Cookery bookclub - May - Jerusalem by Ottolenghi and Kitchen Diaries I by Nigel Slater

[Curioustiger]

Come join the Mumsnet cookery bookclub! Each month we choose two cookery books - one popular, like Nigella / Jamie / Delia, so you probably already have it / can borrow it and one a bit more unusual. We cook a minimum of two recipes each - you choose the recipe, they just have to be ones you have never cooked before- which works out at four new recipes each month.Then we chat about them!

To see our April thread about Feast by Nigella and the Smitten Kitchen blog / cookbook, click here ... This thread is still live as we're quite taken with these books and are keeping on going!

For May, our books are:

• Jerusalem by Ottolenghi
• Kitchen Diaries

and we'll post on this thread.

For June our books will be

• Mexican Food Made Easy by Thomasina Miers
• Thirty Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver

We will always try to pick at least one book with recipes available on the Internet, and local libraries are great for cookbooks if you can order in advance, so don't be put off if your cookbook collection isn't threatening the foundations of your house extensive.

We have veggies, low carbers and 5:2ers on the thread so this is very diet compatible! Although I refuse to take any responsibility for cake-induced weight gain (even my own).

Made the cauliflower and hazelnut salad from Jerusalem along with the chicken and cardamom again. Really good and DP even ate some cauliflower! (he'd been moaning about not liking cauliflower all weekend). I halved the rice as it was just the two of us, but there was still loads.

So rice and cauliflower for lunch tomorrow with a pita. Yum!

Tiger all my own idea I'm afraid - just seems that it would be so handy to be able to grab a spoonful of frozen zest rather than having to keep lemons all the time or oranges or limes etc. I did some Googling on it and found that you can get it in the States and there is a company in the West Country who seem to do it but they are a business supplier so you don't seem to be able to order directly from their website - think I may have to give them a call on Tuesday to find out though and will report back.

The zest definitely freezes well - if I am using fresh lemon juice in a recipe in which I'm not using the zest, I zest the lemon before juicing and freeze it - but I would love to have a big tub of the stuff to use when needed!

Well, I've had a quiet week on the cooking front but will try to get back on track.

I kicked off tonight with the stuffed aubergine in Jerusalem which I was really pleased with. DH was keen too and he can usually take it or leave where aubergines are concerned. I made the cucumber and yoghurt to go with it and that went down well too.

And finally Nigel's demerara sugar and lemon cake is in the oven. Will report back on that tomorrow...

I'll be doing my first recipe from Jerusalem tonight - the cauliflower and hazelnut salad. But I couldn't get a pomegranate in the greengrocers. Those who have made it already, should I substitute some other fruit in there? Or will it be fine without?

Morning, everyone, made my first dish from Jerusalem last night: pan-fried sea bream with Harissa and rose [page 219] - except that, er, I didn't actually use sea bream (does that mean I failed at the first fence?) I used tilapia fillets as that's what I had in the freezer. Otherwise, I pretty much followed the recipe as written. I didn't dust the fillets with flour before frying them - it just didn't seem necessary, but might try it that way next time - and didn't use coriander at the end (recipe did say it was optional). DH and I thought it was delicious and I'll definitely do it again. Not sure what recipe to try next. The salmon steaks in chraimeh sauce [page 234] look good - has anybody else tried them?

I've made the pear and blueberry cake from KD. It's very liquidy but tastes nice with Creme fraiche

I wonder if Waitrose do frozen zest? They seem to do frozen everything else :)

I made the stuffed aubergines last night - they were very tasty indeed although I halved the ingredients and just did them for 2 so I needed to add a little more water to the mix in the bottom of the pan. Had them with couscous and there wasn't a morsel left over!

Kiri stuffed aubergines really are good aren't they? I also halved the recipe but found it a nightmare with quarter of a tbs of this and a half tsp of that! Next time I'll just make the full recipe and freeze half.

I made a couple of salads from Jerusalem today. The spinach and medjool date one and the roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini. They were both gorgeous. Between the three recipes I've tried so far and total success with all of them, I think I'm going to have to buy the book. It would be wrong not too.

On the other hand the lemon cake was less of a hit. An acceptable cake but not lemony enough for my liking. I think I'll just have keep hunting for the perfect lemon cake recipe.

I have to say with all ottolenghi recipes I don't follow the amounts to the letter. When I half a recipe I usually only half the main ingredients and use modern or less the full amount of flavourings.

Zulieka prob too late but I just left the pomegranate out.

mostpeople not tried any of the fish recipes yet, was it hot with the harissa? Not a fan of burning hot, wondering whether I should halve the amount.
kiri and karma stuffed aubergine s on my list to try now.

I've a shwarma marinating in the fridge, if it tastes as good as the marinade smells, we're in for a treat later :)

Must say I've already cooked my two dishes from Jerusalem, now on my third and planning more. I've yet to let KD get a look in
Am very tempted to buy the hardback version even though I have it on kindle am so impressed with it. Must resist....

Never seen lemon zest in Waitrose kiri but if we bombard customer service with emails, pretty sure they'd source some :)

I can't wait for my books to arrive today now! You have all really motivated to get cooking. Come on Postman.

I made my first recipe last night - the cauliflower and hazelnut salad from Jerusalem (sans pomegranate), which we had with houmous topped lamb chops, lentil salad and fresh asparagus. It was tasty and we ate it all up, but not 'I must make it again tomorrow' amazing. But we've recently found a stunning cauliflower and caper salad recipe that we love (and is v quick and easy as its raw rather than roasted), so it had stiff competition. We ate outside, which I love doing, so it was a very enjoyable tea

Hi Pantah, it seemed quite hot to me, but I wouldn't describe it as burning hot. But I think you could halve the amount of harissa without spoiling the flavour of the dish - and you could always add some at the end if you decided it was a little too mild after all. Hope you give the recipe a go - I thought it was delicious

Hello all... another cookbook addict/recipe collector/kitchen experimenter here, please can I join too? I discovered your April thread last week on a 5:2 fast day and tortured myself by reading it from start to finish! Great idea tigerlily, truly inspiring threads. This is the sort of thing I resolve to do every time I guiltily contemplate my growing collection of cookbooks. I have been using KD for years but only realised as I went through it that I stick to the same handful of beloved recipes, and got Jerusalem for Christmas but am ashamed to say haven't used it yet - or should I say hadn't - until last weekend, thanks to you lot!! Made the cod cakes in tomato sauce, which were amazingly delicious and went down well with all three DCs, one of whom claims to have 'gone off fish'. I anticipated a protest re. 'green bits' from the 3-yd-old, but he ate the lot. Followed the recipe to the letter, for a change, and was happy with it - though might use 1tsp rather than 2tsp sugar for the sauce next time and would add another chilli.

I have the preserved lemons marinating, which I am trying to resist the urge to prod... Next to try on the basis of recommendations above are cauli/hazelnut salad, stuffed aubergine with lamb + pine nuts, and turkey + courgette burgers. Also v. tempted by the shwarma, please post results Pantah!
Has anyone made the maqluba? Although I hadn't used Jerusalem before, DH made this a few weeks ago and after all the effort was a bit disappointed, though we all ate it up and sort of enjoyed it.

From KD I my all-time favourite is the pumpkin + tomato laksa, followed closely by the crab salad, the Vietnamese beef salad, the velvety soup (really simple, but a revelation to me how creamy a soup can be without any milk or cream actually in it) and the pork + lemon polpettine. Haven't quite decided which new ones to try yet but am now tempted by the courgette + Lancashire crumble, which I have never considered before.

I agree with whoever said that if you like the Ottolenghi books you might like Claudia Roden's Arabesque. Also second (third?) the suggestion for Dan Lepard baking book. Also excited about ordering Thomasina Miers, which I have been meaning to for a while. Also.... need to calm down and go and do some work!
Hope it's OK to join in so late...

Off to the shops to stock up for this week's recipes. I'm going to do the chicken with cardamon and the tahini cookies from Jerusalem. From KD I'm planning the goat's cheese puddings and possibly the marmalade cake, haven't decided on that.

tigerlily you don't need to commit to regular deliveries with riverford, you can just order online when you like. They're just about to overhaul the website too so you can ask for things you don't like to be substituted (though we hardly get any cucumbers )

The shwarma is amazing maniac and worth the price of the book alone. I've made it twice now. It's brilliant for entertaining too as it's all done ahead of time, all you have to do is heat some pitta up when folk sit down.

Wilson normally I'm just the same as you and happy to chop and change recipes, especially if I don't have all the ingredients to hand, but I find with ottolenghi recipes it's worth doing it just as prescribed. All his extra little touches really do add something to the finished dish. I'm so glad I went out to get the tamarind paste specially as it definitely added a lovely sweet and sour background note.

glourios. Do you know when riverford are likely to make the changes? I love my riverford veg box but am so sick of mushrooms. I don't mind them every once in a while but they seem to turn up every week.

Karma, why don't you swap your riverford box for another one? Used to do this each week to combat vegetable gluts and to make menu planning a little easier.

My Jerusalem is in transit according to the library website. Excited.

I'm really loving KD's so thank you whoever suggested it

karma if we do Dan Lepard's Short & Sweet soon, there's an incredible lemon poppyseed cake in there (the recipe is floating around online if you want to try it out!)

Another KD lunch here - roasted beetroot & goat's cheese (May 30th), a bacon & avocado salad (June 6th) and fresh bread (Dan Lepard!)

It feels like we've come through spring and gone straight on into summer - everything from the May, June and July chapters are calling to me today.

Not sure karma sorry. We're sick of mushrooms too as DH doesn't like them so I have to eat them for lunch. So hopefully soon!

Science I do check every week to see if there is a box which avoids mushrooms but some weeks they all have them in! Even DH asked if we could get them to stop sending them and he actually likes them or he did till riverford made him overdose.

Xiaoxiong I'll look up that Dan Lepard cake. I hope we do his book soon as there's so much I want to try in there!

Xiao- I agree. The summer months are really inspiring.