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'm a spud love so might be biased The standout flavours for me were the goats cheese and semi dried tomatoes. The potatoes felt more like something to give it substance rather than flavour. Definitely worth roasting your own tomatoes, it was 5 minutes of prep, if that and they tasted much better than shop bought. The caramel stage was a bit worrying at first as but I just needed to be braver with the heat. Other than that, it was relatively simple. I'm not normally a salad person but this was lovely with salad covered in a strong French dressing.

I like the look of that Tarte @Mildura.
I've just made OTK sticky sausages with plums. I didn't have any pomegranate molasses so I substituted Tamarind with some sugar instead. It's beautifully tangy and I really like the potatoes cooked with the onions & garlic all together in the roasting pan.

Hi everyone,
I've been awol for assorted reasons, also have defected a bit to the Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicals read along thread.
I've made the sausages leeks and beans lentils recipe, and the apricot brandy so far.
@Imicola that cake looks fab
@MilduraS the tart looks awesome, but am I reading right that it's potato, cheese, tomato and caramel?

@MilduraS the tart looks awesome, but am I reading right that it's potato, cheese, tomato and caramel?

🤣 I didn't think of it like that but yes! It's a savoury tarte tatin, like a fancier version of the sticky onion tart from Jamie Oliver's Veg. Must admit I debated adding some balsamic vinegar to the caramel out of concern but decided to trust Yotam Ottolenghi's expertise.

Speaking of Jamie Oliver's Veg, I made his sunshine fusilli pasta the week before last. It was a quick meal but I found the yellow pepper sauce too sweet, even with lashings of hard cheese. His silky courgette bow ties on the other hand are absolutely delicious and just as quick.

Nice to see you back @GlumyGloomer.

I've been making more from the ottolenghi book, plenty. Spicy carrot salad was amazing www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-moroccan-carrot-salad-recipe-ottolenghi-20160520-snap-story.html%3f_amp=true
Beetroot, yogurt and preserved lemon relish was also delicious, and made loads wwwfamilycookbookcom.blogspot.com/2010/05/yotam-ottolenghis-beetroot-yogurt-and.html?m=1
Roast squash with sweet spices, lime and chilli was nice, but not as good as the others. thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/roasted-butternut-squash-with-sweet-spices-lime-and-green-chilli/

Thanks @Imicola
I like the look of the squash recipe.
@MilduraS it sounds great actually, I'd love to give it a go. Caramel is a no go at the moment though as I can guarantee a child will have an emergency at the wrong moment and it would burn.

Made Venison Madras, www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/venison-madras
Using the homemade spice paste recipe. It's good, and a bit different, but not one of my favourites.

Jamie Oliver's Caldo Verde with crispy chorizo.
Delicious.

I'm fferny 😁

Looks good, Cantonet, I love chorizo.
Made a mushroom risotto for lunch, and it was really nice. I used Shiplake mushrooms instead of porchini as that's what I had.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mushroom-risotto/amp
Toddler point blank refused to try it despite liking both rice and mushrooms 🙄
It's topped with a grilled aubergine alla Nigel Slater, which actually worked quite well.

Shitake, I have no idea where my phone got Shiplake from

@GlumyGloomer i was just wondering what shiplake mushrooms were!

I recently made baked cod with orzo and spicy sausage (minus the spicy sausage) from bbc good food magazine... can't seem to find it online though. It had tomato puree, stock , roast peppers, olives etc. Really delicious, very easy, even the toddler enjoyed it. Would definitely make it again.

I guessed it was Shitake 😁.
I've just made Meera Sodha's Savoy Cabbage, Black Kale & Potato Subji from Fresh India. I had a load of cabbage & kale to use up. It's very subtly spiced, with no garlic but so tasty. I was very dubious about this recipe but it's really worth making. Next I'm going to try roasting the cabbage in wedges.
My mum is Irish so cabbage was always boiled...

My breadmaker underperformed at the weekend, giving me a rather doughy loaf. Not wanting to chuck it I made Nadiya's cranberry bread pudding. I burned the top a bit but it's delicious, and feels a bit festive with the cranberry and orange flavour. I know I know, it's still November.
By the way, pay no attention to the fact that I'm cutting it with a cheese knife. It was definitely not the only clean thing in the draw 😅

More Nadiya recipes, from the new book Fast Flavours.
So far I've made the peanut butter egg curry, and the No Waste Carbonara.
The egg curry was pretty nice, but not amazing.
The carbonara was, well, not really a carbonara. The fake bacon made with the left over egg whites was great, but the tahini in the sauce didn't work at all IMO. I'd make it again, but use cream and parmesan with the egg yolks instead.

@GlumyGloomer i don't really get some of the Nadiya recipes. The curry sound good, but the carbonara sounds very odd!
Tonight i made monkey bread from the Leiths baking bible to test out my early Christmas present...a bread machine. It is really good! Balls of slightly sweet dough, rolled in melted butter, sugar and cinnamon, stacked in the tin with pecans. Yummmm.

Hi Everyone
I love popping in on this thread to see all your creations / inspiration. I must admit that I am intrigued by Nadiya's Fast Flavours... There was another recipe of hers (from another series) which made a quiche with a grated potato (rosti style) crust/case. Has anyone tried that? If so, what was it like?
Also I have LOTS of sweet potatoes and am in need of some inspiration (not curries / soup / sweet potato fries as have done all of them a lot) - anyone have any ideas?
Thank you!

@Havehope21 i haven't tried that specific recipe, but i did one which had i think grated sweet potato as the pie crust. It worked ok, not as nice as pastry, but interesting for a change! Should be somewhere up thread if you can find it, i think i shared a photo.

@Imicola that cake looks tasty. Mostly I love Nadiya's out there combos, but I admit the carbonara was a step too far.
@Havehope21 there are certainly some intriguing recipes in Fast Flavours. The banana peel bagle is one I'd love to try but would be a hard sell with the family. We'll see.
It's nice to know that you like the thread, even though it's pretty quiet these days.
To use up the tahini from the carbonara (not a sentence I thought I'd be saying) I made biscuits. They're soft rather than crunchy, and very moreish. I found the mix too wet so added a load of extra flour, which I probably didn't need to as of course the chilling firmed it up a lot too. They might have been more biscuity if I'd followed the recipe properly but I'm happy with them regardless.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/caramelised-honey-and-tahini-cookies

Sorry Imicola, I meant the bread, not cake. What make of bread machine did you get? I'm hoping to use mine soon to make some Nordic Bakery Christmas bread. If I'm not following the instruction book recipes I just use the dough setting and bake in the oven. Is that how you did the monkey bread?

I got a mid range Panasonic. My previous one was a kenwood which worked fine until it broke, so went for something different. Yes, i just used the dough setting also.

I've got a Russell hobbs, it's reasonable but not perfect. The fast bake setting always comes out under baked so I don't use it anymore.

Last night I made Nigel Slater's Lamb Boulanger, which takes half a day but was absolutely delicious. Best of all there's enough for dinner tonight too.
For lunch I tried the leek and potato soup recipe from the Good Food slow cooker book. It wasn’t ready in time for lunch, and when I finally did get around to blending it up with cream I ended up with something the colour and texture of cheese fondue. It also tastes really bland. I let it down with plain water which won't have helped, and now I have three portions to try to rescue somehow. I think for the first batch I'll add a load of curry paste and see if that helps.
Will definitely be sticking to my usual recipe from now on!

Another Fast Flavours recipe for lunch, the Trio of Roast Cheeses.
It was actually really nice. Family distinctly unimpressed but the kids managed some in the end.

Second trial with the new bread machine, which was a rapid white loaf, was a success. Much quieter than the previous machine, and the home in the base was substantially smaller! Bonus.

@GlumyGloomer mmm, i made boulanger lamb many years ago and it was lovely! The trio of roast cheeses... is that 3 cheeses roasted on top of veg? How could anyone be unimpressed by that if so?!

This week I've made roasted cauliflower and parsnip soup, which was pretty good and you couldn't really tell that it was cauliflower and parsnip in it. Also beetroot and tahini soup, which was too beetrooty for me. Both from soup, broth, bread by Rachel Allen... purchased as a Christmas present which i have been borrowing before i give it! Toddler rejected them both on the grounds that they were not carrot soup. But then she's pretty much eating nothing at home other than cheese and bread, so i shouldn't be surprised... and perhaps i need to try the trio of baked cheeses!