It's an interesting concept for a book and the title alone is an attention grabber. Who doesn't want to create new classics for your family?
Lets see how we did.
Menu:
Radish and Cucumber Salad with Yogurt Vinaigrette
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Penne with uncooked Puttanesca
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Chicken Pot Pie
Braised Carrots with Leeks
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Chocolate Pudding
The first two courses I picked didn't totally fall into the wintry style I Tend to cook at this time of year. Tonight's salad would be great on a warm summer night. The chill of the cucumber and radishes along with the refreshing yogurt would surly cool you off in the heat.
But alas, i went with it anyways.
One thing I didn't really get was why the cucumbers were salted first. They were sliced and sprinkled with salt and allowed to drain for 10 minutes. Then rinsed until the salt was washed off. It was a slight pickle of the cucumbers that I don't think really added anything to the dish. I would have preferred just a fresh cold cucumber sliced and tossed with the dressing.
The radishes were sliced thin and set in cold water to crisp them up, so they were very cold and refreshing.
My favorite part was the dressing. Most of the time I teach to not overdress a salad because you want to taste the ingredients. But this dressing added so much flavour and balance to the vegetables, i could have put a lot more. Freshly toasted cumin seeds and pepper were crushing into some yogurt along with some turmeric and lemon. The dressing was great and totally made the salad. I would used that for any other vegetable salad. Pass on the salted cucumbers.Next was the pasta. Uncooked sauces are a great option for a quick dinner. By the time the pasta cooks, you can have a fresh sauce ready to toss in. This was for sure the easiest dish of the night.
In a mortar we crushed the usual suspects for a puttanesca, garlic, anchovies, capers, parsley, and olive oil until a smooth paste. They were then tossed with some chopped tomatoes and olives. Added to the cooked pasta and there you have it. It really was that simple. But to really get that full flavour, it's really important to use those anchovies. Many people would pass on them because they thing it would be fishy. But when used properly in the right amounts, you don't even know they are there. Because this sauce is not cooked and doesn't allow the flavours to cook together, you really need the flavour of the anchovies, capers and olives to come through to make it savory. Something like this is pretty fool proof and amazingly simple. Literally a 15 minute meal.Doesn't the cover of the book look tasty?
That's what I thought, so I decided to make it. The recipe for the Chicken Pot Pie is fairly standard. The method though is really good. It results in still crisp vegetables and tender chicken with a creamy sauce.
The key to getting the crisp vegetables was to not cook anything. Inside we added carrots, pearl onions, peas, celery and asparagus. The only vegetable cooked before it went into the oven were the carrots. They were blanched until tender but still crisp. Everything else was placed in a bowl along with come poached, diced chicken breasts, and an east veloute sauce using chicken stock and a bit of creme fraiche. The sauce was tossed with everything and portioned into small ramekins. I had purchased some pre-made, all butter puff pastry from Fromagerie Atwater that was rolled and draped over the chicken mixture. The recipe said to place the pies into the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. I thought this was a great idea because puff pastry bakes a lot better the colder it is. It puffs up better the colder the butter is. And it is puff pastry! 25 minutes in the oven and we were done. Flaky crust with a light sauce and perfectly cooked vegetables. A great Pot Pie recipe.
For the braised carrots, we sauteed the leeks and then added big chunks of carrots to a pan. The recipe asked to add water, but I had chicken stock instead. After cooking for 10 minutes covered, the carrots were done. Sprinkled with some fresh tarragon and parsley, they were simple and light. It may not sound too exciting, but sometimes the simplest dishes are the best.I do have to admit, there were not a great selection of side dishes in this book. Not a lot of greens or interesting ways to prepare. The carrots seemed like something most families would eat, so I decided this was good for class. But the lack of variety made it hard to round out the main course.
Dessert was something I was really excited about. When was the last time you had pudding? I loved the idea of making pudding in class. So old school! The base for this was whole milk mixed with sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, egg yolks, vanilla, and mint extract. It didn't really turn out how I expected. I found the mint was a bit much. Also, because I wanted to speed it up a bit, I set it over an ice bath to speed up the chilling. That was fine, but I think if allowed to chill naturally in the fridge, the texture would have been a bit better. Not too long ago I made a chocolate pudding with a combo of milk and cream. That one was much better, smoother and richer. Using just milk didn't really give me the richness i wanted. It looked great in the picture, and also the finished product, but I think in the future, a recipe with cream in it would be better.
As it has gone most of this winter season of classes, books that I'm excited to cook out of have not really lived up to my expectation. Yet other books that don't excite be, Have been really great classes. I guess it's a combo of high expectation and over excitedness that results in a sort of let down.
I'm not saying this is a bad book. The recipes read well, for the most part there is a good variety, and it's full of lovely pictures. New Classic Family Dinners will appeal to home cooks who may have fussy eaters or want to cook the classics with a little twist.
Next Class: Jamie's America
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