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...)

Persicaria she's 4, and dd2 is 1. Dd2 weaned effortlessly, and still eats more or less everything.

Back to Nadiya's time to eat tonight, with chicken curry. Apparently you cook a whole chicken, then Debone it towards the end. If I can I'll also make her no yeast naans, which I've done before and are pretty tasty. I'll report back tonight.

www.bonappetit.com/recipe/simple-ribollita

I have made this today. It was so good. I did make up chicken stock using cubes rather than just water though.

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product, but here's one of it in progress. I did half the amount of peppercorns and no chilli, and it was lovely. The chicken didn't fall off the bone as easily as it was supposed to, so the carcass is in the slow cooker at the moment and I'll strip the rest of the meat later.
Didn't get to make the naans though.
Lonelynow that looks good, although I confess I'd skip the kale.

I have a chicken in the freezer and was thinking it would be good to try cooking it in the slow cooker. I usually poach it. I love having a whole cooked chicken. So much better than individual bits, you get stock, and there it's always loads left over for sandwiches. My favourite is chicken, avocado and mayo. But I digress.

Mixed day for me. I had some veg which needed using up, so I tried to make them into a curry I could freeze. I put aubergine, sweet potato and a green pepper in the slow cooker with yesterday's curry paste (you make a huge batch) and some coconut milk. The result smelled so bad we've written it off. Somehow it just brought out the worst of the aubergine.
On the flip side the smoked mackerel quiche I made for dinner was a triumph.
I always buy my pastry, but this time I decided to give the Nordic Bakery recipe for pastry with creme fresh a go, and oh my goodness it's divine. It's butter with a small amount of creme fresh creamed together, then mix in bread flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt to make a very wet dough. Chill for at least 2 hours then roll out and put the filling straight in, no blind bake.
I now have a open tub of creme fresh to figure out what to do with though. Any suggestions?

Ps, I know the spelling is wrong, but it's not phonetic and auto correct is not helping.

@TheGhostofGlumy this quiche looks yummy 😋

Just spotted this thread on active and I love the idea. Have a few things I’d like to try. Will be back...

I came back to making soups,nothing better on a cold day

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/butternut-squash-soup-chilli-creme-fraiche

I love butternut squash at this time of the year.

Looks good @FrenchBoule, I'll give it a go!

Give it a go,it’s really nice :)

On a different note: how do you choose the recipes to try? Do you search for something specific or just browse and something catches your eye?

I've used 2 systems for meal planning. If internet based then I have a weekly rotation of casserole, stir fry etc and look at those categories. At the moment though I'm mostly cook book based as I'm on a big decluttering drive so I'm testing how many are worth keeping. I'm literally trying everything unless it really doesn't appeal, although some recipes I know I'd love but annoyingly my family wouldn't.

Story of my life, what I like and my family doesn’t 😕 fussy buggers

Dh doesn't like rice. I mean who doesn't like rice ffs? All those lovely one pot rice dishes automatically out, sigh.

@GlumyGloomer oh no, we have rice about half the days of the week!
@FrenchBoule I sometimes just spot something I like the look of, but usually I either find a recipe for the type of thing I fancy, or I search for something with the random selection of ingredients I have thay need used up!

Takeaway tonight though!

Oh, jealous! We've got an improvised slow cooker sausage and mushroom casserole, which smells alright so will hopefully be nice.
Tomorrow is Nadiya's peri peri chicken drumsticks, and FrenchBoule's butternut squash soup on sunday. I might try to make some bread to go with it, although the kitchen is tip at the moment.

The piri drumsticks were delicious, it's a method I've never used before where you boil them first, then coat and finish in the oven. As per her usual method in this book though you make a huge batch of the spice rub, and I always wonder what I will do if I don't like it. Not been an issue yet thankfully.

Ooh, this group sounds fun! Can I join in? I'm trying to decide if I want to buy Jamie's new book so tried out a couple of the recipes that are online to see what I think.

Last night was creamy prawn stuffed salmon (thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/jamie-olivers-creamy-prawn-stuffed-salmon) and tonight was easy peri peri chicken (thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/jamie-olivers-easy-peri-peri-chicken)

Both were lovely, though the peri peri sauce was maybe a bit too on the hot side, but I'm still debating on the book 😂

Any good recipes for cupcakes? Toddlers birthday on Monday and she is obsessed with cupcakes since we got her pjs with a cupcake on! I'll better make some tomorrow!

@Imicola these are lovely, I usually top with vanilla buttercream and chocolate buttons. Nice with raisins in too, I made them for dd2's first birthday.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/dotty-banana-fairy-cakes

Hi @Chocoqueen, welcome
Back in the days before music was all on the internet I had a policy of buying an album if I liked 3 singles from it. Maybe try one more and then decide? I love the idea of trying before you buy, I'd never thought of that for cook books.

Just realised I forgot to say hello to @PurpleDaisies, sorry about that. Welcome aboard

Hello! I think I posted once then disappeared so don’t worry at.

My sister sent me a vegan goulash recipe from Bosh. It’s got parsley dumplings in it which found exciting. I’m not convinced by the “goulash” name for something without meat but like the idea. That’s today’s lunch.

There’s a video on Facebook or the recipe here...

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/veganrecipes/comments/j1higr/goulash_dumplings_by_bosh/