Random Cookbook is back! The Best Recipes in the World

Even though I'm still busier than usual, I decided I missed randomly cooking. All work and no play and all that.

So, this week I drew The Best Recipes in the World, by Mark Bittman, wherein he offers a sampling of recipes from the great world cuisines made accessible for the home cook. (It's a long cookbook.)

Busy as I am, I wanted something with a nice short ingredient list, so I selected...

Chicken With Vinegar
(A French peasant classic, though Bittman cut the butter content from a whole stick to two measly tablespoons plus an optional extra.)

- 2 T butter or olive oil (I used butter)
- 1 chicken, 3-4 lbs, cut into serving pieces, or 2 1/2 to 3 lbs chicken parts, trimmed of excess fat (I used ~2.5 lbs of drumsticks and thighs)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/4 c. minced shallot
- 1 c. good-quality red wine vinegar
- 1 T butter, optional (I exercised the option)

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Set a large skillet, preferably with steep sides, over medium-high heat. Add 2 T butter and wait a minute. When it is good and hot, place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down. Cook undisturbed for about 5 minutes, or until the chicken is nicely browned. Turn and cook for three minutes on the other side. Season with salt and pepper.

(I did this step in two batches, because even though all the pieces fit in my skillet, I didn't want to brown them all at once because the pan would've been too crowded and they wouldn't have had as much of a Maillard reaction.)

Place the chicken in the oven. Cook 15-20 minutes, or until it is just about done (the juices will run clear, and there will be the barest trace of pink near the bone). Transfer the chicken to an ovenproof platter and place the platter in the oven; turn off the oven and leave the door slightly ajar.

Pour most but not all of the cooking juices out of the skillet. Place the skillet over medium-high heat and add the shallot, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and cook, stirring until tender, about 2 minutes. Add the vinegar and raise the heat to high. Cook for a minute or two, or until the powerful smell has subsided somewhat. Add 1/2 c. water and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring, until the mixture is slightly reduced and somewhat thickened. Stir in butter if desired.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet and turn the chicken in the sauce. Serve immediately.

Not too exciting to look at, but this is a very good recipe--straightforward and simple but with a distinctive, interesting taste. I bet it'd be AMAZING with the full stick of butter, but I'm on Weight Watchers (I've lost 25 lbs since December 1!), so I should probably stick to this version.

Random Cookbook of the Week - Food Matters

This week's random draw turned up another Bittman cookbook, Food Matters. Unlike my other Bittman books, this one focuses as much on health and sustainability as the food itself, and some of the recipes are a little too earnestly Good For You for my taste. So I chose one with both "sweet potato" and "bacon" in the name, figuring you can't go wrong with those in the mix:

Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 c. olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 thick slices of bacon
1 red bell pepper, cored and chopped
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 T peeled, minced fresh ginger
1 t ground cumin
Juice from 1 orange (I used 1/3 c orange juice)
1 pound fresh spinach leaves (the package I bought from the store only had six ounces, but it was the perfect amount--more than that wouldn't have fit in the salad bowl, and the dressing wouldn't have been enough to flavor it)

1. Heat the oven to 400 F. Put the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, drizzle with 2 T of the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Roast, turning occasionally, until crisp and brown outside and just tender inside, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and keep on pan until ready to use.

2. While potatoes cook, put the bacon in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Cook, turning once or twice, until crisp. Drain on paper towels and pour off the fat, leaving any darkened bits behind in the pan. Put back on medium heat, and add the remaining oil to the pan. When it's hot, add the bell pepper, onion, and ginter. Cook, stirring once or twice, until no longer raw, then stir in the cumin and the reserved bacon. (Though the recipe didn't say to do so, I crumbled the bacon.) Stir in the orange juice and turn off the heat. 

3. Put the spinach in a bowl large enough to comfortably toss the salad quickly. Add the sweet potatoes and toss to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning, and serve.

It was pretty good. I don't think it'll be a new favorite, but the flavor combinations worked and it made for a pleasant dinner.

Random Cookbook of the Week - How to Cook Everything

This week's random cookbook draw was Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, which lately is my go-to everyday cookbook. It's pretty comprehensive, and it's more in tune with how I like to cook and eat than something like The Joy of Cooking or the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. But above all, it's available as a handy, searchable, cross-referenced smartphone and tablet app.

Since the whole point of this challenge is to try something new, I settled on one of the few quick pasta sauces I'd yet to attempt:

Thirty-Minute Ragu (a variation on Meat Sauce, Bolognese Style)

- 2 T extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 8-12 oz. ground lamb or other meat
- 28 oz. can tomatoes (I used diced rather than whole)
- 1/2 c. cream

(I added some chopped garlic and crushed red pepper flakes, since the one flaw with Bittman's recipes, IMHO, is that they run a little bland.)

Put the olive oil in a large, deep skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat. When hot, add the onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender. Add the ground lamb and cook, stirring and breaking up clumps, until all traces of red are gone. Add the tomatoes, raise the heat a bit, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Add the cream and cook for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook and drain pasta, then toss with the ragu. Garnish with freshly grated pecorino Romano and serve. (I used parmesan, since I had some on hand.)

Looks like a reasonably tasty traditional pasta, right? I suppose it would've been if I'd liked the flavor of the lamb, but I didn't. I've had a mixed reaction to lamb in the past, depending on the quality of the lamb and how well it was prepared. This? Just tasted kinda off and funky. I know it wasn't spoiled--I trust my grocer, my fridge, and my own sense of food's freshness enough for that. Plus, it's been over 24 hours, and no one at House Fraser has food poisoning. 

I guess I'm just being an American, who thinks of meat as coming in three flavors only: cow, pig, and chicken. (Well, I've had duck and rabbit in restaurants and liked them, and since I come of a rural Southern family where most of the men hunt, I've had venison and quail, and they are DELICIOUS.)  But I didn't finish my plate this time, and I won't be taking the leftovers for lunch this week. Maybe I'll try the recipe again someday with beef or pork. 

52 Cookbooks - Catching up

I've still been cooking a new recipe from one of my randomly chosen cookbooks every week except when we were out of town for Christmas, but between one thing and another, I've neglected to blog about it. I intend to go back to proper blogging with recipes and pictures next week, but here's a quick summary of the cooking I've been doing in the meantime:

Mom and Me Cookbook, by Annabel Karmel. I made spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce with Miss Fraser, age 7. She enjoyed it, and I mean to find ways to cook with her more often, at least once or twice a month, so she'll learn.

Calling All Cooks Two, by the Alabama Telephone Pioneers. Lesson learned from this week: if you're making a chocolate-pecan pie, choose one with more pecans than chocolate. Otherwise it's so chocolatey you can't taste the pecans.

How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman. I also have the mobile app, so I decided to make the two top-rated recipes. The meatloaf turned out tasty, if a smidge on the bland side, but I'm baffled by the popularity of the "boiled water" soup. It's sort of like French onion soup, but with garlic. To me, it's boring and a waste of good garlic.

Good Eats 2: The Middle Years, by Alton Brown. I think this is my favorite of the cookbooks I've attempted so far. I made broiled steak, German hot slaw, and chipotle-mashed sweet potatoes, all of which I'd gladly make again.