Thanks, I'll try these.


Adapting for microclimate certainly makes sense- I'm going to seek out recipes from local chefs. As for risotto, mine turns out well- it's just the stirring time that has made me abandon it. But thanks for the suggestion!

Fortunately I'm married to a professional chef who before starting her own business cooked at some of the top restaurants in the mid-Atlantic. So I outsource the difficult ones to her, and I just cook Asian, mostly Thai, which are very difficult to screw up :D

Not complicated, but a lot of work - brisket. I do several briskets a year, and in prior years it has always involved a mostly sleepless night tending the fire. This year we got a pellet grill with a hopper that will hold about 28 hours worth of fuel, and I've got all sorts of sensors to alert me when temps reach certain stages - all remotely relayed to my living room. Next weekend it gets tested. :p

I do several things that involve a lot of work -

About twice a year I make a 9 x 14 pan of sour cream chicken enchiladas - lots of prep work here.

I make a carrot cake that takes half a day and seems to involve every bowl and measuring cup I own.

I make a spaghetti salad that is often requested by friends to bring to gatherings - it's made in stages over two days.

I'm not sure I could answer without establishing some parameters....

1. Extensive "prep" - time and effort assembling and preparing ingredients.

2. Attention - Let's face it, risotto and paella (done in a classic open pan over and open fire) require close monitoring, stirring, etc.

3. Time - Brisket and large parts of the pig require many hours in the pit, but the best pitmasters seem to rarely look, simply sit back and open another cold one.

In my case, homemade pasta and serious bread-making are often bypassed because of the combination of time and effort required. On a more regular basis, "Chicken and Dumplings" (not that effete, limp-wristed Pennsylvania version, little better than "Chicken Noodle Soup", but a semi-Southren raw day comfort food sort with eggs yolks, chicken fat and baking powder in the dumplings), homemade Gnocchi or a "Dove Pie", lots of birds to prep, mushrooms, red wine and a generous "Chou" crust are about as 'intensive" as I'll undertake.

I'm simply not into cakes, icing and fillings.....

While not long on ingredients, it is long on trickiness and the need for patience… Hollandaise sauce. I absolutely love Eggs Benedict and once/month, I usually get the urge and make myself a late night plateful. To me, the constant whipping over a hot water bath is cathartic.

I love Hollandaise sauce as well. Ever since I got a copy of Jeff Smith's original “The Frugal Gourmet” I've never bothered to make it the old way. It is so easy; here it is:

Place 4 egg yolks, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and a bit of Tabasco in a blender. Blend for 3 seconds, then while the blender is going (this does not quite make sense - but I've always just left the blender on); add 1/4 lb of hot melted butter. The temperature of the butter is the secret: Make it hot without burning it and the Hollandaise sauce will thicken immediately. Not quite the same as the slow way, but pretty damn good - and fast!

I've got a soft spot for cheesecake, and the FG nails that. You'll have to dig that one up.

My favorite meat dish that I make often is Venison steak Diane - not all that complicated, but the version I like takes a bit of time to reduce the sauce. Not to mention the time spent procuring the Venison.

Egg + butter sauces are indeed wonderful. I love bearnaise sauce, with the added tang of the vinegar, pepper and shallots :)

Also, agree with the previous poster that it's very therapeutic to make it whisking over hot water, just something lovely about that. I probably make a batch of the stuff every couple weeks. Heart disease may run in my family, but what a wonderful way to go...

Also, I make salt pork baked beans from scratch from time to time. Not hard, but definitely requires patience (at least two days of slow cooking).

well then... I guess this needs to be my answer.

I make wild mushroom risotto fairly regularly. I've never found it overly hard... just time consuming :)

no... this recipe

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Rom...Rustica-114360

Same here! I add seared sea scallops with a pesto topping....delicious.

For me, chicken cacciatore is very time consuming and labor intensive.Just pan frying the chicken in batches, setting them aside, preparing the stock and other ingredients, adding the chicken...cooking...then cooking the rice takes up quite some time.

i wont be making that now, maybe ill just go to the restaurant and order it. but if someone wants to make it for me, now thats another story.

thanks missydarlin

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care to share the recipe...?

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Cordero Patagonico al Asador

Grilled Patagonia Lamb, using only hardwoods as fuel. This can take up to 4 hours to grill and that does not include a 2-3 hour fire startup time.

A traditional roast beef lunch. None of the dishes are especially complicated, but landing the beef, roast potatoes, vegetables, gravy and yorkshire pudding at roughly the right time, right temperature and appropriate degree of 'done-ness' is always a challenge. Especially when cooking with one small oven and 5 hungry people demanding their food.

I agree. With a roast, timing is everything.

Mrs BiH has stopped eating beef, so the weekly roast is now chicken which is far more binary in the 'done-ness' stakes.