Notes about Recipes in this book

• The best easy chocolate cake

  • ashallen on August 18, 2019

    I am not a big mayonnaise fan, so I see chocolate mayonnaise cakes as a relatively painless way to make extra mayonnaise disappear! I used Hershey's regular cocoa powder (i.e., natural cocoa powder) instead of the Dutch-process cocoa powder called for in the recipe. The result was OK but not my preferred style of chocolate cake. Chocolate flavor was moderate. Texture was quite soft and on the crumbly side - I'll try taking it from the oven sooner than specified in the recipe next time. Given its soft texture, it would've been best with a frosting that stays soft vs. the one I used which sets up firm. I'll have to try this again with dutch-process cocoa powder and see if I like it better.

  • ashallen on July 03, 2021

    Made this again using a Dutch-process cocoa powder as specified in the recipe (King Arthur Bensdorp). For the coffee, I used 2 tbsp instant espresso dissolved in boiling water. Baked in a 9-inch round cake pan that was 2 inches deep - cake rose nearly to top of pan. Removed from oven once center reached 185F. Came out excellent in both texture and flavor - much, much better than when I made it the first time and used natural cocoa powder. Moist, dark, close-crumbed, and definitely bittersweet so it worked really well with the sweet vanilla frosting I made for it. Great cake!

• Maple-glazed pork tenderloin

  • hillsboroks on October 01, 2015

    This recipe gives the tenderloin flavor with a capital F! It was easy and fast enough to do on a weeknight but could easily be served to dinner guests also. My only problem was my own fault. I was multi-tasking and overcooked the glaze. It got too thick and started to act like homemade candy. When they say 2 minutes to reduce the sauce to the proper glaze consistency they mean it. The little candy threads that formed at the edge of my spatula were delicious however! I solved the problem by adding a couple more teaspoons of bourbon and a teaspoon of water to the glaze and then reheating it in a Pyrex cup in the microwave in 15-second increments, stirring in between until it came back to the proper consistency. My husband and a house guest loved the finished product and I didn't even mention my little dust-up with the glaze. I will definitely make this again.

• Maple-glazed pork tenderloin with orange and chipotle

  • ashallen on March 14, 2021

    Good! The meat was moist and the glaze was nicely sticky with a good mix of smoky, sweet, and spicy flavors. The maple flavor definitely came through with Grade A-dark maple syrup. I over-reduced the glaze a bit and it quickly morphed from a thick sauce to a sticky, bouncy glob. Stirring in a bit of water over low heat quickly fixed it, fortunately. Making a half-recipe worked fine. We enjoyed eating this with roasted carrots.

• Charcoal-grilled stuffed flank steak

  • Analyze on March 31, 2017

    This is SO good! I LOVE the spinach and pine nuts variation (using Asiago cheese, which Kenji mentioned in the recipe's article but didn't reflect in the recipe), and my husband loves the original version with Provolone and Prosciutto. It is so delicious with the cheese. These also re-heat well and don't get dry!

• Grilled stuffed flank steak with spinach and pine nuts

  • Analyze on March 31, 2017

    This is SO good! I LOVE the spinach and pine nuts variation (using Asiago cheese, which Kenji mentioned in the recipe's article but didn't reflect in the recipe), and my husband loves the original version with Provolone and Prosciutto. It's really easy to make both versions on the same roll of steak, since the herb rub is identical. It is so delicious with the cheese. These also re-heat well and don't get dry!

• Best buttermilk pancakes

  • ashallen on November 06, 2019

    These are really great pancakes - moderately fluffy texture, moist, and a very nice flavor. My husband *loves* them. I find it's helpful to measure the liquid ingredients carefully and not add any "extra" - too much liquid makes them overly moist and gives them a heavier texture. Letting them rest a bit (e.g., stashing them in the oven as described in the recipe) also seems to help with working around any heaviness from too much moisture. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/ Magazine/ Science of Good Cooking/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Crisp roasted potatoes

  • ashallen on October 11, 2019

    This is a standard dish in our house. Great technique for getting well-browned potatoes in the oven. I've morphed the technique somewhat over the years - instead of cutting potatoes into rounds and flipping them one-by-one during roasting, I now just cut them into ~1" wedge-chunks and flip them in groups. They're not quite as evenly browned as intended by the original recipe technique (which is a good technique), but we've been happy and it's been a bit less fiddly. In my current oven, convection mode produces much better browning than regular mode, though the potatoes can get desiccated and chewy if I overdo it. I usually do some mix of the two modes to get the texture I'm looking for. Leftovers are surprisingly good - my husband loves them for breakfast with eggs. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Science of Good Cooking/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• French pork and white bean casserole

  • ashallen on November 04, 2019

    This is a very rich dish that we found best to eat in small portions. The flavors are very wintery - meat and starch! I substituted pork bratwurst for French garlic sausage and probably lost some flavor by doing so. Adding a lot of parsley towards the end was a good try at adding back some of the aromatic flavors that seemed to have cooked away, but for me its flavor clashed with the other flavors in the casserole. Maybe it'd help to add some additional thyme later in the cooking process. The beans were my favorite part - very tender, rich, and flavorful. It was possible to skim some, but not a lot, of fat after cooking - most of it seemed to adhere to the beans (hmmm, no wonder they tasted good). Overall we thought this was fine, but not fabulous. Freezes well. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Chocolate-dipped pistachio shortbread

  • ashallen on August 20, 2019

    My favorite shortbreads taste strongly of butter and have a firm texture - these unfortunately came out pale with a muted butter flavor and a texture that was a bit gummy/doughy. I made them in a very cold kitchen, however, and would like to try them again under more normal conditions. The chocolate coating, however, worked very well! [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]