The Bon Appetit Cookbook, Part 1

My next book is one that I'd been wanting forever, and had just never gotten around to picking up. I was so excited when I received it as a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law and brother. I've made two recipes from this book already. They are Oven-roasted winter vegetables with rigatoni, and Country mushroom and nut pate. The vegetable pasta recipe was absurdly easy. Pretty much all you need to do is chop up a ton of veggies, and then just throw them in a roasting pan, boil your pasta and then mix it together. I was a little worried it was going to be dry or bland, and it was surprisingly neither. It had a lovely sweet-roasty flavor and wasn't dry at all. 

The mushroom pate was just ok. It involved an awful lot of kitchen equipment between the several bowls for mixing, the pans for sauteeing, the food processor, etc. And personally, I wasn't all that wowed by the end result. I think that was in large part due to the fact that I used button mushrooms which are pretty bland, ya know? Next time I'd definitely use mostly shiitakes and maybe a mixture of wild mushrooms. 

I'm thinking at least one of the next three recipes from this book is going to have to be a fish one. I'm really intimidated by cooking fish at home. I'm not sure why. In the past, it's usually turned out decent. I guess it's just because I don't have as much experience cooking it. That, and I did once completely slaughter a scallop recipe years ago and haven't braved cooking them again since. Another one of them will probably be something meaty/chickeny for the husband. That always poses an extra challenge though since I can't even taste my own cooking. I guess my review will have to entirely lie on the process, and his opinion!

Mushroom pie with walnut cream

Last week I made the fifth, and final recipe from The Silver Spoon. I'd decided to be a little adventurous and go with this pie, because it involved something I'd never worked with...puff pastry...and because, well who the heck knows what walnut cream is? It cost a small fortune to make between the box of puff pastry, and the 2.5 pounds of wild mushrooms required. But you know, it wasn't all that difficult once I got started. The ease of working with puff pastry was probably the biggest surprise. You pretty much just thaw it and throw it in the pan and voila! pastry! And the walnut cream was pretty much exactly that...walnuts, ground up with cream and some other good things like shallots and egg. It also called for ham, which I omitted, seeing as how I haven't eaten that in what? maybe 15 years now. I think if and when I were to make this again, if I was still omitting ham, I would likely toast the walnuts to make a richer flavor to the cream. Here's a shot of how it turned out

Going public

Well I've decided I might as well make this public. My theory is, if I know other people are reading this, it will force me to keep things more organized. I've decided to start a few tags...mainly for books I want to revisit and go more in-depth with after the year's end, and also for books I'll purge. I'm also thinking of reviewing all 5 recipes from each book. And also trying really, really hard to stick with just one book at a time. I think that's going to be my biggest challenge. 

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The Silver Spoon, Recipe 3 - Cream of Carrot Soup

I was actually really disappointed with this recipe. After the other things I've tried in this book, I was expecting some kind of monumental deliciousness. But the soup was just meh. Granted, it called for homemade meat stock and I certainly wasn't going to go there, but I don't think even that would have saved it. It's perfectly fine and carroty, just bland and boring. Not likely to make it again. 

This recipe was absurdly simple and had a very small list of ingredients. You know, like all proper Italian food. But its lack of depth of flavor really made me think I need to start challenging myself more. Anyone can make bland carrot soup. So I flipped through the book to find something a little more involved and found Mushroom Pie With Walnut Cream. I think this will be my next venture. It involves puff pastry which is totally unchartered territory for me. Hopefully I can get to it this weekend.