Making Ina's Recipes at Home: How Easy is That?

[chessiegal]

I've found the Whole Foods in Annapolis dropped prices on many items after Amazon bought them - crab cakes, Atlantic salmon come to mind.

[Mandolia]

 A new-to-me episode yesterday within in the random repeats we get on Food Network in the UK: 4 hour lamb braised in the oven (Ina adapted the recipe from the original 7 hours' braising time as, after testing the recipe a few times, she found the 7 hour cooking time was too long,  .I wondered if that was because Ina was using a boneless leg of lamb which would take less time to reach that wonderful "falls apart if you look it" moment).  Ina didn't say it was boneless but it looked as if it was, i.e. the use of string.

The lamb looked so, so, so good and wonderfully tender.  And the cooking juices, complete with the squished garlic passed through a sieve and then reduced...heaven!  Even the white beans sort of a la Provencale (I am not usually a fan of white beans!) it was served with looked super-enticing.  BUT a leg of home-produced lamb is expensive in the UK, which is ironic given that we produce wonderful lamb - Welsh lamb is particularly good.  I'd baulk at spending nearly £40 on a 4lb boneless leg of lamb I was going to braise.  However good/delicious the end result is!  Imported New Zealand lamb is less expensive, but it seems all wrong to buy NZ lamb when we are  (rightly) encouraged to support British farmers.  So....I'm going to do the recipe using a cheaper, but no less delicious, cut: perhaps a boned/rolled shoulder.  Or even rolled breast of lamb which is extremely inexpensive and needs long, slow cooking.

[biakbiak]

Made her chocolate banana cream pie! Happy New Year!

 

[annzeepark914]

I made the lemon chicken breasts, along with a tossed salad w/citrus vinaigrette,  + mashed potatoes. It was ok. Mr. P914 said, '"This would make a good cold weather meal".  I think he was being diplomatic. This style of chicken tastes the same as when my mom baked chicken breasts back in the day.

 

[MargeGunderson]

I made Ina’s roasted vegetable orzo today, which is a summer staple in my house. So good as always!

[MargeGunderson]

I tried the spinach artichoke dip from Modern Comfort food for Christmas Eve. It has caramelized onions and mayonnaise in addition to the usual ingredients for the dip. It’s very good (no surprise!). I did use twice as much cream cheese (a whole block instead of a half) because I wanted it to be extra creamy. 

[chenoa333]

Anyone here tried Ina's recipe for making eggs benedict? She dropped the eggs in a skillet pan(?) with water rather than doing the conventional way. They looked so good.

I don't know the professional terms for pots,pans etc so "skillet pan" might be incorrect. Anyway, I am going to try that recipe someday. I am not a good cook!

Also, does anyone know of a good book that identifies cooking utensils, knives, pots, pans etc and what they are used for? 

[chessiegal]

6 minutes ago, chenoa333 said:

Also, does anyone know of a good book that identifies cooking utensils, knives, pots, pans etc and what they are used for? 

Ina has included that kind of info in at least one of her cookbooks, I'm thinking one of the earlier ones.

America's Test Kitchen has info on kitchen essentials.

[Bastet]

21 minutes ago, chenoa333 said:

Also, does anyone know of a good book that identifies cooking utensils, knives, pots, pans etc and what they are used for? 

The Joy of Cooking contains that kind of information at the end, but that's after nearly 1000 pages of recipes, so I suspect you're looking for something more dedicated.  Check your library for books like The Encyclopedia of Kitchen Tools or Tools For Food.

[chenoa333]

Thank you Bastet and ChessieGal!  I get most, if not all, of the books I read from public libraries so I will check out your suggestions.