Another Foodie Question

[scmhogg]

I like to cook. However, I recognize that I have an unsophisticated palate. Perhaps the fact that I am English?

Anyway, I'm not sure that I get Shallots. I have a braised pot-roast recipe that I have made for years. You cook the pot-roast in a dutch oven on a bed of six large sliced onions, with red wine and beef stock. The recipe calls for the addition of one minced shallot.

For the life of me, I can't tell the difference with or without the shallot. What am I missing?

Steve

[jziegler]

Shallots can be great for some things. But, in a case like that, I doubt they make much difference. I think that many onions would just overpower the single shallot. I personally think of shallots as kind of a more delicate onion.

Now, if you want some shallots, try this (stolen from one of the Alton Brown cookbooks, from memory, you'd need to look it up for the exact recipe):

Take some chickes thighs and lightly brown them in a skillet. Add plenty of olive oil, some shallots, some garlic, and some herbs (sage, something else). Bake for about an hour or hour and a half. You'll get some very tasty chicken that way, and the oil, shallots, and garlic are great added to your mashed potatoes, the oils is also great for dipping you bread in.

Jim

[Ken Massingale]

You guys are making me hungry!

got to try that chicken recipe.

[pierhogunn]

yes, you do, I make it quite often for mine, and they just about kill each other for it. Do yourself a favor, make it AB's way once, and then, following the same procedure, triple the Garlic.

Oh, and make sure you get the chicken good and brown, if not the skin gets mushy

and if you can do it in cast iron, do it.

and finally, only only only fresh herbs, Sage, parsley, and Thyme, salt and pepper prior to browning the chicken