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?

Tonight I made "Kohlrabi with miso meunière" from Mezcla. It was good but I won't be making it again. I get where she is coming from about making vegetables the star of the show and she references her and Ottolenghi's Cafe De Paris Celeriac as part of the inspiration for this dish.

However, am not sold on roast kohlrabi in the way I was sold for celeriac. The miso meunière was lovely and as she says it goes well with fish/steak/roast chicken etc actually I'd probably make it again (as she says) to go over a pile of lovely mashed potatoes or some roasted asparagus.

So sauce good, wrong application of kohlrabi as far as my tastes go... I much preferred Ottolenghi' s Kohlrabi 'noodle' salad as a way to use the green knobbly one!

Interesting about the kohlrabi with miso meunière, as I'm quite lukewarm on kohlrabi in general. Mashed potatoes sound amazing!

Dirty rice - Yotam Ottolenghi, Flavour
Robin and Myrtle's recent posts encouraged me to pick up Flavour again which is (surprisingly) a book I haven’t picked up since almost a year ago. I feel almost bad including it under this title as I changed a lot and feel like one of those awful recipe reviewers (didn’t have black garlic or chestnuts, added most of a punnet of coarsely diced baby button mushrooms with the onions as they needed to be used, used fried garlic from the Chinese supermarket rather than frying my own, and adjusted the method to cook in my rice cooker). But for a simple Monday night dinner it’s a great dish and - the way I made it - mostly with store cupboard ingredients, though I’m sure the black garlic would have been amazing with it.

Japanese spinach broccoli salad with sesame dressing - Just One Cookbook
I’ve had this recipe in mind since I saw Summa make it over a year ago and finally made a version of it. Swapped spinach for tenderstem since I massively underestimated how much 4-5 oz of spinach is. The dressing is delicious and easy and I’ll definitely make it again.

Quick Coconut Dal and Tomato Sambol - Meera Sodha, East
Really loved this dish. Warming and comforting, with the sambol to liven every up. Definitely one to make again.

Tonight I made green Thai curry salmon fillets on coconut rice: cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023826-green-curry-salmon-with-coconut-rice

I was a bit dubious as I was cooking it as the rice seemed so gloopy but it ended up absolutely delicious. The rice was a bit like a risotto with loads of greens mixed in and the curry paste gave it just enough warmth that it wasn't boring. Love the one-pot cooking as well! Can recommend to anyone looking to put an excellent pescatarian dinner on the table in 30 mins after work!

Bought two new cook books today - Meliz's Kitchen - simple Turkish-Cypriot food, and The Modern Spice Rack. Both look really good but I opted for this One-pot Minced Lamb and Conchiglie Pasta It was so good!

I couldn't find any turkish sweet pepper paste so google told me I could sub paprika into it for the Chilli Butter stage (basically the same chilli butter you pour over Turkish Eggs) - I'm going to seek out the proper paste to see how that works (plus she uses it in other recipes!). I've always been a little hesitant about the idea of putting cold garlic yoghurt on pasta but hands up, I was very very wrong!

Is it possible to copy and paste the recipe please? I’m not a subscriber.

@MonsoonMadness here you go, see attached! Was a really nice pescatarian one-pot dinner.

For 6 salmon portions plus 350g sushi rice, I ended up using a whole jar of Waitrose green curry paste which was a 190g jar. If I used a proper Thai paste like Mae Ploy I probably could have used less!

Yesterday I made Meera's PSB Pad Thai - like a previous poster I found the amount of peanut butter too much - not so much for the taste element but for the final phase of cooking/serving. The PB meant the sauce was 'claggy' when added to the noodles which meant that the final stir through took longer than it should to properly separate the noodles into noodles rather than clumps. The flavour was good on eating (although I did add a liberal amount of peanut rayu I had knocking around). I checked Anna Jones as a comparison and she doesn't use any peanut butter but includes lots of peanuts as topping.

For an unplanned compare and contrast, tonight I made Meera's ben ben noodles (a fave of mine so not properly counting as a new recipe!) and the tahini based sauce here - similar to AJ's would have been better for the Pad Thai.

Roasted Cabbage with Mango and Harissa Salsa, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
This recipe caught my eye when I first got Mezcla, and good reviews from @toastofthetown made me even more excited. It was sensational, so vibrant and full of flavour. I served with grilled chicken and some little dinner rolls which were fantastic for mopping up all the tasty oil residue on the plate.

Black Pepper Pork Steaks with Pineapple and Peppers, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
Very disappointingly I was unable to get small green peppers or even a basic green bell pepper, so I had to make do with red - which was fine. The dish was wonderful, a little involved with quite a few elements coming together at the end (this was from the entertaining section), but well worth it. The super savoury pork married beautifully with the charred sweet vegetables. I would be very tempted to make the pork again for other meals as it was so tasty.

Two new recipes from me

Thomasina Miers Chicken Legs and radicchio
I love a chicken traybake - often make Diana Henry's chicken/cauliflower/parmesan and Nigella's chicken and leek/peas but found this recipe because I'd bought some radicchio at the greengrocers and wasn't in a salad frame of mind.... Really delicious and easy to do - the chicken fell off the bone and the creamy vegetable/pancetta accompaniments were perfect for an easy, hands off mid week dinner.

Then tonight i've made Esther Clark's roasted carrots... @toastofthetown and @SummaLuvin posted an instagram post from Hans.Hungry which was a nod to a recipe from Esther. I went down the rabbit hole and then bought Esther's book "The Modern Spice Rack" - which looks likely to be fab! I decided to do Esther's original tonight - changes from the insta post relate to the spices to roast the carrots (nigella seeds, garam masala and kashmiri chilli powder) and the herbs used in the yoghurt base (mint and coriander) fried, crispy shallots but no hazelnuts as in the insta post.
Regardless of differences, am sure the insta version was as delicious as Esther's - I loved the spicing of the carrots and the cool, herby yoghurt. I served it with some roasted chicken thighs and definitely will go on rotation - super tasty easy to do, no difficult sourcing. I have left over herb yoghurt that I'm planning to use in the morning for a version of Turkish eggs. Thank you toast and summa for sending me down the rabbit hole!

@myrtleWilson I had clocked The Modern Spice Rack and have been convincing myself I don’t need another cookbook…

Pan roasted cauliflower with saffron butter - Anna Jones, One: Pot, Pan, Planet
A really good recipe that I can see myself making again. The flavours were tasty, but also allowed the cauliflower to shine. I was a bit concerned that the vinegar might overpower but as the pan had just come out of the oven it was so hot the vinegar evaporated very quickly. I didn’t weigh my cauliflower, but I think it would make a pretty stingy main meal for four. I served the full recipe as a side between three, and three quarters of it went.

New recipes this week for me have been the samples from Africana from the JO cookbook club - we enjoyed them so much I have now bought the book and there is so much in there I have my eye on... Link to recipes

Spice island fish curry - this was the first one I tried, made with hake & prawns. Loved it, fairly simple and very flavoursome with the tamarind & lime. I could have had a bit more heat but DP not a chilli lover & it was fine for him.

Poulet Yassa - made this the other day, marinated overnight and finished off after work. I used red onions & shallots as had no brown ones left, so the end result was a bit darker in colour, and subbed yellow peppers for red. Loved this too, we had with couscous & tenderstem broccoli which worked well although not sure it was very authentic!

Fried Halloumi Wara Wagashi - another success. We had with flatbreads and DS declared it the best halloumi he'd ever eaten.

I can't wait to get stuck into this one... also downloaded kindle sample of Meczla this morning as have been inspired by so many of your reviews - the cheesy aubergine is on next weeks plan as is Anna Jones's PSB Pad thai.

@myrtleWilson I had seen her reference it was her take on someone else recipe but didn't look into like you did. Esthers spicing on the carrots and choice of herbs sound amazing, and actually more up my street than the insta recipe. I will have to research that recipe book, even if I am on a book buying ban....

I wish you hadn't posted the link to the JO cookbook club @LittleFriendSusan! The recipes from Africana look incredible, I've ordered the book...and joined the Facebook group 😁

Aubergine dhansak - I'm a big fan of the Mowgli recipe books. I thought I'd made this before but I'm not convinced I have. Such a depth of flavour, beautifully rich. DH is the most reluctant of us all to eat vegetarian food (we eat vegetarian food 80% of our time), but this dish really stands alone and needs nothing more than its ingredients.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/indian-vegan-plant-based-recipe-idea-b2240401.html

This weekend I tried a couple of new recipes (and revisited a couple of older ones) including a new recipe for focaccia. This is absolutely delicious and so light and fluffy- my friend said you could use it as a pillow!!! I tend to agree. It does require attention from time to time but it’s no big deal.https://www.bakewithjack.co.uk/blog-1/2022/5/19/no-knead-focaccia?format=amp

I also made this ice cream ahead of time and it’s so so easy and tastes delicious- if you don’t like black cherries you could easily use another fruit.
https://www.amytreasure.com/wp-json/mv-create/v1/creations/65/print

I do love a lemon cake and this is so good, the cake itself is very buttery in flavour. I would have the amount of crumble as it was a bit excessive! But it is very nice to nibble on after the cake has disappeared.
https://ninakneadstobake.com/italian-lemon-cream-cake/#recipe

Just bobbing on to say @SummaLuvin OMG the Mezcla roasted cabbage with mango/harissa salsa is an absolute banger of a dish - I made it tonight with roasted chicken thighs - a delight!

Pasta Alla Norma, Yotam Ottolenghi, Simple
Recommended upthread by @toastofthetown. This dish was a hit, which was absolutely no surprise given the ingredient list. I did make the annoying mistake of cooking the aubergine on foil rather than parchment leading to a certain amount of sticking, but otherwise no complaints.

Shoyu Ramen with Chashu Pork, Marion’s Kitchen
My first venture into traditional ramen. While there is no denying this was a labour of love and time consuming, the process was not challenging and hands on time not that great. It’s also a dish where most components can be made, in bulk, ahead of time (and frozen) so comes together quickly on the day.

Broth - very straight forward and very undemanding, as I work from home I had it simmering away and checked on it intermittently. This was so delicious, I will be tempted to make whenever I need a quality chicken stock.

Pork - I was unable to find pork belly, so made do with pork shoulder following the same process. It was my first time trussing meat and Marions method was easy - I had expected it to be a real struggle to get the hang of - nothing else was remotely difficult. I really liked this, the fattier parts of it were so tender (like all of it would be had I used belly) and there were parts with a little more bite and chew which made for a great textural element to the ramen.

Final bowl - I used the reserved pork braising liquid as the tare. For toppings we had the shiitake mushrooms from the broth, soy eggs, chashu pork slices, spring onion, pak choi, and chilli crisp. Sensational, while I won’t be putting in this much effort for a weekday meal on very regular basis I will make it again.

I've not tried Marion's ramen @SummaLuvin but it looks similar to Felicity Cloake's how to make.... which I have done and very much enjoyed. To be honest I often short cut it now in so much as I buy ramen stock (itsu - but could go fancier if one wanted) and then add the tare to the stock and proceed...) I also don't make a full chilli sauce but just use from a jar of chinese chilli oil thus mixing up my countries a bit!

A new one for me this week but not for the thread as I know @Robin60 and possibly others have already made this- Ottolenghi's aubergine ricotta dumplings

When I made the rolled aubergines in coconut curry dhal last week I was in two minds whether to do that one or the dumplings. It seemed sensible in the end to do them both.

Such a lovely dish - although just under two hours in prep/cooking - none of that is that harried frenzy of some recipes - chop aubergines, pootle whilst aubergines are cooking, smush aubergines, pootle whilst aubergines are cooling in fridge etc. The most labour intensive element was probably grating the parmesan!

Am so pleased I made this - the aubergine dumplings were feather light and baking them in the tomato sauce gave a depth and jamminess to the sauce to give a bit of heft compared to the dumplings. Both elements (sauce and dumplings can be made in advance)

Very excited this week as just back from greengrocers and they had poblano peppers so will be doing Ixta's stuffed peppers and some rajas tacos this week!

This week I made a cheese, onion and potato pie for the first time, I made it fit a neighbour and it was described as amazing!!! So I was really pleased. One thing I would say is that it made a huge amount of filling. With the leftover filling I made a few individual pies in a Yorkshire pudding tin. The recipe really is no effort but it appears it tasted really good.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/recipe/john-whaites-potato-cheese-onion-pie

I've largely been delving in the Africana recipe book this week. I'm making a few recipes today for guests, which I'll report back on, but so far I've made the halloumi dish referred to below and Paradise Prawns in Creole sauce, there's no link I can find.

I'd never even heard of Grains of Paradise, let alone used this spice in cooking but what a wonderful discovery. The dish was peppery rather than chilli hot, a delicious and simple, clean flavour. I made the East African Chapati to go with the dish.

This is a wonderful recipe book!

@needastrongoneagain I have also been mainly cooking from Africana again this week - apologies for leading you into cookbook temptation 😂

We’ve had Berbere meatballs which were really tasty. I made the ethiopian apices clarified butter the night before - although a bit of a faff it was worth it for the flavour. I did go to work the next day stinking of curry though - lesson learnt, next time close all doors as the smell seemed to cling to everything! I used ready made spice mix as had bought this in for another recipe earlier this month.

Ras el hanout rainbow roast with chermoula - roast vegetables, chickpeas & halloumi with a chermoula marinade / dressing. Simple and very tasty. This was the first time I’ve eaten plantain - I enjoyed it but DS not keen! I thought the dressing made it and will make this again soon.

I served this with the grain salad from the same book - really enjoyed that too. The grains in this recipe are steamed which I’ve never actually done before (so you rub oil into the grains, moisten with a little stock and steam on baking parchment / cheesecloth for 10 minutes). I used couscous - misread the recipe and added twice as much oil as I should have, so added extra grains to compensate, so not sure how far off the correct ratios I was, but it still worked well & I think added a bit of depth of flavour compared to my usual soak & leave method.

Also made the apricot glazed fish, this was a lovely marinade, sweet from the apricot jam with the sourness of the lemons. Served this with rice & roast cabbage & we all really enjoyed.

Then I made the spiced banana bread yesterday — this looks to be almost the same recipe https://leratofoods.com/blogs/leratos-kitchen/sugar-free-banana-bread-with-oats-dates. We’ve almost polished it off between 2 of us in a day so that should tell you all you need to know! I found it took slightly longer to cook than the recipe suggested, but not sure about my loaf tin size & may not have fully preheated my oven.

Can’t find many recipes from the book online but would really recommend it to anyone else who’s considering it. I’ve cooked more from this in 2 weeks than any other books I’ve bought recently.

Last new recipe for the week was Anna Jones’s Purple sprouting broccoli pad thai https://thehomepage.co.uk/anna-jones-crispy-tofu-and-broccoli-pad-thai/. I tweaked slightly in that I coated the tofu in cornflour before frying for a bit of extra crispness, and left out the thai basil as I couldn’t get hold of it. I found my rice noodles didn’t really soften in cold water even after double the soaking time so I ended up adding boiling water. The packet suggests cooking in boiling water so not sure if it’s just the noodles I bought. Anyway, the end result was delicious, really enjoyed it & even the noodle wary teenager ate it all. I might invest in this book at some point as I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve made from it (currently reading on kindle unlimited and previously had from the library on Borrowbox, but I do prefer a hard copy).

Sorry - mammoth post from me today, well done if you made it to the end!

I love the sound of the PSB Pad Thai @LittleFriendSusan. The rice sticks I have at the moment are super hardy and take quite a long boil to soften - so I’d probably skip the soaking step. Here are my recipes for last week. Better late than never!

Baked Sweet Potato Biryani - Gousto
A very simple recipe. It was fine, nothing special, but I can’t complain for the effort I put into it.

Oyster mushroom tacos - Meera Sodha
I loved the salsa, but the recipe itself was a bit underwhelming. Maybe because I had really high expectations. I found the sauce was too liquidy for the mushrooms to crisp up properly. It was still good and I ate it happily, but probably not one I’ll make again.

Red curry sweet potato gratin - Ixta Belfrage Mezcla
Really quick and easy to assemble and tasty. It’s warming and filling, but somehow never felt too heavy. Not a total star like some Mezcla recipes, but one I can see making as simple but tasty side dish again and again.

Chole Bhature

I've eaten this before and possibly made it but not using this recipe. The one I think I made was a short cut and Dishoom's version of this seems quite involved so happy to use Maunika's version.

(as an aside, Maunika's butter chicken is the only butter chicken recipe I cook - its funny how you 'stick' to some recipes isn't it!)

So this was lovely - our usual chick pea curry would be chana masala so it was nice to do something chickpea based but with different flavourings. I followed recipe including using dried chickpeas which always introduce an element of jeopardy as you never know exactly what the cooking time will turn out to be! The teabag gives a slight hint of tannin and depth of colour and coupled with the sourness provided by pomegranate and the methi to top the dish gives it a lovely tang!

NB - I used her cookbook rather than website and it is in cookbook she references methi. Also, I didn't have pomegranate powder but a google for substitutes brought up chaat masala which I used but I did contemplate both pomegranate molasses or tamarind paste which she mentions on website.

We had roti with it rather than deep fried puris but I did a quick search on deliveroo to see if I could get puris delivered but sense took over!!

Not. one to attempt is you're looking for a quick turnaround but if you're in the mood for some kitchen therapy, I'd recommend!

Joe Woodhouse - Savoy Cabbage Gratin

I picked up Joe's book a few months back but for some reason nothing grabbed me on first read through - have rectified that now!

Last night I made this cabbage gratin - super easy to do - the sauce is slow cooked onions and garlic blitzed up with lots of dijon mustard (I added more than recipe as I love a mustardy tang!) and creme fraiche.

Simple to do and lovely flavours - will report back on next outing from his book.

I didn't think to look up if Felicity had an article on ramen! Thanks for the link @myrtleWilson I love reading her 'how to make the perfect...' articles. I hadn't thought of sweetcorn topping, but can see myself incorporating that.

Tuna Poke Bowl, Joshua Weissman
I used Marions method for washing and cooking the rice (no rice cooker), and Joshuas method for seasoning and cooling the rice, I was really happy with the results, I didn't use all the sushi zu. Frying the shallots as instructed meant I am left with a fragranced oil which I’m sure will enhance my savoury dishes for the next week or so. I used the cucumber pickle from this Meera recipe as I really enjoy it and thought for the little effort it would add extra zing. I removed avocado and added diced mango (could have been riper) to suit my preferences. The tuna marinade was delicious, elevating the fish while not overwhelming it, and making it the star of the show, as it should be. The accompaniments all worked together to create a really harmonious plate of food in both texture and taste. This would become part of my regular rotation if sushi grade fish wasn’t so expensive.