I started by cooking 1 1/3 cup of brown rice. I was supposed to use two types of brown rice, but I didn't know what sweet brown rice was and didn't have it, so I went with the normal stuff. Then I mixed together a ton of spices--salt, dried basil, turmeric, cumin, ground ginger, red pepper flakes, and cinnamon. I didn't have any coriander, so I just left it out. THEN came soy sauce (instead of tamari), toasted unsweetened shredded coconut (reduced-fat and organic, thanks to my WF trip), peanut butter, grated carrot, cilantro, green onion, and Italian parsley. The rice was eventually mixed in and then I put in some wheat gluten (the recipe called for gluten flour, and I just assumed/hoped it was the same stuff). Then I rolled the mixture into 40 balls (the recipe said it'd make 30), which took forever and a day. Finally I finished, and I baked them for 30 minutes at 350, rolling them over halfway through the process. Oh, and they were brushed with a bit of Canola before I baked 'em.
But no, that wasn't the end of it. The Thai rice croquettes came with udon noodles in peanut sauce. Obviously the udon was easy enough--boil water and drop 'em in for 5 or so minutes. However, the peanut sauce required another dozen-plus ingredients, starting with peanut butter of course. There was also rice vinegar (didn't use brown rice like it called for cuz that's all I had), red pepper flakes, garlic, ginger, maple syrup, soy sauce (instead of tamari again), water, sesame oil, and cilantro. All of it was done in the food processor and I finally tossed it with the hot udon noodles. I think the end product looked strikingly similar to the picture in the book, so at least I had that going for me.
Contrast that with Giada's roasted chicken with spring vegetables dish, and the latter was just insanely easy in comparison. I chopped up thyme and parsley, mixing it in with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and fennel seeds. The mixture was stuffed between the chicken's breast and skin. Jim cut the whole breasts in half and loosened up the skin, I dumped the herbs on 'em, Jim spread the stuff around, and then I salted and peppered the otuside. I heated up the Dutch oven with some EVOO and seared the chicken for 6 minutes on each side, skin side first. The chickies then went into a roasting pan and finished at 375 in the oven.
While they roasted, I melted some butter in the Dutch oven and threw in the baby carrots, which had been cleaned and peeled already thanks to Trader Joe's. I snagged the carrots up immediately when I saw them, because I had never seen them before and this episode had just aired, but it's taken me a bit to get the rest of the ingredients together. Along with the carrots went cippolini onions (red, cuz that's all WF had) and they cooked for about 7 minutes before I dumped in a cup of chicken broth, snap peas, and quartered cremini mushrooms (no morels, cuz I couldn't find 'em anywhere). I cooked the rest of it for another 5 minutes or so until the sauce had reduced by half. Then all I had to do was add the veggies to the roasting pan and voila! Dinner was served.
Jim decided he wanted more of a gravy, so he added some cornstarch to the sauce until it thickened up, which it did very nicely. The end result was absolutely beautiful.
Regarding the special chicken, I noticed that the skin itself was very different in both color and texture. Of course I don't actually touch the stuff, but it was much yellower in color and the goosebumps were way less pronounced. It didn't look as though the feathers had been torn off the flesh. Jim said it was much easier to separate the skin from the flesh. The second thing I noticed was that the chicken significantly shrunk down during the cooking process. I'm not sure what all that is about, but I guess if what I'm buying is mostly water weight with the regular three-headed 'roided chix, it's better?
I don't know that Jim can necessarily tell the difference with the chicken. I guess the only way to know is to cook some of each and do a blind taste test. It's certainly better for him to eat the healthier chickens, so it's probably worth it no matter what.
On to my own gourmet vegan feast . . . it was so grubbingly good! I really loved the noodles. I could really taste all of the flavoring agents in the sauce, and they worked well together to create this really complex, beautiful dish. It definitely tasted better fresh than reheated, but the reheated stuff was still pretty yummy. The croquettes were also very good. They had just a hint of smokiness and a very pleasant, mild flavor. They actually paired nicely with the noodles, which had a much stronger, bolder taste to it. It ended up being basically an Asian spaghetti and meatballs. My dad liked it, which was cool. I don't know if he liked it as much as me, though.
So, the verdict . . . would I make it again? It was very nummy, but on the downside, sooo much work. That's not a huge deal for me, but as far as time goes, I don't think I have the ability to make meals like that regularly. I don't think any of Jim's meat dishes have been that time intensive. Granted, they may have taken that long, due mostly to my clumsiness in handling meat, but that wasn't the case here. I don't see how I could cut down the time. Just pulling all of the ingredients out of the pantry took an inordinate amount of time. It was worth it, and I was very happy with the result, but it just isn't too practical.
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