Notes about Recipes in this book

• Pork chops with balsamic vinegar and sweet peppers

  • ashallen on October 29, 2019

    Everything in this dish was cooked just fine - textures of the peppers and the pork chops were all good. There was just something about the flavor combination that didn't appeal to me! Perhaps I'd like the version made with white wine vinegar better... [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

• Pasta with chicken and broccoli

  • sldoug on January 17, 2016

    I can't really review this fairly since I doubled the pasta and chicken without changing the sauce, which made for a very sauceless dish. It was still tasty although even with the extra volume the sun-dried tomatoes were a bit overwhelming. I probably wouldn't make again because the recipe was a bit time consuming and I know of much faster ways to make similar pasta dishes that are just as tasty.

• Onion-braised beef brisket

  • ashallen on October 11, 2019

    This is a great, classically flavored brisket recipe. Savory, beefy flavors and very tender slices of meat. Recipe specifies cooking for 3.5-4 hours - we like our brisket super-tender so I usually go 5-6 hours. The onions that cook alongside the beef are delicious, but my husband's not fond of their squishy texture. I get around this by pureeing them into the sauce which adds great flavor and a bit of sweetness to it. Doing so also increases sauce volume, making for an excellent sauce-to-meat ratio. Resting the meat in the sauce overnight significantly improves its texture - I really try to avoid serving it the day it's cooked. Awesome with mashed potatoes. Leftovers are great. Freezes very well, particularly when meat slices are nestled in sauce. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Science of Good Cooking/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

  • Rinshin on October 15, 2019

    Agree with ashallen’s comments fully. This is sure to please omnivores, esp those who love big beefy flavors like my husband. The recipe was followed except smaller quantity. By letting the mostly cooked dish sit overnight in the fridge makes slicing beef thinly and neatly easily as well as improving the flavor. I think you can play with adding more flavor profile to this such as additions of mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, etc. I only wish I purchased a larger brisket instead of asking the meat counter to cut down the size for me.

• Glazed celery root with onions, grapes, and pistachios

  • twarner on October 13, 2016

    O... MG... So good!

• German chocolate cake with coconut-pecan filling

  • ashallen on August 27, 2019

    I need to try this recipe a second time - I chose to make it as a 9x13-inch sheet cake vs. the two 9-inch round cake layers specified in the recipe (each then halved to create a 4-layer cake). I ended up with a thick frosting layer perched on top of a thick, not particularly moist cake slab. If I had made the layer cake, the frosting sandwiched between the thinner cake layers would have done a much better job of moistening the cake! I took the cake from the oven once the center reached 201F and it was a bit dry - I'd remove it sooner next time. While German chocolate isn't my favorite chocolate cake (I like more chocolate), the flavors of this cake worked very harmoniously with the coconut-pecan filling. The coconut-pecan filling was delicious (even though my pecans weren't very flavorful) and works great on yellow butter cake, too. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/Magazine/Cook's Ill. Cookbook.]

  • ashallen on February 20, 2020

    Made this recipe again as a layer cake vs. sheet cake and it came out much better - moist and a good chocolate flavor that works very well with the delicious frosting. Even though German Chocolate isn't my favorite type of chocolate cake, I now think this is a great version of it. I removed cake from oven just after edges started to separate from pan sides. Centers were 195F. I greased pans with unsalted butter and dusted with unsweetened cocoa vs. the baking spray + flour as suggested in recipe - cakes unmolded nicely. Recipe says to use ~1 cup of frosting between each layer - I used a scant 1 cup so there would be a bit extra to make a thicker, prettier layer on the top surface. [Cross-post for Annual Edition/ Magazine/ Cook's Illustrated Cookbook/ Leite's Culinaria]