I have for many years expanded my repertoire of dishes I make for dinner via Sunset magazine. I really like their multi-page spread of colorful photos, use of seasonal ingredients and tips on how to make a great meal. Something about their ease has really spoken to me and I wait with anticipation for the next issue to arrive. In addition to ripping out my favorite recipes from Sunset, I have accumulated many (MANY) recipes over the years. I have been meaning to go through and get rid of the ones I don’t like, but it seems I just continue to make the handful that I do enjoy. At the beginning of 2014 I tried three new dishes (all from Sunset). One was a disaster (BBQ ran out of gas mid-cook, and chicken wouldn’t cook through on the range), one needed some tweaks (realized I don’t really like tarragon & I pondered whether cooking with a “better” white wine would change flavor) and one was fantastic (beer-battered cod tacos). The tarragon I didn’t like was in Coq au Vin – a dish Julia Child brought to our homes via her cooking show (which I watched in the 90’s when no one was looking). I thought a lot about Julia, cooking, and the movie Julie & Julia between the Coq au Vin and the beer-battered tacos and came to the conclusion that I really want to become a better cook. Oh, and that I really do enjoy making a good meal.
A recap of the first three dishes of 2014:
1/5/14
Dinner: Grilled Cilantro Chicken with Pickled Tomato Avocado Salsa
The title of this recipe is the reason I chose to make it the first dish of 2014. All of the ingredients are things my husband Eric and I love. I also thought sharing the duties of making this dish would be a nice transition into getting back into cooking after having so many other people make us meals over the holidays. Eric was in charge of grilling the chicken and I was to make the salsa. I should’ve known it wasn’t going to be easy when the simple task of heating the ginger and garlic on medium-high heat went wrong. I had always thought you shouldn’t try to cook garlic on really high heat and I still believe this. It charred. Badly. I went ahead with the rest of the instructions, but the salsa included some very fragrant black chunks. After I completed this and felt bad for pouring it over the tomatoes to marinate, Eric came in to let me know the grill had run out of gas about three-quarters of the way through cooking the chicken. Fantastic. I threw the chicken on the stove and decided to finish them that way. They wouldn’t finish cooking and we ended up eating cheese quesadillas with charred tomato and avocado salsa.
Things I learned from this recipe:
Make sure your propane tank has enough gas after using it all summer so when you become ambitious enough to grill in a parka it doesn’t turn out sad.
Photograph disasters too!
Would I make this again?:
Maybe. . .
The recipe
1/7/14
Dinner: White Wine Coq au Vin
After the disaster last night I thought why not try something totally outside of my comfort zone?! At least it would involve using my Dutch oven. Right off, I enjoyed the plastic bag/flour approach to coating the chicken and I really liked how the chicken turned out. I used turkey bacon (I don’t eat pork) and it came out fine – delicious in fact. Eric even commented on how good the bacon bits/flavor were and he all but hates turkey bacon. In the 15 minutes while the dish was finishing I basically was able to clean up, something that feels very rewarding, and things started to smell delicious. My inner Julia Child was getting very excited. The first thing I noticed when I took a bite was a very strong taste of something I didn’t like. I realized it was the white wine competing with tarragon. I didn’t know tarragon tasted like black licorice, which I hate. I really couldn’t get over either taste. It was almost like I put in too much wine (which I know I didn’t) and then accidently threw in a few chunks of black licorice. Eric thought the dish was good, and I just shrugged and ate my dish mildly disappointed.
Things I learned from this recipe:
Serving this with rustic bread is a must. After not caring for the overall flavor too much, I thought a lot about cooking with white wine. Again, not something I’ve done before so I pondered whether better qualities of wine would enhance/change the overall flavor of this dish and cause me to like it more. I found this on finecooking.com:
“Heat won't improve the undesirable qualities of bad wine—it will only accentuate them, so cook with something you wouldn't mind drinking. Conversely, heat kills the subtle nuances in a complex wine, so save the good stuff solely for drinking.”
Makes complete sense to me.
Lastly, tarragon is going to be a no-no in this house.
Would I make this recipe again?:
Maybe
The recipe
1/9/14
Dinner: Baja Fish Tacos
I learned how to make a chipotle sauce! It was amazing and I kept using it for lots of other meals. The cilantro slaw was delicious and Eric even used it on a sandwich the next day! Oh, and the tacos…the tacos were GREAT. I see room for improvement on this dish. Perfect deep-frying is not a must and doesn’t affect taste, but I can see where it might look better. I also think a more authentic tortilla shell would enhance flavor, but it didn’t taste half-bad with Mission brand ones. For as many things as I can point out that weren’t quite right, Eric & I both loved the dish and I know it needs to be one I make again and get better at.
Things I learned from making this dish:
I have a long ways to go on learning how to deep-fry something.
I would also suggest making the slaw and chipotle first so everything is ready to go after the fish is done.
I skipped the step of putting the fish in the oven to keep them warm.
Would I make this recipe again?:
Absolutely, and that goes for the chipotle sauce, the slaw and the tacos.