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...)

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl

My mother used to put an upended plate over a plate of food & keep it in the oven on the lowest setting - okay for a short time, but food will dry out.
I've still got one of those tray thingies they use in Chinese restaurants that are used with nightlights ! I have used a wide-necked flask to take food to work, but that would only really work for casserole-type dishes. I used to warm it with boiling water, then empty before filling with hot food.

Or would this work ?:-
www.amazon.co.uk/Thermal-Stainless-Insulation-Containers-suitable/dp/B01MYBFQ13/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=keep+food+warm&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1616434852&sr=8-10

Oops, didn't realise that buffet server was a hyperlink. Probably better than my suggestion ,if you've got somewhere to plug it in.

I also have 2 ovens, but I also sometimes re warm some things in boiling water, like left over cooked pasta or veg for example. Not ideal and probably not the solution you need!
We leant our microwave to my SIL before Christmas as her cooker broke... she still hasn't replaced it, so no sign of our microwave back yet... God knows what she is eating.

To try to actually be helpful the buffet server does look good (and would be great for parties) but where would it live when not in use? Our table is quite small so I'd never commit to keeping an appliance on it, but you may not have that problem.

@GlumyGloomer I could fit it on one end of the table (near a plug socket) - we have a tiny kitchen partly to make room for DP's big dining table which he didn't want to get rid of. I would far rather it was the other way round, can you guess who does the cooking?!

Thank you to everyone for the suggestions, I think ideally I'd have a wheeled hostess trolley but we probably don't have the room for that either! MIL has one which she uses for Christmas dinner, but they don't seem that common any more. I'll see if I can compromise and get something, I'm so fed up juggling hot pans and (then) cold plates of food just to make sure everyone gets something relatively warm!

@Imicola I couldn't cope without a microwave

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl better to survive with no microwave than no cooker though! I was actually thinking about getting rid of the microwave for good to free up some space. I'm mostly fine without it, there are just a few things which are a pain without it, mainly reheating pasta etc, but also speedy baked potatoes, melting or softening butter.

Tonight I've been preparing this dish ahead for tomorrow night. Swede and mushroom tacos with peanut salsa. When I decided to make it I thought it would be pretty healthy, but the sheer volume of oil needed is hidden in the instructions... not so healthy then! I hold out virtually no hope of the toddler eating it, but I thought it sounded interesting and will use a whole turnip from my veg box stockpile, so worth a shot!
www.theguardian.com/food/2021/mar/20/meera-sodha-vegan-recipe-swede-mushroom-tacos-peanut-salsa

Swede in tacos? Be interested to hear how that turns out.
I didn't have a microwave for a great many years. My parents got rid of theirs when I was a teenager and I just got used to not having one. We finally got one a year ago, and I bloody love it, use it every day.
I made Nadiya's chocolate hazelnut mousse today. It's super easy, but not really a mousse. There's no gelatine or egg white, just whipped cream, so it was rather heavy for a mousse. Typically the kids preferred straight nutella.

@Imicola I'm not a fan of swede but hopefully that recipe will make it tasty! I made celeriac mash for DP today which he actually preferred to potato mash, which is handy as celeriac seems to be a veg box staple

@GlumyGloomer when I lived with a former DP he was really sniffy about microwaves (despite being a keen cook, oddly) and refused to get one for ages. It was such a pain; he'd cook these lovely meals, we'd have leftovers but it would take ages to reheat them the next day, not to mention the waste of energy in heating up the oven just for that! In the end I bought a microwave and he used it all the time

Made tinned pear cake today. It was easy to make and a lovely texture, but doesn't actually taste of much apart from the ginger! I'd made it again but probably add chocolate chips and/ or some melted chocolate, just to give it a bit of flavour.

It was quite nice, didn't taste very Swede like, but was more of a lunch... im now hungry again! DH seemed to quite enjoy it, toddler had a go, but mainly ate the tortilla with the peanut salsa (pretty much satay sauce...).

Hmmm, mousse, I was just saying the other day that I probably haven't eaten mousse in about 10 years, and it's weird that my toddler knows the word but has never tried it (and very many other foods, but it was mousse I was thinking about because it's in one of her books). The pear cake sounds good... pretty sure I have a tin hiding at the back of my cupboard!

I made parsnip risotto today. Im not a huge parsnip fan, but it was pretty good. I grated the parsnip that went in the risotto so in the end you couldn't really tell it had parsnip in it. I needed a lot less liquid than the recipe, about 1litre, and the crisps took about 10 minutes more to become crisp. Toddler wasn't a fan, but DH was happy. I would make it again when needing to get through some parsnips!
www.gousto.co.uk/cookbook/vegetarian-recipes/parsnip-rosemary-balsamic-risotto

I have a recipe for parsnip flatbread which I'm hoping to try soon.

Yesterday I had a (thankfully) rare total failure. It was a mushroom tart from The Nordic Bakery book, which used a mix of fresh and dried mushrooms. The recipe said porcini, which I have used before and liked. This time I could only get mix of porcini and oyster mushrooms. I soaked them for 20 minutes as per the recipe, but maybe the oyster mushrooms needed longer. They came out very rubbery and it wasn't at all pleasant to eat. I ended up chucking most of it.

That risotto looks tasty @Imicola! I'm not a great fan of parsnips either, but roasting strips of them would be nice. Essentially either I have to roast parsnips for ages or put them into a cake to turn them into something I want to eat

What a shame about the tart @GlumyGloomer, I have tons of mushrooms to eat up here, I might make some soup tomorrow now you've reminded me!

Mushroom & spinach pasta today (in an attempt to use up some mushrooms!). It was much nicer than I thought actually, but the cheese definitely improved it, would have been a bit bland without that.

I've also got mushrooms to use up. I love soup, but it's such a horrible colour. I add a tiny splash of truffle oil - improves it greatly.

I brought back some dried porcini from Italy a while ago. A big cellophane bag, which I didn't realise wasn't properly sealed.
The smell in my suitcase was horrible; I had to wash & iron even the clean clothes in it. And then I discovered that the price was almost the same as Sainsbo!

Parsnip flat breads worked well, although a, they aren't really flatbreads as they use baking soda as a raising agent and actually came out very light and fluffy, and b, I mucked up the recipe by adding the egg used for glazing to the dough, and then needing extra flour because it was too wet.

Mushroom lasagna works well. Georgy I've never tried mushroom soup because the colour is so unappealing.

Thinking of things brought back from italy my SIL brought us some truffles, and froze them as we couldn't see her for a while after she got back. They're still in the freezer, and i have no idea if they'll still be any good or what to do with them.

I've only had truffles in restaurants, usually grated over something like a risotto, or in scrambled eggs.
Making me feel hungry !

@GlumyGloomer oh no, disappointing on the mushroom tart. Parsnip flatbread sounds good though. Someone else recommended them recently to help get through the veg box contents.

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl the risotto didn't taste like parsnip at all. I grated the pieces so they weren't obvious. And the crisps were good. Perfect to use them up if you're not a fan!

I made nigella's lemon syrup loaf cake which is probably one of my most used cake recipes. Didn't come out quite as well as usual though, somehow the syrup didn't percolate in enough. Still tasty though.

@Imicola

The flatbreads look good @GlumyGloomer. With that and the parsnip risotto from @Imicola I have a couple of things to try to use up all the blasted parsnips

Another brownie attempt from me with easy gooey ones. They were very yummy. Someone (ahem ) ate more than they should have done!

@GlumyGloomer thanks, I made them today to go with a spiced lamb pie! They were very tasty, but not what I expected... they looked just the same as yours.

The pie was also delicious, i would definitely make it again. I did it in the slow cooker, and added less water to make sure it wasn't watery. DH was happy, toddler also seemed content, although she wasn't sold on the flatbread which surprised me.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-lamb-pie

The pie!

Imicola the pie looks great!

Impressive pie @Imicola!!

I've been watching Further Back in Time for Dinner (which is very good by the way, well worth a look) and wondered if anyone had tried any traditional English recipes or cookbooks? The one they look at is by Florence White; I really like things like that, but it's quite expensive - cheapest on Kindle, bizarrely, but I do prefer print cookbooks! This is where I'm really missing charity shops, we have a great secondhand bookshop near us which sells cookbooks for 50p/ £1, for that price I can keep them if I like them or donate them again for someone else to enjoy...

@Imicola That pie looks good. I've got stewing lamb in the freezer, so I'll probably have it with couscous - don't fancy fishing bones out of a pie.