What have you cooked recently which didn’t turn out very well?

[RainySummer01]

I made a leek and potato pie following a BBC good food recipe and it was rubbish. Too much pastry, not enough filling, dc said it smelt the house out and it just didn’t taste particularly nice. I won’t make it again!

Everything

A quiche, since I had a lot of eggs and milk to use up. But I evidently should have used less milk - or less cheese and sweated red onion - since it virtually overflowed in the oven.
Next one, I used rather less than 1/2 a pint of milk.

Oooh I love a gadget for mash! But my foolproof way is to use a ricer and then finish it off with an electric whisk. No lumps and delicious!

Now quiche I can never do. I used to do the Delia quiche lorraine recipe but that was hit and miss so I don’t make it any more.

Japanese souffle pancakes.

We had them in Berlin & they were to die for.

Mine... not so much.

Try the spice Taylor
I get mine in tesco and even I can't bugger it up-its really simple and tasty

rhubarb jam. I was unclear when the setting point was. (About half an hour before I took it off the hob it turned out)

Loads. My cooking has gone to pot.

My chips were overcooked, with steak. Easter roast lamb - the Roast potatoes were crispy but then went soft. I marinade expensive Costco chicken and veg in seperate bags, three flavours, all so salty they were almost inedible.

I do killer scrambled eggs, but I only bother when we're away in our touring caravan, as it's a "holiday" breakfast to me. I put milk, butter, grated cheese, dried herbs and ground pepper in it, and brown it lightly under the grill once it's on the toast. It's simple but 😋. DH's scrambled eggs is nowhere near as good. 😁

DH told me my recipe for homemade lemonade was just AWFUL, after he'd taken a gulp of raw egg whites, that were in a glass, just beside the homemade lemonade.

It reminded me of the old thread about fat balls and 'artisan Scotch Eggs'.

I thought adding some condensed cream of mushroom soup into rice was good. Either I did the wrong ratio of broth to rice /soup mixture, or I remembered it wrong.

I tried to make carbonara and ended up with scrambled egg.

Never attempted it since.

My sil made a banging curry last time we visited him and Dd. Followed recipe to a t, tasted ok, but too bloody hot. Checked ingredients, I’d used extra hot chili powder.

Toast 🥴

Slow cooker pork ramen from scratch. Forgot to add water to the broth base. Almost choked on the strength/salt when I tasted it 😂.

Are you using tumeric? That can be bitter if you put too much. Also make sure you're not burning the spices, especially ones with bits like chili flakes. Garlic can also get very bitter if it's overcooked, try adding it with the liquids instead of sauteeing.

Fresh lasagne sheets work better.Asda,Tesco and M&s do them

Use a potato ricer instead of a masher. Absolute game changer

I did this recently. I’d totally forgotten what blending does to potato starch. How do people avoid that? Is it about the type of potato used? Are floury ones better (I used allouettes which aren’t super waxy but they don’t go that fluffy when baked so I guess not really floury either)? Will not be attempting again until I have a good answer as it was gross.

Dubai Chocolate Tart. Really wasn’t worth the effort. The pastry was dull, the homemade pistachio cream was bland. The ganache on top was the only bit worth having. I liked the texture of the Katafai substitute.

One potato rather than a lot.
Or blend before adding potato and mash after. I leave mine with finely chopped leeks and potato that’s sliced on a mandoline before cooking so it falls apart but isn’t mashed.

Thank you! Really useful. What you say about just one potato reminds me that I made a celeriac soup and popped in a bit of potato I had peeled but not ended up using for the kids’ lunch earlier. No gluey mess that time. I might try scooping out most of the potato chunks, blending the rest, and then mashing and returning the reserved potato. Love the idea of finely chopped leeks and self-disintegrating potato though. Maybe it’s time to invest in a mandoline.

@RoseAndGeranium i think it works well with leftover potato rather than making from scratch. I always cook loads of potato so I have it available when I need it. Fill spare oven space with jacket potatoes, or make plenty of mash/roast/boiled new potatoes. Have them available for potato salad, soup, jacket potato lunch etc.

There’s the resistant starch element, too.

DD and I are both quite competent bakers. However for one of the desserts we made for Easter we decided to use a packet mix to make a chocolate and salted caramel tart.
Our loose bottomed flan tin was 1" bigger in diameter, than the suggested size so the pastry barely fitted (it was v thin and crispy though 👍) Then, because of the larger tin, the filling looked very meagre...so we added some whipped cream on the top. Then it wasn't possible to neatly "snip off the corner" of the salted caramel to drizzle over and it made a big mess on the top.

It did taste nice but seemed slightly more faffy than a similar recipe I have made from scratch that fills the tin adequately!
On the plus side it looked so awful I'm sure our guests would never have guessed it was anything but homemade! 🤣

I made a choc brownie- the recipe said cook it just for 20 mins or so to keep it gooey. I did but it was almost raw in the middle- needed to scoop it up with a teaspoon.
Not quite the good impression Easter tea I intended.