Today's Cookbook Party features new CPC member Jeff, who finally managed to make it to one of these things. Jeff suggested that we get together for a tasty Sunday brunch; we saw it as another chance to try out new recipes and have some fun cooking together.
Since brunch doesn't have the same courses as regular dinner, we decided to pull for "Fruity", "Eggy", "Bready" and "Choice", since Julia saw those as the relevant categories. Four cooks, a sous chef and a two-year-old in the kitchen got kind of crazy at times, but this was one of the best Cookbook Parties yet!
Attending: Julia (baby wrangling/sous chef), Brooke (fruity something), Rick (eggy something), Jeff (bready something) and Thad (something else)
~Choice: Thad~
Potato Rissoles
(Again with the Great Victorian Cookbook. We here at the CPC love that thing!)
1 lb. floury potatoes, peeled
2 T butter or 1 T olive oil
2 T milk
salt and pepper
1 oz. Parma ham, chopped
fresh parsely, chopped
2 scallions or 1 shallot, peeled and chopped
flour for coating
olive oil for frying
Boil the potatoes until tender. Mash them with butter or olive oil and milk. Allow to cool slightly, then add salt and pepper and mix the rest of the ingredients in. Shape into balls (a little bigger than golf balls) and roll them in flour. Fry them in the oil in small batches, turning them until they're cooked golden on all sides. Drain on a paper towel and eat.
Cook's Comments:
Jeff and Rick made the grocery run, but somehow overlooked my parsley and mistook "parma ham" for "parmesan" and thusly handed me a chunk of aged cheese instead of the cured ham product I had been expecting. This lead to my having to make an extra trip out before my dish could be completed. Overall the rissoles came out quite nice and I was proud that I had chosen to serve them with the leftover ham as that really helped them as a dish. I found out my fry-fu was a little weak and none of them got the golden-brown coating that I had been wanting. Rick says that I'd have been better off using canola oil and I agree that they may have fried better, but I do think that taste-wise the use of olive oil was important. Also, the suggested amount of "a handful" of parsley seemed a bit too much. Maybe the cookbook writer had smaller hands than I do.
I'd like to further add that Rick once more demonstrated his intent to poison us all. When I asked for the use of a potato masher I was handed what I believe to have been an implement last used during the Spanish Inquisition and it clearly hadn't been cleaned since then either. Since I don't recall when I last had a tetanus shot I declined its use.
Party Club's Comments:
Brooke: These were so delicious! I agree that making them smaller and crunchier would probably only benefit them. They had great flavor combinations. The taste really stood out when you took a bite with a side bite of ham... the balls without extra ham were taste-fully 'meh'. Not bad, but not great. Only serve this with the extra ham on the side!
Jeff: I really enjoyed these. The combination of the potato, scallions, parsley, and prosciutto was excellent. I would go for chopping up the parsley much finer and making the balls about half the size. This would give it a smoother taste, making the parsley more of an accent. Making it smaller would probably make them cook better and help take care of the problem that the olive oil presented in not quite frying them right. Otherwise, I thought they were great and they got my vote for best dish.
Julia: Once again, the Victorians come through for us. I wasn't sure I'd like these (I'm not too hot on either scallions or parsley) but they were fantastic. Best eaten with a little salt and a bite of the ham. I really enjoyed the flavor depth of these- I thought the potatoes provided an excellent matrix for the combination of ham and scallions, with a nice crunch from the fried exterior. My one complaint: they could use a little less parsley, or to have it finer chopped. Some of the balls were very heavy on parsley, others were fine.
Rick: Tasty, but only with the Prosciutto did they really stand out. otherwise kind of middle of the road. parsley needed to be chopped much finer, and the balls were just a bit too large to be honest. The crunch was the texturally interesting part, so smaller balls = more crunch. The flavors were quite good otherwise. I personally think they should have been fried on canola or soybean oil so they could be fried hotter. The olive oil has a nice flavor, but such a low smoke point they weren't frying up proper and when we turned up the heat the house filled with smoke.
~Eggy: Rick~
Pizza For Breakfast
(from the All New! One-Dish Collection, author unnamed)
1 6-1/2 oz. package pizza crust mix
1 lb. breakfast sausage
1 cup dice fresh or drained canned tomatoes
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1-1/2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar
4 eggs
salt and pepper
salsa (optional)
Preheat to 350. Spread pizza dough into a greased 13x9 baking dish, making sure dough covers bottom and 2 inches up the sides of the dish. Crumble and cook sausage in medium skillet until browned; drain. Top crust with sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, and 1 cup each of the mozzarella and cheddar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown at edges. Remove from oven. Whisk eggs, salt and pepper in a small bowl; pour over pizza. Return to oven; bake 7 to 9 minutes or until eggs are set. Immediately sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Serve hot, with salsa if desired.
Cook's Comments: A breakfast pizza, so pretty standard. As I disdain fungus, the mushrooms were dropped in lieu of scallions, which added a nice flavor though I should have chopped them finer. Also, I used fresh rather than canned tomatoes (2 plum tomatoes in my case) but general consensus was that a third tomato was desired. One point of note: I have no idea why this has you bake it twice except to maybe not overcook the eggs? In any case, when I followed the times etc for the recipe, the eggs did not get done when the crust did. so I had to put it back in, which slightly overcooked the crust. So check your packaged dough directions and allow 10 or so min for the eggs to get done. No salsa was served because that seemed a tragedy waiting to happen.
Party Club's Comments:
Brooke: Tasty and standard. The warm juicy tomatoes were the part my mouth loved best. I saw no problems with this dish, but it didn't jump out at me as spectacular, either. I would happily eat it (alone) for breakfast any time.
Jeff: A good main course sort of dish. I loved the flavor that the fresh plum tomatoes brought and agree that adding one more was called for. My biggest problem was the scallions. They did need to be cut smaller and one scallion would have been plenty. If I were to make this myself I would have used the mushrooms that the recipe called for, but then I am a mushroom freak.
Julia: This was also very good. I really liked the combination of eggs, cheese, sausage, and tomatoes- really, what's not to love about that? I think this is a lovely, not-too-difficult breakfast casserole, and I might make it myself sometime. My only criticism was that I thought Rick made it a bit heavy on the scallions. I wished there to be fewer of them, and for them to be chopped finer.
Thad: I was wary about eating this (see above evidence regarding Rick trying to poison us), but hey Cookbook Party Club only comes around once a month or so right? As for the dish, it was basically good, but not especially exciting. I liked the tomatoes and thought that they really worked with the dish, but that it could have used substantially more of them. The scallions were also a bit overpowering.
~Bready: Jeff~
Apple Turnovers
( From Dessert University, by Roland Mesnier)
Turnover dough:
2 large eggs, hard-boiled and cooled
2 cups all-purpose flour
3-1/2 T. sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 T. cream of tartar
pinch salt
8 T. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into chunks
3/4 cup plus 2 T heavy cream
Separate the boiled egg yolks (you won't be using the whites). Push them through a mesh strainer and set aside. Combine the rest of the dry ingredients in another bowl. Add the butter, and mix until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolks and heavy cream, and mix until the dough just comes together. Cover the bowl with a towel until ready to use.
Prebaked apple chunks:
8 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
6 T. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
6 T. sugar
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Arange the apple cubes on an ungreased baking dish so they form a well-packed 2-inch layer. Dot them with the butter and sprinkle with the sugar. Bake them, stirring every 3-5 minutes until they just start to give when pressed with the back of a spoon, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the dish from the oven and push the apples together in a mound. Let them cool to room temp (they will cook further in the residual heat).
Cook's Comments: The Apple filling for these was really easy to make and made so much, that you could easily make 2-3 times the amount of dough and still have a little left over for another project. The book notes that Filling can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days or the freezer for up to 2 months. As for the dough, I had never though of adding the yolk of a hard boiled egg to such a recipe, but it really helped bring a great creaminess to the flavor. I would suggest adding an extra tablespoon or two of butter to help counter the dryness of the dough, though as long as there is enough filling in there the dryness is not noticeable. I think the biggest change I would make is doubling the size of the piece of dough (6x6 inch rather than 3x3). The recipe size was a bit to small to fit a good amount of filling inside. Also, make sure you drain the apples of all the juice. The instant some of the juice touches the dough, it just starts to fall apart. I would save the juice to be used in a sauce or glaze. Overall, I really like the taste and they were fun to make.
Party Club's Comments:
Brooke: The crust on this dish was actually delectable. I don't think anyone did not grab seconds on the turnovers (except maybe Rick). More filling would have been nice, but I was satisfied with the turnovers as-is. True, they were dry, but not overly so, to my mind.
Julia: This was incredible. The crust wasn't what you think of as turnover pastry typically; it was slightly cakier. Jeff tells me that the cookbook said it could be used in place of puff pastry, and it shows. In any case, it was lightly sweet, and melt-in-your-mouth flaky. The apples were sweet, but not overpoweringly so. It was like eating a little cake with apples cooked in, and it was delicious. My only recommendation would be to try to incorporate a little more apple. Really, though, it was sublime the way it was. I absolutely voted this as my favorite.
Rick: Good, but I simply could not get past the dryness of the pastry. Julia says flaky, but for me it was just dry. The filling was magnificent however; sublime and pure apple flavor, the sugar balanced perfectly to bring out the apple flavor without actually being tasted itself and the apples themselves cooked just right to still have some tooth and texture. I wish there had been more of it in the turnovers to be honest.
Thad: It was a very tasty crust, but with so little filling I really felt like I was just eating crust.
~Fruity: Brooke~
Orange Mango Glazed Carrots
(This is actually one of those tear-out recipes from the grocery store. It was attached to a Juicy Juice coupon, which we did not use.)
1 cup Orange Mango juice
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1 lb. baby carrots
1 Tbs. honey
1 Tbs. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
Combine juice and cornstarch in small bowl; mix until smooth. Cook carrots in boiling water for 10 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain. Return to pan; add honey, butter and salt. Add Juicy Juice mixture; cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until glaze is thickened. Makes 4 servings. (Prep Time: 5 minutes, Cooking Time: 15 minutes)
Cook's Comments:
Orange-Mango juice, specifically, was not found during the grocery run, so I just mixed even amounts of orange juice and mango juice together; I think this worked beautifully. The cook time on the carrots was just right; I think they turned out with the perfect consistency, and it was actually the thing I was most afraid of with this recipe in the beginning (limp or tough carrots). This was really easy to make, and didn't take too much time (just waiting for the water to boil was most of it). I doubled all of the amounts because I was going to make a double batch - it says it serves 4- but I didn't specify enough carrots to the shoppers, so ended up with half the carrots for the amount of glaze I was cooking up. This did not end up being a problem, although my glaze never became overly thick and this may be why. It is not a heavy glaze, very light, when you serve them it should look they need more glaze - but this is not the case. Putting too much of the juice on after they're done cooking would overwhelm you with orange-mango flavor, I think. Whereas what is already part of the carrots just works wonderfully. These were really delicious, and they went with everything! It was an extremely complementary dish. I am cooking these again this week, I liked them so well.
Party Club's Comments:
Jeff: Simple, sweet, and delicious. These carrots make for a great side dish. I have always had a soft spot for glazed carrots. The mango and orange juice was fantastic. The flavor is clear but not demanding. The one suggestion I have is using a slotted spoon to serve them so that you don't get too much of the glaze running around the plate.
Julia: This was a simple, but very effective dish. The citrus/mango glaze really set off the sweetness of the carrots beautifully. I also felt that, flavor-wise, they meshed really nicely with the rissoles particularly.
Rick: At first I was so-so on this but as it went along I had to pick it as my vote for winner. It did not stand out in any way above anything else except in one respect: the fact that it DIDN'T stand out but complemented everything. Its light citrus flavor brought out the carrots and made it a nice counter point to everything. At the same time savory and tart against the sweet turnovers then sweet and light with the pizza and rissoles it performed flawlessly throughout the meal.
Thad: Sweet and tasty there's really nothing bad I had to say about these and it was tempting to just keep munching on them.
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