Cookery book club - August - Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard and Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop

[Wearytiger]

Welcome to the Mumsnet cookery bookclub! Each month we choose two cookery books. 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 July our books were:

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

And we posted here.

For August, our books are:

• Fuchsia Dunlop Every Grain of Rice
• Dan Lepard Short and Sweet

For September our books will be:

• Tessa Kiros Falling Cloudberries
• any book from the River Cafe books

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 October's books this month.

[Xiaoxiong]

Sh&Sw corn oil flour tortillas are mixed, lightly kneaded and now resting till DS is in bed. We'll eat them with refried beans and pulled pork currently in the slow cooker fresh tortillas are the best (and cheapest), I'll never buy them again.

[maniacbug]

Hello everyone. Am back from a week in a ripped and leaky tent in the wild, wild west, having eaten my own body weight in scones, saffron buns and cheese + onion pasties... ready to eat my own body weight in Dan Lepard. And Fuchsia, of course. I love this month's books and the way both authors write. Also both books refreshingly free of mug shots. Am frantically scribbling down all the recommendations - keep 'em coming! There are so many things I want to try. I haven't cooked anything from EGoR yet but am looking forward to getting started. (Moving from an outbuilding into our main house has slightly got in the way, not to mention offspring underfoot.) I am intrigued by FD's use of potato flour as opposed to the usual cornflour, so need to get hold of some. Likewise the stinky tofu. I will not deep fry anything, so am going to try oven-roasting the aubergines for Fish-Fragrant and Hangzhou recipes.

Will pass the bread recommendations on to DH as that's his department.

Kids and I made DL's brown sugar chocolate cake earlier, minus the glycerine as mine was 4 years out of date , and it's amazing, really light and fluffy. (Any excuse to open a can of condensed milk gets my vote.) I have committed myself to making a wedding cake for SIL in Nov and may well play around with this recipe. Has anyone made it with the glycerine? I wonder what it adds. Would probably hold it together better for a tiered version. (Incidentally if anyone has a good choc wedding cake recipe they are willing to share I would be very grateful. Am panicking slightly as all my favourites have ground almonds in and they want to keep it nut-free.)

Have made the toll-house yo-yos before, which we loved, but had the same crumbly issue as Forgetfulmog. I have written a big cross next to banana fudge cookies and the comment 'not worth trying again'. Seem to remember they were a weird hybrid flavour, neither one thing nor the other. Got friends with teenage boys coming to stay this weekend so good excuse for extra baking. Might try the green fairy cakes for grown-ups.

One last thing, Xiao how do you actually turn wine into vinegar? Do you have to do anything to it or just let it sour?!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

XiaoXiong I made the corn oil tortilla last week. They are so so much better than bought ones. The texture is just right.

maniacbug I made the toll-house yo-yo but with various gf flour instead of the oats and they were great. We like the banana fudge cookies. Baked a truckload and took them to a friend's and they were demolished in one sitting. Also freeze them for lunch boxes. Pseudo-healthy on account of the banana (and ignoring the mountain of sugar)...

[maniacbug]

Hmm, Uptoapoint I'm really not sure why I didn't like them, as we regularly make banana and chocolate cake. Maybe the oats confused me? It might have been the texture more than the flavour. Looking again at the recipe am very tempted by the lemon curd cookies opposite!

[Forgetfulmog]

I'm going to try the Banana Blondies, but with caramelised bananas instead of the pecans. They look bloody amazing!

[glorious]

We had the zhe jiang noodles the other day. I really liked the rich, slightly sweet pork topping and it was very easy. We added too much water to the pork though so be careful on that if you make it.

I'm away for a few days now but planning to make the rocky road rock cakes when I get back.

[Xiaoxiong]

Dinner last night was two new-to-me recipes from FD: tofu stir fried with black beans, peppers and celery - I added one small pork steak cut into strips as per the suggested variation below the main recipe - and potato slivers with spring onions and sesame oil to which I added a palmful of fresh peas from the garden. Both delicious and particularly good for using up little bits of things I had leftover in the fridge. I just used the regular cauldron brand tofu from sainsburys and it worked fine, though I did press out as much water as I could before slicing into strips.

[Cocochops]

Just marking my place as I have yet to cook anything this month. My stumbling blocks are I have EGOR but no wok or basic Chinese ingredients and I don't have short and sweet.

I have found the lemon and poppyseed cake recipe online so I will make that later today. I M tempted to buy the book as the things you are all making from it sound delicious.

I will get organised and do and online Chinese supermarket order I think as really want to cook the twice cooked pork and some of the tofu recipes as I have never cooked with it before.

[Xiaoxiong]

Well I've well and truly got the bit between my teeth now - on uptoapoint and parsnipcake's recommendation, Short and Sweet red wine and walnut bread has been mixed and is now resting before the first rise of 45 min. The dough seems really sticky compared to other DL breads I've made so far but maybe that's because it's not one of the half sponge method ones. Also I forgot to add the rest of the walnuts so when I gave it its first quick knead I kneaded them in and they kept pinging out of the dough into the tiled splashback - whoops!!

Coco you can get a wok when you order from the chinese supermarket! Even if you never cook chinese food again, I use mine for deep frying chips too as the shape of it means you don't have to use much oil.

maniac to answer your question way upthread I've found that wine does turn and go sour after a few days, but it's not nice like the stuff you buy - I think to make red wine vinegar at home you need a starter kind of like yoghurt, I've never tried though!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

coco - Short and Sweet is a collection of much of the stuff he wrote for the guardian so lots (if not most) of it are online. As for Chinese cooking I find that I don't stirfry as often as I do the braised and boil recipes. They are easy and can be left once set up. But a wok is a good thing. Cooks steak quite well too.

xiaoxiong we use cauldron tofu too. I find that they are quite good. I sometimes buy from the Chinese supermarket but mostly I just pick them up in our usual supermarket shop. It's our convenience food - DC will eat them plainly cooked.

[Xiaoxiong]

I'm picky about tofu - in the past if I haven't been able to get it from a chinese supermarket I've made my own - so it was the first time I've tried the cauldron stuff. In fact - full disclosure - DH bought it not me. I was pleased that it was better than merely edible, I really need to stop being so snobby.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

I was also pleasantly surprised by cauldron tofu. Visiting relatives have also been pleasantly surprised by it.

[madamecake]

Im sorry to report a failure from short and sweet, but it was my own fault. Made the black pepper rye bread and overcooked the coffee mixture but didn't realise until I came to knead it that it was far too dry, and consequently turned into a brick upon baking. Such a shame as the flavour was lovely.

I had more success with the banana fudge cookies. They were very nice, but agree with maniacbug about the texture. I think they would be better without oats and perhaps more flour instead.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

I made the black pepper rye bread too. Quite a dense bread. Quite a grown-up taste. Kids won't have it. I sliced and froze and had them for lunches. It was very nice.

[ZuleikaJambiere]

Just picked up my copy of Every Grain of Rice from the library and wish I wasn't going out tonight, as I just want to curl up on the sofa and devour it.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

We had the sticky toffee apple buns for breakfast this morning. Yum!

[Cocochops]

Anyone got an recommendations for a dan lepard recipe thats online to go with early morning coffee? Have some friends coming round this week any good breakfast muffins or similar?


Made the lemon and poppyseed cake this week it was lovely. Just about todo my Chinese supermarket order the I can crack on with EGOR.

[Brices]

I made the chocolate custard muffins after recommendation here and yes I agree very tasty. Never cooked muffins before, how are they different to cake? Tasted very similar to chocolate cake. I thought the initial stage would take ages of stirring in the pan waiting for the sauce to get thick, and then all at once from nothing to absolutely thick!! Guess this is corn flour for you will remember that in future

[UptoapointLordCopper]

coco the chocolate custard muffin in online. Also:

banana bran muffins

honey nut banana muffin - not made this one.

blueberry muffins

I would be very happy with any of them (or all of them) for breakfast!

[UptoapointLordCopper]

In fact you can mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet in another, the night before, and mix together the next morning and bake for your early morning coffee.

[Xiaoxiong]

Red wine and walnut bread lasted less than 36 hours - we demolished the last of it as toast with honey for breakfast. Gorgeous taste and what a beautiful purple crumb too! Can't decide what to tackle next...we're going down to stay with MIL on Tues for a week and she uses a bread maker

Dinner tonight harks back to a previous month's cookbook club - bolognese from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries made 50/50 with beef and pork mince. Perfect for a lazy dinner with DH watching Firefly

[Wearytiger]

xiao your night sounds shiny!

I made two DL cakes today: the first was the caramel and hazelnut cake. It was a good cake but somehow I felt it just needed a little something more. The cake itself was lovely and moist but I wasn't convinced by the icing. You are meant to use the same icing between the cake halves and on the top and I really think it would be better with a wetter icing to sandwich the layers together as it was quite dry (similar to the icing you get on cupcakes). So next time I would add more caramel to the sandwich icing. It was a great taste though.

The second cake was the peach and saffron cake which I made as I had all the ingredients anyway. I used a 23inch round tin rather than a 20inch square tin (he has a fondness for odd tin sizes, I think!) The round tin worked but if I'd had more peaches I could have covered the entire cake - instead I just had enough to go round the edges. That's probably my fault for changing the tin shape. I also didn't love the saffron taste ... My husband did, but I am coming to the conclusion that I'm not a fan of middle eastern-y type cake flavours (see my earlier post on the tahini carrot cake!) So I would make the first one again but not the second one, I think.

[pregnantpause]

I made egor soup with vegetable and meatballs- I used carrot and spring greens as veg, and doubled all quantities to feed four. It was so, so so light. A lovely supper after a heavy meal earlier in the day. Even DC loved it. In sure it will become a regular at my house, very easy and really satisfying. Highly recommended.

[HuevosRancheros]

Back from sunny Norfolk :)
Made the sour and hot tofu from EGoR last night, desperately needed after a week of pub grub and camping food. Lovely and refreshing, though I didn't have spring onions, which would have made it nicer, or Bombay Mix, which I didn't really feel I missed. Also had to make it with the longlife tofu that I keep in the cupboard for emergencies, as I didn't have any fresh silken tofu. Still yummy though :)

[Xiaoxiong]

Weary it was indeed shiny (See this is why I love MN - on a thread about cookbooks people get my scifi references and make in-jokes back at me! Now we have watched Serenity and it's all over and I am )

I used to use a 23inch pan for the DL lemon and poppyseed cake and it always turned out a little thinner and flatter than the pictures - BUT I did stumble upon a 20inch square tin with a loose bottom at Sainsbury's the other day, so now at least I have the right shape for most of his recipes.