If today’s posts have a theme, the theme is “disappointment.” This was (mostly) a weekend of bad eating. It culminated tonight when I attempted an Orzo recipe from last month’s Bon Apetit. I’m sure, if you wanted, you could find that recipe on Epicurious. But why would you want to? Because it looks pretty?
Well you remember the pretty girl from high school? The one without a soul? That’s this orzo. It’s soulless and empty and I hate that I spent hours making it.
Ok, there were lots of steps but it wasn’t as bad as I’m making it sound. Sure, I had to peel and slice up ginger:
I had to bring it to a boil in oil:
I let it fall to room temperature and then poured it into a jar:
The jar went into the refrigerator for one hour.
Meanwhile, I chopped up some dried apricots, green onions, and cilantro:
I cooked the Orzo: (actually, this was Riso pasta–an acceptable alternative, according to the recipe):
Toasted my pistachios:
Strained the ginger oil:
And then assembled the Orzo salad you see at the top of this post. You mix the pasta with the onions, cilantro, apricots and pistachios. You pour some ginger oil into a bowl with lemon juice and dried Coriander and whisk that together. You pour it on the Orzo. You season to taste…
And when you taste you hit yourself on the head and you say, “I spent two hours waiting for this?” Then, after eating a bowl, you have the joyous task of cleaning it up.
Forgive my lack of pep when I say: sometimes cooking isn’t fun!
DOH!!! Don’t you hate it when that happens? The pictures of the process look great though. And thanks for the warning, because I might have tried it.
I saw that recipe, too, and as an orzo fan, I was going to try it. Thanks for saving me the time!
Did you like it any better the next day? Sometimes when I put (what I feel) is a lot of effort into a recipe, it’s hard to enjoy it right away. That’s especially true if I had been tasting it along the way. Sometimes I just don’t appreciate a dish until I eat the leftovers.
i’ve made this before…it does taste better the next day. it also tastes better when you make it with brown rice instead of orzo, and sort of stir-fry the rice in the ginger oil, instead of just pouring it on top afterwards. more nuttiness, more flavor, more pow. i also like to add a little chili to mine to up the heat. orzo’s pretty darn bland, after all.
i cannot beleive how lazy you are,. maybe if you prepared the ginger a day in advance and planned ahead it wouldn;t seem like such a chore,. the next day while you liquid is comming up to a bowl you could cut all you ingredients and while the pasta is cooking you could set the table. drain it mix with the ginger and other ingredients and finish with olive oil and s+p,. boom dinner is 15 min. If you want to be a cook think smart not lazy!!