Cookery Book Club July - Ottolenghi's Plenty and Bill Granger's Asian Everyday

[HuevosRancheros]

July is imminent, so let's start thinking about new recipes :)
Hopefully the sun will shine and the food will match!

Lots of the Plenty recipes are on the Guardian website.

I will come back later this evening to tell you what I've made before and what I plan to make in the near future

I have both books now. Really like the look of Everyday Asian, lots of simple recipes which are basics with a twist, and a good few classics. I fancy quite a lot so not sure where we'll start.

Plenty is a beautiful book and I'm sure everything is very tasty but I'm not so grabbed No doubt when I try something I will be wowed.

Try the paella glorious we had it again last night! it lives up to your name :)

I have pork steaks marinating for the pork chops with peach chutney later. I'm hoping you can't over marinate as I needed to buy some time and have stuck them in before work.

Forgot to say, paella would serve two generously as a main, it serves four well as a side to meat totally misses point of a vegetarian cookbook

Pantah I have my eye on the Plenty paella. I also have earmarked the stuffed Portobello with melting taleggio, roasted butternut squash with sweet spices, lime and green chilli, green gazpacho, freekah pilaf and mushroom and herb polenta.

The aubergine croquettes in Plenty are great, as are the leek fritters. First recipe I made from it was the shakshuka,which was really good.

Will definitely try the paella, and also like the look of lentils with grilled aubergine.

I found the caramelised garlic tart disappointing, but think it was probably something I did!

The peach chutney is nice, I added salt as it felt like it was missing something though. Haven't had it cold as I was hungry so still warm. DS2 is back late from school tonight so he can taste it cold. Wasn't very impressed with the pork to be honest. Despite a days marinating they just tasted of pork, no extra flavour at all. I did some corn on the cob and new pots as a side and made the coriander and chilli butter to melt over, this was nice, I added lime zest and lime juice too and have loads left to use up. I think quite possibly I should have eskewed the marinade and just melted the butter mix over the steaks instead.

Just looking through Plenty and reminding myself of recipes I've made other than the paella. They were all delicious but, for some reason, the paella is the only one which became part of the regular rotation.

I've also made the Moroccan carrot salad, leek fritters, royal potato salad, scrambled smoky duck eggs with sourdough, castellucio lentils with tomatoes and Gorgonzola, freekeh pilaf and green cous cous.

From memory, there wasn't a duff one among them, so why have I only made them once?

This month, I'm going to make the aubergine croquettes or the saffron cauliflower I think, and am post it noting several more. Lovely book!

Jersey royal salad from plenty this evening- made with Charlotte potatoes pulled from the garden this morning. It was delicious, a lovely standard pesto and the sorrel sprinkled over is particularly tasty. ( nice with a pork chop if you don't mind me saying)

Completely agree with everyone on the Paella, we had it the other night and it was fantastic, I'm already looking forward to having it again. I did forget to buy artichokes but will remember for next time.

We've also tried the crunchy parpadelle which was nice enough, but I doubt I'd make it again. Maybe I needed to season it more, or use different mushrooms. I find that button mushroom never have much flavour.

Black pepper tofu for tea tonight!

The green pancakes with lime butter from Plenty were delicious! If not a bit faffy to make but worth it. Next up is the chicken with pineapple from Bill..

Haha well the 'glorious' paella is cooking! Was going to do green pancakes too but won't have time until next week. Glad they're good though. Also planning the courgette pasta salad.

Made the mango and coconut rice from EA tonight. Gave DD some without the sugar and it was already delicious. With the sugar it's even better, though not sure it needs the syrup, so I might not make it. It's very simple, hardly a recipe really.

Also have the pork baguettes from EA planned for tomorrow.

Another fan of the paella here - made it on Thursday, finished it today!

I have never had paella before Being veggie, it's not often an option. I'm not sure I really like the strong flavour of saffron, but overall I enjoyed it. Thanks for the recommendation, I probably wouldn't have made it, being a bit averse to peppers. I used an orange and a yellow pepper instead of red, and the flavour was good :)

Last night I made the lentils, gorgonzola and tomatoes. Lovely, just as I hoped it would be. I used puy lentils instead of the spanish ones he suggested, and cheated, using Sunblush tomatoes with a bit of balsamic splashed over them, instead of slow roasting them myself

I would agree with his advice to use a mild gorgonzola.... mine was a bit strong in places and it did overwhelm a little.

I finally have one gripe with Sir Yotam
All this talk of "good quality" this that and the other...... sherry in the paella, red wine vinegar in the lentils - I used Waitrose own brand, I doubt he would call it "good quality", but it's good enough, would it really make that much difference, it is just one ingredient of many, surely they should all be "good"

Give me Recipe Rifle's "glass of shitty white wine" any day

Plenty paella for lunch today, and it was very much enjoyed by the whole family! Didn't have artichokes, so just left them out and used my whole fennel bulb (as it was quite small) instead. Great way to use up the glut of broad beans coming from MIL's garden.

Tonight, the polenta and mushrooms from the same book. DH will undoubtedly soon be complaining at the lack of meat in our diet, but never mind

Oh, and Huevos, I agree about the "quality" of ingredients. I used the end of the bottle of sherry I have sitting by the cooker for the paella. I have not idea if it is decent or not, nor am I going to buy a different bottle for just one recipe. Where one or a few ingredients are the star of a dish - tomato and mozzarella salad, for example - then I will get the best I can find (heritage tomatoes, burrata mozzarella and use my lovely peppery olive oil) but for something like paella, the dish is more a sum of parts as opposed to needing amazing quality of everything.

The black pepper tofu was fantastic, sadly Dh didn't think so and only had a few forkfuls of it! He thought it was far too peppery even though I reduced the amount of pepper. Never mind, I will have to make it again just for me when he is next away on business.

Made the mushroom and herb polenta from plenty last night. The amount of cheese means it isn't one for the faint hearted, and I rather blindly followed the polenta instructions in the boom rather than looking at the packet with the result that it was rather runny, but it was lovely. Quick too.

We had the paella. Even used paella rice -admittedly several years old--. It was nice but didn't wow me, sorry everyone!

The EA pork baguettes were also tasty but nothing special. Perhaps I'm having a fussy phase

Ok, glorious, I'm risking it here , but can I please suggest the stuffed onions in Plenty? It really is lovely :)
Hopefully will get you out of your fussy phase

Butternut squash with sweet spices and yogurt tahini drizzle last night, with pork chops. Very nice indeed and very easy, would recommend.

I'll take a look huevos Promise I'll be polite!

We've got the EA shaking beef down for tonight. Fond memories of eating it outside on a (rare!) balmy night in San Francisco pre DD, so it'd better be good.

Enjoyed the shaking beef. I think the sauce would benefit from some citrus because it's basically all salty/umami (not that that's a bad thing really!). It's very easy indeed and a bit of a different way to do steak. We missed out the asparagus as it's a bit late for it.

MN pulled pork in the slow cooker for tonight

Had the courgette pasta salad from Plenty tonight. It was tasty enough and the soya beans worked surprisingly well. We chose it to reduce the courgette mountain and it did that well. Nothing particularly special though. Will consider onions for next week.

We had the spiced lentils with cucumber yogurt for dinner the other night from Plenty, served with naan breads. It was lovely, and the cucumber yogurt really made the dish. The recipe said it serves 2-4 and we found it served 2 as a main with enough for the dc's to have a small portion. Definitely a good recipe to have when the cupboards are looking bare as we always have lentils in!

Plenty stuffed mushrooms with taleggio this evening. Nice but not spectacular.

We had the black pepper tofu and had the same split of opinion between me and DH as happened in madamecake's household. I didn't reduce quantity of pepper and I would next time, but not by as much as DH. The butter is tasty when you get over the incongruity.