How to Know that a Recipe is Good
King Cake was the star of the day on Mardi Gras, but the red beans, rice and andouille sausage weren’t half bad either. Yesterday I shared a photo of the King Cake I brought to our church for its Mardi Gras party – the party we didn’t attend – but I didn’t mention that I also prepared this red beans and rice dish too. Joe volunteered that we would make this dish, and I use the term “we” quite loosely, so he found the recipe for it. Well, that saved me five minutes. The recipe was from Paula Deen’s site, therefore I figured it would be pretty trustworthy given her reputation for knowing all about southern cooking. That was the first step in knowing the recipe might be good – a reputable source.
I followed the recipe, mostly. But I doubled it in order to have some for our dinner since we couldn’t make it to the party. Anyone who has doubled a recipe knows that things may change whether its timing or seasoning – you need to pay a bit more attention to the process. Cooking is chemistry and I really didn’t want this dish to figuratively blow up since I was cooking for other people besides my own guinea pigs (of the human variety, I mean). I was a little bit leery about whether two pounds of dried beans would be tender enough given the recipe’s cooking time and I had a deadline for delivery to the church. If it was just for my guinea pigs, I mean family, I wouldn’t worry. If the beans need another two hours to cook, dinner would be a little bit late that night. But I had a deadline. That’s why, I took the precaution to soak the beans the night before, even though Paula didn’t tell me to do so. Sorry Paula for my lack of total trust in your directions.
I cooked those beans from 10:30 in the morning in my low heat oven (remember, I have an Aga, I don’t simmer on my stove top), and by 3:00 things still looked a bit too soupy to me, so I moved them into my baking heat oven for another two hours. And they were done in time!
But that’s not how I know the recipe was good. It was good because my guinea pigs, my daughters and husband, all liked the recipe. Louisa may have initially turned up her nose a teeny bit when she heard what was for dinner, but she couldn’t deny how good I smelled when I picked her up wearing the scent of the kitchen. And she ate it without complaint.
And that’s how I know a recipe is good.
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I guess now it will be fish dishes for Friday at least until the First Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox.
Please remind me when those planetary occurrences occur.
Easter
I’m sure the non-Catholics reading this post will appreciate your response.