Notes about Recipes in this book

• Butternut squash soup with herbed cheese dumplings

  • debwfrank on February 06, 2010

    No chicken wings, just broth, a mistake in the listing. This is delicious. I subbed herbed cream cheese for half of the goat's cheese.

  • Laura on June 21, 2012

    Pg. 21. I have not made this recipe, but I did want to make an addendum to the note by debwfrank. She writes that there are no 'chicken wings' in the recipe. Actually, while there are no wings in the soup recipe, they are included in the chicken stock recipe that is suggested for this dish. It is EYB practice to include all ingredients for sub-recipes so that the reader knows what they're getting into.

• Curried butternut squash soup with shrimp

  • Laura on September 16, 2016

    Pg. 20. Made this for lunch today and we really liked it. I did make a few changes either due to necessity or preference. Used ghee rather than butter. Used green curry paste because I've never been able to find yellow curry paste. Used cooked shrimp and just added them to the finished soup, rather than sauteeing fresh shrimp in butter. The flavor of the soup was really good and we both enjoyed it. I'd make it again.

  • wodtke on February 27, 2016

    This is quite good, and with the shrimp sufficient for a light supper, but it's not hugely better than most curried butternut squash soups.

• Oven-roasted beets with goat cheese

  • Laura on January 22, 2016

    Pg. 130. My usual method of roasting beets is to peel them, cut them into bite-size pieces, toss with olive oil and black pepper, then roast. Not anymore! I'll be cooking them this way from now on -- so easy and so delicious! I combined the beets and goat cheese with some salad greens and drizzled the dressing over. It made a wonderful lunch.

  • wcassity on January 04, 2014

    One of my favorite beet preparations ever. Perfect ratio of beets to goat cheese to olive oil. The raw beet green ribbons are a great addition.

• Roast vegetables with red pepper oil

  • Laura on August 22, 2014

    Pg. 132. This was a marvelous way to cook lots of fresh summer produce from the farmers market. It was absolutely delicious, although a bit of a pain to make -- it was quite labor intensive. The red pepper oil I made using a food mill rather than a juicer to 'juice' the pepper and that worked well. The pepper oil added a nice sweet and hot accent to the dish. This is certainly a very special preparation that I will probably reserve in the future for special occasions.

• Sautéed chicken chunks with onions

  • Laura on May 24, 2011

    Pg. 259. The title of this recipe does not sound terribly appealing, and yet it is really good! And it's quick and easy. I would definitely make this again.

• Chicken breasts in foil with rosemary and olive oil

  • Laura on November 11, 2012

    Pg. 267. Wow, this produces an amazingly moist and juicy chicken breast. And the rosemary and lemon flavors are just right. The cook time seemed a bit short to me, but it turned out to be perfect. The only thing that was a disappointment was that the spinach turned an ugly brown and there was very little of it left. In future, I would just leave it out and cook it by another method. Also, be sure to cook this in a pan that is already seasoned, because if it isn't, this cooking method will season it, whether you want that or not -- I learned that awhile back from a companion recipe to this one. This time I used my seasoned wok and that worked well.

• Thai-style chicken breasts in foil

  • Laura on May 08, 2010

    Pg. 271. Loved this! It was so easy and yet delicious. Next time I would sub roasted sesame oil for the peanut oil (as the authors suggest) just because I like it better. Next time I would also use my seasoned wok rather than a regular, unseasoned frying pan -- it nearly ruined my pan, creating an unwanted seasoned effect. Next time I might skip the jicama -- not much flavor -- although my husband liked the crunch it added. The mango was a delicious, refreshing component. Will definitely make this again!

• Short ribs braised with Chinese flavors

  • Laura on March 05, 2019

    Pg. 298. I've come to regard this cookbook as a very reliable source for great recipes. So, I was surprised when this one didn't wow me. I chose to make this version of short ribs because I had all but one of the ingredients listed. The dried chiles I replaced with a tsp of red pepper flakes. The house smelled amazing during the several hours this was cooking in the oven. I was somewhat less enamored of the final result. It just wasn't as flavorful as I was expecting. My husband, on the other hand, loved it. In future, I'll probably stick to more western-style short ribs recipes.

• Roast pork with rosemary

  • Laura on August 01, 2014

    Pg. 312. This was very good. I made a couple of modifications: I roasted a 2.5 lb boneless pork roast, so I altered the roast time and temperature to accommodate it. Also cut the amount of sugar in half. It still formed a nice crust, but wasn't as sugary as I imagine it would be with the full 1/4 cup of sugar. I would make it again.

  • tagubajones on April 13, 2013

    So easy and so good. I cut the sugar a bit so it doesn't brown as nicely but it's still plenty sweet. Also, for a good time, cram a few cloves of garlic and rosemary leaves into the meat before cooking.

• Sautéed vegetables with beans and pistou

  • wcassity on August 05, 2021

    Delicious. Great clean-out-the-fridge summer soup - used lots of basil, turnips, other odds and ends.

• Classic sautéed snapper

  • twoyolks on January 03, 2021

    The fish cooked beautifully and was moist and tender.

• Roast chicken with ginger-and-soy whiskey glaze

  • twoyolks on February 11, 2022

    The glaze blackened pretty significantly for me and added next to no flavor.

  • e_ballad on November 24, 2016

    Yum-o-yum. The glaze makes this incredibly moreish. Can highly recommend. I only brined for an hour & don't think I would have wanted to have extended the time any further.

• Frisée salad with gizzard confit and lentils

  • wodtke on January 15, 2016

    Although this recipe looks challenging, it isn't really hard, and the results are delicious. Strongly recommended for ambitious cooks. Bittman and Vongerichten think their recipe feeds 4, but not in our house. (I made the confit in the oven to maintain the 190 degree F required, rather than trying to constantly adjust temp on the cooktop. Worked perfectly.)

• Spaetzle with butter

  • sarahawker on February 15, 2015

    This dough was very heavy. Did not push through a collander at all. We rolled it out and cut into ribbons. The saute step was very sticky, lots of clean-up. Tasted great though.

• Alsatian chicken with creamy Riesling-onion sauce

  • sarahawker on February 15, 2015

    Made this for valentines dinner w/ the family. Very good sauce, made a lot of it. I did end up putting the chicken back in the oven without the sauce to crisp the skin and that was definitely a good idea.

• Sautéed chicken chunks with harissa and couscous

  • Charlotte_vandenberg on July 20, 2018

    Nice flavors, but a bit bland. Next time I’m going to add a little bit more salt, harissa and cumin.

• Best scrambled eggs

  • theuninvitedguest on June 13, 2015

    This is a very particular type of scrambled egg -- very soft and rich, with an exceptionally small curd (the recipe's note that it should "look like oatmeal" is spot on). It's delicious on thick toast. It's not my everyday scrambled egg, but it's very tasty.

• Chicken pot pie

  • e_ballad on November 25, 2020

    While it tasted ok, there’s no ‘gravy’, only the stock, which pooled at the bottom of the dish. Reducing this in the dish would have overcooked the chicken & vegetables. I wonder if a thickening agent was accidentally omitted from the recipe.

• Frisée salad Lyonnaise-style

  • anya_sf on March 16, 2022

    Good, basic version of this dish. The recipe didn't say to drain the bacon, so I added the bacon fat to the salad as well (my bacon wasn't too fatty). I used spring onion (what I had) instead of shallot and sauteed it briefly in the bacon fat. I didn't need all the vinaigrette. With the bacon fat and egg yolk, the salad was well-balanced; without those, the dressing would have been too sharp for my taste.

• Curried sautéed chicken chunks with coconut milk

  • ashallen on August 19, 2021

    Pleasant, easy dish. Flavors were less intense than I prefer but that was partly my doing since I chose to use a curry powder that was past its prime (I doubled the quantity called for in the recipe but that still wasn't enough!). The dish is pretty simple so there aren't a lot of places for a weak ingredient to hide. Relatively saucy so it went well with rice. Since it's an easy dish, I might try making it again when I have a fresh curry powder I like on hand. Cooked well in a (well-seasoned) carbon steel-wok rather than the nonstick pan suggested in the recipe.

• Slow-cooked salmon with parsley and capers

  • selmablanusa on May 09, 2020

    Easy, delicious, quick.