Cookbookery and Recipe tests

 So I'm thinking of having a few categories I'm experimenting with.  One I'm excited about is new recipes I tested out from my extensive cookbook collection and blog readings.

Let's try a first post:

This week I'm cooking from "Around the World in 450 Recipes".  Monday night, I chose the "Africa" section for Jollof chicken and rice, a hotly contested dish originating from West Africa.

The recipe is a little light on spice varieties but I went with it mostly as written, only substituting Red Boat fish sauce for dried shrimp because I could not find dried shrimp for love or money.  It gives the dish a nice umami burst.  The chicken was a nice cut up bird from Wegman's, since I was too lazy to do the cut work myself.

Results were quite nice, I thought, though possibly a little less than authentic.  I did pare the green pepper down to a quarter of one due to a less than brave palate in my dining companion and the remaining ingredients did well.  The chicken was juicy though the recipe only calls for it to cook as long as the rice.  I used my trusty meat thermometer and took it off early to avoid it becoming dry (a meat thermometer is a really essential investment and they're cheap).  The rice was excellent, a sort of take on dirty rice using the chicken broth and tomato sauce from the rest of the recipe to cook it in.

Future modifications.  Possibly trying a recipe that incorporates more spices.  The thyme, garlic, onions, and pepper were nice, but it could have used a few more hits.  For my own palate, I'd have kept the whole chili pepper.  Tomatoes are king in this recipe as in any jollof rice, so as the summer progresses, I may try the chopped tomatoes being from my garden heirlooms rather than a can.

Bonus side dish: Smitten Kitchen's poolside slaw from her blog.  Deb Perelman is my favorite food blogger; I have both of her books with the next one on preorder, and I've never had a recipe of hers fall completely.  She's addicted to slaw and as a slaw skeptic, I decided to use her form of "dump dish" to create slaw from leftover vegetables with a tasty miso tahini dressing.

I liked it a lot.  I hate the "soggy mayo" varieties of coleslaw and this had none of that, plus being fresh gave the added vegetables (snow peas, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower) crunch.  To prep it for today's lunch, after serving dinner, I crushed dry ramen noodles and added them, something that I am very glad of today.

Tonight's "Around the World" recipe will be a whitefish and prawn coconut spinach curry.  We'll see how it goes!