Recipe review club

[GlumyGloomer]

I love trying out new recipes, and thought it would be fun to have a thread where we try stuff out and report back. Source must be cited and link provided if online. Photos encouraged.

Tonight I'll be making asian aubergine wedges, from Nadiya Hussain's Time to Eat book.
I like the taste of aubergine but have grave doubts about the texture. Still, I'm being brave and giving this a go.
Worth noting that I leave the chilli out of everything so that the dd's can eat it (I add at the table).

Anyone fancy joining me? (Waits for tumbleweed...)

I've never rinsed preserved lemons before..!

I made the chicken and bean enchiladas from up thread tonight. Dd1 refused the beans but otherwise it was a success

@GlumyGloomer yum!

I made this - sweet potatoes with roasted peppers, chorizo and sour cream. Wouldn't do it again. The chorizo ended up rather dry and the sweet potato was overly sweet.
www.delicious.com.au/recipes/spanish-kumara-pockets/f3b7d814-7aea-4ea2-8cf6-bce5698d520a

I joked with some colleagues about upping my working from home lunch game when the guardian had an article recently with the 20 best sandwich recipes... most which were far too involved for a work day!

But,today I made this bacon, smoked salmon and mango chutney sandwich. Worked surprisingly well, but as you might imagine it was a bit salty. www.theguardian.com/food/2020/oct/26/simon-hopkinsons-bacon-du-bedat

I'd have the bacon and mango chutney, but I'm not really a fan of salmon so would skip that. Not had a proper bacon sarnie in ages.
I mostly need lunches I can put on then eat 30-45 minutes later after collecting dd1 from preschool. Today's efforts burned though, sigh. Luckily I had a left over enchilada I could microwave (while I get to eat the slightly burned paneer koftas in a minute).

My favourite breakfast is bacon, mayo & avo sarnie - learnt that in N.Z. where avos are a fraction of the price than in U.K.

I need to cook a gammon joint that will be out-of-date soon.

Last time, I did campfire stew - not impressed.
I tried gammon in coke - worst meal I've ever cooked & was thrown away.

I'm looking at this :-
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/braised-gammon-and-quick-boston-beans/
Any other ideas?

I've only got this one written by hand, my mum calls it 'ham with sticky crap'. It's better than it sounds.
We'd normally do a 1kg joint, boil for 2 hours and leave to cool in the liquid. Make a marinade of 100g demera sugar, 2 tsp mustard powder, 1 tsp each of coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cloves, and 1 star anise. Take the skin off the gammon, but leave the fat, cover with the marinade and roast at 200 for 30 minutes, basting every 10 until it's all sticky.
There is a note at the bottom, 'disposable baking tray strongly recommended'

Can't remember if the spices were ground or not. I think probably so.
Dh has a bee in his bonnet about pork being unhealthy (he went a bit crazy when we started weaning dd1) so I've not made it in an age. He's already cracked on beef, so will probably come round on pork eventually.

@GlumyGloomer I like the sound of that, & I love the name!
It's one of those cheapo joints that are artificially round, so I think I'll try it in the s.c. with that marinade - and also in a s.c. liner so I don't have to listen to DH swearing when he tries to clean it !

Mr.GG puzzles me. There are lots of reasons to not eat pork (or indeed any other meat), but that reason is new to me.
A newly veggie friend said that the only thing he really missed was a bacon sarnie !

Ha, he baffles me too. So bacon there is research suggesting that the nitrates used as a preservative can cause cancer (my innards are probably pickled in the stuff but hey ho). Obviously fresh pork should still be fine, but he doesn't particularly like it like that. He was raised vegetarian, but now loves chicken and beef. Every other meat he's happy to leave. I insist on duck and lamb now and again, but pork he's fairly adamant about. That said it was our anniversary last week and we celebrated with a bit of contraband bacon once the girls were asleep

Meanwhile I had no idea SC liners were a thing. I'll have to look those up.

Oh, just checked my post and I forgot to say to add water to the dry ingredients to make the marinade, enough for a fairly thick consistency.

Mmm bacon, I also love bacon!

Went veggie tonight and made pasta and chickpea soup. Easy, tasty enough, filling and made a huge batch! Toddler wasn't keen, but I'll try her again with it tomorrow.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/pasta-and-chickpea-soup/amp/

@GlumyGloomer you can buy bacon without nitrates, called 'naked bacon'. It's the nitrates/processing that is supposed to be carcinogenic, like other processed meats including ham,sausages etc.

Ah, thanks @Itsallpointless, I'd heard it existed but didn't know the name.
Dh can be a bit computer says no on occasion. For instance it hadn't occurred to him that turkey bacon is probably just as bad. We mostly have qourn as dd1 loves it, not sure what she'll make of the real thing.
I'm confident he'll ease up in time, and tbf he humours me on my hang ups too.

I made this today:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-one-pot-chicken-casserole
Although the slow cooker version from the bbc ultimate slow cooker book, and I forgot the mustard.
I thought it was quite nice, not exceptional but very easy. Kids loved it, Mr G.G (stealing that name, Georgy ) thought it was bland.

@GlumyGloomer looks good, I love tarragon! I made an all bran cake because I bought a pack of all bran then realised it is horrible! Has a good chewy crust to it, but it is way too sweet. Not that that will stop us eating it. www.kelloggs.co.uk/en_GB/recipes/all-bran-fruit-loaf.html

Back to Finland today with the Nordic Bakery book, and archipelago bread. It's a mix of wheat, rye and barley flour, and has golden syrup in too. The crust is extremely crusty, but the bread is tasty

@Imicola lol to your logic. Cake being too sweet is a new one on me 😉

Sunday.
No wondering what to cook & hunting for recipes, just stick a joint in the oven, prep the veg & I'm in zombie mode & cooking on auto-pilot.

Posted too soon.
What do the rest of you do? Do you have days off, fish-on-Friday -, that sort of thing?

You knew what day of the week it was by what my Grandmother cooked.

@Georgyporky I rarely do a roast (maybe once in 3 years) because it always seems such a faff! I don't really have a routine... tend to try and cook enough for a few days at a time, and occasionally we have takeaway at the weekend. On mondays in particular, when I don't work, I usually make a pot of soup and something in the slow cooker.

We also had a roast today, and I was feverishly working out timings, lol. Mostly when we have roast beef I get a cheap cut and pot roast or slow roast it, but very occasionally I get an expensive cut and cook it medium for Dh.
I tend to meal plan one or two weeks ahead, then rearrange as I go. I don't have any fixtures as such except that Dh makes lunch on Saturday so that will usually be pasta. Where possible I make double batches and freeze. Over half term I hardly had to cook anything from scratch as we used up the frozen meals.

I made this today with the left over roast beef:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-beef-goulash
It was delicious, better than the original roast to my mind (but I do like my meat well cooked).

In other news I'm thinking of sorting out my baking cupboard a bit. The question is, how many cake tins do I actually need? I have assorted bits I hardly ever use but still feel like I can't possibly get rid of (because next year I might make my own mince pies, or I might start making 6 inch sandwich cakes etc). My most used at the moment are the silicone 6 hole muffin tins, dd adores cup cakes so nothing much else is getting a look in.

I made enchiladas again as DD has been having a fussy week and I wanted something with veg in that she would eat! Used this recipe... loosely! Did it in the slow cooker and added mushrooms, peppers, cannelini beans, smoked paprika, cumin and oregano. It was good, and will do us another 2 or 3 nights! Tomorrow as enchiladas again, then just with rice after that.

@GlumyGloomer how many do you have? I have the same problem, I Love baking but mostly use the same tins, but can't bring myself to get rid of anything that I may need in future! I think I have a pair of sandwich tins, then about 3 other tins of varying size, plus a loaf tin, cupcake tins and muffin tins! This is after a clear out a few years back. The sandwich tins I don't really use, but you never know, one day I probably will! I do multipurpose some things, so for example I use the muffin tins to cook meatballs in the oven.