!!! WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG READING !!!

!!! TO BRING YOU THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE !!!

Sorry to do this again to you, but really, fruitcake in February?  I think we will wait till next holiday season to do this episode.

If you still want to watch this episode in the mean time, here it is…

See you next time and keep cooking!

!!! WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG READING !!!

!!! TO BRING YOU THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE !!!

We discussed this at great length, but ultimately decided not to do this episode, at least not right away. The idea of making chocolate just didn’t appeal that much, especially since both of us are trying to be at least somewhat mindful of our caloric intake this year.

So look for us to come back to this episode.

If you still want to watch this episode in the mean time, here it is.

See you next time and keep cooking!

Watch Good Eats – S1E12 – Power To The Pilaf in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

First and foremost, we would like to apologize for this post.  We were in a big hurry, for no reason, and forgot to start taking pictures until about half-way done.  Secondly, because of this, we messed up a few other steps and almost ruined the entire dinner. Whoops.

A posed picture taken way after the fact.  These are some of the ingredients used in the rice pilaf.

Not pictured include: Saffron, green onions, chicken broth, butter, and bay leaves.

Extra ingredients in the picture that were not in dish: Garlic and fennel.

This is what everything looked like in the pan right before it went into the oven.

Let me catch you up on what you missed…..

First, place the saffron in hot water to steep.

Melt the butter in a 3-quart skillet over medium heat and stir in the onion, bell pepper and 2 pinches of salt ( NOTE: we forgot the salt )

Add the rice. Cook, stirring frequently, until you smell nuts – another 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the saffron and its water, the chicken broth, orange zest, bay leaves and the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. (Again, forgot the salt). Increase the heat and bring to a boil.

Thoroughly wet a clean towel, then place the towel across the top of the skillet. Top with the lid, then fold the towel corners up over the lid.

Transfer the skillet (towel and all) to the oven and bake 15 minutes.

NOTE 1: We did not turn the oven on and the rice sat cold for at least 5 minutes while we waited for the oven to heat up.  Crap.

NOTE 2: We did not wet the towel enough and it caught on fire.  Jill noticed the burning smell and declared “I think something is burning”.  Peter, knowing that the food was not even close to done, ignored her, at first.

We then attended to the oven to see what was wrong and noticed the towel.  See the slightly singed edges above.

You see, when AB said in the show, “a barely moist dish towel”, we perhaps took  him a bit too literally on the “barely” part.  The above pictures illustrates our attempt to rectify that misunderstanding.

We put it back in the oven for the remaining cook time.  We hoped.

Its out of the oven and looking edible….we’ll see.

Fish out the orange zest and bay leaves. Turn the pilaf out onto a platter, fluff with a large fork and garnish with the raisins.

We served this with a chicken and fennel recipe that we found on FoodNetwork.com.

The rice came out pretty tasty.  We discussed it and agreed that it lacked only for the mistakes that we knew we made during cooking. The actual star of the dinner was the chicken recipe. Here are a couple of cooking pictures from that dish.

Thanks and see ya next time.

Keep Cooking!

(Note: Jill wrote this one while she was a little tipsy.  Let’s see if I can’t flesh it out – Peter)

Watch Good Eats – S1E10 – Hook Line And Dinner in Educational & How-To |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

I swear the fish was “this big”…

Ok, seriously, check out our 6 lb Red Snapper.  Cool Huh?

So, being the badass she is, Jill gutted the fish by herself.  Ok, not really, it came that way from the store, but we did stuff it with good smellin’ stuff.  Like oranges.  And …. Parsley….

He is ready for surgery Dr.

The caption says it all folks.  (put your cursor on the picture)….DUH.

Boring note:  Side side dish of veggies includes zucchini, broccoli, and asparagus.  If you want an extreme close up, please email us at JillandPeterEatGood@gmail.com

Cracking the hard shell of kosher salt is way harder than it looks.  Really wish we had taken a video clip for you.

Oh my.  The skin is gone!

This is all we get after all that hard work? (Yes, of course it is, dear – Peter)

The taste was amazing.  The texture was firm and every bite had the flavors of citrus and herbs.  The extra-virgin olive oil drizzled on top is the perfect dressing.

If you do this dish on your own, take a tip from the restaurant chefs and do as we do – heat up your serving plates in the oven (or microwave) – especially for family-style service like this.  The last thing you want is to spend all this time and money preparing a beautiful fish and then serve it lukewarm or even cold at the table.

See you next time and keep cooking!

Watch Good Eats – S1E9 – A Bowl Of Onion in Educational & How-To |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Slicing the onions did induce a few tears, but we soldiered on.   (Ed Note: Jill actually retired to the couch for half of the onion cutting). Since we only wanted four portions, we cut AB’s recipe in half.

We didn’t already own bowls or crocks suitable for the task of French Onion Soup making, so a trip was made earlier in the week to pick up these soufflé ramekins from Sur La Table.

This lovely half sheet pan is new as well.  Here’s our punched-out croutons ready for the broiler to get nice and toasty (one side only!)

Jill dutifully salts the onions between adding handfuls to the skillet.  We don’t own an electric skillet, so our 12″ non-stick would have to do the trick.  Around medium heat seemed to work on our stovetop.

The onions as they looked about 2/3rds through the total cooking time.  Did we also mention that the skillet is new?  Williams-Sonoma has a current exclusive on All Clad’s newest d5 line of pots and pans. A store representative told us it was the first change to All Clad’s stainless steel line in 40 years.

Here’s the soup in ladled into the ramekins.  At this point we realized a mistake we had made – we halved the recipe without adjusting any cooking times.  We believe that after the addition of the stock, cider, and consomme that we let the mixture reduce too much, resulting in not as much soup as we expected.

A few minutes later the soups emerge from the oven, their generous layer of Gruyere cheese nicely baked to a golden brown.

The soup was, in a word, delicious. It was, however, also a bit too thick and rich per the aforementioned over-reducing of the stock.  We look forward to making this again and correcting that error.  Furthermore, a comment made by Jill in reflection, “I think I’d want to use some mozzarella cheese also.  I kind of miss the stringy-ness.”  Ok Jill, next time we’ll add mozz.

See you next time and keep cooking!