Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The October Issue of Cook's Illustrated brought to you (minorly) by me!

I tested a bunch of the recipes that appear in the October Issue of Cook's Illustrated and have the following recommendations:

The "Super Crisp Over-Fried Fish" on page 12 is excellent. The best baked-crusted fish I've ever made. It is a little time and labor intensive (crumbing and baking the bread, drying and dredging the fish in various coatings) but the result is a moist fillet with a wonderfully crunchy herb crust. Worthy of a dinner party. The homemade tartar sauce is also top-notch.

The no-roll Pizza Bianca on pag 20 is great. Easy, chewy, tasty. The best pizza dough I've made at home. I tested a version with coppa, sage and fontina that was out of this world. Those toppings seem to have not made publication, but the base is so good, I'd use it to experiment with all manner of toppings. Great fun.

I do not recommend the "Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup" on page 18. For me, substituting bread for cream just didn't do it taste-wise. I'd rather have the calories and taste and go whole hog with the cream or make a purposely thinner, lighter soup. I'd be interested to know if anyone else thinks differently after they've tried this bread-thickened version.

Lastly, the feature on making cheap vodka into high-end vodka via your Brita filter on page 30 fascinated me. I sense a liquor experiment in the future!

I'd be happy to share any recipes you might like. Just request in the comments -or email me.



No comments: