Cookery book club - July - Hugh F-W Veg and curries by Madhur Jaffrey and the Hairy Bikers (vroom vroom)

[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!

For June our books were:

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

And we posted here

For July our books are:

• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Veg Every Day
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Ultimate Curry Bible AND / OR madhur Jaffrey's Curry Easy AND / OR Hairy Bikers' Great Curries
  

For August, our books will be:

• Fuchsia Dunlop Every Grain of Rice (chopsticks at the ready ladies)
  
• Dan Lepard Short and Sweet
  

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. We pick books three months ahead so will be choosing September's books this month.

[akarucker]

Made the Balti with sizzling beef from HB. It was very nice, although not terribly exciting. A good one to put together at short notice. I did have a bit of a problem 'wasting' one sirloin steak per person in this recipe though. I would make it again, but I think I'd use a cheaper cut of beef, and save the sirloins to eat as they are.

We had it with the basmati and orzo rice from Jerusalem (May?) which, as always, was absolutely delicious.

[VivaLeBeaver]

I've started a bit early and done the Madhur Jaffrey silken chicken tikka masala.

I'm disappointed. The chicken is gorgeous, I marinaded it then grilled it in the oven and its beautiful.

The sauce ruins it though. I followed the recipe to the letter and the sauce was thin and watery. The recipe said it would thicken up so I hoped and prayed, it didn't. I added some more natural yoghurt to try and thicken it but it was getting less tomatoey then and more yoghurty so I stopped.

Just wasn't very nice. Dd refused to eat it but she's winding me up by been fussy atm. It was edible but I'm considering pulling the chicken chunks out the leftovers and having them in a wrap rather than a curry.

I've ordered the Bikers curry book as am so disheartened!

[AlohaMama]

Made the easy chickpea curry tonight from MJ. Even using less chilies and cayenne it was hot, but very nice. Not spectacular but pretty good, nice easy and quick curry.

[Cocochops]

Another mumsnet thread costing me money - I though I would be safe if I stayed away from the style and beauty threads!

So just discovered this thread looks just what I need to get me out of my food rut. I already have HFW and quite like it will post on what I have cooked so far but good to try out a couple more. I love curries and always looking for new recipes so just bought the hairy bikers and every grain of rice looked really nice so ordered that too!

Hopefully will manage 4 new recipes this month dc2 is 2 months old so will try my best! Have already meal planned and shopped for next week so will start the week after. Right off to flick through HFW while I wait for my new books to arrive.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Has anybody made the lentil, parsnip and watercress salad from HFW? DD1 fancies it, but I'm not terribly fond of parsnips.

[Curioustiger]

Hi coco great to see you throw yourself into the thread; I think we all agree the thread can be a bit expensive but tge results are generally delicious!

[catwithflowers]

Hairy Bikers korma and basic Dahl tonight. Have made the Dahl recently so that is cheating a bit but made their korma for the first time. It is really lovely, very fragrant and quite 'complex' but was very easy to make. Will definitely do this again. Would make a lovely dinner party dish as part of an Indian evening

[catwithflowers]

Beaver , I don't think you will be disappointed with the Hairy Bikers book

[VivaLeBeaver]

Someone I know said they cook from the Hairy Bikers book quite a bit and said all dishes have been good apart from the jalfrazi one.

[Parsnipcake]

Just made HFW roast potatoes with 2 mojo sauces alongside TM chicken and almond mole. All good. jFW has been pleasant surprise so far, but mainly side dishes so far. Mojo sauces were very tasty and lots left over - will be using as salad dressing I think.

[HuevosRancheros]

Pantah and Cat, who have made the HB korma - was it the standard creamy one, or the 'light' one?
Don't generally like kormas, but the light one appeals, as doesn't seem so creamy, and can be chillied-up to make a balti!

Tonight, I am going to have a go at the Goan Fish Curry, as it is not like anything I have made before. I am, however, going to use tofu instead of fish!! Bit nervous about putting the vinegar in, DH loathes any sweet and sour type thing, so may have to tone it down a little.....

[catwithflowers]

The standard one, HR. It was very nice but it was rich, like all kormas, I suppose. I have made Goan fish curry which is yummy but not from the HB book. I think mine was from an Anjum Anand book. I liked it as it was quite light but with loads of flavour.

Am not cooking for the next two days as am away eating other people's cooking! Am rather excited: dinner in a lovely Fish restaurant in Leith tonight then lunch tomorrow at Wisharts

[Pantah630]

Mine was the standard one as well, delicious will definitely make again.

I'm going to make the mushroom and kale lasagne tomorrow from Veg, has anyone tried it?

[Pantah630]

Enjoy your dinners out Cat :)

[ScienceRocks]

Masala dosa from HB tonight. My mum laughed when I told her, saying dosas are ridiculously difficult to make. She was right Filling was good though.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Oh I do love dhosas - but they are fiddlier than a fiddly thing with a very special reason for being fiddly.

[Xiaoxiong]

Science would you make the filling again - could it stand alone as a potato side dish?

We had a piece of smoked haddock in the fridge that needed eating up so I googled and found the Hairy Bikers recipe for kedgeree, which I had for dinner tonight and DS will be fed the rest tomorrow! I left out the cream though as I didn't have any in, poached the haddock in milk instead of water, and used coriander instead of parsley. It's great and not at all soupy.

Only problem is I'm not sure whether it was from this particular HB curries book since I don't actually have the book itself - it was just on the BBC Hairy Bikers website - but I thought it might be as it's sort of a smoked fish biryani, right? If I've got the wrong HB book just ignore me

[ScienceRocks]

I blimmin' love kedgeree. I'll check for that recipe in the HB book (I usually do Gordon's).

I would do the dosa filling again. It would work well as a samosa filling, or as a simple evening meal with wraps, chapattis or pitta. I will try the dosas again too as I think my batter separated, meaning the first one was mainly liquid and the last one was mainly flour. The one in the middle wasn't too bad (pic on my twitter for anyone interested - I'm TodayICooked).

Just the smell of the mustard seeds was pure nostalgia, and transported me back to my parents' house when I was growing up

Two more curries this week from HB planned. Will keep you all posted!

[HuevosRancheros]

Made the Goan Fish Tofu Curry last night, very good.
As cat said, it is very light, so a good midweek curry if you don't fancy a big, rich, heavy curry.

But..... 6 tablespoons of oil for a 'serves 4' curry seemed far too much. I spent a lot of time at the end carefully scraping the oil off, as it all separated out anyway. So I would advise anyone making it not to put that much in. I realise the the fat can give flavour, but that was OTT.

Also, the amount of water made a very runny sauce, more like a soup. Maybe if you were cooking fish, rather than tofu, in it it would have absorbed some? But I ended up simmering it for a while to get it to reduce.

I added the vinegar halfway through cookng, as recommended, but not at the end, as I thought it would be too much for DH. Can see that it would taste good though.

Despite all that (!), I would make it again, with amendments! :)

[Cocochops]

Just been flicking through HFW.
Things I have made so far before joining this thread

Pinto bean chilli - Good usually batch cook this as it freezes well

Aubergine and green bean curry- I really like this curry it makes double curry paste so you can freeze half. Bit of a faff frying all the aubergines but worth it

Rocket fennel and lentil salad - I found there was too much fennel in this but I think maybe I just needle to slice it more thinly

Soups have tried curried sweet potato and Mexican bean and tomato both good and easy

Kale pizza - kale was ok but prefer other toppings. Use his base recipe though

Carrot chick pea pittas quite nice would make again if I had leftover carrots and needed a quick lunch

White bean and artichokes love this as an easy store cupboard lunch

Twice baked potatoes- love these potatoes go so creamy


Ok so now need some. New recipes to try. Might try his Asian brocolli salad tonight as am having brocolli anyway. Will probably try mushroom risoniotto as I have half a packet of orzo to use up. Also fancy trying the spoufle, spelt squah and fennel salad and tahini courgette salad.

Still waiting for HB looking forward to licking out some recipes from that

[greensnail]

Kicking off july with the courgette spouffle tonight. Have noted the comments above and will add extra nutmeg and mustard too. Not sure how it will go down with mt family. Can see it being either a big hit or a big flop.

[ELR]

Hi all I've made the chicken and cardamom curry from curry easy tonight for tea, I've added a tablespoon of extra thick single cream and a tablespoon of ground almonds. Nice and quick and very basic so perfect for a quick dinner I used chicken breast instead of leg pieces. Going to serve with mushroom rice and may make saag aloo if I canbe bothered!
coco let me know how the mushroom risotto thing is and i may make it. I also have orzo and mushrooms to use up!

[Pantah630]

Just finished a large plate of mushroom and kale lasagne from Veg, it was delicious. I was very generous with the Dijon in the bechamel sauce, more like 3 heaped tsps, didn't bother with the oil over the top, I couldn't see the point of it and bulked up 200g kale with a pack of mixed Riverford leaves, think rocket, spinach, mizuna. Very easy to make, took me approx half an hour to assemble, another to cook. Well worth the effort and with a big portion you don't miss the meat if you're a dedicated carnivore. Will definitely add to the list of dishes I make regularly.

[greensnail]

Spouffle was ok. Kids ate it without complaint and dh and I thought it was quite nice. Well probably make again and try the spinach version this time, will be impressed if it can convince my children to eat spinach!

Next on my list is red fish curry from the curry bible. Anyone made this before? I'm really looking forward to it, so hope it lives up to my expectations!

[Feathered]

I'm on a diet! So I'm going to do this from a 'tweaking to be lower in calories' angle. I've also not got the correct Madhur Jaffrey one - I've got the "Easy Curry" one.
Will let you know how I get on. Anyone else doing this . . . or can recommend the less lardy HFW recipes?
Thanks x