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...)

@GlumyGloomer oh, a party, i am jealous as we're in the only part of the country which still has more strict restrictions i think. Intrigued by the fatless cake... what does it include? Yogurt?

Yesterday we had a bbq. I made satay chicken, using thighs, cooked them in the oven then finished on the bbq. I sliced into the thighs a bit as it said in the recipe, but they ended up then reasonably flat and so quite dry after the bbq, so i perhaps shouldn't have bothered with that and instead left them whole and thick. The marinade was nice, but not as good as expected. Seems to be the story of my life at the moment...! Today will be leftovers.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/satay-chicken-pieces#commentsFeed

@Imicola it's just a little garden party for 5 nursery friends. We have no wet weather provision so I'm watching the forecast like a hawk.
I think the proper name for they type of cake is a genoese? (Spelling probably wrong). It's just eggs, sugar, flour and a lot of air. It's also got home made custard in the middle, which I've also never made, so plenty of scope for disaster! At least I'm confident about making cup cakes, and either way I have rice paper Princess decs so hopefully the kids will be happy.
Shame the chicken dried out. I never bbq chicken as not confident of getting it right.

@GlumyGloomer ah yes, i have heard of that type of cake, but never tried it. Looking forward to hearing how you get on.

Tonight we had pork meatballs with bulghur salad, and it was pretty good. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pork-meatballs-with-feta-mint

The cake turned out quite well, although not as neat as Nadiya's. It's pink instead of green on top at dd's request.
I also made the Nadiya edamame and wild rice salad (interesting) and the Nigella peanut sesame noodle salad (lovely). Everything else is coming out of a packet!

Never used bulgar wheat, might try that one.
I've got so many recipes from the thread I want to make when I've got a bit more time.

The cake looks good, was it tasty? The noodle salad sounds right up my street.

Tonight we had Nadiyas avocado pasta which i thought was really nice (though perhaps a bit too garlicky), and as a bonus, super easy and could deal with an unripe avocado! Plus left over meatballs. Toddler didn't want to eat anything. DH seemed happy with it.
thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/nadiya-hussains-avocado-pasta-with-peas-and-mint

Thanks for the welcome 

@Imicola I'm going to try that avocado, peas and mint sauce.

I tried Dr Rupy's Korean Bean Stew from 3-2-1 cookbook. I made it just for myself as the rest of the household don't like beans! (They had leftovers.). It was okay on the first day but I added lemon juice on the next day and it was much nicer and perhaps it had time to mulch?

Tonight was butternut squash pasta, which was also very easy and tasty. Toddler liked it, so did DH. I'd make it again!
www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/creamy-butternut-squash-pasta/

The bean stew sounds interesting. What kind of flavours are in it?

Plantbased what sort of beans? I have a huge list of stuff I like but the family don't, including most pluses.

Imicola squash pasta sounds good. Squash also on the aforementioned list, but sometimes I subject them to it anyway, and pasta is always popular.

I'm edging towards buying myself a bread maker, do they all have an option to just make the dough but then take it out and cook it in the oven? (Cinnemon buns, I am looking at you!) Or only some models. I'm eyeing up a Russel Hobbs compact one but it doesn't say.

@GlumyGloomer ours wasn't a particularly fancy model and it had that option. I think it had about 13 programmes for different types of bread, dough only, sweet bread, cake and even jam. Id assume they'd all do it... if not you should be able to set a timer and just switch it off and remove at the appropriate time. See if you can find the manual online and it should tell you.

Yesterday i made an apricot and buttermilk cake (plus a few cherries) which was really easy (made in the food processor) and very tasty and moist. Yum!

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/apricot-buttermilk-cake/

This is a recipe I found online, www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/51048/recipe/crustless-quiche

Last night I made Nadiya's prawn potstickers. It uses filo pastry rather than dumpling wrappers, and was a total faff to prepare - it took ages, and was quite tricky to enclose the prawns, leaving me rather stressed and running late! But...they actually didn't disintegrate on cooking as I had feared (there were numerous cracks and gaps which I thought would lead them to fall apart), and they were reasonably good. Even the toddler seemed happy enough with them. If I made them again (which I won't), I'd probably cut the pastry into squares rather than circles, and make them slightly larger...that would have saved a lot of the faff and also reduced the waste from the pastry.

@Imicola never heard of an apricot cake, it looks good. Shame the potstickers were such a faff. I'll admit I always buy them ready made. I recently wrote off Nadiya's egg rolls, which I really wanted to love, but not only were they much trickier than they looked but the family weren't keen either.
@languagelover96 I made a spinach crust less quiche for lunch. It is easier but I miss the pastry.

I’ve had two bread makers, both of which had dough settings.

I made this tonight www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/mains/thai-turkey-stir-fry-with-chilli-and-basil-2 but switched out the turkey for some quorn pieces instead. Lovely.

Apricot cake looks lovely.

Looks nice @Wildernesstips Did you use thai basil? I have loads of basil growing, but just the normal variety. I dont think I've ever use thai basil.

Today I made another recipe from NH family favourites book before it goes back to the library - cauliflower hummus. It was pretty good, and easy enough to make at lunch time. A good way to use up some slightly sad looking cauliflower! I had it on a bagel with ham and chilli jam. Yum!

No, just standard basil.

Have you made anything from Jo Pratt’s Flexible Family Cookbook? There are some good recipes that were sampled in a magazine that I might try.

The bread maker has landed! For a 'compact' model it's a beast, but hopefully it'll earn its counter space. The main loaf is a small french one. Dd1 is ridiculously excited to have it with jam for breakfast. I very much doubt it'll live up to her expectations but we'll see.

*maiden loaf, not main

@Wildernesstips no, not tried that book. Library here has only just reopened but seems to have a fairly rubbish selection, but I'll probably go tomorrow and see what they have. I haven't bought any cook books in years, i usually buy magazines instead.

@GlumyGloomer oh, i hope it is tasty! Im still debating whether we replace, ditch, or try to fix our broken bread machine...i think ditch, but i wonder if I'd use a new one more as i suspected the old one wasn't working properly for a while but couldn't quite work out why. The loaves never came out very well.

@Imicola - sesame oil, spring onions, soy sauce and gochujang. I've never had gochujang before (took me ages to find at the supermarket) - it's a type of chilli paste. It wasn't hot at all. You could probably just use any chilli paste tbh.

@GlumyGloomer - It had black beans, green beans and tofu so lots of beans.

I'm thinking of making another recipe from the book. Not plant based this time but with actual chicken in it. I am a work in progress!

mmm peanut chiccken

I made Dr Rupy's Chicken Gumbo from his 3-2-1 book. It was DELICIOUS. Healthy and filling too. Very generous portions and there's lots left over and we are full. I had it with rice and DP had it with baguette, DS had leftovers.

Looks good PBW. I have a recipe for chicken gumbo but it's more of a soup, and less veggies. I hardly ever make it these days as dd1 hates chilli.

Home made bread is lovely. I made the sandwich loaf for lunches today and it was really good.

I made cheesy potato skins yesterday. Followed the Nadiya recipe (Time to Eat) but swapped the cottage cheese for extra red Leicester. They were delicious.
I'm menu planning so going to read back over the thread for ideas

They look good Glumy. I made Crab Linguine from a magazine yesterday (pepper, onion, garlic, chilli, oregano, parsley, crab - all fried together then the cooked linguine added). It was delicious and a perfect summer dinner.

Made the butter turkey from the Nadiya family favourites book, unanimous success. Might try reducing the salt a bit next time but otherwise delicious.