Week 2, Dish 2&3 - Dippin’ Peas and Chicken Pot Pie
Originally published at Modern Domestic Geek. You can comment here or there.
The cooking continues today! And it went very smoothly. This is probably due to the fact that I actually THOUGHT a bit more about when I was going to cook everything. But finding dishes to go together I’m finding to be a bit of a challenge. I had decided I wanted a casserole this week because I’m going to be going away for part of the week, and I thought the left overs might make things easier for the boys. And the sugar snap peas with dipping sauce - they are supposed to be an appetizer. But things went smoothly, and that is good because after writing this - I still need to pack for my trip.
7 Recipes down, 201 to go.
The Recipe: Sugar Snap Peas with Spicy Lemon Dipping Sauce, I’m Just Here for the Food 2.0, page 159
Produce Dish
Snafus: No mayonnaise! I go to start making the sauce, and lo and behold, no mayonnaise. So I made my own. I also bought the wrong thing and did not buy red pepper flakes. So I used ground red pepper and halved the amount, for fear it would be too spicy.
Cooking Notes: The peas needed to be blanched, and this time it went quite well when I could keep my eye on them. And it made such a difference - since the peas needed to be cool and dry, I did them much earlier than the rest of the meal. Then kept snacking on them during the whole rest of the time I was cooking. The blanching really refined the flavor, and made them a really pretty green color. The sauce was very easy to mix together, no trouble at all.
Family Reaction: I loved the peas, but Dan didn’t think they were anything remarkable, and thought the sauce didn’t add anything to it. I had to agree with him there. It did have a nice heat, that sat in the back of the throat after swallowing - if you like that sort of thing - which I don’t. The Kid however, liked the peas best with the sauce and was drenching them in sauce each time he dipped.
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The Recipe: Curry Chicken Pot Pie, Good Eats the Early Years, page 380
Protein Dish
New Techniques/Foods: I made a roux for the first time, I think. This time I know it worked - the other time - I had no clue what I was doing. This was my first time using curry powder.
Snafus: None really, it came together really well. I may have over cooked the pastry, but am not sure, so am not sure if it counts as a true snafu.
Cooking Notes: This came together really well, partly because I used a cooked chicken from the farmers market instead of cooking my own chicken. This was mostly to make things easier for me and to have less to clean up. Using Alton’s tip of getting all the ingredients ready really helped at each stage of the cooking. I also had my first really successful dealing with puff pastry. And in successful - meaning that it was properly thawed when I went to use it.
I also watched the applicable episode of Good Eats, and AB did do things slightly differently than in the book. He used oil instead of butter to sweat out the aromatics, and roasted the frozen veggies instead of cooking them on the stove top. I followed the recipe, mainly because I didn’t want to get another pan dirty.
Family Reaction: The boys liked it - and so did I. It’s a different pot pie, and not what would satisfy me if I had the need for comfort food, but it was a good different. I’m going to have to try something with curry again. I do have a whole bottle of curry powder. I may make it again - we’ll see.