Sauerbraten (p. 478) and Potato dumplings (kartoffelklosse) (p. 335)

I stumbled upon a boneless beef roast for a decent price at the grocery store and thought I would make Sauerbraten (p. 478). Josh loves of Germany and I thought he would enjoy eating a (TJOC-version of a ) German meal.

I heated white vinegar, water, onion, bay leaves, peppercorn, and sugar in a pot:

I poured the marinade over the beef in a casserole dish and popped it in the refrigerator, where it sat, getting turned occasionally, for 4 days.

After the fourth day, I drained the marinade off of the meat, and browned the meat in a little vegetable oil. I then cooked it like beef pot roast. When the meat became "tender" (honestly, I didn't think it ever got particularly tender), I sprinkled brown sugar on top of the meat (it was less a "sprinkle" and more a "slather".

I cooked the meat for about ten minutes more and then removed the meat to a container (not a platter, we weren't doing anything fancy for dinner):

I was left with this:

I wanted to thicken the gravy but I didn't want it to be lumpy, so I added a little of the cooking liquid to the flour and then mixed it in:

I added sour cream to the gravy. And it was done! I sliced meat, poured gravy on the top, and put it on top of some riced potatoes (fortunately, I had some potatoes left over after the potato dumpling debacle that follows):

I didn't like it.

I didn't like it at all.

It's very possible I just don't like sauerbraten. I don't know--I've never had it before. It was certainly sour. I REALLY disliked the sweet sugary gravy and the meat was still tough. I won't be making this recipe again. Josh thought it was less horrible than I did but he didn't think it was very good either. For those of you who have eaten sauerbraten before, what is it supposed to be like?

I thought that I should make Potato dumplings (kartoffelklosse) (p. 335) to go with the sauerbraten since TJOC insists it's traditional. The recipe looked fairly simple, even though I'd never made dumplings before.

I boiled potatoes and riced them in to a bowl. I added two eggs (make sure the potatoes are cold at this point or you will end up with potatoes with chunks of cooked egg sprinkled throughout), flour, and salt:

I formed them in to balls and then dropped them in boiling water.

They totally disintegrated. Honestly, this is what was left of my potato dumplings:

While re-reading the "About Dumplings" section (or, perhaps, reading it for the first time), I now notice that it says not to let the water boil but simply keep the water at a light simmer. I'm pretty sure that was my main problem. I really can't judge this recipe since it was a complete disaster. I should probably try it again (we will see, I'm not very motivated to make it again, and I'm counting it off the list). If someone wants to do a guest post using this recipe, I would totally be up for it.

This brings to mind a question--When a recipe fails, probably due to something I did, should I still count it off or should I have to make it again? I would love to know your opinion on this.

Spicy peanut sesame noodles (p. 332)

Sometimes I decide to make a certain recipe for a particular reason. Other times, it's truly a whim. Spicy peanut sesame noodles (p. 332) was definitely a whim. The recipe has looked tasty to me for a while but was extremely long and had quite a few ingredients, including several odd items I didn't have on hand.

The odd ingredients:

1. Unsalted peanut butter. Unsalted PB is not particularly easy to find--likely because it doesn't taste very good.

2. Dark soy sauce. This ingredient was another mystery. I thought that maybe it was full-flavored soy sauce as compared to lite soy sauce but I wasn't sure about that. While at the local Asian grocery store looking for Chinese egg noodles, I ran across a bottle--it really is different than normal soy sauce. It's thicker and almost syrupy.

3. Freshly brewed black tea. I love tea, I drink a LOT of tea, I even really like black tea, but I don't drink a lot of plain, unflavored black tea. Luckily, Josh had a stash of it that he uses for iced tea.

I also had trouble finding "Chinese egg noodles". I found Chinese noodles but they weren't egg noodles. TJOC mentions that spaghetti could be used instead, so I figured they were close enough.

This recipe has quite a few ingredients that an average pantry probably doesn't have on hand unless you do at least an occasional amount of Asian cooking, such as chili oil, sesame oil, and rice vinegar (thankfully I had all of those).

I mixed the peanut butter, rice vinegar, light and dark soy sauces, garlic, one chile pepper (it gave me an option of 1-3 and I figured I would start low), honey (I think this recipe would be vegan if you used a different sweetener), salt, sesame oil, chili oil, and tea in my blender and blended until smooth:

I cooked the noodles in unsalted water and then rinsed until cool. I tossed the noodles with sesame oil (I assume so they don't stick):

I mixed the sauce into the noodles:

SO GOOD! Honestly, this recipe goes in to the pile of "Best of TJOC". The dish was very spicy, so I can't imagine how hot it would be with three peppers instead of one. It kept BEAUTIFULLY. In fact, I think it was better after it sat in the fridge for a couple days. The spicy, creamy sauce was amazingly delicious and I just wanted to keep eating it. The recipe makes a LOT of noodles though, so make sure you have hungry people on hand!

One warning--these are cold noodles. I got very used to cold noodles in Japan but not everybody likes them (although I think you should give them a shot, especially if you've never tried them).

Wontons (p. 342) and Wonton soup (p. 126)

Sometimes I have reasons why I make a particular recipe on a particular day and sometimes I don't. I was in the mood to make filled noodles and decided to make Wontons (p. 342). This was odd for a couple reasons. I don't like wontons, never order wonton soup at restaurants, am actively annoyed if wonton soup is my only choice, and like other filled pastas like pierogis and ravioli. I think the lone mark in the wonton's favor was that I can easily buy wonton wrappers at the grocery store.

I took pork and mixed in cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, salt, and black pepper.



I went digging for the water chestnuts I was completly positive we had. I even remembered the day I got them on discount at the grocery store. After searching, I realized we had bamboo shoots, not water chestnuts. And I was unwilling to run to the store for eight water chesnuts (not cans, eight individual water chestnuts). So my wontons had bamboo shoots. I added my bamboo shoots, along with scallions, and ginger.



I laid out my (bought) wonton wrappers, brushed each wrapper with egg wash, and placed a bit of filling in the middle:



I folded the wonton wrapper and pinched the edges:



And folded the sides in:



WONTONS!

Wontons for Wonton soup (p. 126)!

Once you have the wontons, the wonton soup is simple. I heated up some chicken stock, dumped the wontons in, added a bit of soup, and was finished.



I was pleased with this recipe. My wontons looked professional and I was proud of them. I wasn't sure if they were pinched tight enough but the shrunk during cooking so it wasn't a problem. I was also afraid the pork wouldn't cook in such a short time but it did.

The wontons tasted exactly like every meat wonton I've ever eaten--they were savory with a slight heat (I assume from the chili oil). I think they would have been even better if they were half pork and half shrimp. The recipe was super easy, and, terrifically, on my RGL.

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Pasta primavera (p. 327)

Pasta primavera (p. 327) is a dish that I like but never order and have never made. I'm not sure why I've never made it--I think it's because every recipe I've ever spotted for it seems to require a very specific mix of vegetables that I don't have on hand. TJOC is much more flexible in it's vegetable requirements and (basically) just required what you have on hand. And I had a terrific cache of fresh vegetables from my dad.

I cooked zucchini and green beans in some salted water and then fished them out with a sieve and rinsed them under cold water (to stop them from cooking further). The vegetables weren't drained so that the hot water could but used to cook the spaghetti, which was a time-efficient step.



An onion and a couple carrots were then cooked in a olive oil and butter. The cooked squash and beans were added, along with some peas.



Heavy cream was stirred in to the vegetables:



The pasta, along with Parmesan cheese, was stirred in after the cream reduced and thickened.



How was it? Pretty good! I actually really enjoyed it and it fried up absolutely perfectly--in fact I think it was better the next day. Now that I realize you can make pasta primavera with any vegetables, I'll be sure to make it again, espacially when people have given me fresh vegetables. I also am happy to have it in my repotoire in case I ever have a vegetarian dinner guest, since it seems to be the go-to vegetarian meal for banquets.

Pasta and beans (pasta e fagioli) (p. 329) and Garlic soup with eggs (sopa de ajo) (p. 124)

Sometimes while cooking for TJOTJOC I make a dish that is totally new to me or a dish that I've never attempted myself. I am able to totally judge the TJOC version without comparing it to other versions of the dish I've had.

But other times, I stumble upon dishes that are either a favorite of mine or a favorite of a close family member. Pasta and beans (pasta e fagioli) (p. 329) is one of my mother's and my grandfather's favorite dishes. The only place (and I hate saying this--my Italian half is screaming in horror as I type) that has has a equivalently good pasta e fagioli to my grandmother's version is The Olive Garden (yeah, I said it, and I'm not ashamed). These recipes are more difficult because I am always comparing back to all the versions I had in the past.

The other thing I like about pasta e fagioli? Listening to people who have never had the stew/soup try to say the name. We always pronounce it fah-zool. I know it's an unpronounced "g".

The recipe is amazingly easy. Onion, a carrot, a celery rib with the leaves, and some parsley were sauteed in a little olive oil, with a couple garlic cloves. Two cans of Great Northern beans were mixed in (cheap!). The beans were partially mashed and two cups of chicken stock were added. Finally, some elbow macaroni was mixed in and cooked, and some cheese was added.



I realized after I started this dish that my camera battery was totally dead, leading to only one picture. How was it? Pretty good--a really solid, easy recipe. Will it impress your Italian mother-in-law? Probably not. Will it impress your thinks-Chef-Boyardee-is-actually-Italian mother-in-law? Very possibly. And it is one of those extremely cheap (beans, elbow macaroni, cheap vegetables, and homemade chicken stock are all very inexpensive) meals that is really filling. This would be top of my list for anyone who is experiencing money issues.

I also made Garlic soup with eggs (sopa de ajo) (p. 124). Such a promising name! I love garlic. I love soup. What could go wrong? And the recipe started very smoothly. An entire head of garlic cooked in a little olive oil? Perfect!



It's quite a bit of garlic:



Then four slices of bread were toasted in the garlicy/olive oily remains.




Until they got deliciously golden yellow:



A tablespoon of paprika and some cumin seeds were toasted and then added to the garlic, along with chicken stock, and salt and pepper. This mixture was simmered for about twenty minutes.



TJOC says to ladle the soup into ovenproof bowls or crocks--the closest I had were my ramekins, which were way to small for this purpose. I had to use them anyway. An egg was slid into each ramekin and it was baked for three minutes (I used put a cookie sheet under it so that it didn't leak into the oven).





I had two main problems with this soup. The first one?



It was extremely difficult to eat. I didn't have big enough bowls (only ramekins--I needed small crocks), which didn't help.

The second problem? It was so bland! Boring! Very cumin-y but not complext at all.

Has anyone had the real version of this soup? What is it supposed to be like?

Spaghetti carbonara (p. 329)

First of all, welcome to all the new readers that have wandered over from the foodie blogroll! I try to post when I actually made the food, not when I post, so this blog hasn't been ignored for several weeks like it looks. Don't forget the contest!

I recently made a big list of how much progress I have made in every TJOC chapter. I am doing extremely well in certain chapters (stocks and soups for example) and doing very poorly in other chapters (pickles and relishes, where I have made zero recipes). You think this would have motivated me to bake more cookies and make more game. Instead, I decided to make Spaghetti carbonara (p. 329), a recipe from a chapter I've been making excellent progress with. This will be a short post because it was an extremely easy recipe.

I love recipes that start by sauteing bacon in olive oil:



So much bacon!



White wine was added and then cooked until it evaporated.

I mixed three eggs, some Parmesan, and salt and pepper in a little bowl:






And then added the bacon and the egg mixture to hot pasta (which cooks the egg):



Tasty and easy--a perfect combination. I really recommend this recipe and I will make it again in the future. It fried up well the next day too

Egg noodles with garlic and bread crumbs (p. 330)

I needed something very quick because I had been very busy. I usually look in the pasta chapter when I need something fast. Egg noodles with garlic and bread crumbs (p. 330) seemed to fit the bill. I melted a stick of butter, then added some garlic and a cup of bread crumbs. It was a LOT of breadcrumbs--an inappropriate amount of bread crumbs, I thought.



Eventually the bread crumbs brown and a little parsley is stirred in.



At this point, a pound (a pound?? Why didn't I cut this recipe down??) of egg noodles were added.



How was it? It tasted like it looked--like egg noodles covered in bread crumbs. Not my thing. I think this recipe goes in the "no thank you" pile. I wonder how the authors came up with some of these recipes and I imagine it went like this:

"Hmm...I'm so hungry but all my food spontaneously combusted except for a bag of egg noodles, some stale bread, and a stick of butter. And gophers dug up my entire garden--except for my garlic. Maybe I can combine it all--tada! Into the book it goes!"

Hot buttered rum (p. 61), Poached eggs (p. 196), and Japanese noodles in broth (p. 333)

We got a LOT of snow. The picture doesn't even show the beginnings of all the snow we got--that stool in the yard is at least two feet tall. Doesn't Mother Nature know it's almost April?



I thought, what a terrific day for Hot buttered rum (p. 61)! The first step is to spoon a teaspoon of powdered sugar into a warmed mug (I warmed the mug in the microwave).



Two ounces of boiling water, two ounces of rum, and a tablespoon butter were added to the cup.



And then it was filled with boiling water.




It was warm, which was nice on a cold day, but I thought it was too watery. I must like my cocktails more stout! It was my first buttered rum though--maybe there is a trick to making it.

I've been trying to cook through the Randomized List as quickly as I can (because I want to make a new list) and I noticed that Poached eggs (p. 196) were one of my choices. It seemed easy, so I decided to knock the recipe out for a late lunch. I had never poached an egg before and was nervous about the process--I'm actually not sure I had even eaten a poached egg before.

The recipe calls for a few inches of water, brought to a roiling boil, with a little vinegar and salt added.




The egg was cracked into a bowl and slowly slid into the water:



Eventually the whites started looking done. I don't really care for eggs, but if I'm going to eat them, I like the yolks a little runny. Josh doesn't so I cooked his longer.



I ate my poached egg on some toast.




It was good! I was nervous poaching the egg but it wasn't that difficult. It's a good thing it went well--poached eggs are involved in about 25 more recipes in TJOC.

As I mentioned above, I am trying to hurry through the randomized list. One of the pages included a bunch of Japanese soups so I decided to make Japanese noodles in broth (p. 333).

I'm not a huge fan of udon. I ate very little udon during my months in Tokyo partially because I find it difficult to eat (without slurping, which I can't do even if it is culturally acceptable). I also could never get close to finishing the trough of soup that usually got served to me--I would stuff myself and only finish half the bowl of udon (very similar situations also happened with ramen and any other Japanese noodle served in bowls). But I had a bunch of homemade stock so it seemed like the perfect time.

What is udon, you ask? A flat wheat noodle that is typically eaten in broth. They are usually in the Asian food section of the grocery store (if you've never noticed them, they are probably there, just look next time).



The recipe is easy. I combined eight cups of chicken stock with some soy sauce, sugar, and salt until it boiled.



The udon noodles were cooked while the broth was heating up. The wrapper said only to cook them for one minute. One minute! They cooked really fast, like fresh pasta. Even so, I think they could have stood another 30 seconds of cooking.

The cooked noodles are divided into individual bowls, sprinkled with scallions, and topped with seasoned broth.





You can admire Josh's new soup bowl:



The soup was pretty good but not particularly similar to anything I ate in Japan. It was a little boring. Five- or seven-spice powder is recommended as a complement. Make sure you like a kinda sweet, desserty taste to your noodles if you use five-spice as the five spices are (typically) cinnamon or cassia, cloves, fennel, anise, and some sort of pepper. I personally am not a fan :)