I had high hopes for this one...we love a good curry! But even though I tried to jazz it up with blanched almonds and raisins and used twice the amount of curry powder, it still was kind of bland and more like a tomato-saucy chicken casserole than a curry. It wasn't bad, but while it may have passed for a curry in 1959, it just couldn't compare to what we've come to expect from a chicken curry. AND it's fairly labor-intensive; I would recommend cooking the chicken and taking the meat off the bone the day before, unless you have a few hours to prepare dinner!
The recipe on page 132, Country Captain, sounds similar but possibly a little more flavorful.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Praline Cake p. 182
I wanted to bake a cake for my daughter Elise who is home for a month or so! Missed her birthday and she looooves cake so I whipped this up. It's a pretty simple recipe, in the classic mix-dry-ingredients, mix-wet-ingredients, then blend them together genre. Tip: use a small bowl for dry ingredients and a larger bowl for the shortening (I used butter), sugar, vanilla, and egg mixture. That way you can add the flour mixture and milk to the bigger bowl and beat it in.
The cake itself was yummy with a nice texture--kind of heavy and crumbly like a coffee cake. The praline icing was too sweet for my taste, but I'm not a big fan of pralines, so there you go!
It's kind of nice that you bake it right in a glass dish (I used a pie plate) because you can just serve it and store it in there and it looks pretty. But this cake wasn't a big hit with my girls; maybe because of the cloying sweetness.
Look at the next recipe on the page, though...Raisin Apple Cake! That sounds like a good one!
The cake itself was yummy with a nice texture--kind of heavy and crumbly like a coffee cake. The praline icing was too sweet for my taste, but I'm not a big fan of pralines, so there you go!
It's kind of nice that you bake it right in a glass dish (I used a pie plate) because you can just serve it and store it in there and it looks pretty. But this cake wasn't a big hit with my girls; maybe because of the cloying sweetness.
Look at the next recipe on the page, though...Raisin Apple Cake! That sounds like a good one!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Arroz Con Pollo (Rice with Chicken) p. 123
When I started this blog, I set out to follow the recipes as closely as possible in order to get a real sense of what the dish was like when the Junior League first published this book in 1959. Well, I've given up on that. I just can't use a full CUP of oil to brown the chicken! After all, it doesn't say to drain the oil after browning. I used a scant half cup, and probably could have used even less. And 2 TABLEspoons of salt?? No way! I used a rounded teaspoon.
Bet-R is not the kind of store that carries saffron, and I was not about to make a special trip to Wholefoods, so I substituted a packet of yellow rice mix (Mahatma brand) for the rice. It supposedly has saffron in it.
Once again, I had the crunchy rice problem! I needed to nearly double the cooking time in the oven to make the rice edible--it was in there for 35 minutes. But the result was nice; a pretty, satisfying dish that would feed way more than 4. I'd say it serves 6 at least.
Bet-R is not the kind of store that carries saffron, and I was not about to make a special trip to Wholefoods, so I substituted a packet of yellow rice mix (Mahatma brand) for the rice. It supposedly has saffron in it.
Once again, I had the crunchy rice problem! I needed to nearly double the cooking time in the oven to make the rice edible--it was in there for 35 minutes. But the result was nice; a pretty, satisfying dish that would feed way more than 4. I'd say it serves 6 at least.
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