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 Sorry, I'm with DC on that !

I like the look of that made with swede, but turnip has got to be my least favourite veg.
I recently made
www.kaveyeats.com/sabrina-ghayours-turmeric-spinach-sweet-potato-fritters.

That was a nice combo, but I sprayed with oil & air-fried rather than deep-frying.

Re "Pinch of Nom", I borrowed the book from the library, & I'm fairly sure it was that book that didn't contain any recipes for prawns. As they are a zero-hero on WW, I was rather surprised

@Georgyporky are you talking Swede vs turnip in the English or Scottish meaning as they are reversed... very confusing. Im in Scotland, so it was a turnip here, but would be a Swede elsewhere!
That recipe also looks good. I really like fritters but they often don't come out very well when I make them, so I was happy that these worked well.

@Imicola That explains it, I didn't realise you were in Scotland.

When DS was a baby, I used to keep a few jars of food for emergency use. He spat a fishy one out all over my glasses. I tasted it, & I didn't blame him ! I stopped buying them after that.

Tonight I tried a recipe from my nadiya book, turmeric and ginger diamonds. Very easy to make, but they came out so dense I wasn't sure if I had got it wrong! Found a different photo online which does look similar to mine, so I think it probably is as it is meant to be. Quite nice, a bit different, with the flavour of ginger and tahini, we gave in and ate them still warm, so will see what they are like cold tomorrow.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/turmeric_and_ginger_61719

Hello! I've been absent for a bit because the dishwasher broke (again), and now all cooking is centred around making as little washing up as possible. It's hopefully being fixed on Tuesday, (under warranty as the stupid thing is less than a year old) but they've changed appointments on us once already so not confident.
Imicola I did not know that in Scotland turnips and swedes are reversed, how strange. I've never gotten to grips with either of them, mostly because they seem hard to chop up.

Photo!

@GlumyGloomer oh no. Our dishwasher also broke within a year but thankfully has been ok since then! Touch wood.
And Im with you on the difficulty of cutting turnips, they are really difficult and this one was a monster. There was some swearing.

Oooh, that looks just like the photo on the recipe! Sounds lovely, will give it.a try at some point. The next thing I want to bake is also a Nadiya, preserved lemon tray bake...

Tastes much better when cold!

Today I made these salmon and leek parcels. I added mushrooms and made them smaller... made 8 of them with just a chunk of salmon each. I think they would be huge if you stuck to the recipe! Easy and quick to make, very tasty and the toddler seems to like them. Im also storing some uncooked in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/salmon-leek-parcels#commentsFeed

I made this today. I'm pretty sure it was a recommendation on a thread here, possibly for Christmas. We're not vegetarian or vegan, but we don't eat a lot of meat, so I thought it was worth a go. Made 6-7 decent portions, could have stretched to 8 with more sides. I served it with oven-baked carrots, Parmesan parsnips and steamed purple sprouting broccoli. It was good. Not that quick, but not technically challenging if you are a reasonably experienced cook and have a food processor.

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/vegan-mushroom-wellington/

I didn't do the whole mushrooms in the middle as I didn't have any mushrooms to spare and I'm cackhanded anyway and thought I'd probably make a mess of that.

As we're not vegan, I used all-butter Jusrol pastry and brushed it with beaten egg. Did not do what the recipe said and glaze halfway through cooking. Just put it in the oven and removed when it looked a good colour (not as long as recipe said, more like 40 minutes).

Didn't have enough oil in my sundried tomato jar so used olive oil. I find grating vegetables very messy so prefer to try to chop as finely as I can. Didn't use any fresh herbs, just the bayleaf, a little dried thyme and a pinch of dried sage. Also used fresh breadcrumbs as I prefer them.

Those recipes both look great @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g and @Imicola!

Our dishwasher broke a few months back @GlumyGloomer, I almost sobbed with relief when the repair chap said it could be fixed (5 years old, so well out of warranty). It cost about £200 but was worth it, I'm often running it twice a day at the moment, think of the piles of washing up that would be

I'm currently looking for green biscuits/ cakes to bake with the DC this week as our home schooling theme is aliens/ space. Can't find any definitive answer on whether I can just add green food colouring into dough mix, I shall keep searching...

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl how about pancakes? www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/rainbow-pancakes
My first thought was green tea cake, but I've never made it and doubt regular supermarkets have Matcha powder (who knows though?).

@Imicola those look good, only I don't really like salmon. Do you think they would work with white fish?
@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g that looks amazing, how long did it take to put together?

@GlumyGloomer yeah, someone asked the same q in the comments and they responded saying that it should work with white fish also!

40 mins in oven
Prep probably 1hrs to 1hrs 15 mins but there were interruptions and I'm not a super fast chopper. Two main meals out of it so I'm happy! I'm freezing the leftovers, having had one slice cold for lunch. Very good cold, btw. Mine didn't look as fancy as the picture.

Hello everybody 🙂
Dropped off this thread,so sorry but haven’t tried anything new.
Currently just trying to survive till the kids are back in school- sometime mid February I’m told as I’m in Scotland —waves to Imicola—
Homeschooling is... draining.

As for cooking- I decided to take a deep dive into a world of curries so purchased a few books and some exotic spices, going to have a go when all of it arrives(taking post delay here might be around Easter 🙄)

Take care everybody,so sorry to not to be able to rustle up something new at the moment 🙁

I was going to do this last night :-
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/filletsofsolewrapped_90825

Made it with plaice before, we really like it, but used dill in the sauce.

Sent DH out in the rain to get Parma ham or whatever (local Co-op is limited).
Then discovered I had 2 whole lemon sole, not fillets as I thought.
Not enough time to fillet them, so DH looked very puzzled when he got his dinner.

Preserved lemons part 3 -Return of the Preserved Lemons
Yesterday I made the NH preserved lemon tray back. It's a bit of an odd one, as the lemons are blended with evaporated milk, strained, then poured over the cake while it's hot. The cake came out really moist, with just a hint of preserved lemon. Dd1 loved it. I thought it was nice but would probably stick to a normal lemon drizzle in the future. My jar of preserved lemons is all used up now, and I won't be buying another in a hurry.
I have half a tin of evaporated milk to use now as well, and no idea what to do with it. Suggestions?
FrenchBoule my sympathies, homeschooling is exhausting isn't it?
Georgy that looks lovely.
Dishwasher is now fixed!

You can freeze evaporated milk.
Make fudge
Use in smoothies, add to coffee, hot chocolate
Pour over fruit
Rice pudding
Gypsy tart

I should have learnt my lesson by now !
Making a sort of Char Sui/pulled pork recipe in the slow cooker.
Made it often, 3-4 hours on high, freezes well.
I read an article that said 6-8 hours on low would be better.
WRONG.

Georgy interesting, my default is always low and slow, I rarely use the sc on high. All my timings are dictated around the kids though, so nothing is cooked optimally.
I made a Carlucchio italian meatloaf the other day, with turkey mince as that's what I had. Interesting to make, but it turned out too dry and not very interesting. Not a suitable recipe for turkey mince.

Made haggis this weekend...nuff said!

I also made a parsnip cake, missed out the nuts and didn't get round to icing it. Nice texture, you can taste the parsnip, but not overwhelming. Would definitely be better with icing though!

www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/parsnip-cake

Imicola my dad was telling dd1 all about the wild haggis that roam the highlands yesterday we did tell her the truth in the end.