Cookery Book Club January - Two Hungry Italians and Nigel Slaters Eat/Jamie's Great Britain

[Pantah630]

Happy New Year everyone, sorry this is a bit late. We picked Two Hungry Italians, Nigel's Eat (as lots got it for Christmas) and/or Jamie's Great Britain for this month.

I have the Italians on order and will look in the library for either of the other two or check out Jamie's website.

We're running short of ideas for future months if anyone has any suggestions. We have The Jewelled Kitchen earmarked for warmer months. I bought Tom Kerridge on Kindle so am keen to do that one soon.

Pantah you have inspired me to make the welsh cakes! Will do them later this week and report back. In the mean time I've read through eat and nothing is grabbing me, also not really liking the format much.
nolda any chance of the recipe for the dill and trout pasta dish? I don't have the book but it sounds nice.

ELR, I'll stick it on later, when I'm back from work.

Ok I've picked up Eat and wasn't grabbed by the format but actually I can see lots of practical recipes which are just interesting enough so lots has made it into this week's meal plan. Marmalade chicken, soba with salmon and prawns, Philly steak with tagliatelle. We'll see how they are.

I do like the thematic index near the beginning too.

Glorious- that's what I've found, it's not laid out well, but while I have planned recipes from the other books this weekend, when time/ingredients weren't available, I ended up using recipes from eat as the recipes are simple, stuff you've got in and quick. I think it would be a wonderful student cookbook.

Linguine con Trota Affumicata

4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 shallot
1/2 glass white wine
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful of dill, roughly chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
350g linguine
200g smoked trout

Serves 4

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the shallot and sweat on a medium heat until softened. Increase the heat, add the wine and allow to evaporate. Stir in the tomatoes and half of the dill and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. Add the trout to the sauce, stir through and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, reserving a couple of tbsps of the cooking water. Stir the pasta and cooking water into the sauce and mix together well. Remove from the heat, sprinkle with remaining dill and serve.

Enjoy!

Thanks nolda looks delish!
Although will have to wait till next week as I've just made salmon,capers and pasta with olive oil and parsley which is quite similar. It's a family fave and we have it nearly every week.
Going to look through eat again as think you are both right it is def a book to use for things you already have in.

Finally made the artichoke and chicken dumpling soup from greedy Italian. I used tinned artichokes as have never tried them and dh was considering growing them without any sampling.
The soup was delicious, very fragrant, and the dumplings lighter than air. I put in a whole can of artichokes, which I think was too much (7 of them) but I didn't know how strongly flavoured they are. I will make this again, maybe as a dinner party starter as it's impressive, light and easy.

My biggest complaint is that I bought celery salt, not having properly read the recipe, but really, who lists chopped celery in spoons?! I had celery in anyway but, 2 tblsp of celery? Sod that , I chopped a stick. It may or may not have equated to 2 tblsp

Finally made the artichoke and chicken dumpling soup from greedy Italian. I used tinned artichokes as have never tried them and dh was considering growing them without any sampling.
The soup was delicious, very fragrant, and the dumplings lighter than air. I put in a whole can of artichokes, which I think was too much (7 of them) but I didn't know how strongly flavoured they are. I will make this again, maybe as a dinner party starter as it's impressive, light and easy.

My biggest complaint is that I bought celery salt, not having properly read the recipe, but really, who lists chopped celery in spoons?! I had celery in anyway but, 2 tblsp of celery? Sod that , I chopped a stick. It may or may not have equated to 2 tblsp

Slightly off topic but have made the chocolate and almond fudge cake from Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet for DH's birthday. It is the richest thing in Christendom but fortunately he loves that kind of thing . Not me, though, far too rich

The Italian recipes sound lovely. I must get going on Nigel Slater's book.

Oh, and my copy of Jewelled Kitchen has arrived from the Book People. Thank you to whoever pointed out that it was available for such a bargainous price on there

Just been back through jamies gb have earmarked some recipes but have just made the yogurt. It was very easy will taste in the morning and let you all know. If this works could save me a fortune ds goes through a few litres per week!

Jamies epic chicken salad was really nice. Quite hard to scale down, as I was cooking for two but I roasted two breasts wrapped in bacon with the tomatoes, garlic and thyme. And assembled the rest. It was very flavourful, and felt like a real lunchtime treat.

Science- my jewelled kitchen arrived today too- it really is a beautiful cook book- I can't wait to use it tbh (though now I own it, I am more convinced that it wouldn't be right to cover it in winter)

Ooh the soup sounds good pregnant. I agree Eat would be a good student cookbook. I had How to Eat which I still use

We had the soba with salmon and prawns today which was surprisingly tasty for something so simple. The fish sauce and soy sauce combination is good.

We've had the Spiced Mushrooms on Naan from Eat. Lovely and v simple.
It's a nice tactile book and gives good ideas for store cupboard ingredients.

Not much is grabbing me from the Italian one which is unusual.

Crumpies from Jamie this morning. I was unimpressed at first but actually they're quite tasty. No idea why he says they're between yorkies and crumpets though, they're just open textured bread rolls! But a very easy batter which you just whisk up.

I probably won't make them again but they'll be eaten up.

If anyone does make them I'd recommend using silicone liners in the tin as my first batch were a mild faff to get out.

Well the yogurt didn't work at all! Followed instructions to the letter and this morning was just milk with the smell of yogurt, looks like yeo valley are still getting my cash!

Glorious- I was hoping to make the crumpies this weekend. Might not now.

I was supposed to make the olive oil cod from greedy Italians tonight, but Morrison didn't have cod, but there were two sea bass fillets for a pound , so I'm now making nigels sea bass with waxy potatoes and Rosemary. Again a triumph of Eat giving me a recipe to shape around what I've got in, rather than getting anything in specifically for a recipe. I've high hopes for this- all the ingredients sum up to about a pound fifty, so we're a sea bass dinner for 75p a head! I'll still do the green beans from greedy Italians alongside, as I'm crazy enough to feel guilty that the Italians book missed out again, I don't want it to feel left out.

ELR I don't have the book, how's the yoghurt supposed to work? Shame it didn't. My dad used to make it but I think he used one of those kits. I was about 6 at the time though so who knows! I can ask him if you like.

pregnant don't get me wrong, they're nice, just not particularly interesting. Don't be put off if you wanted a go, they're no trouble so you wouldn't lose much.

We had the Philly cheese steak and tagliatelle from Eat tonight. Yum. Evil. Rich. Provolone piccante made it slightly sophisticated and meant I had to go to the nice Italian deli where they make you feel beautiful rather than a sleep deprived hag. What's not to like!

Feel like a sleep deprived hag. See.

Have made three more meals from eat over the last few days

Sea bass with Rosemary and waxy potatoes- this was delicious, I made it with the greedy Italians green beans which were also delicious. dh who isn't a fish lover really enjoyed it and asked that I make it again- it wasn't gourmet eating but good homely food.

The beans and bacon. - this I will definitely make again, very easy and the bean mash was amazingly soft and comforting with a lovely earthy spice. A perfect lunch IMO.

The black bean and onion stew- hmm, not so much. A bit bland tbh, it needed more. Better off with a bean based minestrone IMO.

I nipped into Tesco earlier and Eat was £9, I succumbed!!!

I'm going to have to buy it too, it's perfect for the days when you just want to throw something together.

We had the marmalade chicken last night which was good. We thought it could do with a bit more mustard, maybe some English mustard to pep it up, but it was so easy it barely qualifies as cooking!

Might try the bacon and beans then.

From the Italians I'm starting with bucatini al amatriciana. Bit unadventurous but I fancied it.

OMG just bought another three cook books!!
Two greedy Italians, well I need it for this month!
Jewelled kitchen, because I felt like I was missing out!
Prashad, it looked do pretty!!
Only £4.99 each from the book people, free delivery with code Happy.
Also was in whs today they had loads of books for a fiver including jamies greT Britain and nigella express.

Oops elr

I'm going to have a go at the marmalade chicken but substituting turkey and upping the mustard content a la glorious

Feeling rough today, bad throat and chest so I rustled up red braised pork for tea, with extra ginger to give me a boost.

Oh dear ELR!

pantah hope you like it.

We had the chicken burgers with lemon and tarragon from p8 of Eat tonight. They were really good and very very easy. Probably wouldn't include the skin next time though as DH didn't find it broke up properly in the processor. A big plus is that they're eggless which means allergic DD can have one tomorrow

Oh and get well soon pantah . Red braised pork ought to work. We're planning it too this week.