One New Recipe
I have a fair to middling number of cookbooks. Nothing like my Aunt, who has rooms full of cookbooks, but still, more than just a couple of them. I tend to opt for books that are more instructional than recipe collections. I like food porn with high gloss photos, too, but I mostly don't buy them. I also have a subscription to Cook's Illustrated.
In any case, with this collection being what it is, I still find myself ignoring it, and either not cooking at all, or making the same old things all the time. So my goal is to try at least one new recipe every week.
Last week, I made pasta with Cherry Tomatoes from the March/April Cook's. The sauce was lovely. It involves halving and baking the cherry tomatoes to concentrate the flavour, then tossing the pasta in the tomatoes. I didn't, however, find it very saucy. It was more like pasta and tomatoes in oil than a sauce. I think it would be improved by running half of the tomatoes through the blender to create more of a sauce. Of course, that would require owning a blender which, currently, I do not. So, perhaps in the future. The flavours were lovely, though.
This week, on the recommendation of my brother, I tried the Chicken Teriyaki recipe from the April issue. Where there's a March/April and April issue, I do not know.
I started off badly when I realized that the recipe called for chicken thighs with skin on, while I bought boneless, skinless ones. But that's okay, really, since this was more about the sauce than the chicken, anyway, and taking the skin off reduces the calories by a hell of a lot. I also couldn't find any 'Mirin', which is a type of Japanese rice wine, so I bought Sake, instead. The Cook's writer does specifically address the choice, indicating mirin was better but what I can find is better than what I can't. I'll check out one of the asian supermarkets later to see if I can find it there.
I put the chicken under the broiler and started the sauce, while I threw some asparagus into a pan to grill and sliced some mushrooms for a saute. Too many things going on at once, and I overcooked the chicken a bit. It was nice and roasty though, so the flavour was good. The sauce took a lot longer than the recipe suggested to reduce down and thicken, but my oh my, it was good. Tasty with a nice fresh flavour that you just don't get in most overly sweet teriyaki sauces.
Relevent Links:
Cook's Illustrated