Culinary Adventures

[madbaker]

Predictable, really. Just like the Emmys.

I made two recipes of note this weekend. One was a variation on a recipe I’ve made a number of times before; it came out well. The first-time attempt was a failure.

The success: Sunday breakfast was a sour cream coffeecake (which I usually make with yogurt, as you can't taste the difference and it's slightly healthier). The twist was using hazelnuts in the crumb topping, which I quite liked; and adding cranberries to the batter. The cranberries' moisture meant that I had to bake the coffeecake an additional fifteen minutes, but I was rather pleased with the taste. As it was a warm morning we dined al fresco, up at the top of our yard.

No, "dining al fresco" does not mean that we drank Fresca with breakfast. Smart-ass.

The failure: I tried making chiles rellenos with fresh Anaheim chiles from the farmers' market.

My mother used to make them from scratch when I was growing up. She did it relatively often, so while it was time-consuming for her, it wasn’t that hard. That's my memory, anyway.

It didn't work out anywhere near so easily for me.

I severely underestimated the time and difficulty involved in charring and peeling the chiles. That also meant that they tore somewhat, so the filling didn't stay in. And the incomplete peeling meant that the batter didn't stick. Finally, I didn't have the oil hot enough to make the batter puff up. What there was of it left on the chiles, I mean.

Sigh. They tasted all right, at least.