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).

My Jerusalem still hasn't arrived but I cooked a pork dish from Loraine Pascale's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food and it was yummy.

Can we put that book on the list for a future month?

Yyy I love Lorraine Pascale and I think that's the best of her books!

Ps elr have pm-ed you but thanks so much for the code!

Hello everyone. I finally got around to starting the May recipes yesterday and made homous and falafels from Jerusalem.

I wasn't too sure about the houmous to start with, it seemed a little strange not to use any oil but the texture of it was really nice. I think I would probably use a little less tahini next time, but overall it was good and going down especially well with 4 year old dd1.

I had a bit of trouble with the falafel, they tasted delicious but disintegrated a bit when I was frying them. I suspect I didn't have the oil hot enough so will have to try again some time and see if I can do any better.

Next on the list is chicken with tarragon from kitchen diaries. Probably won't get to do it until the weekend though. It occurred to me it is fairly similar to the creamed chicken I did last month from Feast so will be interesting to see how it compares.

On the subject of veg boxes, has anyone tried a meat box from Riverford? We are fairly local to Riverford and have bought stuff from their farm shop before but never had boxes from them, am tempted by the idea of a meat and veg box though.

I've had meat boxes from riverford in the past. They are very good.

Thanks Sciencerocks, I'll give it a go I think!

I can vouch for the Riverford meat boxes too, greensnail. Have you been to their Field Kitchen? Mmmm... We're same county but a bit too far to justify the trip as often as I'd like.

I'm another happy riverford meat and veg box customer. Don't get the meat too often as I don't like to eat too much but when we have done it's been good quality.

KD I finally arrived so I had to try the lemon ice cream - very simple but very good - think the limoncello drizzle I put with it worked quite nicely too!

And because I was then on a lemon thing, I had to pop out and get some set lemon yoghurt - for those of you who can source it, La Fermiere yoghurts are absolutely to die for and they come in really cute little blue terra cotta pots which I can't throw away!

Spent the rest of the day trying to design my website then DD got home and spent 5 minutes on it and managed to work out all the stuff it had taken me hours to try to sort out.....I guess I should really be grateful!

Another happy Riverford customer here. I buy a veg and a fruit box once a fortnight - lovely!

We're having May 7th tonight - lamb with lemon and mint and potatoes crushed into the pan juices! Will report back later

Anyone got a simple delicious cookie recipe? Bought a glass cookie jar yesterday and I need to fill it!

I get Riverford veg boxes - don't buy the meat as I have a very good local butcher and also, they deliver during my working day and next door's dog would probably have most of the meat before I got home! I love the veg boxes; the produce is fresh and keeps very well, and the few times I have had complaints (once or twice in 5 years), they've been dealt with to my satisfaction.

DD3 is delighted because there's asparagus coming in this week's box

Xbenedict, the cranberry and white chocolopate cookies from Feast (last month's cookbook) are fabulous.

I agree on cookies from feast

Been looking through KD this morning for ideas. Has anyone tried the chicken with mustard seed and coconut milk, the pork & lemon polpettine and the salmon & dill fish cakes? They're what are shouting out to me at the moment, although I'm not too keen on hot so will scale down the chillies in the curry. Must remember to stop at the spice shop on the way home.

maniacbug upthread said that the polpettine were in her all-time KD favourites rotation!

I've made something very similar to the chicken with mustard seed and coconut milk before, so I bet that would be lovely too.

Pantah the polpettine are very, very good! Really strong flavours. They do go well with plain tagliatelle (aka 'slithery noodles'), as he suggests.
Did the chicken with mustard seed a while ago for DCs, leaving out all the chillis and not adding any salt, and it was still aromatic and delicious.

greensnail we get a mini veg+fruit+meat box once a week, plus a salad bag. It works perfectly for us and the quality is excellent - the veg lasts and lasts and really shows up the supermarket stuff we buy (even Waitrose).

As far as what you get in the meat box, we get three portions of meat that are just right for me and DH to have in an evening - usually a pack of minced beef or pork (350g ish), a pack of something quick cooking (eg. pork steaks, beef frying steak, sausages, cubes of lamb leg), and a mini-joint of beef, pork or lamb of about 600g. We try not to eat any more meat than this over the week.

x-post with Xiao!
Does anyone ever manage to find curry leaves, by the way? Can you grow them at home?

maniac don't know about grow your own curry leaves but our local Tesco here sells frozen ones and I would think any Asian grocery should do. They do make a big difference to the flavour but leaving them out of a recipe won't ruin it, it will just have a different taste iyswim.

Thanks for recommendations guys, will try both. We have a couple of Asian grocers so hopefully they'll have the curry leaves. I have a job lot of chicken thighs at home and some tins of coconut milk that's been in the cupboard for ages.
There is an excellent butcher next door to me at work so pork mince for the weekend sorted too :)
A fellow scout leader use to make white chocolate and cranberry biscuits with edible glitter, I wonder if its the same recipe. Will have a look, they were delicious and a must if you want visually appealing biscuits for a clear jar. Doubt they'll be in there long though.

I've made my first Jerusalem recipe and it was delicious, the shakshuka. What a fab find as I try not to eat processed carbs so eat a lot of eggs, this recipe will be added to one of my lunchtime favourites. Plan to have the pan fried sea bream tonight - maybe an overload on Harissa, but does look very appealing.

I also have a Riverford meat and veg box. I get a large meat box fortnightly, the quality is fantastic and has converted my very fussy son to now eating lamb and pork.

Makes 35
300g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
250g unsalted butter (room temperature)
125g caster sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Sieve the flour and cocoa powder and set it aside.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and pale in colour. (I did this in a food processor and then just added the flour and cocoa, it forms a dough itself after a little mixing)
Mix in flour mixture, it might look like it needs liquid, but keep working the ingredients in and it will form a dough.
Roll into walnut-sized balls and arrange these on the baking sheets.
Flatten these balls with the back of the fork.
Bake for 5 mins at 170C and then turn the temperature down to 150C for a further
10 -15mins.
The biscuits should feel firm on top although not hard. Remove from the oven and transfer to cool on wire rack, before storing in air-tight container.

Sorry supposed to say easy chocolate cookies great to make with kids.

maniac our apprentice went up to the bank earlier so to him to call into the spice shop. Apparently the guy went out the back and picked the curry leaves (clipped off a bush by the looks) so yes you probably can grow them at home. Unless he's just picked them off any old bush out the back and they're not curry leaves. They smell kind of musty when you squeeze them and look like smaller bay leaves. For those that have encountered before, is that correct?