Weekly new recipe thread

[SarahJessicaParkin]

I've decided to try out a brand new recipe every week this year. I seem to make the same things on rotation all the time, so hope this will drag me out of my recipe rut and improve my not great cooking skills!

Would anyone like to join me?

@myrtleWilson that would be great, it sounds like it would be right up my street

Is that in Sirocco or Bazaar @myrtleWilson? If it is then I might look it up :)

It's in Bazaar - I've attached recipe. We used it a lot in the pre pandemic summer when bbq hosting

Lovely ideas here. I recently bought a simple Indian recipe book that I need to take a good look at.

Great thread. I’m in a total rut. Have loads of recipe books but never look at them.

Baked Orzo Puttanesca - I think maybe someone posted this on here recently? DP cooked this earlier this & it was delicious, must have been fairly simple too as he managed to not miss out any ingredients (there's usually a confession as we're eating that he forgot X, Y or Z 😂)

Moroccan detox soup - another one I picked up from somewhere on MN. Lots of recipes around but I think I went with this one. I have been eating this for lunch all week and really enjoyed it. I've added feta / seeds / chopped hard-boiled eggs for a bit more protein and all worked well, I will definitely be making again.

I've just spent a happy hour reading through the thread and noting lots of recipes I want to try. I'm trying to stop eating as many takeaways and to do more batch cooking so will be trying new recipes to keep things interesting.

Chicken, asparagus and Emmental parcels As I'm a vegetarian I swapped the chicken for Quorn chicken pieces, the asparagus for mushrooms and the chicken soup for mushroom soup. They were quick and easy to make and quite tasty. I found the size a bit big for me so might make them smaller next time.

I made Mowgli "angry cauliflower" yesterday - a bit "meh" was general response. I think I contributed to this because our oven runs hot and I have to adjust recipes so perhaps I was baking more than roasting. But still, feel we have better "whole cauliflower" recipes.

Tonight I made Ottolenghi's celeriac tacos with date bbq sauce. Was really good. As ever, a long recipe list but it works. Was a bit stressful as all the energy comes at the end in terms of prep but very good. books.ottolenghi.co.uk/type/flavour-only/page/10/

I can't find the recipe link for it, but I made Sweet potato, ginger and coconut stew from Anna Jones, One Pot, Pan, Planet this week and it was my least enjoyable meal from this wonderful book, it didn't quite have the depth of flavour her recipes usually do. We all enjoyed it, and there's enough for tonight, but didn't love it enough to put it on the list of meals to make again. Hope that makes sense!

Kung pao chicken cauliflower noodles - Marion’s Kitchen
I replaced the chicken with roasted cauliflower (which I’d roasted for another meal) and it was amazing, full of flavour and so quick. My dried chillies didn’t lend as much heat as I’d hoped to the dish (which surprised me as they did with the chilli crisp I made at the weekend) but was still great without being fiery.

Iraqi white bean stew - Meera Soda
We had this meal twice this week with very different views on it. On the day I made I thought it was nice, not sorry I made double for the next day, but probably not one to make again unless I had a lot of cannellini beans going spare. But the next day when reheated and styled as beans on toast I really really enjoyed it. Not sure if I got fatigued by the smell during cooking, or the flavours improved overnight, or if it was an expectations thing.

10-minute Spicy Chilli Garlic Oil Noodles - Marion’s Kitchen
This lived up to its 10 minute name (or would have done if I hadn’t decided to add a fried egg at the last minute) even counting for garlic cutting time. Super spicy, really really tasty.

Curry chickpea rice - Yeung Man Cooking (video
Fine but not that special, which was disappointing as I love baked chickpeas and I love rice. I was surprised with the amount of spices in this that the flavours were so muted.

I did a few dishes from Marion during lockdown but haven't gone back but suspect I should....

Did Diana Henry roast chicken, squash, lentils and picada tonight - was very good. The chicken seemed even juicier than my normal roasting - I'll put that down to showing it in Spanish sherry!

The picada makes this and it is very easy to do...
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/roast-chicken-with-squash-black-lentils-and-hazelnut-picada/

Spicy Cumin Lamb Burger, Ethan Chlebowski
This was really delicious, I was lucky enough to be given some BoTree spices for Christmas and this was a great dish to showcase the cumin. The textures here were perfect, the finely sliced whole muscle of the lamb gave just the right amount of bite, and the bread had a crispy exterior and soft chewy interior - very addictive. I can see myself using this bread in other dishes as it was so good and so easy.

Roasted Carrots and Cabbage with Gochujang, Meera Sodha, East
With gochujang, carrots, and cabbage hanging out in the fridge this side dish just made sense. It’s simple and I really enjoyed it, the roast cabbage was excellent - I have liked it at restaurants but had assumed it would be something that wouldn’t translate well to home cooking, I was very wrong.

Refried Bean & Corn Quesadillas, Gousto
Solid meal. I’ve made various Gousto quesadilla recipes before and always enjoyed them so I wasn’t surprised that this also turned out well. These didn’t crisp up as well as others have, maybe the ‘wetness’ of the sweetcorn impeded it a little, so probably won't be my go-to above this.

This week I have tried a few of the recipes from upthread. The carrot, rosemary & tahini soup from One Pot, One Planet. Actually, I lie - DP made it so I can't vouch for how closely he followed the recipe! The soup was lovely but chickpeas not crispy - I assume they were initially but I was eating later so they had softened by this point. I enjoyed this & would definitely make again.

Ottolenghi's rose harissa pappardelle. I liked this - great weeknight dinner, although I used wholewheat pappardelle & the texture wasn't great so probably wouldn't buy that one again!

Aubergine & Pea curry. Had this last night - simple & tasty, a definite make again. It was surprisingly 'saucy' to say there was no added liquid.

New recipes I've tried:

Beef Stew with Parsnip Dumplings - this was really nice and the dumplings tasted better than I expected when making them! I thought the mixture was going quite gloopy but finished result was good. DS is not a lover of stew and he declared it was one of the nicest things he'd eaten in ages. Result 😂.

Finally, DS cooked from Youtube earlier this week. Took him an age to make & he said it was all a bit of a faff. Maybe anything would have been devoured by the time we got to eat, but it tasted pretty good to me! The naan didn't rise as expected but discovered my yeast was more than a little out of date, so that probably explains it!

Meant to say - I slow cooked the stew in the oven for several hours rather than on the hob so not quite as per recipe - not sure the shin beef would have had the same texture from 1h30 on the hob, but slow-cooked in the oven it was perfect.

ooh @LittleFriendSusan I started following that guy on insta/you tube but because he is the brother of a chef of a nearby restaurant up here in the NE. If you're local do visit and if you're not local but ever in the vicinity - do visit! www.barriocomida.com

Not local @myrtleWilson but we do go up your way a couple of times a year or so, so will bookmark that!

I love the sound of the Ottolenghi pappardelle. I'm always looking for ways to use capers (and honestly I've given up on wholewheat pasta - I already have to eat lentil/pea pasta half the time and when I get to have the lovely wheat pasta I just love white flour).

Food Court Singapore Noodles - Meera Sodha, East
It was nice, but I think I’ll always have the memory of the Singapore vermicelli from my childhood Chinese takeaway to compete with and nothing compares to those noodles. I’ll probably make again as it’s good place to use up random leftover veg and DH loves rice vermicelli and loved this as result

Roasted cabbage with mango and harissa salsa - Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
I loved this so much. So bright and full of flavour. Even though the cabbage ended up turning into cabbage crisps (due to too much time in the oven because of an emergency supermarket trip rather than poor recipe instructions), the harissa and mango salsa was so so tasty. I served with halloumi to make it more of a meal and because love both mango with halloumi and harissa with halloumi. Definitely one I’ll be making again and again.

Blackened sweetcorn chaat - Meera Sodha - Fresh India
I loved the concept of this, but I found it way too acidic to the recipe. After I cooked it I read the intro which suggested adding the chilli lemon and salt slowly and adjusting of your own tastes. Oops on my part, but I’d make again and take more care to balance it more to my taste.

Not a new recipe yet but I was bought Olia Hercules Home Food today for my birthday so if anyone has any suggestions of good ones to start with please do share!

@toastofthetown For capers, you need Alison Roman in your life! I have made all of the following and can heartily vouch for all of them. I can't remember if you're veggie or pescatarian but all of these work without the anchovies (or you can substitute with umami paste, olive tapenade, or miso)

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/buttered-salmon (if you're pescatarian)

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/pantry-pasta

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/pasta-salad-with-zucchini-scallions-and-parmesan

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/iceberg-salad

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/tomato-salad-with-anchovies-and-onion

www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/lemony-white-beans-with-anchovy-and-parmesan

Spicy Sausage & Tomato Sauce With Mushroom Tortelloni, Gousto
Switched this up slightly by using homemade pappardelle and sliced mushrooms, rather than mushroom tortelloni. Nice meal, came together quickly with minimal chopping, and as DH loves pasta so this was a winner despite not being an all time fave.

Roast Green Beans & Tenderstem with Sesame Sauce, Meera Sodha, East
I truly believe roasting vegetables is the best way to eat them, so this was predictably easy and delicious. Upthread I tried a similar Gomaae type side (Japanese Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing) and I had forgotten how strong I find the flavours, so I need to remember to reduce dressing quantity next time!

Chicken with Pineapple and Nduja, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcal
I liked this meal (and the idea of it) enough to try again at some point, but it didn’t hit the way I expected it to and I’m struggling to put my finger on what didn’t work for me. Unfortunately as it was a meal I had when DH was away I don’t have someone else to offer an opinion.

Nian Gao (Stir-Fried Rice Cakes), The Woks of Life
I had this dish at a local Hong Kong cafe and had not been able to stop thinking about it so gave recreating it a go and it was fantastic. There is something magnificently addictive about the texture of the rice cakes, the cafe owner said this is seen as proper comfort food and it definitely tastes like cosy in a bowl. The only issue I have with the recipe is I felt the portion was a little small, next time I will either increase quantities or add something like dumplings on the side.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/food-drink/957374/recipe-steamed-cabbage-with-sunflower-seed-dressing.

Last night I made gochujang pork belly - not a new recipe although I usually do it with chicken. I originally was planning to do pork chops but lack thereof meant I pivoted to pork belly.

I kept with plan to try out the cabbage with sunflower seed dressing from Olia Hercules and was very pleased I did. I roasted the pointed cabbage partly because I had the oven on anyway.

Really liked the dressing - can imagine it would work well on roasted vegetables, salad or on a simple chicken and rice dish. Very easy to make too!

Sticky Hoisin Sausage Traybake - Gousto
Simple and tasty. Admittedly I just used the recipe rather than buying the box but even after adding a carrot I felt like more veg would have been welcome but maybe their veg are bigger than mine!

Paneer kebabs with mint and coriander - Meera Sodha, Fresh India
A good recipe, but I don’t like it more than my favourite paneer kebab recipes (tandoori paneer tikka and sticky mango paneer skewers) so probably won’t make it again for that reason. The mint and coriander yogurt marinade out of the blender was really nice fresh, and a good alternative to coriander chutney.

Winter Pilau - finally got round to trying this. Really enjoyed it - the rice was perfectly cooked and flavours were good. I will probably make the coriander chutney again to serve with fritters, etc.

On a bit of a Theo Randall thing at the moment - his Italian Pantry was the Jamie Oliver cookbook club book for January & although I resisted buying it, I've found a few of the recipes online. It's definitely on the 'to buy' list! This mushroom tagliatelle was a nice simple weeknight pasta dish - for some reason I've never used mascarpone with mushrooms but it worked well.

These meatballs with burrata were very popular on Facebook so thought I'd try them. They were really tasty as were the braised greens. I only had 750g of mince (50g short) and ended up with 20 meatballs rather than the 16 the recipe stated, but some of mine did start to fall apart on turning so maybe I didn't 'squish' the mixture enough. Will make this again.

Then yesterday, chicken thighs with mushrooms & marsala - I used a mixture vermouth & port as had no marsala. This was delicious served with buttery mash & greens.

I also tried the Samosa Tart a few of you had made. As I was making it there didn't seem to be enough vegetables to fill the tart, but I resisted temptation to pile more on and followed the recipe - it was just right, so lesson learnt!! We all enjoyed this, served with a tomato & onion salad.

I have tried a few new recipes over the past few weeks, with mostly positive results:

Greens and Kimchi Rice (One Pot, Pan, Planet by Anna Jones) - This was really nice but definitely needed the egg (to make it a bit more filling) and the fresh kimchi added at the end (to give it a bit more of a kick)

Persian Herb Frittata (Roasting Tin Around the World by Rukmini Iyer) - This is so tasty and really easy to make. I made extra, cut it into sections and froze some for easy lunches.

Roast Aubergine with curried yoghurt (Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi) - This was hands down one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, and it was pretty easy to make too. I don't even like aubergine that much but it was amazing. It was my first Ottolenghi recipe so will definitely try others.