Cookery Book Club November - River Cottage Fish (or Baking book if you dislike Fish) and any Preserve Cook Book of your choosing.

[Pantah630]

New thread for November folks hope we'll get a few more of you back now Winters drawing in

River Cottage Fish, self explanatory but if you dislike fish, I did until I turned 40 bizarrely, feel free to pick a Baking book or other.

I have RC Handbook on Jams and Preserves and another couple I can't recall titles of, there are also lots of recipes online. Can we share the good ones please. I've made a start with some Brandied Peaches and will be trying Nigellas Spiced Peaches this weekend if I can find some more.

Oh no you're ok until tomorrow We're actually eating TM red rice with some left over chicken. Also had the pumpkin, bean and bacon with green rice this week. Go TM!

thanks for the heads up glorious I'll make sure to stay away. I did have a little sushi earlier so not been put off fish altogether :)

I made up some salted caramel and put in jars to go over ice cream yesterday. Recipe from Waitrose mag, does that count as a preserve??

Yes that definitely counts pantah (yum!). look away now, smoked haddock alert!

We had the drunken smollock rarebit last night and it was delicious. Made it with smoked haddock instead of pollock. It was lighter than it sounds and very comforting. DH would've added more mustard. I'd just have made a double portion

I'm back for some Jerusalem related advice please!
Tomorrow night I am serving the sharwarma lamb, butternut squash with za'atar, mejadra rice dish, aubergines with pine nuts and chocolate krantz cakes. I am doing Paul Hollywood's pittas plus a salad dressed with sumac alongside.
So questions:

• I don't have two loaf tins so what else could I use for the cakes?
• I can't find za'atar. Does the butternut squash dish really need it (in which case I can make some from a recipe I have found on the Telegraph website) or is it OK without?
• Is it OK to make most of it beforehand, so I can concentrate on the pittas and carving the lamb?

Thank you! By the way, if anyone has the new Nigel Slater book, I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Science, I can only help you on the za'atar question..... I make my own.
My batch recipe is:
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted. Most ground, some left whole
1 tblspn each of marjoram, thyme and oregano
1 1/2 tblspns sumac
1/3 teaspoon Maldon salt, partly ground with sesame seeds

Tweak it to your own taste!

I could post you some this afternoon if you like science

science not a lot of help I'm afraid! I make the shawarma and mejadra regularly but I do the rice at the last minute. Do you have an aga/Rayburn type oven with a warming oven? If so then pretty sure the mejadra would keep warm at the final tea towel stage in there and still taste good. Never made the butternut squash dish but I have one at home and might now. Again never made the krantz cakes, maybe your local cake supplies shop would hire you out another?

Good luck with the dinner, would be very interested to see how the pittas and squash dish are.

Glorious, that's very kind but i need it tomorrow!

Huevos, I will make my own za'atar. I was thinking of doing that anyway, and I'm assuming it will keep in an airtight jar so I can use any surplus as a garnish for other dishes.

Pantah, I don't have an aga or similar, but the rice was the dish I was least concerned about and I think it will be fine if it sits for a few minutes.

I have made the pittas many times, and they are always glorious. Taste fantastic, beautifully puffed up, there simply isn't a comparison to bought ones (not from the supermarket, anyway). They are just a little labour intensive at the end, as they have to be rolled and only take a few minutes in a hot oven, so I end up doing that for a while. But it is definitely worth it!

I think I will take a leap of faith and do one of the cakes in a loaf tin and the other in a small cake tin. Surely the shape won't matter too much, and that sounds easier than trying to wrangle with a very large single cake.

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated

What about your neighbours, one of them will probably have a loaf tin you could borrow :)

Pantah, then I'll feel obliged to give them the cake and it might be too lovely to give away

it might have made it?! Anyway homemade will be nicer. Or I could hand deliver and stay for dinner

Glorious, that would be lovely! I'm in London. Can you make it?

Tee hee that would be so fun! But I can't leave DD. If you're not too hard to get to from us I don't mind dropping the za'tar round though, DH is out tomorrow and we've nothing planned. We're in SE London, do you want to pm me? I could always meet you somewhere public with some pom bears or something

You need to wear you scarves ladies, and discreetly leave the za'atar in a beaker somewhere.

It'd probably get blown up, or we'll get arrested for distributing a small packet of powder And I don't have a mn scarf

Glorious, I'm in s London too! If I told you that I'm near ikea, would you know where I live?

Yes! I'll reply to your pm

science how was your meal? And did glorious get some?

I have 6 lemons macerating in salt for my Jerusalem preserved lemons. Should be ready for Christmas, I'm seeing a big bowl of couscous and another shawarma for Boxing Day after a nice, long walk.

Mosey?? Nosey, d'oh!

Pantah, the meal was great, thanks. The lamb was fabulous, the butternut squash dish was awesome, the aubergine dish very good (though I didn't add as many onions as he says, because it looked ludicrous, and I don't think it was any worse for it), the rice was lovely (again, I cut the onion quantity, and it was still good) and the chocolate krantz cakes were amazing (and not as much hassle as he says). I did a simple salad of tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions and parsley dressed with sumac to go alongside, and a cucumber and mint dip, which worked particularly well with the lamb.

My pittas weren't quite as good as normal, but I think I rolled them too thin because I was talking and drinking wine while doing them!

Glorious didn't get any, but we are now in touch

Sounds yummy, I'm definitely trying the butternut recipe and possibly the pittas cooking and drinking never works for me, the last time I tried, I almost set fire to the kitchen while frying some crispy squid for friends. Would you be able to copy the recipe for pittas please. I'm trying, and failing, to cut back on recipe book buying.

Yum sounds like a great success!