Tag: recipes

Recipe #9 – Ultimate Beef Stew

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From Modern Comfort Food, page 104.

With the release of Ina’s latest cookbook last Tuesday, I knew that this week’s cooking HAD to feature a recipe from it. So, I decided on a classic: Ultimate Beef Stew.

Let me first say, that I am not usually a fan of beef in any capacity except a hamburger. I’m not really sure why. I guess it’s a texture thing for me. Like, I don’t think I’ve had a steak in like 6 years and even then it was while I was in college and had chicken-fried steak once a month.

So why would I make a beef stew as the first recipe out of the new cookbook?

Well, we already had the beef in the freezer, so my wallet got to keep some of its money. Also, the photos of the recipe in the cookbook are so enticing that I just had to make it.

And let me tell you: I wasn’t disappointed!

While the recipe did take longer to prepare than I thought because of all of the chopping and prep work, it was worth it! The stew cooks in the oven for over two hours, which allows the meat to cook properly without getting dried out. Both the meat and vegetables were so tender when it was ready.

There were some things about this recipe that I didn’t like. First, it would take quite some time to prep alone. I would say before you even put it in the oven, you need a good hour to an hour and a half to cut everything and cook what’s needed on the stovetop. Also, like many of Ina’s recipes, the stew had a strong pepper taste throughout. And I only seasoned the amount she recommended when she recommended to do so. In fact, it was so peppery that my nose started to run!

Eating the leftovers the next day did take out some of the overabundant pepper taste, which was great for me.

Overall, this recipe was a hearty one-pot meal that surprisingly had fewer dishes than expected.

Review of “Barefoot Contessa Parties!”

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This is part of a twelve-part series where I review Ina Garten’s cookbooks. Check back each week for the next installment in the series! The reviews will drop every Thursday afternoon at 1:30 PM.

This week I’m reviewing Ina’s second cookbook: Barefoot Contessa Parties! which was published in 2001.

Continue reading “Review of “Barefoot Contessa Parties!”” →

It’s Here!

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I’m so excited!! Ina’s new cookbook arrived today and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into and start looking over the recipes. I have only skimmed it so far, but I can already tell that I think this one will become my new favorite — my previous one was Barefoot in Paris. The photographs are so amazing and Ina looks great!

Look for my extended, full review in a few weeks as part of the cookbook review series that drops every Thursday. Tomorrow, I’m reviewing Barefoot Contessa Parties!

Sorry this is so quick, but I’m too excited to write much. I wanna check out the new book.

Be back soon!

My copy of “Modern Comfort Food”

Recipe #8 – Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

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From Barefoot Contessa Family Style! page 151

Nothing says Fall in New England like pumpkin! And what better was to celebrate a very “fall” weekend with a pumpkin tart?

(Not to mention I got to use my new tart pan again — I need to get its monies worth!)

So I found that Ina’s recipe for Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart only needed a few additional ingredients from the grocery store. Plus I wanted to make a tart to try to redeem myself from the last one…..

Well now that I have made it and tried it, this one did turn out much better than the chocolate mousse tart I tried to make last weekend. However, I think there is still room for improvement.

The empty tart shell….much thicker and more even than the first one I made last week.

In contrast to last week’s tart recipe, this one called for gelatin which did help the mixture firm up quickly and nicely. However, I think the pumpkin mixture had to cook for an additional few minutes over the double boiler.

This ended up being a good recipe for me to learn from. Not only did I have another chance to improve my tart shell making skills, but I also received experience working with a double boiler. I have only a double boiler setup a few times in my life. Once when I made a homemade herbal medicine salve and the other was when I melted orange colored chocolate for Halloween.

While the double boiler worked fine the previous times since I only needed to melt something, I think I need more experience actually using it to cook/heat something well. To be honest, I think the real issue here is the fact that I do not let eggs cook long enough to allow things to thicken.

Overall this week’s tart was tasty. I was able to taste the banana throughout even though there is only one banana in the whole tart. The orange zest also made my tongue jump for joy since it was a nice, unexpected flavor profile that you wouldn’t automatically associate with a pumpkin dessert.

This tart did require A LOT of dishes, but will make a nice substitute for a pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table. One of the nice things about the tart over a traditional pumpkin pie is that the mousse tart is creamy and lighter than a pumpkin pie.

Completed Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart

Since I did not feel like fighting with a piping bag, I decided to just spread the whipped cream on top of the already chilled tart. I then attempted to sprinkle the orange zest over it, but the zest was rather juicy, so it didn’t spread too well. Oh well! Still tasted good!!

Recipes #6 and #7 – Fingerling Potatoes, and Peas and Pancetta

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Fingerling Potatoes from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook, page 159 AND Peas & Pancetta from Make it Ahead, page 158.

To pair with my Turkey Meat Loaf, I decided I needed potatoes. After all, is a classic American dinner like meat load complete if there are no potatoes? I think not.

Luckily, Ina has numerous recipes involving potatoes. I chose for a simpler one, but also a somewhat non-traditional one since meat loaf is usually served with mashed potatoes.

Ina’s fingerling potatoes are just about as basic as you can get and it was lovely anyway. I purchased fingerling potatoes from the store and sliced them before cooking to save time. Since I had more time in the morning, after slicing them in half I filled a pot with cold water and let them sit in there on the stove (it was off) until I needed them for dinner. The potatoes were cooked until fork tender, I drained them, let them steam for a few moments while I was working on the Peas & Pancetta, then tossed them in olive oil, salt and pepper.

They paired really well with the meat loaf and it was probably the most basic recipe Ina has.

The Peas & Pancetta is where we bring in the “gourmet” that is typical of Ina Garten’s recipes. Pancetta is not something that I typically cook with, so going to the store to get pancetta would have been a hurdle. I’m not sure if the deli department in the grocery store would have it. Luckily, I didn’t have to find out because where the cheeses are on display with the other cured meats, they had prepackaged pancetta already diced just how I needed it!

It was a win for me and what a great way to start the day!

When it came time to make the veggie, I sliced up the shallot and threw it into the pan with some oil, I added the pancetta and shortly after I heard little crackling noises of the pancetta searing. Once the shallot turned translucent, I added the peas, the salt, pepper, and mint. I gave some time for the peas to defrost (since they were frozen) and cook. Almost as soon as the peas were ready, the meatloaf was done.

I plated everything and served it to my family. Everyone liked it. The pancetta was a welcome change to our usual routine of having plain peas or just something out of a steamer-bag. I do think I had too many peas…I used a larger bag than called for, but it was all I was able to find in the freezer. Oh well, I got the gist of the taste.

You may be wondering if made a dessert for this meal.

Well, I did…sort of. But it wasn’t made the same day as these. I made it Friday morning, which I will discuss on Monday’s post!

Review of “The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook”

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This is part of a twelve-part series where I review Ina Garten’s cookbooks. Check back each week for the next installment in the series! The reviews will drop every Thursday afternoon at 1:30 PM.

We all love the Barefoot Contessa, also known as Ina Garten. The East Hampton, NY chef and lifestyle celebrity has been entertaining audiences since the early 2000s. But many fans of her Food Network show may not realize that she got her start as the owner of a specialty food store on Long Island. While the store has since closed its doors, the name, Barefoot Contessa, lives on through Ina Garten and her cooking show and cookbooks.

Ina Garten and Barefoot Contessa burst onto the scene in 1999 with the publication of her first cookbook entitled The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.

With a foreword by Martha Stewart, the cookbook quickly led Barefoot Contessa to become a household name. Within a couple of years, Garten’s cooking show began airing on the Food Network and here we are almost twelve cookbook later!

I would argue that this cookbook is different than the other ones in tone. It’s almost as though she was trying to impress her readers and live up to “The Hamptons” stereotype. The narratives are filled with pretentious sentences that I don’t think are reflected in her others books. It’s almost as if her intended audience with this book was exclusively for summer home owners on ritzy coasts.

Many of the recipes promote the “summer is perfect on the Hamptons” trope by mainly benefitting people who have grills or access to fresh seafood and local farmer’s markets. What is strange to me is I think if my first foray into Ina Garten had been this cookbook, I don’t think I would be as big of a fan. Granted, I have only cooked one recipe from this book so far (see here), but all the recipes just come off as too fancy and aren’t really relatable to me.

That said, now that I am older and have had more experience with “early Ina” I feel more confident with the recipes in this book. That said, overall many of the recipes are for more seasoned palates and cooks. Another difference between the recipes in this book and some of her other is that many of the recipes are designed to be used for entertainment, so the scale of the recipes is a lot larger (in fact, her first three cookbooks feature recipes that could feed a couple handfuls of people). Many recipes in this book feed 8 as opposed to the 4 to 6 that is common in the later books.

Some highlights from this book:

  1. Sun-dried Tomato Dip
  2. Gazpacho
  3. Grilled Salmon Salad
  4. Lobster Potpie
  5. Turkey Meatloaf
  6. Kitchen Clambake
  7. Potato-Fennel Gratin
  8. Outrageous Brownies
  9. Croissant Bread Pudding
  10. Maple-Oatmeal Scones

I can’t wait to try some more of these, however I almost feel obligated to wait until summer because the food just lends itself to that season.

Recipe #4 – Chocolate Pudding Cream Tart

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Located in How Easy is That?

For my next recipe, I decided to make another dessert.

As you may recall, I purchased a tart pan from Williams-Sonoma last week and I decided that it was time to break it in! By the way, this recipe was made on Saturday morning, so I didn’t wait very long to give it it’s first use!

Ina has many tarts sprinkled throughout her cookbooks. Some of them are savory, but most are sweet, desserts. However, I wanted chocolate! So I found the Chocolate Pudding Cream Tart inside the How Easy Is That? cookbook. I gathered my ingredients and everything was going to plan, until one step…..

The recipe requires that you combine the scalded milk with the egg mixture in your stand mixture. Which went swimmingly: I poured the milk in slowly and had the mixer on stir so it wouldn’t scramble the eggs, which it didn’t. However, after doing that, Ina says you need to cook the mixture over the stove until it thickens. Her recipe says cook it for 5 to 10 minutes.

Well…I cooked it. But after 8 minutes on the stove with constant stirring, it had thickened a bit so I thought it was ready. I removed it from the heat and continued on with the recipe by adding the chocolate and butter and whisking until it turned into a nice chocolate-y pool of goodness!

(Or so I thought)

I then poured the mixture into the prepared tart pan with its cooked graham cracker shell, put the plastic wrap on it, and shoved it in the fridge to cool/harden. After about an hour, I checked on it and it was still pretty liquidy, but Ina says it will take around six hours to completing become pudding consistently so I didn’t worry too much.

However, when it reached Hour 5 and not much had changed I did begin to worry!

I didn’t want chocolate milk and I didn’t want to lose the whole thing, so I placed the tart pan in the freezer for the final hour.

It did freeze, but when I cut into it about 90 minutes later, I realized my problem. The custard didn’t cook long enough and thus thicken properly. I was so disappointed that this one didn’t work out. I was really hoping that my first experience making a tart would be a success.

Also, it was the first recipe that I was failed by Ina, I feel like. Prior to starting this blog, I made a few of her recipes here and there and everything always came out amazingly. But not this time. While I know this isn’t technically Ina’s fault, I am still disappointed. I think I am more disappointed over the fact that I feel like I have failed Ina.

However, I wanted this recipe to be good and turn out okay, so I’ve decided I’m going to make it again at some point. In fact, I already bought the chocolate. I just need to get the whole milk, which is a necessity when making this since anything but whole milk won’t cook and set properly.

So there you have it! My first “fail.”

But I plan to march onward and try again and continue to make more recipes. After all, this experience is so that I could learn something, after all!

My “fail” or a chocolate cream pudding pie.

Is the Expensive Vanilla REALLY Worth It??

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The other day I was poking my way around Ina’s website and I realized that she uses vanilla that costs around $33 for 4 fluid ounces. It’s from Madagascar and I’m sure it’s excellent.

But….

Is it REALLY worth that much money? How does it compare to the McCormick one that I buy and use?

I know she wants us to use the BEST ingredients, but I can’t bring myself to spend more than a tank of gas on vanilla extract. To me, it doesn’t really seem worth it. After all, you use so very little in each recipe. In fact, I remember one day I made chocolate chip cookies (not Ina’s, Tollhouse actually) and I forgot to add the vanilla to that recipe and I couldn’t even tell the different.

So really, it doesn’t seem necessary to spend that much money on something that usually gets overpowered by other flavors.

However, there may be a time when I have some extra cash that I’d be willing to buy it. After all, four ounces will last for quite a bit of time if you’re just using a teaspoon or two here and there.

Luckily it’s also sold at the Williams-Sonoma I went to last week, so I can get it easier.

But for now, I’ll stick to the McCormick brand and pretend that I can justify spending all that money on dark brown vodka.