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 often borrow books from the library before deciding if I want to buy them, & I did not buy either Salt Fat etc, or the Flavour thesaurus.

@Imicola I've got a Gordon Ramsay no-cook date & tamarind chutney recipe; could that be the one?

@Georgyporky none of our closest libraries have reopened unfortunately. And no, I'm pretty sure I cooked it. It might be tucked away in a binder somewhere!

@Georgyporky I don't know where you are geographically (I'm in Essex) but we have something called 'BorrowBox' where you can download books from the library, might be worth a look?

I'm trying out your mushroom pasta dish tonight Glumy, thanks for starting the thread! Also put aubergine dumplings on the list, perhaps for next week. I'm also going to try Nigella's no flour almond cake if nap time permits, just need to make sure we have 8 (!) eggs.

Hi @user1464552773 welcome to the thread
I'm going to try the chicken and mushroom cobbler next week, although I probably will add the wine.
I made a flourless chocolate almond torte back in June, and it was lovely. 8 eggs though, that's a big commitment of resources.
I'm making a duck tagine tonight, will post the recipe if it's any good.

The duck dish sounds very exciting for a week night, hope it's tasty. It turns out the mushrooms in our fridge were well past their best and fit only for the compost heap so I changed recipe and made Jamie Oliver's 7 veg sauce instead. Not ground-breaking but a good way to increase veg intake which I'm always looking to do. Maybe even get the pre schooler to eat some tomorrow if I'm very lucky.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/duck-tagine-clementines

Well, it was definitely too ambitious, even though it seemed simple enough. I'll give the full report later when the DC are asleep, it's quite the catalogue of errors 🤦‍♀️

DH has got a "thing" about fruit with meat, so I won't be making the Morroccan duck á l'orange - although I know I would like it.
I've pointed out that he already eats a lot of fruit with meat - toms, courgettes, aubergines etc - but he says he means "real" fruit.

Anyway, much as I love cooking, I won't be doing any for a week!!
Hooray - holiday from tomorrow.
I'll catch up with the recipes on here when I return.

I posted before I read your report - had to pause to do some dinner prep.

Happy holidays Georgyporky! Hope you eat some lovely food. I can sympathise with DH, I can't quite cope with dried fruit in savoury dishes for some reason. Looking forward to the catalogue Glumy, I've struggled a bit with Mary Cadogan recipes in the past but I think that's to do with my skill level rather than anything else.

I love fruit with savory foods with the exception of orange which I can't stand! Not sure why.

Today we had chicken enchiladas, www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chicken-bean-enchiladas nothing fancy, but they were nice and the toddler wolfed it down... not sure If it was because she had helped with chopping and assembly though!

I also made coconut blueberry baked oats (for breakfast tomorrow).nourisheveryday.com/coconut-blueberry-baked-oats/ with the addition of peanut butter. Tastes ok I think, but not sure if I should have it with yogurt or something as it is quite cakey! Its also quite large so may well last all week!

The enchiladas look lovely, did your toddler cope with the chipotle Imicola? The inclusion of eggs in the baked oats intrigues me. I guess they help bind it and make it more filling.

@user1464552773 I got a bit worried it was to spicy so added an extra tin of tomatoes and more beans! Might have gone a bit too far the other way though!

Ok, the kids are asleep. If you're all sitting comfortably, I'll begin....
I'm not great on exact timings, due to DC interference, so I started a bit earlier than I needed roasting the duck legs, then fried the shallots and added the spices. Mistake number 1, using the hob for the next stage. The instructions say hob, and low simmer. Now our cooker doesn't really do a low simmer, unless the contents of the pan is mostly water. As soon as something becomes too soupy then rolling boil is your only option. I should probably get a heat spreader or something, just not got round to it. I should either have started earlier and used the slow cooker, or just used the oven. So when I went back to it the base had burned and it had almost boiled dry. I deboned the duck, which was easy as it was very well done, and then made my next very questionable decision. I decided to cook the cous cous in with the duck, so started by adding hot water and deflating the pan a bit, then adding the cous cous. It tasted fine, but it was not pretty. The dd's have never had cous cous before. Dd2 ate it no problem, but dd1 had a colossal meltdown, refused to eat anything unless we fed her and generally was a pain. It was not a fun meal.
Dh also doesn't like fruit in savory food, so I only did 3 fried oranges. Because they're whole it was easy not to give him one.
All together it wasn't one of my better efforts. I love cooking, but I do find it hard with the kids some times.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/venetian-duck-ragu
In the interest of balance here is a good duck recipe. I've made this a few times, the last 2 times using goose legs, which worked really well. Although I started the goose legs in the oven instead of a pan as they didn't fit, and doubled the sauce quantities. It freezes well.

I've made that duck ragu , I'd recommend it as well. One of the frozen food shops (Iceland, Farmfoods?) sells ducks quite cheaply.

Forgot to say Georgy, have a nice holiday

Right, once half term is over I shall try the Venetian duck. Never cooked with duck before but love the taste. Glumy we have yet to have a meal time without a meltdown/request to be fed, so I feel your pain there. I'm impressed anyone gets their children to eat a home cooked meal with good grace, even when they've helped prepare it Imicola! Before having children I fondly thought they would eat small portions of our food and love olives/lettuce etc from the off. What an idiot I was.

(Perhaps I should have mentioned I've name changed from userxxxxx, as MNHQ has fixed a glitch in my account)

@GlumyGloomer @PersicariaBistortaSuperba I naively thought when we reached 18 months that food mess was done with, but now she is 2 she likes to launch her food directly upwards!

Today I made Argentinian alfajores. They're cookies made out fo flour, butter, cornstarch and lime zest with a dulce de leche filling and sprinkled coconut bits.

I always use this recipe but it's in Spanish, sorry. Hopefully google translate can do a good job if anyone is interested but I'm also happy to help translate or give any tips.

www.laylita.com/recetas/alfajores/

@riverbankfoodie oh, they sound lovely!

@riverbankfoodie they look so good! Google translate worked fine for me, so I'll have to give them a go at some point.

Tonight was a safe bet, the Gennaro Contaldo sea -bream- bass in white wine.
Dd1 has always been fussy. She wouldn't really start weaning until 8 months, and then it was just white carbs for a while. She's come on amazingly since Dh has been WFH and eating with us. Tonight she had a second helping of sea bass, although she still won't eat cooked tomatoes.

@riverbankfoodie Those look delicious, I'm adding them to my list. So far I'm just stealing other posters recipes it seems! @GlumyGloomer How old is DD1?