Rice Milk by Scott Jurek
I believe this recipe will work just fine for others, but it didn't work for me. Maybe I need a better blender--I blended for a lot more than the two minutes he suggested and still ended up with three uncombined layers--rice on bottom, water in middle, oil on top. Will try again someday.
Alton Brown's Overnight Oats
Sweet, creamy, aromatic...and a little gritty. I suspect the grit comes from the failed rice milk--with the nut milk he asks for it would be even better. But I don't like buying nut milk. I bought a carton of mixed almond-coconut milk once and it was delicious, but it seems like sad waste of almonds from a place that's been in a drought for several years. However, from the research I just did, the growing and production of almond milk is no more or less wasteful a use of resources than just about anything else we might buy--compare tomato juice or cow's milk. But there's still the problem that almonds are mostly (80%) produced in California. I have yet to hear of anything that is sustainably produced in California. Except possibly Hollywood movies.
On a cold morning in February, Alton's icy oatmeal doesn't exactly hit the spot. But it would be terrific to carry along on a road trip where you have an ice chest but no hot plate. It's a keeper.
Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew
Is it fair to say I made a recipe if I made five changes to it? I think 'yes' with the stipulation that I'm not allowed to comment on the Food Network page. But if I did, I would say simply this:
Like all of her recipes, it turned out great and was well enjoyed by its intended audience.
My changes weren't huge--onions instead of shallots and more of them; dried thyme instead of fresh; more consomme instead of wine; and double the cooking time. The only one of these which was really necessary was the last one--my beef was tough as old shoe leather--but I'm sure Ree Drummond would understand.
(Excuses: Shallots are expensive and I'm not wasting one of my precious garden shallots on a stew; my thyme plants are dormant; my target audience prefers the unadulterated beef flavor to that of wine. But his heart is in the right place.)
Roasted Butternut Squash, Farro and Kale Salad
I need one more trial of the dressing before pronouncing final judgement, but for now I'll just have to admit to a personal failing: I just don't like oil-vinegar salad dressings without sugar. Kraft Zesty Italian--my "diet" dressing--has a teaspoon (4g) of sugar in a typical serving. The dressings I really like probably have a lot more...oops...here's one with 17g. Damn.
If, however, you like oil-vinegar dressings, you'll like this salad just fine. But nothing to lose sleep over.
Myself, I like the salad better without any dressing--the slight sweetness of the squash, the nuttiness of the farro, and the unami of the cheese make up a dressing all by themselves. Hey! That's an invention! If I tossed all three into a blender and whirred them up a bit, would I have a new, low-fat salad dressing invention? Could I patent it?
No comments:
Post a Comment