with chopsticks to dissolve. Life the noodles from the hot water, hold them over the bowl a few seconds to drain, dip into the sauce, and eat with the noisy, splattering slurp of a noddle professional.

The Verdict
4 (out of 5) stars. I get the impression that this book was pretty ground breaking for it’s time (first published in 1994). The recipes seem authentic and cover noodles from a sizable swath of Asian countries. The main flaws of the book are the total lack of photos (there are some line drawings to illustrate various techniques) and the directions that can seem long-winded or overly complicated.

Overall it’s a good book that covers almost every Asian noodle dish you could wish to eat. However, more recent cookbooks with photos and more explanatory material might be better suited to the novice noodle cook.

Things were kind of crazy around here this week so I picked an easy recipe from another one of my bargain cookbooks,Best-Ever Chicken by Linda Fraser. But by the time N got home from golf class (he has realized that it’s kind of a career requirement for a lawyer to know how to swing a club) and I started on dinner it was nine o’clock. N graciously agreed to chop all the vegetables for the salsa (which was the tastiest part of the meal) and so I repaid his kindness but serving him still-raw-in-the-middle chicken. Le sigh.

Dun-dun, DUN–beneath the oregano crust lurks the rawness!

Chicken Breasts with Tomato-Corn Salsa from Best Ever Chicken by Linda Fraser

Chicken Ingredients

• 4 chicken breast halves, about 6 oz each, boned and skinned
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon coarse black pepper
• salt

Salsa Ingredients

• 1 fresh hot green chili pepper
• 1 lb. tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 1/4 cups corn, freshly cooked or thawed (I roasted some fresh corn in the oven and it was delicious!)
• 3 scallions, chopped
• 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. With a mallet, pound the chicken breasts between two sheets of plastic wrap until thin.
2. In a shallow dish, combine the lemon juice, oil, cumin, oregano and pepper
3. Add the chicken and turn to coast. Cover and let stand for at least 2 hours, or chill overnight
4. To make the salsa, char the chili skin over a gas flame (or under the broiler.) Let cool for 5 minutes. Wearing rubber gloves, carefully rub off the charred skin. For a less hot flavor, discard the seeds.
5. Chop the chili very finely and place in a bowl. Add the rest of the salsa ingredients and mix well.
6. Remove the chicken from the marinade. Season lightly.
7. Heat a ridged broiler pan. Add the chicken breasts and cook until browned, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook the meat on the other side for 3-4 minutes more. Serve the chicken with the salsa.

The Verdict
2 1/2 (out of 5) stars. I think this book executes it’s goal pretty well (providing a wide range of dishes based on chicken) but for some reason I wasn’t really feeling it. (Maybe I’m just embarrassed that I didn’t cook the chicken correctly?) Each recipe comes with photos and the directions are written very clearly. I just don’t think it will be a book I’ll go back to again and again.

So dear readers, I have a question for you. One of the reasons I wanted to do this cookbook series was to thin out my cookbook collection. I’ve amassed too many over the years and need to pare it down. I was thinking that I’d give away books that aren’t really for me by letting people leave a comment and then picking a winner at random and mailing said book to them. But is it weird to give a book a lukewarm review and then offer it as a giveaway? I don’t want to offend anyone but I like it when books go to a good home.

What do you think?

On the spectrum of Rachael Ray haters/fans I find myself feeling mostly vague admiration for her. Like a lot of people I’m a sucker for a good Horatio Alger-esque rags-to-riches story and there is no denying the woman’s impressive drive and ambition.

I’ve made some of the recipes from her first book and liked them okay and so I was pleased when I received this book, her second, as a gift. But when I actually sat down and looked through it all I felt was ambivalence.

I made the Supreme Pizza Pasta Salad recipe and it turned out fine. It’s a decent pasta salad that kids might enjoy since it does, true to it’s name, taste vaguely like pizza. I myself prefer a little lighter-tasting pasta salad.

Supreme Pizza Pasta Salad from Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals 2

Salad Ingredients

• 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1/2 medium red onion, chopped
• 8 fresh white button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 stick pepperoni, casing removed and cut into small dice
• 1 pound frewsh mozzarella cheese
• 20 leaves fresh basil, torn or thinly sliced
• 1 pound wagon whell pasta, cooked all dente, cooled under cold water, then drained

Dressing Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 gteaspoon dried oregano leaves of Italian dried seasoning
• 1 rounded tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (eyeball it)
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (eyeball it)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Combine tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, bell pepper, pepperoni, mozzarella, basil, and pasta in a big bowl. Whisk garlic salt, oregano or Italian seasoning, tomato paste and vinegar together. Stream in olive oil while continuing to whisk. When oil is incorporated, pour dressing over pasta salad, add a few grinds of black pepper, then toss to coat evenly. Adjust your seasonings and serve. Left overs make a great lunch or snack the next day!

The Verdict
2 (out of 5 stars). In general I find the book a touch too hokey and chipper. Meals are organized according to categories such as “Make Your Own Take-Out, Family-Style Suppers, Passport Meals, etc…” when I prefer books organized by protein or dish category. A lack of pictures (except for 8 color pages in the middle of the book) and any nutritional information were big minuses for me. It wouldn’t be such an issue except that the book’s list price is $16.95 which seems too high to me. It feels like her publisher wanted to take advantage of Ray’s new-found popularity and jacked the price up without adding a lot of value of content.