Cookery bookclub - who is with me?

[Curioustiger]

I love cookbooks and have picked up a ton of recommendations since joining mumsnet. I am keen to set up a cookery book club - anyone else interested? I propose:

• we select one book each month
• we go away, try out the recipes and generally revel in the deliciousness
• we chat about it

We could alternate between books people are likely to have eg Nigella, Jamie, Delia and something a bit more unusual. If we have a rolling three month list, that gives people time to borrow / buy books they don't have (from the library for example).

What to you think?

Oh, and the sake steak (made with marsala) was very nice too. Brilliant method of cooking the steak just right, although I could have done with more sauce as it was delicious.
Nobody will respect my critique if all I give are rave reviews. I can feel credibility draining away each post I write

Oh that cake sounds very nice, I can see my waistband is going to keep expanding with this thread :)

Broccoli fritters are on the menu for tomorrow night!

The broccoli fritters were a hit, Guinness cake is cooling. I drank the rest of the Guinness, when I don't normally drink, so in might happen tomorrow night if I fall asleep :)

tigerlily I'm very impressed that you tried the bee sting cake. It looks amazing and certainly not easy!

I made the Mexican stuffed peppers from sk yesterday and really liked them. They are really easy, basically you make a sweet corn risotto, fill the peppers, cover with cheese and pop in the oven.

I've realised that we've practically got to the end of the month and there's still loads I want to make out of both books. How do people feel about keeping this thread for sk and feast and starting a new thread for the May books? That way we may pick up some new joiners in May too.

Oh also, I've just realised that I'm not going to get Jerusalem from the library in time. Apparently all the rest of world wants it too and I'm number nine in the list! But I did notice that there are extracts from it on google books so that may be helpful for anyone else that wants to join in but doesn't have a copy.

Karma do you have a link for the stuffed peppers? They sound yummy.

karma that's a great idea keeping this one for April and starting a new thread for May. Shame about Jerusalem, I have it on Kindle if you find n recipes in the bookshop online you want to try, give me a yell an I'll send them to you.

The icing is on, I had no patience for waiting for it to cool completely! Wanted to ice and try and relax, it's very good, had a slither an DS2 loves it. It's now waiting in the fridge as I don't want to leave it out and risk temptation :)

kneedeep looks like there are extracts from the sk book on google books too.

Mexican stuffed peppers

Thanks Pantah. I may take you up on that!

Thanks karma I've never heard of google books before

Can I join you please? I'm ever so late for April, but I'll start in May. I absolutely love Nigel's Kitchen Diaries (the brownies and the chickpea curry are heavenly) and I've wanted to try some Ottolenghi recipes for ages.

No worries kneedeep nor had I till the kindly librarian told me about it

Welcome to the club sayanything also looking forward to trying out recipes from Jerusalem. I've determined to just pick savoury for May, April has featured too many cakes and too much cream

Just ordered Jerusalem. I may have to hide the parcel from DH and just casually stuff it among the piles of other cookbooks when he's not looking.

Hello! I'm a tad late to the party but I'd love to join in - spent hours poring over my glossy new Smitten Kitchen book when it came out and reading this I've realised I've only fantasised about recipes from it but not actually made anything. I don't have feast but as there's only a few days left I'm sure you'll forgive me only doing a couple of recipes

I make these candied nuts from her blog regularly - the recipe is pretty adaptable and I generally use a third less sugar, have only used sweet spices so far, once forgot the water, another time forgot to whisk the egg whites separately and just bunged everything into the liquid whites, then whisked - they turned out brilliantly anyway. It's very quick and every body loves them!

I'll definitely make the lemon slices, I'm trying to source some Libby's pumpkin puree to make the pumpkin gingersnap tart recipe and I'm really lusting after the chickpea and aubergine recipe so that's on my menu!

The eid chicken curry was nice, but tbh, madhur jaffrey has given me a tastier curry with easier methods.
The paneer peas were also okay, but again more dirty dishes than worth it IMO.

betsy Our local Waitrose stocks tinned pumpkin purée, it's worth a look in the tin fruit aisle.

Thanks for the tip pantah :)

Hello all! karma great idea re keeping the thread going. I'll start a new one for May in a sec. I too have loads more to cook from smitten kitchen. Also I think for newbies it's a put off putting to wade through three hundred plus messages of me talking about cake.

sayanything I like your style with the casual cookbook hiding! Is your nn based on the film? I have had a crush on John Cusack for basically my entire life. So heartily approve.

And finally hi betsy!

pantah when you made the broccoli fritters how small did you chip the broccoli? Mine still looked like little trees and I'm guessing that this was why they fell apart...?

Mine were quite big chunks but in a largish frying pan I could only fit three or four at a time. My first one fell apart but the others I left in for longer and they were fine, despite being quite misshapen. I might have used more Parmesan but not enough to make a difference in holdtogetherability

Ok will try again with next veg box (never ever can think of anything interesting to do with broccoli)

Hi all, well the paneer and peas turned out to be paneer and spinach as thought I had peas but turns out I didn't!! I'd give it a 5/10. The cranberry and white choc cookies were very nice also i left out 1/3 rd of the sugar.

Making the ritzy chicken for the kids tomorrow and the lemon bars were very nice I found them abit of a faff but very nice.

Also doesn't quite count but got my friend to make the malteser cake and then i had a slice it was nice but a little sickly!

Hi betsy this thread is fun for daydreaming on Fasting days!!

I made apple and almond cake and, as instructed by Nigella, custard cream hearts. My excuse is that my DH needed some cakes to take into work! The custard cream hearts were fiddly and time consuming but so delicious, on a lazy Sunday I would definitely make them again (and my toddler was just delighted with every step - the mixing! The rolling out! The cutting out of heart shaped biscuits! The splodging of custard! Although as you can imagine my kitchen really does look like a small bomb has gone off). Unfortunately though I was in a rush by the time I got to make the apple and almond cake and I think my oven was too hot because the top was burnt... There are few sadder sights than a burnt cake! Although the upside is I've just had the non burnt bit for breakfast and it tasted great, it is obviously a good recipe (for non-idiots).