Notes about Recipes in this book

• Asparagus and potato salad with Riesling-tarragon vinaigrette

  • apattin on April 26, 2020

    I subbed Thai basil for tarragon and scallions for chives because it's what I had (covid 19, not going out unless starving). Too much basil, as I knew would happen, but it's tasty.

• Cranberry bean stew with potatoes and bell peppers

  • michalow on January 01, 2021

    Flavorful and simple to prepare. I skipped the potatoes and served with cornbread.

• Tuscan-style spareribs with balsamic glaze

  • aeader on January 01, 2022

    The ribs were excellent - perfectly tender and moist, with great flavor. I used 5lb of meaty pork spareribs and cooked them in a roasting pan. I decreased the salt to 1Tbsp based on the previous review. I used 1/2 the amount of rosemary because I only had dried rosemary rather than fresh. I let them marinate for 1 hour instead of 2 because I was short on time.

  • Rinshin on February 15, 2017

    Followed the recipe completely. I used very meaty pork ribs which produced succulent textured ribs and although it was tasty, I thought the saltiness was too pronounced. I would halve the salt next time and add garlic. I missed the taste of garlic. The 2 hour baking time was perfect for the meaty ribs, but it may be too long for more common pork ribs. I like to repeat this recipe again with less salt, adding garlic, and watching the time in the oven depending on the thickness of ribs.

• Sesame-crusted tuna steaks

  • aeader on September 19, 2022

    Simple and very tasty. The sesame seeds are very flavorful, but not overpowering. Cooking time was perfect despite the fact that our steaks were a little thicker. I was skeptical of the mayo as an accompaniment, but it worked well. Very easy, would definitely repeat. We served with mashed potatoes, but would be good on a bed of greens.

• Chicken breasts with spinach, leek and saffron sauce

  • aeader on April 23, 2022

    Delicious. Great flavor without feeling heavy, despite the cream in the recipe. Used two chicken breasts and halved everything else. Served it over linguine. My sauce really cooked down in that last 10 minutes so there wasn't a lot of it but it was very flavorful. Was quick enough (45 min) to do on a weeknight.

• Moussaka with yogurt Béchamel

  • Rinshin on October 01, 2018

    The taste of filling is delicious and it fully marries all the ingredients together without any one ingredient being prominent. The top sauce came out with a subtle taste of onion throughout and it was at the perfect consistency for spreading and the amount was enough to fully cover the top. Where this recipe failed me was the eggplant itself. Mine was not cooked fully in 30 min baking at 350 F and 2 min broiling. This was after prebaking the slices for 10 min and broiling for 2 min. I had to cover with aluminum foil and bake additional 25 min at 375 F. Next time I am pan frying the slices in small amount of oil to make sure the pieces were cooked through before baking. Used ground turkey and it was a good substitue for ground lamb. Halved the recipe for about 5 servings.

• Asian coleslaw with miso-ginger dressing

  • FunkyViriditas on November 24, 2023

    If you're in a hurry, just use a bag of pre prepared cole slaw veggies. And add dressing to it.

• Chicken stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and Boursin

  • Rutabaga on January 04, 2017

    This dish was greeted with much enthusiasm from both my husband and five-year-old. They give it rave reviews! Fortunately, it's also not difficult to prepare if you have the ingredients on hand. I didn't bother with adding cornstarch to the sauce, but just reduced the wine and stock on the stove before adding the remaining Boursin.

• Sour fish soup with napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms

  • wkhull on April 07, 2024

    I used barramundi for the first time for this recipe. I found it a little "fishy" (despite being flash frozen as sea), but not overbearing. I suggest Acadian redfish if you're looking for something sustainable. Good quality fish stock is probably key to this recipe. Instead of purchasing ready-made pickle from the Asian grocer, I made pickled Asian mustard greens from scratch. (Asian mustard greens are not the mustard greens you typically see at most grocery stores; though probably would substitute well.) The soup base was excellent. Would be great with shrimp or mussels.

• Creamy chicken stew

  • wkhull on October 10, 2018

    Simple but tasty meat and potato stew; good use of drumsticks. Did not stay true to the recipe. Used rendered duck fat for oil, then omitted heavy cream. Upped the mushroom, potato, and carrots content. Vegetables and drumsticks were not cooked through with recommended cooking time, so would simmer vegetables 15 minutes, then add chicken for 20 more minutes; or transfer to slow-cooker. Would have been nice with more broth, so adding 4 C next time. Also, would just use 6-8 drumsticks instead of trying to cook two different cuts of meat.

• Cider-caramelized apple pound cake

  • ashallen on October 11, 2021

    Very nice pound cake! Close-crumbed, tender, buttery, and very moist from lots of apples. Very solid apple flavor. I didn't make the glaze since we were happy with the richness/sweetness level of the plain cake, but since the cake isn't super-sweet (tartness from apples balances sweetness), I could see using it if making this cake for a group. I craved some more specificity from the recipe on making the apples, but since the cake turned out well, the recipe is either robust enough to handle some variability or my guesses on what it was looking for were correct. The trimmed weight of my apple slices was 22 oz, I cut them 3/8-1/4" thick, and their volume in syrup once cooked was 2.5 cups. In the future, I might try slicing them smaller/thinner (removing them once cooked from syrup, then further reducing syrup) since they migrated a bit towards the bottom of the pan during cooking. Also, given how moist the cake was, I'd probably make sure I didn't have any more than 2.5 c cooked apples.