Notes about Recipes in this book

• Baked potatoes for Ann

  • jenmacgregor18 on January 24, 2020

    This method makes the skins very crunchy. Excellent. Even left over & reheated, the skins retained a snap. I loved them.

• Spaghetti with garlic, tomato, basil, and beurre tomate

  • Londonyankee on April 20, 2020

    Delicious and fast! Used cherry tomatoes, used less butter because I didn’t want it to be too high fat. I sliced the garlic because I tend to burn minced garlic. Quick and fresh. Used penne instead, and the portion size was just right.

• Bolognese sauce

  • averythingcooks on June 09, 2023

    I cut the carrots & celery very small and cooked them down with the onion in rendered bacon fat until very soft...ie much longer that he suggests. I added garlic to the aromatics, used a mix of beef & pork and topped up my red wine with white (a quick online check brought up a couple of authors who recommend using a mix of both). After a long simmer with a parm rind, it is rich & flavourful and I'm very happy to have portions of this stashed in the freezer.

• Balsamic vinaigrette

  • averythingcooks on August 25, 2023

    I needed a quick balsamic vinaigrette and this did the job. With a mix of balsamic & red wine vinegars + Dijon & lemon juice, I will likely make this one again.

• Thai green curry

  • averythingcooks on May 03, 2022

    I cut the sauce in 1/2 for 1 lb of boneless skinless thighs. I hope to try his curry paste recipe sometime but I had a jar in the fridge to finish off (and he does suggest jarred "is fine"... it was :). Wanting more veg in our bowls (in addition to the sweet peppers called for), I added pickled hot peppers, broccoli, frozen peas (in place of snap), fresh spinach & Thai basil. I stirred in a bit of "Lime Splash" hot sauce & a handful of steamed Pad Thai style noodles (rather than serve over rice) and lastly, a bit of cream to loosen the sauce. We both really enjoyed this.

• Stir-fried beef with broccoli

  • averythingcooks on August 21, 2020

    This was good but I don't think it was better than the ATK version (100 recipes.....). The only changes I made were the addition of some sliced red onion & red/yellow peppers for more veg, a few good squirts of sriracha at the end to up both the flavour &heat and a final sprinkle of coarsely chopped cashews. We happily ate it over noodles but I'm not sure this version is going into regular rotation.

• All-purpose 3-2-1 dough

  • averythingcooks on October 16, 2020

    I needed a quick pastry to cover some turkey pot pies and have wanted to try Ruhlman’s 3-2-1 formula for a while. Based on my needs today, I made 2/3 of the recipe - very easy to do as given quantities include grams....this time I used an equal mix of butter & vegetable shortening. It isn’t the easiest rolling pastry I’ve ever made but I baked a small test piece (habit with new pie dough recipes) and it is very flaky and crisp!

• Summer tomato sauce

  • averythingcooks on August 20, 2023

    This is a take on Marcella Hazan's famous sauce except here the onion is diced & purposely included in the sauce. He gives a couple of options for the prep and I chose "method 2" which means charring the fresh tomatoes under the broiler before proceeding. I did add some fresh garden garlic but I did not add basil, thinking I could add pesto when I thaw/reheat portions. There's a good chance I'll make this again before end of garden tomato season.

• Sandwich bread

  • averythingcooks on May 05, 2024

    I followed this exactly (including using masses where given) so imagine my disappointment when this dough did not rise AT ALL. It was not a problem with overly warm liquids as he doesn't have you heat anything and yes, afterwards, I tested my yeast in warm sugar water & it is absolutely alive. A little research of other recipes suggest that 1 tsp of yeast for this quantity of flour/buttermilk is simply not enough. I gave it at least 3 (maybe 3 1/2) hours in a warm room...no action/ change at all...and then we decided to try the fridge over night...still nothing. Very sad to throw so many ingredients away.

• Pozole verde

  • jimandtammyfaye on March 17, 2021

    This was my first time to use dried hominy. Mine took longer to soak/cook to become tender. The pozole was a little too sour for my taste, but that likely would have been remedied by the addition of pork. I really missed the pork in this recipe. Also first time to use green chili powder, which I ordered online. It makes quite a different impact than traditional red chili powder. I will enjoy looking for other uses for it. I garnished the pozole more like I would have garnished tortilla soup- fresh cubed avocado, chopped cilantro, diced tomato, and crumbled queso fresco.

• Eat Your Books

  ... is stunning – filled with beautiful imagery, illustrations, and Ruhlman’s best from-scratch recipes.

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• Food52

  The book is structured around 10 recipes that each feature an important set of basic techniques; mastery of these 10 recipes will get the beginning cook pretty, impressively far.

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• Ruhlman.com by Michael Ruhlman

  Authors talks about his new book.

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