Friday, March 21, 2014

following Jacques adventures

I have been busy trying out some of Jacques Pepin's recipes from his Essential Pepin cookbook to our repartee of meals through out our week. Unfortunately my photo taking on my cell phone and my writing ability are about the same... so I guess you know what that means... photos that are barely visible, (no one would choose to make the dish based on my pictures) or non existent.

(please note: because of peanut allergies in my home - I use canola or olive oil for cooking rather than the peanut oil suggested in his recipes) 



lets start with the barely visible/not tasty looking (even though it was):

  Chicken Supreme Kiev Style - well not exactly the right picture... I made the family Jacques recipe that calls for butter, onion, mushrooms chopped, garlic and cilantro (which of course I didn't photograph) but for my youngest who does not like mushrooms I filled hers with left over spinach, onions, a bit of cream cheese, parmesan, garlic, salt/pepper and cilantro which she loved.  

Most bread crumbs used in other kievs and other breaded chicken tend to be overly crusty but in this dish the bread crumbs Jacques uses are from fresh bread that is blended with cilantro, crumbs, olive oil, s/p.  I found the bread crumbs to be very tender.  I did have to make additional bread crumbs for this dish as I was very messy while coating the chicken.  

The chicken was also very tender. I definitely will make this again and probably will make the chicken rolls ahead, refrigerate and then dip in egg and bread crumbs before baking. 

What I liked about this... I didn't have to first parboil the chicken rolls in oil to seal it before baking.  


Jacques Pepin: Fast food my way - not this recipe above but filled with tapenade. I love his tapenade

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Tomato Chowder with Mollet Eggs and croutons (I did make the croutons but in this picture my family had eaten all the toasted french bread painted with olive oil - then toasted- then rubbed with a cut piece of garlic) - in other words Tomato Chowder with Mollet Egg sans courtons.  (in other words a pretty boring picture).  Essential Pepin page 8/9 (loved his way of making mollet eggs soft inside and firm whites... works every time).



http://blogs.kqed.org/essentialpepin/2011/09/18/tomato-chowder-with-mollet-eggs/
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other dishes I have made:  
No picture:  

Braised sweet and sour Red cabbage. page 417 Essential Pepin-  I can say it was very good... I doubled the recipe and was happy I did.  We ate the red cabbage the next two days.  Changes I made: we only used 20 raisins (1 small child's box of raisins for a double recipe- why... I felt like it... :o) - Really good and easy to make. 

Steamed Cauliflower with Chives:  page 421 in Essential Pepin - excellent and simple

Cauliflower au Gratin: Picture does not show how good it really was. 
Its simple and tasty.. I had to add a bit more salt because I forgot to salt the water when cooking the cauliflower. 


below: Jacques Pepin's photo... they way it is supposed to look... Oh well... 

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Quick Ratatouille page 461 Essential Pepin very good and easy (have veggies cup up earlier in the day will make cooking and clean up easier. 

Classic Ratatouille very good! page 462 Essential Pepin (loved in pasta) 

All the dishes above are simple and tasty and have become part of my families meals in the future. 







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