With over 100 recipes in one book, you can imagine of hard it is to choose a menu. With so many recipes, I decided to stick with a tour around the world, in 4 recipes.
Here is what we made.
Southwestern Quinoa Salad
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Korean Pancake
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Lamb in Spicy Yogurt Sauce
with Rice and Pita
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Elvis Presley's Favorite Pound Cake
Lately I've been doing a few recipes with Quinoa. It's a seed originally from South America. The high protein content adds great nutrition to salads, soups, or side dishes. It's easy too cook and is a great vehicle to infuse flavours and mix with any ingredients you have around the kitchen.
This salad had Southwestern flavour that is very basic and simple to prepare. When it came to cooking the quinoa, i did change the preparation. The recipe called to steam it, which i have never done before. Usually I boil it, as I did this time. Boiling it eliminated using one extra piece of equipment, and I'm not to fond of washing extra things, so I boiled it. The general rule is 1 part quinoa, 2 parts liquid. After simmering for 15 minutes, I poured it onto a baking sheet to cool and dry a bit. Ready to go.
The quinoa was mixed together with typical southwestern ingredients. Tomatoes, roasted poblano chilies, corn and Queso Fresca which is a fresh Mexican style cheese. It's a little harder to find, so we altered it by adding in Geek feta. The vinaigrette was just a very simple mixture of lemon juice and olive oil. The salad was refreshing, extremely nutritious, and satisfying. It took no time to make and everyone loved it. It would be a great dish for a large group, a light lunch to go, or a starter or side to a nice dinner. So far, we're on the right track.
Next was trip to Korea with a classic Korean Restaurant Staple, the Korean Pancake. Whenever I go for Korean food, I love to order this as a starter and share with the table. A mixture of vegetables and meats or seafood are cooked together into a large sort of pancake and dipped into a quick say based sauce. These pancakes are huge, packed with stuff, crispy and savory.
I have fond memories in Vancouver going to this Korean joint after the bars and eating for the first time this Korean pancake with a bowl full of assorted organs, stewed in kimchi with a cracked egg on top. So delicious. But my cousin Jeff didn't think so as he was passing out in the corner of the booth after too many shots of Jack Daniels...lightweight!
Anyways, The cool thing about this pancake is that it's base is not made from flour. It's a puree or dried, soaked and pureed yellow mung beans. It incorporates only a couple tablespoons of flour for binding and, in this case, shredded carrots and green onion. We fried them in a large pan until golden and crisp. Meanwhile, we made a simple dipping sauce of soy, mirin, and sugar.
The pancake it self was a bit bland, but with the sauce, it woke up. I can also suggest, if one plans to recreate it, to add assorted seafood or meats to make it more interesting. The base recipe is there. Building on it would make it even better. The texture was like it was made with all flour, and not the mung beans. A bit more dense but still having that "bready" feel. Interesting because of the lack of gluten.
The hard thing about making them so large is the flipping. The first one was a challenge. As I've never made them before, i wasn't sure how i would go about it. So, in true Julia Child fashion, the first one broke! But i made up for it with the second one. I guess in Julia's words, I just didn't have the confidence.
The main course brought us to the Middle East with the flavour combination of lamb and spiced yogurt. The lamb shoulder had to be simmered in a mixture of turmeric, cinnamon, onions and allspice topped with water. Because lamb shoulder is as tender and your leather shoe, it had to be cooked for a few hours. After about 2 hours of simmering in this liquid, we added in the yogurt and allowed to simmer another hour to thicken. I have to say, I've never had more tender lamb. The yogurt really helped break down the connective tissue in this tough piece of meat, and the spiced really were aromatic and added a beautiful, exotic taste.
This was served simply with steamed white rice and a bit of pita. The sauce mixed well with the rice and everyone loved the tenderness of the lamb. Some were concerned about the fact that the lamb was cooked in yogurt though. They thought it was a strange combo, But once tasting it, they realized it made sense. The yogurt added a slight tang to the dish that helped balance out the richness of the lamb. I think I picked this dessert purely for it's name. I tried to do a little research as to why this pound cake would be Elvis' favorite. But I came up with nothing. So, whether it is or not, if it's good enough for the King, then it's good enough for us.
There was really nothing overly special about this pound cake, just a plain vanilla flavour. Butter, sugar, eggs and flour were mixed together and baked.
This recipe called for 3 cups of sugar, which might have been perfect for the King, but we don't want it that sweet. I cut the sugar by 1/2 a cup and it came out fine. Also, the key to this is the flour. The recipe called for cake flour which is a more finely ground flour. It gives the cake a very fine crumb and keeps it nice and spongy. We served it with a dollop of whipped cream. It was still a bit warm which was nice.
The texture was great and the cake was moist. Make this in the summer and grill it on the BBQ with some grilled seasonal fruit and you're in business. The King would approve!
I have to give it to Gourmet. Coming up with over 100 recipes is not an easy task. In the cookbook world, we call these books "The Workhorse's". They provide you with every recipe you could ever need. Gourmet Today certainly does just this. The one problem I have with these kinds of books is that sometimes they can be a bit intimidating. Looking through it trying to find something to cook can be difficult just because there is SO much to choose from. It can make you dizzy.
Also, these huge books tend to lack a common theme. With recipes from all over the world, it's hard to create a focused menu.
But on the other hand, the variety is amazing. As with the menu tonight, we were able to taste flavours from all over.
So if you are not afraid of big books like this, and know how to read a cookbook properly, meaning focus your attention on one recipe at a time, then pick up this book. People who love Gourmet magazine love their recipes. With such a large collection in one book, Gourmet can live forever!!
Next class: Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health
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