February Cookbook Club - From Delia to a Modern Way To Eat, with a little Bento on the way

[HuevosRancheros]

Welcome to February's cookery book club :)

Each month we choose a couple of books and each try to cook at least two new things from either book. We then report back and share our verdict

This month we have three books to choose from :) :

• Delia Smith's Winter Collection - I'm sure lots of the recipes will be on her website here
  
• A Modern Way to Eat by Anna Jones - some recipes here
  
• Just Bento by Makiko Itoh - millions of recipes (more than in the book!) on her website here also on her sister site Just Hungry which seems to be updated more recently
  
  Happy Cooking!

[ScienceRocks]

Ginger fluff, maybe the recipe was wrong? I once found that with a hairy bikers recipe - I thought as I added the stock, it seemed a bit much, so cut it down a bit, and even then the damn thing was far too watery and not what they described at all! I hate it when that happens.

We did do falling cloudberries, but I think it might have been summer when people weren't around as much.

Can I put in a call for Nigella's domestic goddess? And how about a pie month? Could do hairy bikers pieble, Paul hollywood pies and puds etc.

[ScienceRocks]

I never managed to do anything from EGOR (think one of my parents was unwell), so would be up for revisiting that at some point, and I think the same thing happened for me on the jewelled kitchen month

[ScienceRocks]

How about breakfast and brunch recipes one month?

I'll go away now...

[Silverjohnleggedit]

What's egor? YY to pies, breakfast/brunch, cocktails.

Can I just say and I know this is a bit previous but I made the roast chicken from Made in India and even the fussy visiting kids couldn't get enough of it - I have high hopes for this book.

[pregnantpause]

Egor- Every grain of rice by fuchsia Dunlop. - it was very well received last time we covered it.

I'd like to do nigella domestic, but as spring/ summer is coming ( bearing in mind we've already got feb/march choices) I'd save pies until autumn.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

Marking place if we are going to talk bento. DC's packed lunches are inspired by Just Bento, even when it's not bento.

[Silverjohnleggedit]

Pregnant I bought EGOR in preparation for last time but for health reasons I left the threads to follow a strict diet. I have never cooked from it but I did have a lovely afternoon buying lots of chinese goodies at a local chinese supermarket - those goodies have remained unused - and they guilt me everytime I glance in their direction.

[Chewbecca]

The Delia book is a bit dated now but I've made a lot of recipes from this book, some of which have become regulars:
-quick apricot,apple and pecan loaf cake (always great for me but I know other's have always crumbled?)
-Pork braised in cider vinegar sauce is, as D suggests, often my first casserole of the autumn.
-I like the vegetarian moussaka with ricotta topping but it's quite a lot of work.
-I love the salmon Coulibiac for a special dinner.

Finally - the filthiest page but a recipe I now know off by heart is the pork stroganoff with 3 mustards though we tend to use chicken breast instead of pork. Lovely, quick, everyday but scrummy recipe. I like it with rice and broccoli.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have!

[HuevosRancheros]

Oh I love EGOR
Introduced me to totally new flavours, I regularly make her emergency midnight noodles and hot & sour tofu. Also chuck olive vegetable into as many things as I can
But I am probably in an EGOR rut, would be good to revisit at some point :)

I'll try to compile a list later of potential future books/topics

Silver - have you name changed from before? I don't remember your name from earlier threads :(

[HuevosRancheros]

Ooh and also being a bit previous! I made a chickpea chole from the Prashad website on Saturday, it was very good, so I am excited about getting the book for my birthday :)

[glorious]

Fuchsia Dunlop has written a few other books if anyone wants to do them alongside a repeat of EGOR. Generally less veggie friendly and more esoteric but the Hunanese one less so than the Sichuanese one.

[UptoapointLordCopper]

(What's EGOR? )

[Silverjohnleggedit]

Huevos I'm afraid I'm a serial name changer! I can't remember what my name was when I last did the cookery book club. But I was there in the beginning for a good few months.

Talking of favourite veggie books - I have a fondness for Denis Cotter, anyone else? Lots of free recipes on the website
www.cafeparadiso.ie/recipes. His style is often complex layered flavours - the sort of thing you'd make at the weekend but you effort is well rewarded.

[TwoLittleTerrors]

glorious the Sichuan cookery is my favourite Dunlop book. I have the hunanese one but have barely cooked from it. The only thing I remmeber is the general tso chicken. I have EGOR and it is quite good for vegetable dishes.

[Halfling]

Marking place so that I can go through this thread evening have time.

[HuevosRancheros]

I have made my first bento!!
Hopefully picture below

So, I did:
Tamagoyaki. A lot easier to make than I thought it would be from the instructions. A little on the sweet side for my taste, think I would cut the sugar slightly next time, and maybe do the spring onion variation. Saying that, I had it with an umeboshi plum which contrasted nicely.

Green beans with pine nuts and white miso. Gorgeous :)

Tat Soi (which I have never had before but really liked, like an iron-y pak choi) that I just stir fried with garlic and light soy.

An umeboshi onigiri.

Yum! :-)

[HuevosRancheros]

I should probably add that seeing as I'm not at work, I made this from scratch and ate it warm.
It was good that there was no panic to get everything ready at the same time. But I'm not so sure, in this weather, that I would be so keen to eat it all cold. But maybe that's just me

[Cantdothisagain]

That looks amazing Huevos. Love the presentation!

[Cantdothisagain]

Also would it be doable before work and school on a typical morning to get it ready?

[TwoLittleTerrors]

That's really good looking huveos. I find Itoh to be very heavy on both sugar and salt. The combination of miso and pine nuts sound great with green beans and I will definitely make it for dinner one day.

cantdothisagain I used to pack it the night before. If you read the blog it will tell you how it's all cooked and planned. From the timings you should be able to do it in the morning of you are more a morning person than me. After all people make porridge and sausages for breakfast! I usually do some left overs and fridge/freezer stash so I don't do all the bento ingredients from scratch every meal. For example I would only have one veg (either the tatsoi or the beans) and cook 2 days of eggs. I can then say pair the eggs with beans one day and then the tatsoi next day. I also like the carrot salads, pickles, beans etc. they last most of the week in the fridge so great for adding another 'dish' in the box.

[HuevosRancheros]

Depends what your house is like! Not in mine
But, if you had everything cooked and in the fridge, easy.

I had the rice in the freezer, defrosted it in the microwave and shaped it.
If you'd made the omelette - she says it will keep a few days in the fridge, and the recipe she gives does two servings - it would just need slicing. Veg took 5-10 minutes each to cook, depending on number of ingredients, so quick to do the night before. Again, I can see it making sense to do a large batch and dip in during the week. So in the morning, you just bung it into the containers.

I can see myself doing this a few times a week, even though I'm a sahm, having tubs of stuff in the fridge, assembling in the morning and knowing I don't need to spend ages making lunch/thinking what to have.

And then on the other days spending ages making a cookbook club lunch

[HuevosRancheros]

X post

The bean/miso/pine nuts combo was amazing :)

[TwoLittleTerrors]

And you get used to eating non hot food it's not worse than a sandwich. And it doesn't stink up the office.

[HuevosRancheros]

That's interesting that you find she over sugars/salts - part of my problem is that I've never eaten the real thing, so don't know if I've made it right but it's just not quite to my taste!

Is tamagoyaki supposed to be actually sweet, or just a hint of sweetness? I was a little concerned at the tablespoon of sugar and the mirin.....

[TwoLittleTerrors]

It's supposed to be sweet. But like all cooking I believe you should season to your own taste.

I'm Cantonese and I have been told by many they find sugar in savoury dishes strange. I'm used to it but I still use less than her, especially ones that call for both mirin and sugar. Or ones that have both soy sauce and salt.

I don't know which one you made. But the spinach tamagoyaki I found too salty.