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...)

For lunch today I made gnocchi alla romana. They're completely different to potato gnocchi (made with semolina and baked) but easy to do, and made a nice change from pasta. We had them with marinara sauce.
The recipe is from Antonio Carlucchio in the Two Greedy Italians book.

@neverenoughchelseaboots glad you liked the aubergine balls (polpette di melanzane) also from the Two Greedy Italians book incidentally. We had them again a couple of days ago. What sauce did you use? We had tomato and garlic last time.

Here's the substitute ingredient site again :-

www.gourmetsleuth.com/ingredients

My lasagne was only pink at the prep stage, it cooked into the rest of the ingredients - thank goodness !

I use the dried sheets; boil them in a large frying pan for 3-4 minutes, fish out with a draining spoon & spread out on a tea towel.

@GlumyGloomer
Have you tried this by A.C & G.C.? :-
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pearl_barley_with_21752

It's a regular for me, but I do add a lot more flavourings as it's a bit bland.

@SingToTheSky good luck! I find it annoying when recipes use lots of things that you then don't know how to use up. I quite like the small jars of spice pastes etc from morrisons, no need to get lots of separate spices, reduces the faff, and they are a nice size. The thai curry paste is lovely!
I've recently signed up for a veg box, so now I am struggling with what to do with the random veg I wouldn't usually buy. This week we have a Savoy cabbage, sprouts, cavolo Nero plus others. Not sure I could do anything with those that the toddler would like! I found a recipe for cavolo Nero and polenta soup which sounded intriguing, so I may give that a go at the weekend.

@GlumyGloomer those look good...I might see if I can find that recipe! I have semolina which never gets used.

Thanks @GlumyGloomer I've made it twice from the screen grab but as it had no quantities I made it up so was completely different both times. So maybe it'll be even better if I follow a recipe.

I did it with a standard homemade tomato sauce (which also tend to be varied in taste and quality!)

@neverenoughchelseaboots I'm weary of infringing copywrite, which is why I don't give quantities. I've strayed from the recipe a bit myself though. I usually do 2 aubergines, 2 slices of bread, 50g parmesan and 1 egg. It comes out pretty wet, so I roll them in extra breadcrumbs.

*wary. I do not have a past of extensive copywrite infection to grow weary of.

@Georgyporky no, I've not tried that one. I love pearl barley but only ever had it in stews so it sounds interesting.

*infraction, not infection 😂. I'm going to bed now before I write anything else stupid.

Made spiced roasted parsnip soup for lunch today. Very easy, and pretty tasty, even the toddler liked it!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spicy-roasted-parsnip-soup#commentsFeed

Ooh yum I’ll definitely try that thanks. I don’t eat parsnips often!

I made a pineapple upside down cake from Ready Steady Bake. I am absolutely not a confident baker (I could seriously mess up those cupcake kits!) so this was a step up for me but it worked. A bit too sweet though so I’m going to try reducing the syrup ingredients if I make it again. I actually don’t own a single cookery book anymore so I’m going to restart my collection by buying this one and returning the library copy, it’s got a decent range of recipes I think.

Oh I love a pineapple upside down cake. It looks great

I also like the sound of the parsnip soup, but won't be able to make it until Dh is back in the office. For some reason he and all his siblings hate parsnips. They call them 'evil potatoes'. It's a strange family I married into 😅

@SingToTheSky wow, well done that looks great! I've never made an upside down cake as they look a bit tricky. What kind of a tin do you use?

Today we had the cavolo nero and polenta soup, but I used chard rather than cavolo Nero as that's what we ended up with in the veg box. I thought it was quite nice, simple but filling and tasty, and I am usually not a fan of chard or other green leafy veg. Recipe on this page www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/14/tahini-chicken-and-sausage-with-fritters-easy-midweek-dinner-recipes-brussel-sprout-galette-cavolo-nero-polenta-soup

Toddler wasn't a fan and also didn't want to go for the parsnip soup again, so she had bread and butter.

This was an 8 inch tin, it was meant to be one with a spring base but I just used normal as it was lined anyway. I quite fancy making individual ones (like on bake off 😳) as I bought little pudding moulds. Also somebody on another thread I’m on mentioned using tinned pear instead of pineapple which I think sounds lovely!

I’ve decided my next aim needs to be to try and get comfortable with some really basic curry flavours. I have gone so long without even bothering to buy spices and now only have turmeric so I need to get stuff like garam masala again and get used to using them. Can anyone recommend some super simple recipes? :)

The recipe was, well I’m not sure tbh as I’m so new to baking I don’t really know if it was lengthy or not. But I guess there was an extra element to it as I had to cream butter and brown sugar separately for the bottom of the tin, then put the fruit on, then the actual cake mix.

I made a huge batch of veggie shepherds pie today: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/golden-veggie-shepherds-pie
I like it but I must confess I add bisto onion gravey granules to it
@SingToTheSky a lot of curry recipes now just tell you to buy a paste. Pataks is good as you can get them in little pots so don't get the problem of using up the rest of a jar.
For curries from scratch I've got the Three Sisters quick and easy Indian cook book. I've tried quite a few now and really liked some of them. I do have a very large draw devoted to spices though. As far as I can tell the absolute basics are cumin, coriander, turmeric and garam masala, but I also have cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, fenugreek etc. It's quite an initial outlay but I do love curry

I've got the Three Sisters quick and easy Indian cook book as well, + their 1st one. Got them from a charity shop just before this lockdown, but haven't tried anything yet.
Bit disappointed as they have neither beef nor pork dishes - I expected one or the other. I've never understood why curry houses don't have either - I don't think their staff are mixed Hindu & Muslim.

I've used my Madhur Jaffrey books for years, but always increase the spicing as I think she dumbs it down for non-Indians. She does have both pork & beef though !

Anyway, @GlumyGloomer, We all have different tastes, but which recipes did you NOT like - as well as those you did? I assume you haven't made the parsnip soup!

@Georgyporky interesting point re beef and pork. I'm assuming it's to generate the greatest appeal, as chicken and lamb are unlikely to cause great offence to anyone, although that said practicing Hindus should be vegan anyway. How is the first book? I like the 'quick and easy' book, but doubt I'm ready for long and complicated 😅.
So far we've tried the paneer chat in the snacks, but decided the royal cheese in vegetables was much nicer. I've done the whole chicken section and the favourites are dhaba murgh, almond chicken, and tandoori chicken. The others were ok but nothing special. Only made one lamb curry so far, the almond sauce one. The marinade for that is also a bit germolene but likewise comes right in cooking and was very nice. Disclaimer: all made without chilli for the kids, so that probably changes it completely.

@Georgyporky I think the only pork based curry I have made was a pork vindaloo, which is from Goa, where I believe there is a higher proportion of Christians than in other parts of the country. Not sure which recipe I used, but it was nice.

Today we had Azerbaijan style lamb with apricots and chestnuts. I put it in the slow cooker. Came out well, tasty but perhaps a bit too sweet, but I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference from a Moroccan lamb tagine.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/azerbaijani-style-lamb-with-apricots-chestnuts

Imicola that sounds really nice.
I made my Christmas pudding today, first one ever. All went fine until it came to the steaming part. At first I was relieved that the new basin just fit into my largest saucepan, but then the instructions said to stand it on a saucer inside the pan, meaning the lid no longer fit and I had to cover the whole thing in a foil tent. Then I got hung up on the recipe saying it needed to be a simmer, not a rolling boil. So I faffed about adding cold water whenever the boil got too rapid (on my cooker nothing ever stays at a simmer, it will inexorably build into a rolling boil) and at the end of the 2 and 1/2 hours I had a pudding still very much liquid in the middle. So I tried again, without interference and around the kids bedtime and at 10.00 it was finally done. Leaving it out overnight to cool and then I'll probably stick it in the fridge for safe keeping. The mix was delicious, so fingers crossed it tastes good on the day.