When the recipe fails

We’ve all had the experience. On paper, a recipe looks good. It uses an appealing variety of ingredients and perhaps it comes from someone whose recipes we admire. When we begin to cook, it even smells good. But in our hands, it doesn’t turn out like anything we would want to serve to company.

That happened to me this week when I tried a new recipe for tuna casserole. It included broccoli and peas so I could use some of my frozen garden produce. It also used a semi-homemade broth instead of the high fat, high sodium canned cream soup. So I gave it a try. The result was bland and somewhat dry. Jim slathered ketchup on his and said that made it good.

So what do we do (other than the ketchup trick) when we try a recipe that uses ingredients we want to eat but doesn’t please the palate? Of course you can totally ditch it and never wander down that path again. Or you can consider ways to add more flavor to the recipe. Here are some things I like to try.

1) Add garlic. Jim and I love its flavor. In just about any recipe that calls for sautéed onions, I throw in a little garlic for more flavor and nutrition.

2) Experiment with herbs. If you have fresh herbs, it’s especially fun because you can smell and taste them before throwing them in. Remember that dried herbs are stronger than fresh, so you need smaller quantities. Keep track of which herbs you and your family most like and which foods they combine with especially well.

3) Add cheese. How can you go wrong with cheese? Again, know the taste before you throw it in. Although cheddar is commonly used in many recipes, it is higher in saturated fat that many. If you choose it, use it sparingly. Try an aged cheese with more flavor and you’ll need less, like parmesan or gruyere. Some cheese, like feta, add a salty bite. Others, like cream cheese or mascarpone, add a creamy texture. Cheese offers many options.

4) Add sun-dried tomatoes. They provide an unexpectedly sweet and tangy flavor.

5) Substitute other vegetables. In the tuna casserole example, I’ll likely try replacing some of the broccoli with our home-canned carrots.

6) Top the dish with toasted seeds, nuts or both. This works especially well on vegetable and rice or pasta dishes and, again, expands the nutritional benefits.

We still have plenty of tuna casserole in the refrigerator waiting for more experimentation.

Books to help with good eating

Since it’s the season of giving, I thought I would share some of the books I’ve read and used in the past five years that have helped guide me to this path of more extensive gardening and better eating. If you’re buying for someone with these same interests, consider one of the following.

Simply in Season—a wonderful resource for using seasonal produce. Not only does this book include good recipes, it also talks about when to harvest and how to store fresh produce.

Extending the Table . . . A World Community Cookbook—includes a wide variety of international recipes. There’s always something new and fun to try in here.

Moosewood Cookbook—a classic of vegetarian cooking. After 20 years of using this book, I still return to my favorite recipes in it.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day—I love this easy way of baking bread! I almost always have something I’ve made from it in my kitchen.

One Bite at a Time—specifically written for those dealing with cancer. Although I didn’t find a lot of the recipes to be extremely flavorful (but think about it, I mostly used it when going through chemo) I still value the health and ingredient information it includes.

Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine—will get you thinking more deeply about what our food can do for us. It includes interesting research about food and how it relates to our health, as well as some fun recipes.

What books do you recommend? Jim keeps asking me what I want for Christmas, so I’m open to suggestions!

The Ravioli Experiment

I had loads of fun over the weekend making pumpkin-filled and butternut squash-filled raviolis. There’s something about mixing up homemade pasta dough and running it through a pasta machine until it’s thin enough for raviolis that is quite satisfying, especially when you realize that the more you run in through the machine (which further kneads it) the more tender the dough gets.

Unfortunately, I’m not yet a ravioli maker supreme. My early raviolis are likely to fall apart when boiled because I didn’t get the dough wide enough so a little filling is poking out here and there. My later raviolis, however, look good enough to serve for company. I’ll have to try another batch soon to see if I can move a step closer to perfecting that art.

In the meantime, I had roasted pumpkin left over that I didn’t use in the filling, so I made pumpkin dip with it. Yum! It’s great for dipping fruit or cookies into. The recipe, along with the two others I tried recently, came from “Simply in Season” by Mary Beth Lind. Besides the good recipes, the beginning of the book also lists fruits and vegetables by seasonal availability with storage, preparation and serving suggestions, plus nutrient information. Plus, they post some of their recipes online.