I devour cooking magazines. It's a bright day for me when one arrives in the mailbox, and I can put everything else aside to go through it. The first time through I put a checkmark on recipes I think I want to try; second time through I rip those pages out and check to be sure I haven't missed a gem or two. Then the magazine sits on my desk for a week or two, until I'm sure I'm through--maybe one more quick flip through--and into the trash. I used to save them but I ended with huge stacks all over the house and no way to find any recipe I wanted. I purged--my one regret is that somewhere along the way I lost an issueof Bon Appetit devoted to Scotland.
A magazine I won't name came the other day--let's just say it wasn't Southern Living--and I was struck by how weird some of the food was. Really, who wants a salad of bacon, onion, and peaches? There's so much praise of innovative young chefs these days that I think some of them reach too far trying to be "on the edge." Onions with a burned-onion puree (it really was black)--I have burned onions on occasion, and it isn't pretty--why do it deliberately? Tuna canned with jalpeno? Why? Can the tuna, and add jalopeno later if you want. Roast prawn soup with algae? A sub with grilled asparaagus and smoky French dressing? Come now, that's not what a sub was meant to be. It was a relief to come across Bobby Flay's recipe for asparagus salad.
By comparison, I cooked a mundane meal tonight but it sure was good. I grilled chicken (a grillmeister I'm not, and this was a huge experiment that turned out fine). I don't particularly like chicken grilled with traditional bbq sauce, but this had a white sauce of mayo, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic powder, pepper, and smoked paprika. Look for the recipe from Kraft Foods. Not sure what difference the marinade made but the chicken was moist, tender, and good. I had half a zucchini, so I split it, brushed it with olive oil, added salt and pepper and grilled it. Delicious. Served with sliced tomatoes and a lemony potato salad that is terrific.
Here's the potato salad, thanks to friend Sue Winter who brought it to a potluck supper once.
6 medium red potatoes
1 small onion, diced (I used several scallions--made it so colorful!)
1/2 c. celery, diced
1/4 to 1/2 c. finely chopped parsley
small jar of diced pimiento - color be darned, I left this out
Sauce
2 tsp. lemon peel, fresh (hardest part of the whole thing except maybe dicing hot potatoes)
3-4 Tbsp. lemon juice, fresh
3-4 Tbsp. salad oil (for once I didn't use olive oil, and I think it was a good decision)
1 Tbsp. salt (don't skimp!)
1/4 tsp. pepper
Boil potatoes until tender. drain, peel and dice while warm. Add onions. Pour sauce over warm potatoes and onions to coat well. Add celery, pimiento & parsley. Chill. Serves 8.
A magazine I won't name came the other day--let's just say it wasn't Southern Living--and I was struck by how weird some of the food was. Really, who wants a salad of bacon, onion, and peaches? There's so much praise of innovative young chefs these days that I think some of them reach too far trying to be "on the edge." Onions with a burned-onion puree (it really was black)--I have burned onions on occasion, and it isn't pretty--why do it deliberately? Tuna canned with jalpeno? Why? Can the tuna, and add jalopeno later if you want. Roast prawn soup with algae? A sub with grilled asparaagus and smoky French dressing? Come now, that's not what a sub was meant to be. It was a relief to come across Bobby Flay's recipe for asparagus salad.
By comparison, I cooked a mundane meal tonight but it sure was good. I grilled chicken (a grillmeister I'm not, and this was a huge experiment that turned out fine). I don't particularly like chicken grilled with traditional bbq sauce, but this had a white sauce of mayo, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic powder, pepper, and smoked paprika. Look for the recipe from Kraft Foods. Not sure what difference the marinade made but the chicken was moist, tender, and good. I had half a zucchini, so I split it, brushed it with olive oil, added salt and pepper and grilled it. Delicious. Served with sliced tomatoes and a lemony potato salad that is terrific.
Here's the potato salad, thanks to friend Sue Winter who brought it to a potluck supper once.
6 medium red potatoes
1 small onion, diced (I used several scallions--made it so colorful!)
1/2 c. celery, diced
1/4 to 1/2 c. finely chopped parsley
small jar of diced pimiento - color be darned, I left this out
Sauce
2 tsp. lemon peel, fresh (hardest part of the whole thing except maybe dicing hot potatoes)
3-4 Tbsp. lemon juice, fresh
3-4 Tbsp. salad oil (for once I didn't use olive oil, and I think it was a good decision)
1 Tbsp. salt (don't skimp!)
1/4 tsp. pepper
Boil potatoes until tender. drain, peel and dice while warm. Add onions. Pour sauce over warm potatoes and onions to coat well. Add celery, pimiento & parsley. Chill. Serves 8.
No comments:
Post a Comment