Meh.

B+.

Not as complex, not as “apple-ey”. It tasted fairly neutral, almost like a champagne. Clean and clear, but without much character.

rating: A

Really, really good. Tremendously crispy, and the jalapeno-and-hot-sauce slaw goes great with it.

A mixture of vegetables and chorizo (or, in my case, extra machaca) is fried up.

Goat cheese and jack cheese are added.

The filling is stuffed into chicken breasts that have been pounded flat.

And the breasts are pan fried for a few minutes.

At first it was bland, but a bit of salt and ancho pepper brought it to life.

Jennifer: A

TJIC: B+

As with the cheese soup, I picked this to use up stock. The recipe is pretty simple: dry rub spices onto chicken parts, then fry them in a Dutch oven. Remove. Fry onion and garlic, then add rice and fry some more. Then add chicken stock.

Return the chicken to the Dutch oven, add chorizo (I used machaca, which I had one hand, and oregano and other spices – all the same stuff that goes in chorizo).

Cook for a while, then add peas and black olives.

At first I thought that this was just a B-.

Meh. It didn’t really gel; it felt like a pot full of random leftovers.

Then I realized that it needed salt, it needed heat, and it needed acid. I sprinkled on arbol pepper, salt, and splashed with a generous amount of lime juice.

…and suddenly we were up at a B+.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1558321039

I picked this to use up stock – 6 cups of it. I’m a stock making machine, throwing a chicken carcasse into the stock pot most weeks, and even a whole pork leg bone with some regularity. The freezer was getting more over stuffed than the walled city of Kowloon.

Stock, spices, 3/4 lb of jack cheese, onion, carrot, salt, 1/2 & 1/2, one flame roasted mild green pepper.

Went really well with home-made bread. Filling. Colorful.

A-

Some dogs eat out of plastic food bowls…and some demand crystal.

I’m joking, of course. She eats out of plastic…but when the orange pudding is all gone, she might as well preclean it for us before we hand wash the triffle serving dish.

Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon.

First, a very simple preparation of fresh cod cooked in olive oil, with olive, preserved lemon, lemon juice and parsley.

(Note that I made the preserved lemons as per our old friend Mourad

a month or two back.)

Anyway, the cod:

Very simple, light. A perfect spring meal.

rating: A

Then, for desert, another recipe from Arabesque: orange pudding with whipped cream and pomegranate molasses (actually, the recipe called for pomegranate seeds, but we couldn’t find them, so we went with plan B).

Solid. B+. Next time I’d add a bit more corn starch to the orange juice / sugar mixture to make it a bit firmer. I’m not aiming for a jello texture, just something a wee bit firmer.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Food and Wines’ Best of the Best vol 13. Amazon has it used for 1 cent, plus shipping.

Go.

Do it now.

It also doesn’t hurt when you stumble into a sale of tenderloins for $7.99 / lb.

Served with Tarragon Mushrooms from one of my favorite cookbooks, Grillhouse: Gastropub at Home.