Recipe Reduction Regimen 193, 192, 191

Rosemary Focaccia
from America's Test Kitchen

Failed. Horribly. The recipe was either misleading or just plain wrong, because--

   not  enough  flour !#@%#!

I can't check it now; the only copies of the original that I can pull up are protected and I refuse to spend hours trying to justify a failure. Here's the problem: for a round of bread, to be cooked in a skillet of 10" diameter, the recipe called for only 1-1/4c flour plus six tablespoons for dusting. All I can guess is, they must have been extremely rounded tablespoons and they must have done a lot of dusting.

Then I committed the cardinal sin of overbaking it, but it was getting late by then and I was tired of messing with it. I just threw it in the oven and set the timer; 20 minutes later I pulled out a skillet with a rock glued inside.

If I wanted to give this another chance, which I don't, I'd have a much warmer kitchen, let it rise for twice the six hours I allowed, and add a lot more flour during the periodic "stretches". The poor yeast tried hard but it just ran out of food--I starved it to death and buried its pitiful remains.

Garlic Lover's Salmon in Foil
from GimmeSomeOven

A sad waste of expensive fish. Salmon is a fatty fish with a wonderful flavor, so what was the point in drenching it in butter and overpowering it with garlic? I love butter and garlic, but taking a delicious fish and smothering it in them didn't result in the explosion of flavor I imagined. In fact, it would have tasted the same if I'd left out the fish!


The best salmon I ever ate was a steak I cooked long ago. I browned a single clove of garlic in a tiny pat of butter, added the steak with some salt and cooked it gently. There may have been a sprinkle of lemon juice at the end and a bit of parsley for garnish.

        Contrast this soggy mess----->










Egg Pie
 from panlasangpinoy.com

Certainly interesting. The crust recipe they gave was double-crust size, so I skipped it and did a single crust. Note to self: don't roll out a pie crust on the same piece of wax paper you chilled it in. The wax paper starts to disintegrate and has to be pulled off in tiny pieces. Hope I got them all.

The interesting thing is that the typical egg custard pie has a smooth, dark yellow top. This one--with a beaten egg white folded in--was bumpy and a  mixture of brown and beige. I had a little too much filling for the pie pan but I coaxed it in there anyway, so I had to bake it an extra twenty minutes.

Tasted fine but not as good as "my grandmother's custard pie" I bought from a pie seller at a farmer's market in Hot Springs. I don't know what made her recipe taste so good...maybe she snuck a cup of bourbon in.