Another dish from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything
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From the category archives:
Food
I first discovered the Korean pancake while watching the free Not Your Grandmother’s Pancake podcast on iTunes. In it, Mark Bittman prepares a Korean-style savory pancake. The recipe is available from the New York Times. I used the one from How to Cook Everything
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Voila! Key lime pie in a clear, pyrex “pie tin.” I should really have saved the tins from all the pies that I have bought at Marie Callender’s all these years.
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I tried out the key lime pie recipe from Mark Bittman’s
How to Cook Everything
- Graham Cracker Crumbs. First, I started making the graham cracker crust. The food processor quickly reduced the graham crackers to a bowl of crumbs. However, the food processor wasn’t suited for incorporating the butter into the graham cracker crumbs. Hand mixing with a spatula worked better.
- Graham Cracker Crust. After the butter has moistened the crumbs, I had to form the crust in a pie pan. I used a pyrex pie pan instead of the traditional pie tin because that was all I had on hand. So, I had an easier time making the bottom of the crust. I used a measuring cup to compact the crumbs against the bottom of the pan and smooth out the crust. As for the sides, I had a more challenging time. Pressing the crumbs against the side was difficult because the crumbs moved out of the way.
- Key Limes. I bought a sack of key limes so that I could get an authentic experience. These limes are small. Don’t even think of using an automatic juicer because you will not be able to hold onto the limes. I ended up cutting the limes in half and squeezing by hand to extract the juices. I needed 12 key limes to get 1/3 cup of lime juice. Next time, I’ll stick with the regular limes.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk. I’m not sure if all cans of sweetened condensed milk are the same. I’ll have to look carefully the next time I am at the supermarket. Anyways, the pie tasted a bit too sweet to me. I’ll have to find a substitute next time to lighten the pie and make it less sweet.
- Food Coloring. The key lime pie filling should not be lime green. So, if you see key lime pie with lime green filling, the pastel hue comes from food coloring.
- Baking. Visually, the filling did not look set when I first checked on it. However, a quick prod with a toothpick reveal that the filling had set. Appearances can be deceiving. That’s the life of a novice pie maker.
- Meringue. Easy to make with an electric mixer. Don’t attempt with a hand whisk. I tried to smooth out the meringue, but my efforts were less than artisanal.
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Luckily, the New Year is still a few weeks away. Although I had pledged earlier to stop buying cookbooks without mouth-watering photos, I think I am excused this once. Breaking a 2009 resolution in 2008 doesn’t count.
Anyways, the book that led me astray was How to Cook Everything
I’ve also been on a quest as of late to make respectable pot stickers. After many attempts and different cookbooks, I think I’ve found a winner (ironically in a cookbook authored by a non-Chinese). The food critics at home all loved the pot sticker filling. This cookbook also provides directions on making Asian-Style Dumpling Wrappers. One of these weekends, I’ll attempt to produce some home made pot stickers wrappers, of course, with a package of store-bought wrappers as a back-up in case the recipe is not foolproof.
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I love that the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook offers a broad range of recipes. If I am looking for some basic recipe, I can find it (or something similar) inside. However, I hate that this cookbook is not inspirational. I want a cookbook that inspires creativity and arouses the senses. In other words, I want my mouth-watering glossy photos. For example, i have flipped past the Dutch Baby Pancakes recipe on numerous occasions without the slightest urge to try it out. (I will note the the free, online recipe includes a photo, but the paid recipe in the cookbook does not.)
Anyways, I was over at the Steamy Kitchen website when I became entranced by the German Oven Pancakes photos. After I read through the recipe, I recognized it right away as a variation of Martha Stewart’s Dutch Baby Pancakes. Sufficiently inspired, I ended up making pancakes the next morning. Needless to say, my pancake ended up looking completely different, almost reminiscent of a pineapple bun (菠萝包). For 2009, my resolution will be to stop buying cookbooks that don’t have luscious photos.
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When I think smoothie, I think Jamba Juice. I find that the taste and texture of their smoothies are spot on every time. Their smoothies remain nice and thick long after I have departed the store. I really wish the frappuchino drinks at Starbucks had a similar consistency. Occasionally the frappuchinos are well mixed. However, more often than not, the ice and the coffee already start separating before I’m out of the parking lot. Grrr…
So, I was most curious when I saw that Starbucks is now selling smoothies. I was hoping that the smoothies would be just like the ones at Jamba Juice. I tried the Orange Mango Banana. The banana flavor was overpowering. So much so that I couldn’t even detect a hint of orange or mango. The consistency of the Starbucks smoothie was better than the frappuchinos, but the taste wasn’t there for me. The other flavor—banana chocolate—didn’t appeal to me. Too bad Starbucks couldn’t make a decent smoothie. They are conveniently located just about every where. The thing is smoothies are not that hard to make. Just visit the Vita-Mix booth when they have a tradeshow at the local Costco and see for yourself.
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Last month, Newsweek ran a piece on Six of the Most Fattening Ice Cream Flavors. Having used the Cuisinart ICE-20 for two weeks now, I don’t think the extra ingredients used to flavor the ice cream matter as much as the basic ingredients in the ice cream itself. Out of the box, the Cuisinart ice cream maker comes with a basic instruction book and a few recipes. I’ve tried the vanilla ice cream, lime sherbet, orange sherbet and pineapple sherbet recipes. I’ve also improvised and made banana frozen yogurt.
In general, the texture of the desserts is a bit better when freshly made. After I freeze it, the desserts get a bit too hard. Also, I’ve been substituting half and half as well as non-fat milk in place of the heavy cream and whole milk combination. So, my desserts end up not as creamy as the store bought favorites. I think I will have to test a batch one of these days with just non-fat milk and no cream to see how bad (or good) non-fat ice cream really tastes. I haven’t tried any of the premium ice cream recipes that require numerous eggs and egg yolks. A little too frightening.
Two issues. The booklet says to place the freezer bowl in the freezer for 6 hours to 22 hours. For my first batch, I was a bit too eager and shaded towards the 6 hour mark. Even though the bowl was completely frozen when I started, it defrosted much too fast and I ended with a cold, creamy soup. After that, I left the bowl in the freezer for 24 hours each time and haven’t had a repeat of that initial experience since. Also, I find that the recipes generally produce more liquids than can fit into the bowl. So, I’ve been scaling down to about 2 cups of liquids and that has worked out much better. Of course, if you’ve seen Super Size Me and heard the commentary about the health problems experienced by the founders of Baskin-Robbins and Ben and Jerry’s, you might avoid ice cream altogether (or not).
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The first time I opened up My China by Kylie Kwong, I was underwhelmed. It had none of the mouth-watering glossy photos found in Simple Chinese Cooking. Now that I’ve actually tested out some of the recipes, I’m sold.
Yesterday, I tried out the Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Coriander, Ginger and Chilli. Sort of. I substituted Shanghai noodles in place of fresh rice noodle sheets and ditched the red chilli since I am not a fan of spicy foods. The noodles were absolutely flavorful. Interestingly, the recipe called for cilantro (or coriander) stems, which is the part that I usually throw out. Shows what I know.
I also made Pumpkin Fritters for dinner. Absolutely delicious with great flavors and a crunchy exterior, but a total pain to make. Peeling a pumpkin is no easy task. I had to first cut the kabocha into smaller slices and then remove the peel with a vegetable peeler. I’m sure there must be a bettery way around this. Next time, I’ll bake the kabocha and then scoop out the pumpkin flesh. That surely has to be easier than trying to remove a hard, waxy peel from a hard squash. The recipe also has a continuity error in that it describes how to make the pumpkin cakes and how to make the batter, but omits the part about putting the pumpkin cakes in the batter before deep frying. Fortunately, I didn’t follow the recipe literally or else havoc would have ensued.
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I really liked Kylie Kwong’s Simple Chinese Cooking, so I picked up My China: A Feast for All the Senses as well. First impression. My China is a huge book! 484 pages. However, I wouldn’t exactly call it a cookbook. Only 15-20% of the book is devoted to recipes, and the rest is about her travels through China. So, if you are looking for an anthology of Chinese recipes, this is not the book. Secondly, she shows us a lot of photos of regional dishes, like that mouth-watering pot of steamed buns on the book cover. However, feast with your eyes only because you won’t find recipes for all those tempting dishes in this book. And, if you loved the glossy photos from Simple Chinese Cooking, all the pages in this book have a flat finish.
The real test will come when I have a chance to try some of the recipes. The malt vinegar present in all recipes from Simple Chinese Cooking have been replaced with brown rice vinegar in My China.
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