Notes about Recipes in this book

• Taiwanese five-spice pork with rice (Lu rou fan)

  • anya_sf on November 10, 2020

    This was a salt bomb, although the overall flavor was good. Maybe I was supposed to use reduced-salt soy sauce in the sauce mixture too? Recipe just said "soy sauce". Not sure what mixing the meat with soy sauce does. I ended up mixing in 1 lb spinach and 8 oz peas, which made it palatable when served over lots of rice. I would consider trying this again using reduced-salt soy sauce in the sauce, no soy sauce in the meat, and possibly less sauce overall.

• Chicken lajawab

  • TonyInSeattle on March 10, 2021

    This was super delicious. I actually made it with boneless, skinless thighs (because I bought the wrong ones) and it worked out perfectly. I had three pounds of thighs, but I would actually add another half pound or so next time. This makes quite a bit of marinade.

• Linguine with spiced beef-onion sauce and feta

  • Shewi128 on January 06, 2022

    The flavors didn't meld. I won't make again.

  • anya_sf on June 02, 2024

    I adjusted the proportions for what I had on hand: 1 lb ground beef, 4 oz feta, 28 oz crushed tomatoes, 1lb linguine, 1/4 c mint + 1/4 c basil. We liked that ratio of beef to pasta. I would have liked the full amounts of feta and mint, but the overall flavor was pretty good and it was relatively quick to prepare.

• Roasted butternut squash with hoisin and chives

  • anya_sf on November 07, 2020

    Recipe did not say how long to roast the squash initially; 20 minutes seemed about right. My broiler is very strong and the pieces were charred after only 3 minutes, yet were not fully tender, so I roasted them another 5 or so minutes after that. Next time I'll roast them until nearly tender (and may cut the pieces smaller), then just broil at the end for extra color. The hoisin/vinegar sauce nicely balanced the sweetness of the squash. Would make again.

• Spicy butter-soy chicken

  • anya_sf on November 07, 2020

    I really liked this. Not wanting it too spicy, I used 1 serrano chili with seeds removed, and it wasn't spicy at all. The chicken was plenty salty without extra salt at the end, great over rice.

• Smothered chicken with bourbon and miso

  • Lsblackburn1 on October 27, 2020

    I was excited about this and spent a bundle on ingredients, but the end result was kind of meh. Not as flavorful as I’d hoped. I used chanterelles instead of shiitakes because they’re in season, but even they didn’t really shine here.

  • hillsboroks on November 05, 2020

    I have to agree with Lsblackburn1 that while this dish is comfort food good it is not blow you away good. I used shiitakes and served it over brown rice so it ended up tasting like a really good chicken and rice dish. I would like to try making it again and double the bourbon and miso to see if amping up those flavors a bit more might really make it special.

  • Shewi128 on March 21, 2022

    This was good, but not amazing. I liked it, but didn't love it. I had the ingredients on hand, so it wasn't a big deal that it didn't blow me away.

  • billcranecos on March 07, 2024

    I'm in agreement with the other reviews here. This is good, but the miso & bourbon flavors do not really come through.

• German pork schnitzel

  • Rinshin on June 21, 2022

    Liked the detailed instructions. Tasted just as good as in Austria. I normally use pork loins but using tenderloins made these very tender. Best to salt and pepper well first on meat before dredging. I think I was a bit too light on it. Served with shown cucumber-dill with carrots salad, ligonberry, spaetzle with browned onion bits, and sweet and sour braised red cabbage. Since can’t be there yet, living through food at home.

• Croatian mashed potatoes

  • Skamper on December 13, 2020

    Delicious. Made them in advance to heat at half time. Added a splash of half & half to loosen them up while reheating. Not sure this was strictly necessary. Mixed all of the chives in rather than sprinkling on top.

  • chawkins on June 20, 2022

    We really enjoyed this. Made half a recipe, the caramelized onion is essential and the paprika added a certain je ne sais quio.

  • jenburkholder on November 09, 2025

    Very nice, I used scallions instead of chives. The caramelized onions definitely made the dish skew to the sweet side, but as long as that goes with the main dish, this is a repeat.

• Italian sausage and mushroom ragù with pappardelle

  • anya_sf on February 10, 2021

    The pappardelle I found came in 8 oz packages, so I cooked 2, which yielded a more "Italian" ratio of sauce to pasta and ended up being much more than we needed (but we didn't mind leftovers). The sauce was delicious and you couldn't taste the cinnamon, just some unidentifiable extra flavor. The recipe specifies bulk sausage, not link sausage, but honestly link sausage with casings removed would still work fine - I had trouble breaking apart the bulk sausage.

  • chawkins on August 08, 2024

    A wonderful ragu and quite quick. I used 8 oz of button mushrooms instead of the portobello asked for and crushed tomato from garden tomatoes.

• Toasted noodles with shrimp (Rossejat de fideus)

  • Kinhawaii on January 04, 2021

    Made a delicious lunch! Would make again.

• Rich and savory meat-free gravy

  • anya_sf on November 27, 2020

    Excellent flavor, very savory with meaty notes despite being meat-free. Easy to make ahead. I skipped the optional dried shiitakes.

• Glazed Guinness gingerbread

  • anya_sf on November 09, 2020

    I made 2/3 recipe in a 9"x9" pan. Baking time was the same. I accidentally made the glaze a little too runny so it didn't cover the cake evenly. Definitely make this cake a day ahead - we tried it the day of baking and the ginger was way, way too spicy. The next day it was much better, although I still didn't love it. The cake was a little dry, and with the strong ginger taste, it was better with ice cream or custard.

• Chocolate-hazelnut cream cake

  • rmccook on October 17, 2021

    Made this for a dinner party and it really impressed. Multiple steps that add up to be a bit time consuming, but each step is very simple and I made the cake a day ahead and it was perfect.

• Puddings chômeur

  • anya_sf on November 30, 2020

    I assembled the cakes an hour before baking, then refrigerated them, which seemed to work OK. They seemed a bit soft after baking 25 min, so I left them in an extra 2 minutes, but that may have been a mistake. Also, we didn't eat them until about 25 minutes later, so the bottom layer of syrup had hardened and the cake was slightly dry and biscuit-like. Perhaps this dessert is supposed to be more biscuit-like, but I prefer the CI recipe with a softer sponge. The flavor was very good, and we did enjoy this with ice cream and extra sauce on top.