Lab Rats
There is a fat manila folder taking up too much space on the cookbook shelf. It’s stuffed with all the recipes I’ve collected over the years but never tried, a constant reminder of my idleness. Every few months, I’m hit with a sudden burst of motivation and I send out a mass e-mail invitation to be a lab rat as I try a new recipe or two. Space is limited to six because that’s how many dining chairs I have and I’m not shlepping folding chairs up from the basement just for this. Also, I’m not doubling or one-and-a-halfing a recipe I’ve never tried before. So there. I like the randomness of who ends up around the table, even though it’s tinged with anxiety because if they don’t know me that well and the recipe is terrible or I mess it up and they go home hungry, what will they think?
Last night I tried shakshouka, from this month’s Bon Appetit (click!), and beer-battered apple fritters, inspired by Jacques Pepin’s “Back of the Napkin” thing from the same issue of BA. I used a recipe from Epicurious (click!).
There’s nothing gourmet or fancy about shakshouka; it’s a very standard Israeli dish. I’ve never made it before but I tweaked the recipe anyhow. I left out the chickpeas, because that didn’t sound good at all, and I added some green pepper. I left out the cilantro because I forgot to buy it. I only used one jalapeno because my friends have varying tolerances for spicy. And I used much less feta cheese because feta’s one of those cheeses that people either love or hate.
The recipe says it serves 4-6 but it very quickly became clear that it was not going to feed 6, so I one-and-a-halfed it. Sigh. I baked the shakshouka in cute little dishes I bought just for the occasion but after 8 minutes the eggs did not look set like the recipe said and I was afraid of runny, possibly toxic eggs so I baked them for another few minutes. And then another few. And then another few. Long story short, they were practically hard-boiled by the time we sat down to eat. But the shakshouka was delicious. Winner!
The apple fritters were good, too. I used Budweiser, since that was the only canned beer the closest grocery store was selling individually. I didn’t sprinkle sugar over them because I didn’t think sweeter was necessary—I like tart, and we were eating them with vanilla ice cream. Major tweak for next time: I’ll slice the apples into thin rounds instead of slices. The recipe says to fry the slices 8 at a time but it took too long, keeping me in the kitchen instead of at the table. But they were damn good. Winner!
Signs of happy lab rats: empty plates and no leftovers.
The shakshouka was so good I had to have it again this morning, so I did. This time I sprinkled the parsley and cheese over the egg, like in BA’s pretty picture, but it didn’t look so pretty when it was done, as you can see from my picture. I was determined to brave the runny, toxic egg possibility today but I still had to bake it a little longer than the recipe stated. Next time I’ll finish it on the stove and forgo the cute little dishes.
And now I’m going back into the kitchen to make cookie dough and roast vegetables for my version of ajvar (click, click!) because I’m having 10 people for shabbat lunch. Then I’m heading to my parents to help my mother cook for Thanksgiving. We don’t like turkey but we do love roast beef and I’m responsible for the Yorkshire pudding and Bearnaise sauce. Apparently I feel like doing nothing but dishes this week. Or I’m crazy; it’s a toss-up.
3 months ago • 3 notes
