Redemption from recipes that vexed us

[The Late Night Gourmet]

This was seriously pissing me off. I’ve made Baba ganoush before, and it’s always been great. But, that was until I tried making it in the winter. I tried cooking it in the oven, which can be done. But, the taste wasn’t the same. Also, I couldn’t find the tahini. I substituted with peanut butter. neither of these should have been fatal, but I just didn’t love the results. I decided to make it again, using a torch to create the char. But, again, I couldn’t find the tahini. I think the prime suspect here is pretty obvious.

Tonight, I made the recipe entirely in the oven, this time with tahini. It’s magnificent.

But, more than that, it’s redemption. I don’t even need to ask if any of you have had recipes that have eluded you when you’ve tried to execute them. I know you have. If you have given up on a recipe, please share where you are having trouble. There is probably somebody here who has been there who can help you.

If you have questions about baba ganoush, I’m here.

 

[karadekoolaid]

I used to have a wonderful iron grill pan, with raised edges in the middle which would duplicate a BBQ/Grill.
One day I took it outside after using it, poured some cold water in it to cool it down and CRACK!! It broke in half.
That grill pan was what I used to make babaganush, just covered with aluminium foil.
Now, I discovered another heavy frying pan (skillet) in the cupboard and worked out how to get that smokiness. I took a couple of mango twigs from the tree, let them burn in the dry pan for a while, added the aubergines/eggplants, covered with foil, and bang! It worked.
As for the tahini, I made my own. No good, I'm afraid,just no good. It didn't taste the same, even though I religiously followed all the steps in the recipe. Then, somewhere or another, I read that "proper" tahini is made with hulled sesame seeds; unavailable here, so I went to the Lebanese supermarket and bought a jar of tahini. That's it!

 

[TastyReuben]

In a general sense, maybe bread fits into this category.

Bread is simple. It’s a few ingredients, a few steps (and I’m counting pizza dough in this as well). I can make bread in my sleep.

I can make it exactly the same way 10 times in a row, and that 10th time…everything will go wrong.

It wont rise. It won’t stretch. It won’t do anything. Same ingredients, same process, different result. Next time, it’ll be fine.

From-scratch cakes are something that continues to vex me, I’m still waiting on redemption with those.

 

[karadekoolaid]

TastyReuben, I totally agree on the bread thing.
I'm not a "bread" superstar; I know how to make it, but don't make it very often. Every single time, it comes out different.
However, when you said

that 10th time…everything will go wrong.

I knew exactly what you meant, and that usually happens when you want to impress someone
Then there's always the little secret trick that no recipe ever contains, or which is so vague, you never understand until you actually manage to do it right.

There's an Indian recipe for a dessert called "Gulab Jamun". Basically, they're small,fried dough fritters (aka doughnuts) made with milk powder, yoghurt and flour, soaked in a sugar syrup. Around 30 years ago, we met an Indian family that lived in Venezuela, and sold clothes. We became friends and Komal gave me this recipe, which I tried several times, but it never seemed to be as good as what I'd eaten in Indian restaurants. In the recipe, you'll see it says " dough not very hard nor soft"

Took me years to work that one out, but now I know, instinctively, when the "dough" is right. As for the syrup, I never got that right until about 4 weeks ago, when the diplomats from the Indian Embassy tried my gulab jamun. I think their exact words were "it should fall apart under the fork": in other words, the little doughnuts need to be soaked in the syrup until they absorb it!

 

[The Late Night Gourmet]

I can make it exactly the same way 10 times in a row, and that 10th time…everything will go wrong.

As karadekoolaid said, this isn't a total surprise. I think what happens is that we develop a cockiness when we've executed things so well in the past. We expecte that the 10th time will be just as flawless as the other 9. This happens to me when I stop measuring, including when I stop counting the time for certain things. I'll shortcut the rest time with a dough because I just want to get on with it. There aren't as many variables with bread, but I definitely eyeball the quantities in other recipes, and sometimes that doesn't go so well.