Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chicken and cashew stir-fry

  • Rutabaga on October 24, 2018

    This is good for a quick stir-fry dish using basic ingredients, but the flavor, while nice enough, didn't really pop. To be fair, I left out the red pepper flakes. I also should have let the sauce thicken a bit more before adding the chicken again, so that it better coated the meat. Be sure to have the heat up high before adding the sauce so that it starts to reduce quickly. Its mild flavor means it can accommodate a wide range of tastes; my seven-year-old, who doesn't tend to go for dishes with strong flavors, really liked it.

• Asparagus with morels and tarragon

  • Rutabaga on April 07, 2015

    Delicious! I love how the butter and lemon meld together to make a kind of eggless faux-holandaise sauce, and the morels are a special treat. Since I could not find white asparagus, I substituted purple, which sadly lost it purple hue while cooking, but still had a slightly sweeter taste that was reminiscent of the white variety. Unfortunately, I did not adequately snap off the ends of the purple asparagus, thinking that simply trimming and peeling it would be enough. Next time, snap! The bottom inch or two was too woody to eat. I also left out the tarragon since I didn't want to buy it just for this dish. Erroneously, Gourmet magazine and Epicurious list a total active time of one hour to make this recipe, which is crazy. You can easily make it in half and hour, or even faster if you start sautéing the shallots while the water comes to the boil for the asparagus and you prep the remaining ingredients.

  • GiselleMarie on April 27, 2020

    This is okay but all the steps aren’t really worth it. I prefer asparagus stir-fried Chinese-style or roasted in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Still, it’s nice to try something different.