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 butter Turkey sounds good. I like cooking with Turkey, but find they're aren't that many interesting recipes for it!

I made a sweet potato flan case from 10 a day the easy way by James Wong (borrowed from library). It was pretty easy to make and came out well. Used it to make a courgette and pepper quiche. It's not as good as pastry, it's pretty different in terms of texture and flavour, but it is quite nice! Toddler didn't want anything to eat, husband seemed happy with it. Would probably do it again.

Imicola I’ve had that book on my Amazon list for ages - why didn’t I think about the library! Is it a good book?

@Wildernesstips quite a lot of it is normal recipes with extra veg, the type of thing I'd usually cook without a recipe, but there are a few with interesting ideas to switch normal ingredients with healthier things, such as the sweet potato flan case or pancakes using gram flour.

[quote languagelover96]This is a recipe I found online, www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/51048/recipe/crustless-quiche[/quote]
Thank you for posting this! Tried it tonight (despite being sceptical about the flour) and it was the nicest crustless quiche I've ever made. Normally my efforts are too 'eggy' but this was lovely and light and fluffy. Definitely one to make again.

no problem.

Tonight i made Turkey mince stir fry with chilli and basil which was fine but nothing to write home about and the home grown basil was a bit disappointingly lacking in flavour.

Then I made a rhubarb batter cake, which is a very odd recipe, and really more a pudding than a cake, but very tasty with a nice crispy topping. Im trying to get through the most colossal pile of rhubarb that my mum got from a friend and then passed to me. The freezer now has a lot of stewed rhubarb! I still have enough for a couple of crumbles left i reckon.

www.taste.com.au/recipes/stir-fried-turkey-chilli-basil/bbb24a8b-8c3b-4d2d-b41d-c233d12cc684

www.theseoldcookbooks.com/rhubarb-batter-cake/

Imicola I confess I've never cooked with rhubarb, but that cake recipe looks good. We do used turkey a lot, but I do find it needs quite a bit of flavour to make it anything special.

With the weather turning rubbish I made an apple and BlackBerry crumble this morning:
www.goodto.com/recipes/hairy-bikers-apple-and-blackberry-crumble
The topping turned into more of a dough than a crumble, not sure if I measured something wrong or if the butter warmed up too quickly, but I bunged it on anyway. It came out like a warm cookie dough type dessert, and it was lovely. Very sweet though. Dd's loved it.

Forgot the photo

I've also made quite a few things from Nigella express recently.
Mortadella pasta salad -fine but a bit bland
Grilled cheese and slaw -very nice, the slaw sounded unlikely (apple, carrot, chinese leaf) but worked very well.
Maple chicken and ribs -lovely, more in freezer as it makes a huge amount.

Found a clicky link for the maple chicken:
www.nigella.com/recipes/maple-chicken-n-ribs

@Imicola made the sushi rice bowl with turkey steaks tonight. It worked really well

I have learned an important lesson today, about the limitations of bread makers. I found a recipe online for walnut cake (American), specifically for bread makers. Mine has a cake program, so I thought I'd give it a go. It came out basically raw in the middle, and only afterwards did I think to check how much liquid was in the instruction book cake vs the internet cake. I managed to scoop it into a tin to finish in the oven, but it broke into pieces on the way out, and the texture is still a gluey. Oh well, into the freezer for cake pop fodder...

@GlumyGloomer oh that's disappointing on the cake. Ive only used the recipe that came with the machine before!

Last night i made gram flour crepes from the 10 a day book, and served it with roast squash and chickpea salad with tahini dressing.
Toddler not a fan, DH seemed to think it was ok. I liked the idea of making crepes with gram flour and it tasted ok, but the texture wad a bit dry and inflexible. Almost the texture of injera if you have ever tried that. The squash and chickpeas was fine, pretty much as you'd imagine! Couldn't find any links for the recipes.

Oops, the photo didn't work

Looks good Imicola, would you recommend the book?

More bread machine adventures today, home made pizza. I ended up with a collosally thick base, it would have made 2 pizzas I think. I used this recipe for the topping and it was very tasty. More in the freezer so I can try again some time.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pizza-sauce

@GlumyGloomer i probably wouldn't buy it to be honest as the majority of recipes are normal types of meal with added veg (which is pretty much my normal cooking mode!), but there are some interesting ideas in it. It probably would be useful for folks who struggle to eat enough fruit and veg.

Mmm pizza, that's what i most miss now that our machine is broken! Still can't decide what to do... probably should throw it out as it seems pricey to buy the part we'd need to fix, with no guarantee of success.

It's not very eco but it's a safer bet to just buy a new one.
I do struggle to get the kids to eat a variety of veg, although they eat plenty of the ones they do like so it's not the end of the world.
Today I made a fruit cocktail cake. It was ok, nothing amazing but it used up a lurking tin of fruit cocktail.

fussfreeflavours.com/fruit-cocktail-cake/
Huge amount of waffle to get to the recipe. Very easy, but I think whisking the batter with an electric whisk to get more air into it would give a better result.

I lost the thread!

I have been cooking - quite often Two Chubby Cubs recipes, which are great, by the way! - but the only time DP has appreciated any cooking is when I made caramelised onions

@GlumyGloomer I'm not a big fan of those tins of fruit cocktail but I could probably tolerate it in cake I made a boiled fruit cake today too which was pretty easy!

Hi Clara, glad you found us again
Never made a boiled fruit cake, did it taste much different to a regular one?
Yesterday we got a kit from Franca Manca, first time doing the restaurant at home thing (other than a few diy/supermarket jobs). It was definitely an experience. Dh and I made one pizza each, and they were far from a nice 10 inch circle. I feel like we should have ignored the instructions and just used a rolling pin. They're then cooked in a pan and finished under the grill. This one was a gift, I don't think I'd bother buying the kit myself.

I think i probably have a few lurking tins that never get eaten too @GlumyGloomer perhaps i need to make another cake! Interesting on the pizzas...ive never managed to get a decent shape for mine they are usually kind of rectangular.

Welcome back @ClaraTheImpossibleGirl I've made boiled fruit cake a couple of times and it always comes out nice and moist.

Today i made this braised Chinese beef in the slow cooker, served with rice and stir fried veg. It was pretty good, it makes a really good rich sauce. Perhaps not ideal for the warm weather, but i seem to have a freezer full of stewing cuts!

Sounds delicious Imicola, it's stew weather where we are. No cold but grey and wet and miserable.
On a whim I made this today:
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/mexican-bread-bake.html
Only instead of chorizo I made it with some honey mustard marinaded chicken I had instead. I reduced the milk to 400ml, and I think 300ml would have been better, but it tasted good. Kids would barely touch it though. It's awfully hard to find any sort of one pot dish that they will eat.

My boiled fruit cake was a bit crumblier than the usual fruit cake @GlumyGloomer but I may just have made it a bit too dry! I think it would be tasty with ice cream/ Greek yogurt as a treat.

Your slow cooker recipe sounds great @Imicola (depressing as it is to think of stews etc as good for eating in June!) - I bought the Joe Wicks family cookbook recently but am not sure the DC will go for any of the recipes they seemed a bit fussier than in some of his other cookbooks, the other recipes I've followed have turned out really well.

Fat free tea bread made today to give DP something to put with his packed lunches!

Oops, realised i forgot the link! www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chinese-braised-beef-ginger

@GlumyGloomer that one sounds pretty interesting, was it like a savory bread and butter pudding?

@ClaraTheImpossibleGirl interesting tea bread recipe also, let is know how it is! Might give it a go some time.

It's a good recipe @Imicola, keeps well too. I would say though that it doesn't make a massive cake - only a small loaf - so it doesn't last too long! or at least not with the way DP scoffs it down

I made creamy garlic mushroom pasta yesterday and it was very nice. I added extra mushrooms and it was easily enough for three meals for me