March 2016 – Page 2 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

17-6: Best Ever White Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 9, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, appetizers, baked goods, breads, breakfast, dairy-free, durum wheat flour, egg-free, gift ideas, kneaded, lunch, party food, proofed, revisited, salt, side dish, slit, snacks, steamed, vegan, vegetarian, white bread, yeast

Here’s a really simple and easy white bread recipe if you find yourself in need or want of fresh white bread. 17-6: Best Ever White Bread doesn’t have a lot to it, but if you want to use it for something like 1-13: Crusty Toast with Mushrooms, it works really well.

I made this particular recipe once before, a little under a year ago according to the red Sharpie notes on the card. I was working on this project then, but had taken a bit of a break at that point. I had been making a lot of bread at the restaurant at this point and was doing a bit of practice at home using what I had learned.

5-21: Omelette with Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 7, 2016October 14, 2020Alton Brown, black pepper, breakfast, butter, chervil, chives, dried herbs, easy, eggs, folded, French, gluten-free, green onions, herbs and spices, inexpensive, lunch, melted, omelette, parsley, salt, Saturday, Sunday, tarragon, untested, vegetarian

A few weekends ago, on a sleepy Saturday morning, I found myself with many eggs, some fresh parsley, and a desire for an omelette. Since I’m now at the point that every time I cook, I consider whether I could use up a Simply Delicious recipe on it, I knew there had to be a true omelette recipe in there, given their heavy reliance on French fine-dining recipes & methods. If you find yourself in a similar predicament, consider making 5-21: Omelette with Herbs.

Simply Delicious shows the half-fold omelette method in their pictures–I’ve always preferred the Alton Brown tri-fold omelette method. This is a truly classic French-style omelette, unlike the last omelette I covered (and messed up), 5-11: Country Omelette.

6-49: Cheese-Glazed Chicken Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses March 6, 2016June 18, 2020black pepper, boneless, bread crumbs, breasts, butter, cheese, chicken, dinner, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, garlic, garlic salt, glazed, grated, lunch, melted, Monterey Jack, oregano, panko, Parmesan, parsley, party food, rolls, salt, stuffed, tenderized, twice-baked, untested

I had mentioned in 6-35: Chicken Diable that I had another recipe that I needed to save some of the chicken breasts for–6-49: Cheese-Glazed Chicken Rolls was it. I don’t usually keep chicken breasts around (I think they’re dry and not particularly flavorful), so when I do have them, it’s best to try to knock out as many recipes as possible.

Simply Delicious has a lot of variations of “light chicken breast dinners”–it was the 1980s. If you’re interested in some of these, check out 6-4: Easy Stuffed Chicken Breasts, the aforementioned 6-35: Chicken Diable, or 6-40: Peppercorn Chicken Breasts.

19-13: Cooking with Cheese

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School March 5, 2016October 18, 2020blue cheese, Brie, cheese, cooking school, cottage cheese, Feta, French, goat cheese, Gorgonzola, Greek, how-to, Italian, Jarlsberg, Parmesan, Swiss

There’s a lot of recipes in Simply Delicious that use cheese–all different types. While by no means an exhaustive list, 19-13: Cooking with Cheese goes over a few different types that you’ll probably encounter in your own culinary adventures. This is part of the last section of the book, a Cooking School compendium of basic culinary reference material.

Cheese might not be a big part of your diet, but it’s always been a big part of mine (for better or worse–what can I say, my maternal grandparents were Swedish and French and lived in the Midwest USA). After the jump, read more about some common types of cooking cheese.

6-35: Chicken Diable

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016June 18, 2020black pepper, boiled, boneless, bread crumbs, breasts, broiled, butter, cayenne pepper, cheese, chicken, chicken bouillon, coated, cornstarch, crispy, Dijon mustard, dinner, dredged, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, French, grated, lunch, melted, olive oil, panko, Parmesan, parsley, salt, shallots, sifted, simmered, slurry, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, tenderized, untested, vinegar, white pepper, white wine

Here’s a pretty basic “chicken with sauce” type recipe that can be fancy or not-so-fancy. “Chicken Diable” or “Chicken a la Diable”, as evidenced by the name, is essentially “the Devil’s chicken”, evoking images of spices and fire. 🌶 🔥 As Serious Eats notes in their version of the dish, the French have a very different idea of spiciness than some other cultures.

Everyone’s got their version of this dish–here’s Bon Appetit’s, and Google turns up many more results. Whether it’s actually spicy is up to you–if you actually like things spicy, prepare to have to add some heat to this one.

9-22: Meat Pie

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016July 6, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, black pepper, bread crumbs, brown sugar, butter, caramelized, chilled, cookie cutters, cut in, decorative, dinner, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flute, French, garlic, gift ideas, ground beef, ground meat, ground pork, ground turkey, lunch, melted, milk, mushrooms, nutmeg, panko, pared, parsley, party food, pastry, pie crust, pies, pot pie, revisited, roach motel apt, salt, sautéed, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetables, Worcestershire sauce, yellow onions

Meat pies have been around for a LONG time (like 9500 BCE old, according to Wikipedia). They cross a lot of cultures and are featured in some fashion in most cuisines (even if they look somewhat different–for example, empanadas, lahmacun, and samosas all are meat/pastry combinations from varied places). 9-22: Meat Pie is probably closest to the French Canadian tradition of meat pies, otherwise known as tourtière.

This one’s got some of my old notes on it–I’ve made this one before, about 6-7 years ago for my friend’s birthday party (the same friend from the 80s party in 1-22: Onion-Potato Diamonds). It was a “pie party” because he was (at the time) obsessed with the Keri Russell movie Waitress, which apparently has something to do with a lot of pies.

I made some adjustments to the recipe the first time (you can see those listed on the side), but this time, we’re going legit.