This morning I tried for the first time to make a perfect French omelet using the recipe from the January-February 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated. It turned out half decent. The real trick is to believe that you can trust the very brief period of time that the omelet stays on medium high heat and then to remove it without stirring anymore, otherwise the omelet turns into mere scrambled eggs.

I'm pleased, though. The result came close this first time. I'll definitely try it again.

Tonight I once again use the braised winter greens recipe in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. That recipe rocks! I used a bit of green curry paste in today's version, and the taste was wonderful. I'm making this a regular part of my cooking henceforth.

Tonight I made puréed butternut squash with ginger from “How to cook everything.” The calorically signficant ingredients are:

The recipe produced about two cups of purée. I'll probably divide it into two servings, thus 307 calories per serving, which is a bit more than I'm used to in Food Nazi mode, but probably okay for an occasional side dish in a weight-stable diet.

Today I made turnips in mustard sauce from How to cook everything. My first reaction is: edible. We didn't eat turnips in my home growing up, so I'm not quite sure what they are supposed to taste like, and there was an oddish, slightly bitter taste to them. The mustard sauce was good, but it was strong enough that I'm not sure that I was actually tasting the turnips. I look forward to eating them again over the next few days and see how my palette reinterprets them. The caloric ingredients:

Dividing the recipe into four servings brings us to about 116 calories per serving, which is entirely reasonable for a side dish.

Tonight I'm braising mustard greens based on the approach in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. These greens are very tender, so I'm not going to braise them nearly as long, and I'm going to add some Mae Ploy green curry paste. Here's the nutrition info for today's variation:

Dividing up that mess into four servings, that comes out to 134 calories per serving, which is reasonable for a side dish.

Taste-wise it came out adequate. The mustard greens cooked for only 15-20 minutes, and they still had the bitter taste. I'm curious whether further cooking would remove it. Next time I'll cook it closer to the article's original instructions and see if that makes a difference.

Today I tried the recipe for "Braised Winter Greens" in the Jan/Feb 2009 edition of Cook's Illustrated. It promised to be not the soupy "pot likker" mess that has never appealed to me. I started off with 24 oz of collard greens. Once I removed the ribs, we were down to about 14 oz. So here's my calorie count:

If I divide that up into four servings, that comes to 108 calories per serving.

I have to say that this is the best recipe for greens I've ever had. The texture was fine. The original recipe called for some red pepper. I actually used tepines, which was wonderful.

2020-03-17: I decided to try some kale tonight using that old recipe.

Ingredients

I started off with the onions in olive oil till they softened. Added the garlic till fragrant. Added 1/4 cup of brocolli stock (which I had left over from a previous meal), as much of the kale as the pan could hold and covered it with a lid till it wilted. Mixed it up. Added the rest of the cale, plus red pepper, black pepper and salt. Twice more I added 1/4 cup of brocolli stock when I thought it was getting too dry. Braised with the lid on till it seemed done.

The result? Very tasty.

I just got done making Cauliflower-Potato Mash from "The Garden of Eating." Holy cow, but it's tasty. Although I'm a fan of cauliflower, I was the teensiest bit skeptical of the recipe, but I think even my niece and nephew would eat it. I didn't have any nutmeg handy, so I substituted allspice instead, which worked wonderfully.

The recipe made 4.5 cups of mash, so that makes 163 calories per 1 cup serving. That's perfectly fine for a comfort food dish.

Hm. Now I've opened up a can of coconut milk and only used 1/4 of it. That leads me to my next entry: improvised curried lentils.

Last night I made the basic pinto bean recipe from p. 137 of “Special Mexican Dishes.” Turned out well. It's simple but time consuming. Next time I'll use half the amount of bacon grease, and maybe throw in some actual chopped bacon, fried up crisp. The beans tasted even better the next morning.

Tonight I made for the first time "Cowboy Frijoles" from p. 233 of "366 Ways…" Not bad at all, although to be honest I substituted like crazy. I didn't have any ancho chiles, so I threw in two chipotles and one ordinary dried red chile. I didn't have cider vinegar, so I substituted red wine vinegar. I didn't have honey, so I substituted agave nectar.

The other thing I did differently was to soak the beans in advance for an entire day, the way Rachel Matesz advises. I don't know if that made any difference or not. We'll see over the next day or two as I eat them.

October 15, 2008

Yup, the beans are tasty. It's a good recipe. It uses no fat, and beans without fat or lard definitely are not quite the same as with.

This evening I made "curried spinach with chickpeas" from p. 212 of "366 ways…" Tasty. Next time I'll probably spice it up a bit more.