Helen & Amber: For the Love of Food: Week # 2 cooking with “Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites

This week was Stuart’s birthday and we decided to celebrate by cooking up some more recipes from Giada de Laurentiis’s cookbook “Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites". Since we were celebrating a birthday and since I made the birthday boy’s favorite cake, we did not include a desert from the book this week. Instead we threw in another main dish from the book. The second dish that we chose to make was found in the “(not) just for kids” section. That’s right! Giada has a kid’s recipe section in this book too!

The Book:

Giada’s Kitchen: New Italian Favorites

The Author:

Giada de Laurentiis

The Menu:

Mediterranean Bruschetta – Page 22

Lemon Risotto – Page 121

Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree – Page 166

Parmesan Fish Sticks – Page 206

Black Forest Cake – first one ever made by Amber

The Undertaking:

Giada’s book is wonderful to cook out of. It is stocked full of easy recipes. This week our menu began with the Mediterranean Bruschetta. It was a simple recipe to put together. All we had to do was grill some bread, season it and throw the rest of the ingredients into a bowl. It was so easy! The most laborious task was to chop the tomatoes and mint. Easy-peasy!

The prep work and process required for making the risotto was pretty basic as well. Here were some things that we took note of with this recipe: it called for a lot of lemon, and it calls for two different types of cheese (expensive cheese): Mascarpone cheese and parmesan cheese.

We did find the mascarpone cheese in our little town, but it was quite expensive. We had to buy an entire package of it for the ¼ cup called for in the recipe. The package we found was $7!!!

We thought about substituting the mascarpone cheese, but decided against it, because the point to our blog is to make exactly what is on the pages of the recipe book. In the future cream cheese could easily be substituted with the same results.

Next up on the menu was the Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree. You might be wondering, “What in the world is Brodetto?” I didn’t know either, so I looked it up online and found out that it is a fish soup/stew. It is the Italian equivalent of bouillabaisse (type of French fish soup). This recipe calls for chicken broth in the making of the brodetto though and is not made with fish.

I had quite the time making the Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree, as I was having a very “off” day. First I burnt the scallions, and then I messed up by adding the olive oil to the peas before pureeing them (I was supposed to add it slowly while pureeing the peas). These two mistakes where not the only slip-ups that I made in the kitchen that evening...

The recipe for the salmon makes 4 servings and the plan was to make the adjustments in the brodetto and the pea puree to accommodate our entire clan. Since my brain was not in the kitchen, I forgot all about making sure there was enough food for everyone! Funny that such an easy recipe to make could cause me so much trouble! In the end, everyone was served smaller portions so that everyone had the chance to sample the recipes.

Preparations for the evening actually started the night before our big dinner. That is when I made the Black Forest Cake for Stuart’s birthday. I decided to make his favorite cake, because what better gift to give him for his birthday but his favorite cake! I had never made Black Forest Cake before but I found myself a wonderful recipe using my favorite website www.allrecipes.com. The recipe looked complicated but had lots of great reviews. There were a lot of steps for this novice to following in the making my very first Black Forest Cake (3^rd ever cake from scratch), but I made it through miraculously, all on my own, without anyone’s help!

The cake was so yummy that there weren’t any leftovers for him to take home with him at the end of the evening. I felt so bad that he didn’t get to have another piece that I made another cake for him on Monday! Now I am almost a “Pro”! J

If you are interested in knowing which recipe it was that I used, just leave a comment on this post and I will send the link to you.

The Judgment (except the cake…I wouldn’t let them critic my cake):

Mediterranean Bruschetta:

“The mint and ricotta cheese tasted like cold eggs. No thank you!” – Amber’s Man

“The bruschetta recipe could use a stronger cheese, but the mint and tomato were a nice combination.” – Helen’s Bob

“I enjoyed the mint flavor and really liked the tomato!” – Andrea

“I didn’t like the cheese. It was soggy.” – Pre-Teen Parker

Helen & Amber’s Review on the Mediterranean Bruschetta:

Mediterranean Bruschetta tasted alright. What did we like about it? We liked the fresh tomatoes with the fresh mint…we also loved the seasoning on the bread, it set off the flavors in the bruschetta. What we didn't enjoy was the cheese. It was probably the texture of the ricotta that was the main problem. It was just too watery.

If you want to try this recipe, Helen’s suggestion is to strain the cheese through some cheesecloth first to drain off some of the liquid before mixing it in with the rest of the ingredients.

The Mediterranean Bruschetta got an average score of 3 out of 5.

Lemon Risotto:

“By itself it was too tangy, but with the fish and the pea puree it was SUPERB!” – Amber’s Man

“It was sticky, but flavorful. It went nicely with the fish and sauce.” – Helen’s Bob

“It was really lemony. It caused sour mouth.” – Stu

“Sour! It tasted ok when eaten with the fish.” – Andrea

“Too Lemony” – Pre-Teen Parker

Helen & Amber’s Review on the Lemon Risotto:

The Lemon Risotto was very lemony…too lemony for almost everyone at the table. We think that half of the lemon called for in the recipe would suffice. The sourness of the risotto was diminished when eaten along with the brodetto, pea puree and salmon, so the pairing of the two dishes worked out well for us.

The Lemon Risotto got an average score of 2 out of 5.

Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree:

“Excellent!” – Amber’s Man

“The salmon was juicy and tasty. The pea puree set off the flavors nicely and the broth was also very nice.” – Helen’s Bob

“The salmon was delicious and the peas complimented the salmon nicely.” – Stu

“Awesome!” – Andrea

Helen & Amber’s Review of the Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree:

The Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree was the best part of the meal. We thought that the whole dish (fish, brodetto and pea puree) went very well together. I would definitely make this again. It was easy to make and was so full of flavor.

The Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree got an average score of 4 out of 5.

Parmesan Fish Sticks:

“Ewww! FISH!?!?!?” – Pre-Teen Parker (who was told to eat them anyways)

“I’ve never been over excited about anything breaded…[the fish sticks] were nothing spectacular.” – Amber’s Man

Audie and I seemed to be the only ones out of us adults (not including Parker, because, as I remind her everyday, she is NOT an adult – yet!) who weren’t captivated by the fish sticks.

The Kids Vote:

Mediterranean Bruschetta:

“I don’t like the cheese, but I like the bread” – Jaxon, Abbegail and Emmersyn

“Can I have more?” – Seth and Samantha

The youngest of the youngsters ate the bruschetta all up and asked for more. Even our picky little princess Samantha! All of the kids enjoy eating bread, but they don’t usually enjoy anything that is red (like tomatoes), so it was a little surprising to us that the smallest kids were so fond of it. Most of the kids brushed the bruschetta off completely so that they could enjoy their bread appetizer before the main course.

Lemon Risotto:

“We like it!” – Jaxon and Emmersyn

“No” – Abbegail (when asked if she liked the risotto)

Only two of the 5 year olds ate up the lemon risotto, while the rest of the kids did not appreciate it.

Salmon in Lemon Brodetto with Pea Puree:

“We don’t like the peas; do we have to eat them?” – Jaxon and Emmersyn

From this dish the children were only served the pea puree. This was because we served them the salmon fish sticks instead thinking they were more kid friendly. At first the kids were turned off by the look and consistency of the peas…because really…who feeds their kids pureed food unless they are babies? (Helen and I, that’s who! Especially when we are testing out a cook book and pea puree is the only veggie in the main dish we are serving!) When we told them that the green mush was peas, they made an effort to try the green goop on their plates…but they still didn’t like them. Carter was the only one of the kids that ate the peas. Makes sense…he was the last one to eat pureed food. It was only just over a year ago when he dined on pureed food daily for nourishment! LOL

Parmesan Fish Sticks:

“The fish is yummy!” – Emmersyn

“I love it!” – Jaxon

“No” – Abbegail (when asked if she liked the fish sticks)

The salmon sticks were a hit with Jaxon, Seth and Emmersyn, especially served along with the dipping sauce that the recipe provided. But again, the fish was yet another miss for the night with the rest of the children. Stuart and Andrea’s girls didn’t want to eat the fish sticks at all, while Carter gagged when he took a bite. We took the fish away from Carter to make sure that we didn’t end up turning him off of fish all together! Yikes!

Time for Desert!

Our evening was finished off with a special birthday tune and a birthday cake (which was topped with cherries and an insufficient number of candles). What a wonderful ending to our evening full of good eats, fun family and well behaved children! J

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STU!