Truly Awful Recipes!

saluki

Come on.
You know what I'm talking about. Recipes that sound so bad that you are embarrassed to give out the recipe; Yet for some unfathomable reason--They work! In fact they are delicious. We all have them.

I ran across one today that sounds like a likely candidate.
I'm going to try it. Here it is; Plus a nice take on a slushy.
Susie
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From the Phila Inquirer

We know you're out there, you, the one person on this planet who cherishes and routinely prepares the recipe for lobster casserole from Classic Cooking With Coca-Cola. We know that you layer frozen artichokes, canned lobster, rice, and cream of mushroom soup in your best casserole dish, drench the whole business in bubbly cola, and cover it with festive triangles of American cheese.

We know that you can and will attest to the ooey-gooey, casserole-y, leave-you-roly-poly goodness of this concoction from the cookbook cowritten by a descendant of Coke founder Asa Griggs Candler.

But we're not going to republish the recipe because, frankly, we've found hundreds of others that tempt.

I've long heard about a Colombian dish of rice cooked in Coca-Cola, and I was finally able to track it down in the scholarly food journal Gastronomica.

The recipe is fascinating: You cook coconut milk until it reduces - first to a thick paste, and then until it breaks into oils and curdled solids, which brown and crisp. Then you add rice, cola and raisins.

The result? Moist, Coke-brown rice with a sweet, subtle caramel essence. Believe it or not, the coconut flavor trumps the Coke. It took some tinkering to get the desired effect. You should get the kind of coconut milk that separates into solids and water in the can rather than the smoothly emulsified coconut milk. A Taste of Thai brand, sold in mainstream supermarkets, and Chaokoh brand, sold in Asian markets, both work. You'll also need a heavy-bottomed enamel or cast-iron pot so you can reduce the coconut without burning it.

We also got creative ourselves and set out to invent a dish (OK - a cocktail) to commemorate the occasion.

And after a closer reading of Classic Cooking With Coca-Cola (Celebrity Books, $12.95), we did find some lobsterless gems well worth reprinting.

So let's raise a glass to Atlanta's most famous contribution to the world of food and drink. Tip it back, drink slowly, and don't laugh, or it'll go straight up your nose.

Arroz con Coco y Pasas

Makes 8 servings

3 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk

1 tablespoon oil, as needed

2 cups rice

1/4 cup raisins

2 teaspoons salt

4 cups Coca-Cola

1. Place the coconut milk in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Bring to an active boil and continue cooking about 15 minutes over medium-high heat. Run a wooden spoon periodically around the bottom to make sure it isn't sticking. If so, turn down the heat a bit and keep checking.

2. When the coconut milk is as thick as frosting and the bubbles burst like moon craters, reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking. The mixture will turn glassy, and the bubbles will look like pinpricks.

3. Stir in a teaspoon of oil, and then another if needed, to encourage the mixture to break. Stirring constantly, let the mixture break into oil and solids.

4. Once the solid bits start to brown, take the pot off the heat and carefully transfer the contents to a heat-proof container. If using the heavy-bottomed pot to cook the rice, wash and dry it.

5. Add the remaining teaspoon oil to the pot along with the coconut mixture, rice and raisins and stir over medium heat for two minutes until rice glistens and is fragrant.

6. Add the salt and Coca-Cola. Bring to a boil; cover pot with a heavy, tight lid. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.

7. Reduce heat to low and cook another 10 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before uncovering.

- Adapted from a recipe in Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture (winter 2005)

Per serving: 591 calories, 7 grams protein, 62 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams fiber, 38 grams fat, no cholesterol, 563 milligrams sodium
Coke and Jack Slushies

Makes 4 servings

2 (12-ounce) cans cold

Coca-Cola

6 ounces limeade concentrate

6 ounces bourbon, chilled

1. Combine the cola and limeade with a whisk, then freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.

2. Divide frozen mixture into four chilled glasses. Chase away the kids. Drizzle each serving with 1 shot of bourbon. Serve with a spoon or a straw.

- From John Kessler

Note: I set out to make a Coke sorbet but could never get a texture that held in the freezer. Yet one failed attempt yielded a delicious Coke and lime slushie. My kids loved it. I needed a little something to temper the sweetness. Then I saw that bottle of Jack Daniel's.

Per serving: 256 calories, trace protein, 39 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat, no cholesterol, 7 milligrams sodium.

Primel

Great post, Saluki... fun...
Catherine

mccarroll

I should be able to fill this thread all by myself! My kids laugh when I enter the kitchen for more than a cup of coffee! I'll do some searching to see if I can come up with a few winning "losers". will also try the two coke recipes. Wonder if you could use Diet Coke in them?

Karen

saluki

I don't remember if I read it here or at another forum.
I thought something nasty happens if you cook anything with
that artificial sugar. It breaks down into something nasty
for your body. I wish I could remember where I read it.
Maybe someone else will know.

Susie

saluki

A little disconcerting.
I couldn't find out about cooking diet soda but I found this.
=================
Independent.co.uk Online Edition: Home

* from The Independent & The Independent on Sunday

4 June 2007 20:57
Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health
Expert links additive to cell damage
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 27 May 2007

A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.

The problem - more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse - can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.

Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.

Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria.

He told The Independent on Sunday: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.

"The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it - as happens in a number if diseased states - then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA - Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing."

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) backs the use of sodium benzoate in the UK and it has been approved by the European Union but last night, MPs called for it to investigate urgently.

Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat chair of Parliament's all-party environment group said: "Many additives are relatively new and their long-term impact cannot be certain. This preservative clearly needs to be investigated further by the FSA."

A review of sodium benzoate by the World Health Organisation in 2000 concluded that it was safe, but it noted that the available science supporting its safety was "limited".

Professor Piper, whose work has been funded by a government research council, said tests conducted by the US Food and Drug Administration were out of date.

"The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are complete safe," he said. "By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."

He advised parents to think carefully about buying drinks with preservatives until the quantities in products were proved safe by new tests. "My concern is for children who are drinking large amounts," he said.

Coca-Cola and Britvic's Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi all contain sodium benzoate. Their makers and the British Soft Drinks Association said they entrusted the safety of additives to the Government.