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...)

Miso pasta sounds great, although I doubt my kids would eat it.
Today I made cake in the bread maker, using the instruction book recipe. It's very dense, but quite tasty.
Also today, roast chicken, which made me think of the old MN chicken trope. My 1.5k chicken has so far fed 2 adults and 2 small kids for 1 meal, and made some stock. Chicken soup tomorrow.
@Wildernesstips re the curry, I think it just had too much salt, I don't think slow cooking would affect that. Possibly my teaspoon was too generous.

I made zhoug with the remaining 99g of coriander I bought for garnishing a curry. Served it with roasted Mediterranean veg and halloumi wraps.

1 bunch of coriander
3 fat cloves of garlic
A handful of parsley
3 birds eye chillis
1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Whizz up everything in a blender, except for the oil and juice, until it has chopped evenly.
Add the olive oil and lemon juice, then pulse it until you have a coarse paste.

That Zhoug sounds really tasty and I've never heard of it.What do you eat it with?

Cooked ottolenghis turmeric eggs with spinach for lunch today. It's so rich & filling, albeit rather fiddly.

Sorry @XSquared I've just read what you ate it with🤭.

I also made Ottolenghis tomato jam this week. One punnet of yellow tomatoes made a third of jar of jam. A good thing too, as I'm the only one in the household who will eat it.

@xsquared, good recommendation for using up coriander (I always find supermarket bunches too big)
@Fferny1 never heard of tomato jam, but being the only one eating whatever I've made is very familiar

Oh, just realised i lost this thread, goodness knows what I've been making, we've had a bad sleep then extremely grumpy period with DD, but hopefully coming out the other side now. I better see what I've missed!
Did katsu pork tonight which is nice enough, but perhaps slightly bland. DD liked the breaded pork and cucumber and kohlrabi that i served it with, but didn't even try the sauce. www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/katsu-pork-sticky-rice/amp

Welcome back @Imicola, hope the sleep is improving. Dd2 is in the process of dropping her last nap, so we've been all over the place with sleep.
Today I made roast duck, and the recipe said to rub generously with salt, all over. I used way too much. The duck itself was fine, but I used the pan juices to make gravey, and it was so salty it practically burned the mouth. Only time I've ever made inedible gravey (hangs head in shame).

Hi everyone - I have come across this thread and am loving all your suggestions (haven't caught up completely yet).

I just wondered if anyone had any good recipe suggestions for pork loin steaks? They were a substitution on a shop... I am not normally a fan as I find them quite thin and difficult to cook. I would really love any advice / inspiration?

@Havehope21 I like this recipe from Delia www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/winter-warmers/pork-stroganoff-with-three-mustards. She uses slices from tenderloin but it’s a similar principle - though you may need to trim the fat.

@Wildernesstips oohh... that looks delicious.

I had friends over for lunch today, first time hosting a sunday lunch in quite a while. As they're up for a bit of adventure I made a Nadiya black pepper cake for dessert. It's actually lovely, although quite hot. I served it with whipped oat cream to cool it down (one guest lactose intolerant). It was my first time using oatly whippable cream, having never before seen a vegan cream sub that could do it. The result was, well a bit like shaving foam, but none the less it did the job.

Today i made pickled courgettes to deal with a glut. Used up 7! I've made this recipe before and it came out really well, so hopefully it will again. May have sliced them too thin but I'll leave them a couple of days before tasting.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/crunchy-courgette-pickle

Today i made chow mein from the hairy bikers Asian adventure book which i have borrowed from the library. Quite good i thought, although as you may expect not earth shattering, and surprisingly the toddler loved it! I swapped pork for chicken breast and had to use soba noodles because that's what was in the cupboard.

I like the hairy bikers on tv but haven't got any of their books. Let me know if it's a good one.

I made plum crumble today, from our own home grown plums. The kids were a bit over enthusiastic and picked so slightly green ones so it was a bit tart, but still nice enough.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/plum-crumble/amp

Oh, just realised I forgot to say hello to @Havehope21! Toddler dd is currently in the process of dropping the last nap (my options are 1, nap, bedtime 11pm-ish, sleep through until 6 or 7, or 2, no nap, bedtime 7PM-ish, wake 3-4 times through the night). I will be more on the ball again soon I hope.

@GlumyGloomer a lot of the recipes have ingredients i am unlikely to have, which is a shame as they look good. I'll have another look through and see if there are any others i might manage. I've always been on the lookout for a good Asian cookbook which doesn't have the issue of tricky ingredients. Yum, i love plums! Don't get them often enough. Hope your toddler sleep is improving... we've just come out the end of the exact same with ours! No more naps apart from occasionally in the car at the weekend, and thankfully she is back to normal sleep wise after we put a gate on her bed... took a while though and lots of trial and error.

Ah yes, unavailable ingredients can be a problem. I used to always try to track stuff down, and was soon drowning in things I didn't know how to use up. These days I sub much more often. It usually works out ok although I've had a few misfires.
Trying to menu plan for next week, drawing a total blank...

This weekend i made this fiery upsidedown pineapple chicken recipe. Very easy, and i liked the fact the recipe included flexibility to use whatever you have in the house! First night i think the sauce ended up too watery, so with the leftovers i boiled it down a bit and it was quite nice.
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/fiery-pineapple-chicken/

Oh, looks nice.
Our shopping arrived without chicken nuggets today. Cue howls of protest from the kids. So I had a go at making some. They came out a little bland (probably less salt than the usual) but nice with ketchup. Dd1 liked them, dd2 less convinced but managed a bit.
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/breaded_chicken_nuggets_35643

If we get to a second thread I plan to put together a list of all the recipe links from this thread. Not sure if there's a limit on post size though as it would be huge 🤔

@GlumyGloomer chicken nugget type meals usually go down well here! Not so much that pineapple chicken, or tonight's pork vindaloo, although i thought it was quite good if a little watery. She did, however, like the marrow and pecan cake made without icing.
greatcurryrecipes.net/2013/05/22/vindaloo-curry-recipe-authentic-goan-pork-vindaloo/
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/marrow-pecan-cake-maple-icing#commentsFeed

The cake was good... easy recipe, came out really well, and it's nice and moist.

That sounds like a good way to use up marrows!