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 made the one pot lentil curry Imicola recommended, only without the prawns. For lentils it was very tasty, although I forgot about not adding the full amount of liquid and needed to cook it for an extra hour. I served it with shallow fried paneer this time, 2 more batches in the freezer so might experiment with adding different things.

Glad you liked it @GlumyGloomer I have some paneer in the fridge so was thinking of making it again with that.

Tonight we had a turnip and bacon bake with steak and peas. Quite nice, but a bit rich and greasy with all the butter! If I made it again I might replace some of the butter with a bit of stock. I don't think I've ever actually cooked turnips before (or more properly for me, given I'm in Scotland, swedes)!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sliced-turnip-bacon-bake

Photo...

Lentil curry also good with left over roast chicken.
Imicola did your bake stick together? I tried making a potato version once and basically ended up with butter soaked sliced potato, certainly nothing like a cake you could slice. Toddler loved it but the rest of us were not impressed.

It's still over a month away but birthday season is hoving into view. When asked what cake he'd like Dh asked for a cherry cake (I have a cherry and almond recipe used many times). Last year I decorated it with marzipan and almond buttercream, which I thought was lovely, but he thought the icing was a bit much. This year he has asked for lemon drizzle icing. On a cherry cake. I now have no idea whether to make a lemon drizzle cake with cherries chucked in, or just pour lemon drizzle icing over my usual cherry cake. Either way I'm not convinced lemon and cherry really works but his cake I guess.

Last year's cake, which I was very proud of (my cake decorating bar is set pretty low).

Re meat boxes, we have been getting one about once a month from Field & Flower for years - you just choose what you want. The quality is very good, meat is grass fed, raised and slaughtered close to the business in Somerset.

@GlumyGloomer most of it stuck reasonably well, I also pressed it down a bit as I was worried it would all fall apart.

We also had the lentil curry again, this time with paneer and cauliflower rice! Toddler fished out all the cheese and ate that... the cauliflower rice she picked out each morsel from her mouth by hand she hated it so much. I thought it was good, and no complaints from DH.

This afternoon I made pecan cinnamon buns which are delicious! Unfortunately my bread machine gave up the ghost during kneading, I think the motor has given up.

@Imicola those pecan buns look amazing!!

@GlumyGloomer my cake decorating bar is set at the point of ladling the icing over and then letting the DC do their worst with various sprinkles

Made Joe Wicks spag bol earlier for DP. He said it was tasty, but I'm not sure it was that much tastier than any other spag bol...!

Oh those cinnamon buns look good, Imicola. RIP the bread maker though. Will you get another?

Clara I've given up making bolognese, as it's one of Dh's meals and he gets very sniffy about any deviation from his (admittedly delicious) family recipe. He soaks the mince in wine before frying it, and celery and carrots are nowhere in sight.

For lunch today I made the Nigella naan pizzas, which was quite a success, and blissfully easy on the day the toddler woke up for the day at 3am...
I also tried her croque Monsieur bake the other day, which was also good although I got slightly carried away with the mustard. I still find the layout of the Express book confusing though. What on earth is wrong with dividing by seafood, poultry, meat, puddings? With headings like 'weeknight wonders' and 'against the clock' I have to use the index every time. And I still resent each chapter having it's own dessert segment waiting to ambush me at every turn. Yes I am overly invested in this.

I fell to temptation (and the need to use up some bananas) and made the Nigella banana butterscotch muffins. Well sort of. I didn't have any butterscotch 'morsels', so I used raisins and a handful of left over chocolate chips. Very quick, and very yummy.

In a blast from the past I made the slow cooker peanut chicken from page 1 of the thread tonight. Got the timings right this time and it was very nice.

I made this tonight thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/african-vegan-peanut-stew - a spicy vegan stew. I did meddle with the quantities as I didn’t want 6 portions so used all the tomatoes, all the beans but no stock. If I made it again I would add more peanut butter and cut the sweet potato smaller.

@Imicola those cinnamon buns look so delicious.

@GlumyGloomer im not sure to be honest. We've had phases of using it multiple times a week, but at the moment it only gets used every few months. Saying that, it did come in handy during the first lockdown until I ran out of flour!

All those recipes sound good... but I know what you mean about awkwardly laid out recipe books.

@Wildernesstips that looks really good, I might give thay a go sometime. How spicy was it? I love peanut butter in cooking.

@Imicola quite spicy. I added a handful of homegrown but frozen chillies in the paste and then a generous teaspoon of birds eye chilli flakes to the stew itself.

@Bloodybridget Thanks for that.

They've got some of the things that I want !! Most of these companies stick to the basic supermarket stuff, & just a quick look & I've found veal & venison.

@GlumyGloomer Soaking mince in wine first ! New to me, but worth a try. I thought the soffrito was essential, but perhaps DH CBA to peel veg!
A famous celeb chef (TK?) roasts mince in the oven first - a very junior trainee told him his Nonna always did it that way & it works.

Really lovely dinner tonight - a variation on www.cookingclassy.com/pesto-salmon-and-italian-veggies-in-foil/. I cooked the salmon on fennel rather than green beans and spread with sun dried tomato pesto rather than basil.

That does look delicious @Wildernesstips!

Soaking mince in wine @GlumyGloomer, I hadn't heard of that but I can see it would work any excuse for more wine really

Rhubarb cake made here today. I made it in a loaf tin rather than a round cake tin and it took ages longer to cook - like twice as long - but is quite tasty, although a bit too gingery even for me, who likes ginger! I have yet more rhubarb to use up though and am running out of ideas

Made this tonight: www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/fish-and-seafood/baked-smoked-haddock-and-egg-pots/
I overcooked the eggs a bit but it was still delicious. Kids not so keen though.
Re bolognese, I've got him making it at the weekend, so I'll pay closer attention this time and report back. From memory it's onion, mushrooms, garlic, red wine, bay leaves, mince, mixed herbs and obviously chopped tomatoes.

Coincidentally, we had spag bol this week. No recipe used! I usually go for onion, carrot and mushrooms, celery when I have it, occasionally courgette or pepper if I feel like I need more veg, mince, garlic, tomato puree, mixed herbs, tinned tomatoes, stock, vinegar and sugar. Forgot the puree this time. I never think of adding a Bay leaf, i will try that next time!

Those pots look really nice, it's making me hungry again...!

Does anyone use Maldon salt? Nigella seems to have it as her default, but I was put off by the price. Interestingly she says to halve the amount if using regular salt. I've currently got a large pot of regular old sea salt to get through before I buy any more, but I just wondered if the Maldon was really worth the extra?

Alright, I'll be honest. I have an even larger pot of bog standard table salt as life is too short for grinding right now.

I've tried Maldon. DH & I did a blind tasting on each other - no different to Sainsbo regular sea salt.
Ditto Himalayan Pink Rock Salt. I can be a nerd when it comes to new ingredients.

I sometimes wonder if TV chefs are "rewarded" for promoting products. Not just NL. I've seen plenty of programmes where the label on something is clearly visible; latest was JO using HP sauce.

I had smoked salt once, and that did taste different. Not tried the pink rock salt either though. I did wonder if Nigella was paid. She is quite brand specific throughout, especially when it comes to alcohol. Nadiya is very careful to only use generic, descriptions, although with a bit of a wink to the camera when it's blatantly smarties. Then again in the same program she visits the factories for Heinz beans, marmite and Lyle's golden syrup, so who knows.