Mouth on Fire Minestrone [The Veggie-Lover's Sriracha Cookbook]

I'm easing into the vegan Sriracha cookbook with their minestrone recipe. Minestrone is pretty flexible, though this one is interesting as they omit pasta completely, it's just beans and veggies. They offer the liberty of switching up for whatever veggies are in season, but that's not the name of the game here.

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup Sriracha
• 6 Roma tomatoes, diced (due to some cosmic joke, my grocery store only had 5 Roma tomatoes, so I made the necessary substitution of adding one small non-Roma tomato)
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 1 red onion, diced
• 1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and diced (zucchini options were limited at the grocery store, I think this one's been in a fight)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp minced fresh oregano or 1 1/2 tsp dried. I went with dried.
• 1 3/4 cups cooked canned cannellini beans or 1 undrained 443 ml / 15 oz can (I could only find a larger can, so I've saved extra beans some for a salad or pasta later)
• 1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• salt and fresh ground pepper

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

1. Basically, into a big pot on high heat, chuck most of the ingredients: the stock, Sriracha, tomatoes, carrots, celery, onion, zucchini, garlic, bay leaves, and oregano. Bring it to a boil, lower heat, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Thank god kale boils down.

2. Remove the bay leaves and add the kale and beans. Simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes more.

3. Stir in the lemon juice, season, and serve.

The Outcome:

This is a pretty tasty soup - it's at a right juncture of hearty and healthy where you feel full without feeling gross. The Sriracha gives it a bit of zing but doesn't overwhelm (my mouth definitely isn't on fire, though). It's a pretty straightforward recipe, and really easy - plus it helps you get your veggies in! The only problem I would have with it is adding the lemon juice at the very end - it comes off a bit too strong and distinct. I would give the lemon time to really combine in, maybe add it a minute before you stop cooking. The lemon does meld in nicely when you let the soup sit and then reheat it. I would definitely use this as a good base recipe, it makes a lot of soup and the author is right - it's minestrone, you can add pretty much whatever veggies you want.

Spicy Chicken Chili [Quick from Scratch Chicken, Turkey & Cornish Hens]

I had originally wanted to make this cookbook's Groundnut Stew recipe but for the life of me couldn't find any okra, fresh or frozen, so I flipped the page and came to their Spicy Chicken Chili recipe. I love spicy food, usually peel-your-face off, but my gut instinct is that a recipe from the 90s isn't going to have any punch to it.

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound skinless chicken thighs, cut into strips (I got them boneless as well)
• 4 tsp chili powder (this is a pathetic amount of chili powder for a whole pot of chili. If I remake this recipe, it's going to be 4 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed, chopped (another thing I hate - deseeding peppers. It just makes them less spicy. Again, if cooked again, I'd leave the seeds.)
• 1 1/2 cups canned crush tomatoes with their juice
• 2 1/2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
• 1 2/3 cups drained and rinsed pinto beans (I had to substitute romano, but they're extremely similar)
• 1 2/3 cups drained and rinsed black beans (both these beans are about the amounts in 443ml/15 oz can, but I could only find the larger cans, so I saved the extras)
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro 

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

1. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Sautee the onion and garlic until they start to soften, about 3 minutes.

2. Increase heat to medium, add chicken, cook until no longer pink, about 2 minutes.

3. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt, then the jalapenos, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

4. Stir in beans and pepper, simmer uncovered for another 15 minutes. Top with cilantro.

The Outcome:

Unsurprisingly, this is not spicy. Like, not even a detectable tingle. The other spices are a bit light too, so the tomato flavour is much more dominant than in most chilies. It also has a much soupier consistency. If I was to remake this, I would cut it down to 2 cups of broth, at least an extra tsp or two of cumin, and just go hog wild with the chili powder. It's not bad, it's warm and hearty and easy to make, but it doesn't have zing. I'm going to reheat some of the leftovers later and add some ghost pepper sauce that I have in my fridge - that'll pick it right up!

Cornish Hens with Scallion Butter and Lime [Quick From Scratch Chicken, Turkey & Cornish Hens]

The question about this recipe is: did I fuck up or did the cookbook fuck up? The answer is kinda both, but while this second kitchen-tested recipe from the Quick From Scratch Chicken, Turkey & Cornish Hens cookbook wasn't a smashing success, it wasn't a complete disaster either.

The first problem I had was just getting cornish hens - I made the mistake of looking for them the day after (Canadian) Thanksgiving. Three grocery stores were plum out and the local butcher was closed. I managed to wrangle a pair of birds today, and reasonably successfully defrosted them with cold water. The combination of cumin, oregano, and lime really spoke to me in this recipe - they call it a "typical Mexican combination" in the cookbook, though I don't know if this is strictly a Mexican recipe.

Cookbook Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp butter, room temperature (that's a lot of butter.)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Fresh-ground black pepper
• 2 cornish hens, 1 1/4 lbs approx each, halved
• 1 scallion (green onion) including green top, chopped
• lime wedges

Following the cookbook recipe exactly:

1. Heat the oven to 450 F. Combine 2 tbsp of the butter with the oregano, cumin, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. As in the Russian-Style Chicken Cutlets recipe, I would have preferred softened butter - maybe what counts as "room temperature" for a Canadian who keeps her house cold is a lot colder than this American cookbook thinks.

2. Rub the mixture on the skin of the hens and arrange them skin side up on a baking sheet. This is where two problems became apparent. The first was that the room temperature butter was so thick it sat like lumps on top of the hens and was impossible to rub over them. The second was my own problem - I just moved into a new place and it seems the baking sheets are too big for my new oven. I switched to a pyrex dish, which meant the hens had to sit more like they were whole and upright instead of spread out.

This is after the attempts at rubbing in.

3. The cookbook says to roast them in the upper third of the oven for 20 minutes, but even if they were spread out, that seems way too short. With them folded back together it took more like 45 minutes. I'd go for using a meat thermometer to test for doneness above what the cookbook says.

Even more butter

4. Combine 2 tbsp butter with the scallion, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Top the roasted hens with the butter and serve with lime.

The Outcome:

I don't know, I had to edit and substitute enough on this recipe that it's hard to nail it down. The combination of the cumin, lime, scallion, and oregano is really tasty - but you do need to baste the hens after the butter has melted or else you'll end up with dobs of concentrated spice. It's the second butter-heavy recipe from this cookbook, and while that much butter is delicious, I'm just two recipes in and already feeling greasy. I think the final verdict is that it was tasty, but it didn't justify the effort and hassle that went into it.