Cookery Book Club June - MN Top Bananas! And Nigella's Summer

[Pantah630]

An early thread thanks to MNHQ generosity, the first lucky few in May managed to procure a gratis copy of the new MN cookbook, Top Banana's. At first glance it's looking good. We're also cooking from the modern classic that is Nigella's Summer.

Let the sun shine and the outdoor eating begin

But if you have any plain tofu left over, I can totally thoroughly recommend the hot and spice tofu from egor! I prefer a softish tofu for this dish, but have happily made it with firm when I go to the cupboard and find I've run out of longlife soft tofu! The blandness is key here, to balance the incredibly strong flavours of the sauce :)

MN Spanish potatoes are nice enough but the pepper went too mushy for my taste. Holy Trinity stew on the other hand was really delicious, though admittedly totally unsuitable for the weather! Sweet and comforting, great combination of flavours.

Pantah- it must be me with the rice- I really am useless at it. Perhaps my lid wasn't tight enough

I made mn three minute sponge today- we had extra dc for tea and a desert was demanded, it really took three minutes, and the children loved it. Im not going to be making it at any dinner parties, but I will be making it again and again as for sheer ease to taste ratio, it's a winner!

Hi, my first experiment with MNTB today was the chocolate mousse. Went down well with my picky eater who finds commercial mouse too chocolatey. I found it to sweet, and that was with using a little less sugar than stated already. It was also still rather gooey rather than set after 5 hrs chilling, but that might be it's expected texture as it contains no cream.

Next up tomorrow the 12-hr pork, definitely using a lot less cayenne than the 1 TS suggested (if any!)

Actually made a version of salmon espanol, to the letter but minus the stock, and using any mix of coloured peppers. Have had the recipe for years, and it's great and super-easy. Also great using tinned baby potatoes for added ease of preparation.

Oops, autocorrect!
Commercial mousse
Too sweet

And I made the salmon last night and just spotted the recipe in the book...

Not been doing very well this month but did make fluffy eggs this morning from top banana. Very popular with DH, though I did pump them up by adding black pepper under the whites, using gruyere instead of cheddar, and serving it with soda bread and crispy bacon!

A success, and pretty easy (if you have an electric whisk). Definitely one I will do again.

Unauthentic chicken- children loved, quite tasty, but a sprinkle of chilli for adults is IMO a must .

I did the pork and apple casserole again for my parents for lunch - they and the DC all loved it which isn't that frequent and it is risibly easy.

The fluffy eggs were a hit here too Science.

We were meh about the chocolate cake - it's a very basic mix and as DH said my usual recipes are much nicer - but I love the choc tray bake.

Pregnant, inauthentic chilli is really nice though I confess I added chipotle chillies to mine so it didn't lack spice!

12hour pork from MNTB is really easy and yummy, but watch the heat in the Cayenne, I used less than 1/4 TS and it was plenty... Used a boned pork shoulder, rind and fat trimmed off, and it came out all nice and juicy. Used apple juice, and only about half the seasoning mix, made sure my small joint was thickly covered, but had plenty left for next time.

I finally got the Nigella book from the Library. I think I will give the watermelon and feta salad a go. It sounds bizarre but everyone that has tried it seems to think it is good.

Nigella chicken and mango salad last night was pretty basic, the kind of thing you'd quickly throw together from the fridge. Perfectly nice but not more than that. We had a particularly delicious mango, which helped!

Hmmm still waiting for Nigella to arrive (I admit I was a bit slow to organise that one), meanwhile Top Bananas has had two more outings:

Bean burgers: yum. I'd never made any before. They held together nicely and picky eaters enjoyed them as well.The pesto gives them a good flavour, but used more than half a tablespoon. I also had 400gr of cooked haricot beans, rather than a 400gr tin drained, so probably needed more seasoning.

Banana bread: Also nice. Very easy, great for little helpers. Used 3 small bananas, only 150 gr sugar and it was definitely still sweet enough.

We had the hassleback potatoes last night, very nice, simple method. The trick with the wooden spoon works well.

DS1 turned up looking for pudding, we very rarely have one, so we decided to try the 3minute sponge from MNTB. They were timing me, took 10 mins start to finish without having anything preweighed. It did help that our butter was already soft as it lives in the bread bin, very easy to cream with sugar. I should have read the recipe first as I managed to add the flour before the milk/egg combo. No disaster though, it ate very well when slathered in custard to hide the anaemic looking sponge may have to try substituting in some cocoa powder for flour and adding Nutella instead of golden syrup next time.

anja the bean burgers sound nice! will give them a go.

Pantah yes they were - also nice cold for lunch today

Hasselback potatoes - great idea - I'm assuming it's a Nigella one? (goes off to google)

Did the courgette, pine nut and sultana pappardelle from Nigella last night.
I was nervous about the madeira (sherry in this case) soaked sultanas, but she told me not to be afraid, so I added them. I don't usually like sweet with savoury, but it worked nicely. I added more garlic than she recommended, but I always do
Overall it was good, though I added some pasta cooking water to the sauce; I think it would have been too dry without it.

Rice paper rolls from Nigella for lunch today. Good, refreshing, but they don't keep! So only make what you will eat at that sitting! I made the dipping sauce she recommended, and that made it really zingy

Going back to Jerusalem for the next couple of meals

Do we have books planned for July yet?

How about a veggie book for July?
Rose Elliot or perhaps plenty after the success that was Jerusalem?

I've also just bought and want to cook from Lorraine pascals fast fresh and easy book as well as bill grangers everyday Asian (nice summery book I must say) , so I will nominate them too.

I would be more than happy to do Plenty..... I am still cooking new things from it and being surprised at how wonderful it all is :)
In fact, I'm doing a courgette pasta dish from there tomorrow to compare with Nigella's "take" on it

Was very excited to discover this evening that "Plenty 2" is coming out in September - it's already on my Christmas list (along with Jewelled Kitchen). I am not allowing myself to buy any more cookbooks!!
So will borrow from the library anything else we choose for July

There are also a wealth of plenty recipes online- the new vegetarian column is still available on the guardian online , and it prepares us for the forthcoming plenty more

I have Bills Everyday Asian as well and keen to start using. I'd third Plenty, I have Jerusalem and Ottelenghi, more than happy to add Plenty to this...his recipes have been my favourites over the past year.

I'd like to try Bill's Everyday Asian as I love Asian food and his books are usually good.

Plenty and Everyday Asian sound good to me - have got both.

Anyone tried the wasabi tuna in Nigella? Contemplating it...

Everyday Asian on order from my library :) In stock, so hopefully will have it by July!

Having raved about Plenty, I am embarrassed by how little I have cooked from it.... I have read it loads, and drooled, but only cooked a handful of recipes. Probably because DH is quite fussy, but seeing as he is away for 12 days in July, this will be my perfect opportunity to cook more from it

That's July sorted then