There are some bad cookbooks out there. Grilling cookbooks are probably the worst overall, but tonight I finally made dinner from a Filipino cookbook (whose author shall remain nameless) that I got for Christmas a few years ago. Now, I’ve had excellent Filipino food in Hawaii--especially lumpia, those wonderful little fried taco things served with vinegar and chile sauce—but these recipes were surely written by a non-cook. I suspected it, and I should have trusted my instincts. The pictures were beautiful.
First, there was Fish Adobo, basically poached in garlic, vinegar, and bay leaf. This combination managed to make a mild Mexican snapper taste really fishy. Then a noodle dish very similar to Pad Thai, but inexpertly explained: the snow peas went in the skillet long before the carrots, so they were pretty slimy by the time everything else was done. The only seasonings were salt, pepper, and soy sauce.
Dad liked the meal well enough (that’s the kind of audience a cook needs—ultra-appreciative but not ultra-critical), but I was mad at myself for trusting the cookbook.
On a much happier note, I made Sonoran Enchiladas last night. We had tried them at two Mexican restaurants, and it made me curious. Instead of a corn tortilla, you make a plump masa cake and bake it on a griddle, and then cover with good red chile sauce, cheese, and green onion, and put it in the oven just long enough to melt the cheese. Mmmm.
It dropped below seventy degrees by the cocktail hour tonight, so we fired up our new chiminea.
This is my favorite picture of Dad ever, I think.
ReplyDeleteLawson and I had a terrible experience with a Filipino restaurant several years ago. When we showed up, the place was deserted except for some high school girls doing karaoke in a side room. The first few menu items we asked about were not available that day, so finally we asked the waiter/chef/owner what we should eat, and he said "I will make you the national dish of the Philippines." It turned out to be a formerly frozen, distinctly unpleasant fish stuffed with what seemed like canned tuna and frozen peas. No seasoning. Whew.