Jet Tila is one of my favorite tv chefs, so when I found out he had a cookbook, I knew I would want to get it for our collection. Jet is a popular judge on cooking shows and is the on the floor reporter for Iron Chef. He always seems pretty down to Earth and I appreciate that. His cookbook is very approachable and has helpful tips and introductions to the recipes. Everything is broken down into clear, manageable steps, which makes the recipes easy to use.
So far, everything we have tried, we have liked. One of the first recipes we have tried was Kung Pao Shrimp. I wanted to make shrimp stir fry one night and realized that there might be a recipe in this cookbook. This was good. I added more veggies, the broccoli and carrots, and it was delicious. We used angel hair instead of rice for a change of pace. I also left out the cashews, as the Husband isn’t fond of them.
It was good! Super easy and quick to make as well. We would definitly have it again.
Szechuan Beef was another quick and delicious recipe. We actually had Szechuan peppercorns, which we had not tried before. They were spicy and made our mouths tingle a little. That’s what they are supposed to do though, so it wasn’t a bad sensation. The recipe calls for either flank or filet and since we had filet, I used that instead. It was extremely tender!
I roasted some zucchini on the side with some olive oil and herbs. I did add more sauce ingredients and left out the celery. We also used sweet chili sauce as it was the closest thing to chili garlic sauce I had on hand. We would definitely make this again.
Lo mein was another dish we tried and enjoyed.
This one didn’t impress me as much as the other dishes, but I think it was because I had a bad reaction to raw chicken and was slightly grossed out by the time it was actually done. It tasted good though and we would probably make it again.
One of our favorite recipes was also in the book. We used turkey for these lettuce wraps instead of chicken, but they were tasty! I left the water chestnuts out, as the Husband doesn’t really like them and I didn’t feel like messing with it.
A surprise hit was these donuts. They’re actually store bought biscuit dough deep fried, glazed, and dusted in a 5 spice sugar blend. They were a fun and easy breakfast to make over a weekend.
We had a berry salad with them. We did use store bought biscuits, the ones in the paper tube! I have some of the 5 spice sugar leftover, since I spooned it on the donuts instead of dipping. The sugar blend was yummy and I think I want to use it in a crumble or a coffee cake.
The sugar was delicious in Ali’s Coconut Rice Pudding too! It was so creamy and yummy. I’m definitely eating it for breakfast.
Overall, I have been very happy with this cookbook and will definitely be trying some more of the recipes.
