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.

[Cocochops]

I too have just made gung boa chicken, I agree it was lovely. Didn't have whole dried chillies though so used flakes. 10 chilles sounds like a lot is it really hot when using them?

[Cantdothisagain]

Did the beef in cumin tonight - it was hot! 2-4 teaspoons of chilli flakes for 250g beef certainly made themselves felt. I liked it as I like heat but it was too much for DH.

I've done the sweet and salty courgettes before, and did them again - they are very moreish!

Want to do lemon/poppy seed cake but not sure I've the right size square tin (20cm) - could I use a larger round one??

[glorious]

It's not hugely hot coco as the chillies should be quite mild and you don't generally eat them. It would be very hot with the wrong kind though!

[Pantah630]

I have been very lax this month and made nothing. Have bookmarked the tortillas and garlic, lemon and thyme pittas to make over the next couple of evenings and will get round to making the pork belly recipe from egor, hopefully tomorrow. I do have an abundance of courgettes still so the sweet and salty one may get a road test tonight if I've any energy left :)

[ELR]

Ooh thanks heuvous only just saw your post. As anyone started the September thread yet and what are we doing? I've lost track was it river cafe? And can't remember the other one.

[Cantdothisagain]

Made the lemon poppy seed cake today for tomorrow- looks lovely and moist!

[Pantah630]

september thread here if anyone would like to sign in, I think Tiger may be away so have started thread for her. :)

[LovingKent]

Sounds like the gong bao chicken is one to try . Did tuzi slow cooked ribs, the hangzhou aubergines and sweet and sour courgettes over bank holiday. We really liked them all. The flavours were more subtle than we thought they would be and the ribs made enough for 2 meals so the leftovers are currently in the freezer

[Pantah630]

I have red braised pork on the stove now and am planning the sweet and sour courgettes as a side. I have the chicken in the fridge to try the gong bao tomorrow and the steamed marrow. Just need to do S&S now but think will carry that own to Sept as well.

[Pantah630]

Success with the red braised pork and the courgettes, went down very well, all plates licked clean. The pork literally melted in your mouth. One to try again I think.

[HuevosRancheros]

I have a slight gripe with the until-now faultless Fuchsia Dunlop.

Why does she choose to omit certain ingredients from the ingredients list, and only mention them in the recipe?
I admit, it is my fault, I skim-read recipes as I'm cooking. But if, for example, it says mix marinade ingredients together, then add chicken, I see that, and do it. It actually also says "adding 1 tablespoon of water". Which of course I don't see, as I'm skim-reading.
Why not just put the water in the ingredients list? This was the Gong Bao chicken, had a similar experience with the hot and sour tofu, where she added salt in the instructions rather than the ingredients list.

Confusing.

[Pantah630]

Thanks for the heads up huevos will try and remember to watch out or that. I seem to remember another cookbook that did that, bloody annoying.

[LovingKent]

Agree about the ingredients list huevos. Have found that a bit annoying. We loved the red braised pork too pantah630. Will be making that again .

[Cantdothisagain]

Lemon and poppy seed cake was absolutely delicious. Incredibly moist.

Not sure what to try next! Have got chicken breast, chicken thigh, lamb mince, to hand. Any recommendations from EGOR?

[pregnantpause]

Can't- I failed miserably making the dough, but she says in the northern style dumplings you can use lamb mince, and dumplings are delicious (if you don't end up with sludge instead of dough like me)

The gung bao chicken is very nice too.

[Cantdothisagain]

Thanks pregnant! Will check them out.

[ScienceRocks]

I'm back! Wrong month though...

Will read the thread and bookmark some recipes to do and may well post back here as I did with previous month's when I hadn't got my finger out.

[glorious]

Hi science, I'm still here as we're doing Sichuanese wontons tonight. Shaping them was fun but a bit worried they'll fall apart when boiled and we'll starve...

[Cantdothisagain]

I'm here too, eager to try more August too!

[Cantdothisagain]

Ps how we're wontons?

[Pantah630]

Finally got the gung bao chicken done with dried fried green beans....was scrummy and I got to use some more of the dried chillies I got for the Mexican cooking....thanks for all the recommendations.

[glorious]

They were great! No falling apart and pretty tasty. Just mainly excited we made them. We also had some dry fried green beans

[Cantdothisagain]

Mmm all sound good! Chocolate muffins from DL here- very good! I recommend them heartily.

[LovingKent]

Mmm wontons . Made emergency noodles the other night. Very tasty. Managed to get hold of some chiangkiang vinegar at the weekend. Really like the flavour it adds.

[Cantdothisagain]

Anyone here still? Made the Weetabix muffins - very filling and dense. Probably good in depths of winter!