Posted by Robyn Lee, April 23, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The following recipe is from the April 23rd edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
Oprah Winfrey is known more for her skills as a television show host and not for her work in the kitchen, so it makes sense that her book The Oprah Magazine Cookbook is her compilation of recipes from famous chefs. This recipe for African chicken in peanut sauce comes from Norma Jean Darden, cookbook author and proprietor of two restaurants and catering company in New York City. This dish calls for browning chicken in a skillet and finishing it off in a creamy coconut milk-based peanut sauce.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 26, 2008 at 5:00 PM
At various times throughout this meal, I assumed failure. I hardly ever make curry, especially an African-based one I found in The Ethnic Paris Cookbook
. But it looked so easy that I had to give it shot, even if my instincts were rebelling. For one, besides some cloves, it only uses turmeric for spice. To act as some kind of insurance, I tossed out my aging old plastic bottle of the yellow spice and bought a brand new bottle from my local outlet of Penzeys Spice. Still, I had doubts.
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Posted by Robin Bellinger, March 24, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Nigel Slater’s luxurious and deeply aromatic noodle dish has been on my poorly-maintained “to-make” list since Amazon delivered my copy of Appetite
four years ago. It was the title that won me over, I must admit, though the pictures are pretty convincing, too: fat shrimp, tangled noodles, a beautiful green purée. One thing and another (lack of Cuisinart, fear of fish sauce) interfered, and I didn’t get around to making it until last weekend. And then—it was too spicy for me to enjoy. I suffered through it with a glass of milk and hoped it would mellow overnight.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, March 12, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I didn’t even attempt to take a picture of this monstrosity because I knew no camera angle could make this blackened pile of slosh look anything approaching edible. I’d blame Barbara Kafka if it didn’t taste so remarkable. In her famous Roasting cookbook
, she advocates cooking my gorgeous green cabbage at 500°F, which quickly turns it black. Then it's mixed with the Asian-inspired sauce—also black—and before I could think twice, I was staring into the face of the ugliest dish I’d ever created.
The impetus for the recipe came in the middle of roasting a chicken according to the Kafka method. I had an obscenely hot oven and figured I should find another recipe from her book to toss in. Some cabbage was lying around and everything for the sauce was in the fridge. And while it does disfigure the vegetable beyond all recognition, it also crisps it up and layers it in flavor. Far from weepy and aromatic, it’s rich and complex. I wouldn’t serve this for company, but it is a great side dish.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 27, 2008 at 4:15 PM
I’ve had chipotle mashed potatoes with regular old russets a few times, but they didn’t do much for me. Though far from atrocious, nothing new was created. It just tasted like mashed potatoes with an awkward tinge of heat, not a unique dish. Perhaps it was the version I had. I’m certainly not a mashed potato purist, but I like my pairings to work together
But chipotle smashed sweet potatoes do work. I think it all comes down to balance. The chipotle kick still exists, but it is calmed by the sweet and creamy body of the sweet potatoes. And that really makes all the difference. So does steaming the potatoes, a technique I was incredibly leery about, thinking it would take too long. Then again, Alton Brown rarely fails, and this Good Eats-approved recipe is just another shining example.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 15, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I didn’t mean to shake things up; I was just being resourceful. Here I was with a perfectly ripe avocado and not a lime to be found. When I usually face such draughts of product, I make do. But messing up the perfect duality of avocado and lime felt like a sin. I couldn’t just let that avocado sit there and turn brown on me. It’s hard enough finding ones that are ready to eat.
I did have some frozen corn. So into the depths of Google I went searching for some kind answer. I came out with this rather novel asian-inspired guacamole that replaced the acid of the limes with vinegar and added depth of flavor with toasted sesames seeds and sesame oil. It’s certainly not a replacement for the perfection that is guacamole, but it is an interesting change. If I had to change anything, I would have left the sesame seeds out—they messed with the consistency of the creamy product. I think a toasted sesame oil would be perfect. Anyway, just like the Mexican standby it was eaten very quickly.
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Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, February 11, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I’ve been dreaming about enchiladas recently. I’m not sure where the hankering came from, but it certainly wasn’t helped after I had some spectacularly bad ones at a local Tex-Mex outlet. I decided to tackle them myself. There is no standard sauce, and some can get very complicated. When I found this basic red sauce that contained six ingredients and could be done in less than 20 minutes, I gave it a shot. To my amazement, there’s not a tomato to be found in it. Shows how much I know about enchiladas.
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Posted by Blake Royer, January 29, 2008 at 4:00 PM
I almost didn't survive the second stage of this recipe, when fermented fish sauce hits the hot pan, and it suddenly seemed like the the scent of a thousand dead fish had washed upon my kitchen's shores. I almost turned back. The nutty, cheesy, anchovy smell was overwhelming—how could this eventually taste good? But a short writeup in last week's New York Times food section had promised me a "bright, palate-awakening blend of salty, sweet and spicy" that could be made in 12 minutes. I pressed on.
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