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...)

@Imicola I've looked at that recipe before; I'd like it but DH doesn't like fruit with meat. I love tagines, but always omit the fruit.
I've made vindaloo, but I think too much chilli masks the other flavours

I wonder how old children are in cultures that eat a lot of chilli before they're introduced to it?

@GlumyGloomer I've had a quick look at the 2 books, & they both seem to have the same number of ingredients - never mind the quality, feel the width ! I've made a note of the ones you liked.
I've made paneer in the past, but not recently. Sounds silly, but in this house there's nowhere to hang it to drain.
I might try substituting halloumi in that recipe.

I've made Xmas puds & cakes in the past - but for other people as I don't like either. I just used to drink more wine instead of eating pud, hic!

@Georgyporky I used shop bought paneer, making it just seems too much faff at the moment. Maybe when the toddler is less dependent I'll give it a go though.

I made the slow cooker version of this today:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-sweet-wine-garlic
I used chicken thighs, and extra flour to make the gravey thicker. Went down well

We had sprout caesar salad today for lunch. It was really tasty, but a lot more involved and time consuming to make than I expected. Toddler rejected the sprouts and added all the rest to her soup instead. Adults were all happy with it!
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/shredded-sprout-sort-of-caesar-salad

Forgot the photo!

Sprout salad 😲
Actually it looks quite nice. But sprouts are not allowed across the threshold of this house! 😆

@GlumyGloomer I also dislike sprouts, but they keep arriving in the veg box! Raw like this they were almost like cabbage... so with a good dressing definitely more palatable than usual.

@Imicola ah the joys of the random veg box. I got a few over summer, and they were definitely good for pushing me out of my comfort zone. Prepped frozen veg all the way here at the moment though.

It took me a long time to get DH to eat what he calls "fart balls" - and only tiny ones at that. I know he wouldn't like them raw.

Before CV, someone knocked at the door trying to drum up business for veg boxes. He had sample boxes in his van, & photos of others.
The box for 2 contained more potatoes than we would eat in a month & was obviously meant for people who don't eat rice or pasta.
And there was the inevitable swede & kale - I eat them, but prefer other veg.

Georgy we had kale in one of our summer boxes. I tried 2 ways of cooking it before concluding that I really really don't like it. Not a fan of nori either, which the kale 'crisps' reminded me of.

Many years ago, ex-DH grew kale, & when he brought it into the kitchen there was a swarm of whiteflies - wouldn't touch it for years after that.
I've cooked it recently so it's like Chinese "seaweed", & we both liked it.

Im also not a kale fan, but so far were haven't had any and I have been pleasantly surprised by the boxes. The carrots are delicious, orange and yellow. Im hoping the sprouts will abate after Christmas.

Tonight we had this cornbread tamale pie, which was delicious! I modified the recipe slightly due to not having enough of ingredients... half the mince, and I used more flour as I ran out of polenta. Also no coriander or hot sauce. It made enough to comfortably feed 6 in spite of using less mince. Everyone enjoyed it, including the toddler, I'll definitely make it again! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cornbread-tamale-pie

Imicola that looks delicious, although possibly too much work for me right now. This year I haven't managed a single dumpling or pie topping more elaborate than mash. I make the filling/stew but then one or both children melt down before I can do the finishing touches. It's most annoying.

Hi everyone, been lurking and loving this thread and thought I'd contribute. Been wanting to try the famous Wagamama Catsu chicken for ages. Made a chicken version for the boys and Tofu for daughter. Tasted really plain. Kids were gagging and crying saying it was the worst food ever.. So that went well. Stay away from Catsu curry guys.

Made this for dinner tonight:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/enchilada-pie
I liked it, rest of the family less impressed. Dd1 in particular enjoyed helping me make it but didn't like the end result at all. Ho hum.
Rather than use the grill though I made it in advance, chilled it and then heated in the oven at 200° for 20 minutes. The sour cream completely disappeared into the mince but I thought it still tasted good.

@Myotherface oh no, how disappointing! I used to have the wagamama cook book about a decade ago, but to my great annoyance it didn't have a katsu recipe. Where did you find one? Tbh I always use S&B Golden Curry sauce (medium), never made it from scratch before.

@GlumyGloomer that looks good, right up my street! And if it has cheese on top the toddler should like it!

@Myotherface ah, what a shame! I really like katsu curry. I did a recipe a while ago that I think was quite nice, but no idea what recipe it was!

This week I made Jamie Oliver's garden glut soup. I used Savoy cabbage, peas and spinach. Was nice considering how healthy it was! Toddler ate it with bread chunks stirred in.
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/garden-glut-soup/

Just found this thread, to answer the Katsu curry question, I’ve used a chicken katsu curry recipe by Chetna who was on bake-off. She demonstrates it on her YouTube channel Food with Chetna. It was a real hit with my dc and surprisingly easy.

Maybe I shouldn't abandon my Katsu attempts yet then. My daughter hates Tofu so that was probably partly to blame. Little boys hate curries in general. Although it tastes very plain to me too. Much prefer pretty much any Madhur Jaffrey curries I've made. Food disasters are always so disappointing and kids are such ungrateful little people to feed.

www.kitchensanctuary.com/chicken-casserole/

Good morning everybody 🙂,can I rejoin please?

Yesterday’s dinner,went down well with everybody. Didn’t add cream as sauce was good enough.No button mushrooms either so added dried wild ones I gathered in the summer.
Rest of veg and chicken has been chucked in the blender and made into dumpling filling to be made later.

I need to catch up what all of you have written,have a nice weekend 🙂

Hi @FrenchBoule, nice to see you again that looks really good. You'll have to let us know how the dumplings work out too. I made dumplings today, using left over roast chicken. They came out rather dry, but otherwise nice. Dd1 helped make them and actually enjoyed eating them, so that was a win.

For lunch I made the Two Greedy Italians risotto with pecorino and balsamic vinegar. I used parmesan instead and it was quite nice, although not spectacular. The kids were split, dd1 hated it, dd2 loved it. Dh thought it was good for rice.

Hi everyone. Been AWOL for a while as I've been on holiday.
I'm cooking lamb shanks today :-
www.nigella.com/recipes/aromatic-lamb-shank-stew

It'a a favourite, & there's lots of leftover sauce that can be frozen and goes well with chicken - or cook the whole thing with chicken.
I've also done the sauce bit without meat & added tofu for a veggie friend & meat for the rest of us.

@Georgyporky yum, sounds nice. I love lamb but strangely I have never made, and wouldn't normally order, lamb shanks... not sure why!

Today I made sweet potato scones and aubergine soup. The scones were ok, but overly salty... not sure if I just have the wrong salt, but it said fine salt which I took to mean table salt? Also couldn't really notice the sweet potato in it, so not convinced it was worth the extra faff above a normal cheese scone. Toddler left a bit, which speaks volumes as she loves anything remotely bread/ scone like!
The soup ended up with more tomato than in the recipe as one of my aubergines had gone wrong. So it was basically a nice tomato soup. Toddler liked that.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/25/david-athertons-recipe-for-sweet-potato-sirenki
www.abeautifulplate.com/roasted-eggplant-soup/

@Imicola I would say that fine salt meant table salt too?! As in, I have sea salt but the crystals are much bigger...

That risotto sounds lovely @GlumyGloomer, I'll have to look for that recipe. Our library should be re-opening again soon (albeit for limited browsing) which will help me expand my ideas! I use a Jack Monroe recipe for risotto; I know she's not very popular on MN but I do find her recipes very good and easy to follow.

Made banana bread today with some black bananas, eatnotspend is a really useful website in general. The DC threw some chocolate chips in too for extra yumminess