I am not a good cook. I’m impatient, lazy and too easily throw in the towel when challenged. I could never be a professional chef; no fish nor bones would touch my plate.
If I attempt a recipe and it fails, it’s doubtful I will try again. When I watch my friends cook, they are quick. They chop vegetables, trim meat, measure ingredients and have dinner simmering in no time. For me, chopping an onion or slicing tomatoes takes forever.
However, I have found more than a few recipes through cooking shows that help me impress my friends. Chocolate roulade, Hungarian goulash, chuck roast with wine gravy, and braised red potatoes have all received rave reviews. My self-basting Thanksgiving turkey one year earned praise and tears from my mother.
The chocolate roulade with a chantilly cream filling was courtesy of “Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home,” with Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. The goulash came from watching Martha Stewart. Bolstered by those successes, I got into watching “America’s Test Kitchen” on PBS.
I watch all the episodes I can (even the ones featuring fish). The show’s equipment testing, gadget recommendations, taste tests and sessions on the science of cooking all fascinate me.
The fact that all ATK recipes are repeatedly tested gives me confidence, and I can watch how the chefs do it. I trust them as if they are old friends. I’ve spent many an hour with Julia Collin Davison and Bridget Lancaster, among others.
One day, years ago, while watching the Old-Fashioned Stuffed Turkey episode with my mom, she asked me to make it for her that next Thanksgiving. It looked like a complicated process and I had never made a turkey before. To me, turkey is more of an annual obligation than a delight, like a table centerpiece to the wonderful sides.
I kept the episode on my DVR and watched it a few times to study. On the big day, I ran back and forth from kitchen to living room and watched the steps to prepare the bird. I didn’t bother with the ATK stuffing — Mom wanted her traditional stuffing — but I followed the technique of preparing the turkey for roasting and topping with salt pork slices to make it self-basting.
Mom loved it so much that she felt guilty after declaring it the best she had ever had. She hoped my grandmother didn’t hear that from beyond, and that thought brought a tear to her eye.
She said it was moist with a crisp skin. To me, it was just turkey.
I own the large ATK cookbook with the series’ combined seasons and often use it as a weight during construction projects. Recently, I bought the updated version as an e-book. Now the recipes are at my fingertips.
Braised red potatoes in the skillet are fun to make. I place small, halved potatoes, cut-side-down, in a nonstick skillet, pour in the water, add butter and garlic, and top with coarse salt. I sit in the next room and watch TV; when I hear the butter sizzle in the pan, I know the water has evaporated. The potatoes finish with a crispy crust and the inside is perfectly creamy. (I skip the lemon/garlic step called for in the recipe and just throw some minced garlic in with the rest of the ingredients.)
I will try any recipe once if it is appealing enough. The Old-Fashioned Pot Roast wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be, and now I make it often. The gravy that comes from blending the cooked vegetables and red wine from the pot is wonderful.
And often, I will alter the recipes, sometimes for my taste, sometimes just by accident. Either way, it helps me claim ownership.
Lately, my friends and I have been seeking out Indian recipes. A successful combination of butter chicken and saag makes for a wonderful Indian night. The ATK technique of broiling yogurt-coated boneless chicken thighs is brilliant. For the saag, I skip the paneer and add either broiled chicken or chunks of steamed sweet potatoes. I buy the naan and samosas from the freezer section of the grocery store because, like I said earlier, I am lazy. I may try the vegetable fritters next, but deep frying seems messy and cumbersome. However, it would give me something to dip into my own ATK-inspired mint chutney.
A video of Julia Collin Davison making the butter chicken is on YouTube. The comment section includes suggestions for making the dish more authentic, including adding fenugreek. My friends like to add a little more peppers to give it more heat, and we put the tomato paste in right after cooking the vegetables to give it that roasted flavor.
Here are the official names of the ATK recipes, in case you want to find them: Braised Red Potatoes with Lemon and Chives; Old-Fashioned Pot Roast; Old-Fashioned Stuffed Turkey; Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken); Saag Paneer.
The chocolate roulade is included in the “Cooking with Julia and Jacques” cookbook, and you can watch a video of them preparing the dessert on Martha Stewart’s Facebook page.
