Tuesday 17 January 2012

Cookbook Challenge #10 & #11

After a string of highly successful recipes from this challenge, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd get one that didn't work out as planned.

At the weekend boyfriend and I tried a meal using 2 new recipes, both from Good Food magazine: Maple Black Pepper Pork and Broccoli with Onions and Garlic.

Looks good at least *laughs* (yes, there are 2 pork chops on there, I'm not greedy, they're just really thin!)


The issues with it were partly user error and partly the fault of the recipe. With the pork, I overcooked the sauce, which ended up being so overly sticky it solidified *ooops face*



Even so, it was a lot more effort than I would expect for the fact that it wasn't really any tastier than quicker sauces.

With the broccoli, the recipe has you cook the onions on high for a couple of minutes only. Personally, I prefer my onions much more caramelised through slower cooking.


So, this wasn't a particularly successful dish. The pork definitely won't get made again, I have much more enjoyable pork dishes in my repertoire. The broccoli might reappear, but with some significant modifications next time ;)

6 comments:

  1. I love that you are doing this challenge. I don't really follow recipes, I always alter, except with a few of my mom's dishes :-) I agree, onions should be slow cooked and nice and caramelized! I recently did a potato bar with broccoli/cheese/caramelized onions/salsa, it was pretty dang good!

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  2. I can see why you chose the recipe - it sounds delicious - shame it didn't live up to expectation.

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  3. Am I the only one who's bothered when I put in a lot of time and effort to have something not turn out as expected? So sorry to hear that -- I've had a few recipe disappointments myself. It sounds good, though; I can see why you'd want to try it.

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  4. Hey you never know until you try right? My husband and I have been trying to many new recipes and there's always that ONE everyone in awhile that just isn't meant to be made again in our house. We're on a weird kick now about fruit glazes on meats (we did an apricot glazed pork recently). Thanks for sharing your cookbook trials along the way, I love reading them :)

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  5. That both sound like they would be good but I can totally understand how they wouldn't work out. I'm with you on the onions. Slow cooking them really makes them yummy.

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  6. What a pity, it looks like it has so much potential! But why would anyone cook onions on high? They get scorched and bitter. Bitter = not good. Silly recipe people.

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