Thursday, October 13, 2011

365: No Repeats: Grilled Turkey Cutlets with Warm Cranberry Salsa and Sauteed Sweet Potatoes

Grilled Turkey Cutlets with Warm Cranberry Salsa and Sauteed Sweet Potatoes (pg 81) appealed to me, in that it brings the flavors of Thanksgiving together in a manageable timeframe. Once again, the results are underwhelming. Oh, Rachael, you've made such a fool of me all these years.

The sweet potatoes were the only element of this dish that I would make again. Slice 'em thin and cook them in oil until they're browned and cooked through, then stir a bit of butter and parsley in. Delightful.

The turkey cutlets are seasoned with salt and pepper, and a splash of lime juice at the end. Snoozefest.

The "salsa" was weird and unpleasant. In case you ever wondered, cilantro and dried cranberries are not complementary flavors.

To make matters even worse, when eaten all together, this was too salty. That's my fault (or hers, for not providing measurements. Yeah, lets blame her. Mwa ha haa!).
At least the salsa looks pretty.
Conclusion: Just okay. I'm quickly losing interest in this book (much to Matt's eternal relief). The recipes seem to be reliably unimpressive.

I'm also considering adding Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking, to my long-term projects. I find myself flipping through it at least once a week, and then shelving it again out of loyalty to cooking through Ready for Dessert, which I am still very much interested in. As it is a dessert book, Ready for Dessert does not include breakfast-type recipes, which leaves a big gap in my baking needs--a gap that Dorie can easily fill. I'm a little worried that my sidebar will begin to look unwieldy if I add another title to the long-term projects, but I'm guessing no one is studying my conclusion tally with any real gusto, so it probably won't bother anyone but me. Thoughts?

3 comments:

  1. I'll admit, that is some pretty salsa!

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  2. Rachael Ray is just making me sad. Way too mish moshy, and not grounded enough on any traditional cuisine- in terms of cooking techniques, ingredients and flavors. I have to admit I'm a major purist and I think only very experienced chefs can improvise successfully and yet she does it so blithely. UGH!!!

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  3. I say go ahead and add the Baking book. Dorie has such a variety of baked goods in there and it will be a chance to compare the two books. I own the Baking book and sadly have not done nearly enough recipes from it. I have so many dessert books and then we both already have our favorite dessert recipes and I too often fall back on those instead of trying something new. So I guess what I'm saying is that my opinion is not entirely unbiased since I am looking forward to you testing these recipes for me :-)

    Oh, and let me know when you get to the World Peace Cookies, I have tried that recipe twice and still can't get them to taste anything like the online reviews.

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