When you're cooking, it's important to remember that not everything you make is going to be a big hit. Last night was one of those nights for us. The boys and I attempted to make Nutty Noodles with a Garden Salad and Ranch Dressing from Deanna Cook's Cooking Class cookbook. The results were mixed...
It was definitely an educational experience for me though. Right out of the gate I found myself asking my wife lots of questions. For example, while I'm familiar with tablespoons and teaspoons and cups, I had never before measured anything by the sprig.
And that came up twice, both with the dill and the parsley. Then there was the question of how to prepare ginger root. That one required some internet research:
And then we also got some quality time with the garlic press and learned about what constitutes "1 clove" of garlic. Found this nugget online to clarify that:
"Remember that the large bulb of garlic you buy is NOT one 'clove'. The whole garlic is called a 'head' or 'knob'. Each small, individual segment of a garlic head is a clove."
So, as I said, it was a good learning experience. However from a quality of food standpoint, it was slightly less good. We started out by making the ranch dressing for our salad, and while it certainly tasted like ranch dressing, it was really thick and we had trouble pouring it. It kind of had the constitution of a mayonnaise (which makes sense since the bulk of the dressing was mayonnaise and sour cream) rather than a ranch dressing, so that was a little disappointing. The salad itself turned out fine, but that was really just a pile of vegetables and in fairness there wasn't much we could screw up there.
Where our dish really struggled though was our sauce for the noodles. The dish should've tasted like a phad thai, but our sauce was just way too thick. The peanut butter was not subtle at all and that dominated the flavor (and the texture).
I think we also could have done a better job dicing up our ginger. I think my eldest son's first bite had a chunk of ginger in it, and that turned him off of eating it for the rest of the night. We probably could've helped ourselves by adding more veggies to flavor the dish up as well. We added crushed peanuts (which made the already strong peanut taste even stronger), grated carrots, diced bell peppers and a hint of lime. But I think some broccoli or some of the other suggestions would have probably played better. Overall the dish wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't have me brimming with a sense of accomplishment when we were done. That said, I ate leftovers for lunch today and didn't keel over dead, so it was a serviceable meal if nothing else.
In summary, our sauce needed to be saucier, we should've chopped our ginger a bit finer, and we should've added more veggies to give us some broader flavors. BUT we made our first dinner of 2019 and while we give my wife an absurd amount of dishes to clean, we did have a good time.
sprig1
/spriɡ/
noun
- 1.a small stem bearing leaves or flowers, taken from a bush or plant.
"a sprig of holly"
And that came up twice, both with the dill and the parsley. Then there was the question of how to prepare ginger root. That one required some internet research:
And then we also got some quality time with the garlic press and learned about what constitutes "1 clove" of garlic. Found this nugget online to clarify that:
"Remember that the large bulb of garlic you buy is NOT one 'clove'. The whole garlic is called a 'head' or 'knob'. Each small, individual segment of a garlic head is a clove."
So, as I said, it was a good learning experience. However from a quality of food standpoint, it was slightly less good. We started out by making the ranch dressing for our salad, and while it certainly tasted like ranch dressing, it was really thick and we had trouble pouring it. It kind of had the constitution of a mayonnaise (which makes sense since the bulk of the dressing was mayonnaise and sour cream) rather than a ranch dressing, so that was a little disappointing. The salad itself turned out fine, but that was really just a pile of vegetables and in fairness there wasn't much we could screw up there.
Where our dish really struggled though was our sauce for the noodles. The dish should've tasted like a phad thai, but our sauce was just way too thick. The peanut butter was not subtle at all and that dominated the flavor (and the texture).
I think we also could have done a better job dicing up our ginger. I think my eldest son's first bite had a chunk of ginger in it, and that turned him off of eating it for the rest of the night. We probably could've helped ourselves by adding more veggies to flavor the dish up as well. We added crushed peanuts (which made the already strong peanut taste even stronger), grated carrots, diced bell peppers and a hint of lime. But I think some broccoli or some of the other suggestions would have probably played better. Overall the dish wasn't terrible, but it certainly didn't have me brimming with a sense of accomplishment when we were done. That said, I ate leftovers for lunch today and didn't keel over dead, so it was a serviceable meal if nothing else.
In summary, our sauce needed to be saucier, we should've chopped our ginger a bit finer, and we should've added more veggies to give us some broader flavors. BUT we made our first dinner of 2019 and while we give my wife an absurd amount of dishes to clean, we did have a good time.
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