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?

Roasted aloo gobi salad - Meera Sodha, Made In India
Really love.I skipped the chickpeas as I wasted a light meal and it was still huge! Roasted cauliflower and potatoes with a herb chutney and poppadoms is never going to fail for me.

Sun dried tomatoes
Due to a mix up with the shopping list I ended up with a punnet of cherry tomatoes (which I didn’t need) instead of sundried tomatoes (which I did). Making them couldn’t have been easier, calved with some salt and herbs and into a low oven for hours. I wasn’t sure if they’d go leathery without oil, but I was really impressed with them. Not sure I’d bother making them again unless I was in a similar situation though.

Sun-dried tomato and sesame breadsticks - Bake With Jack, Jack Sturgess
I substituted olives for sun-dried tomatoes, but this was really delicious. I think the intense sweetness of the tomatoes overwhelms the sesame somewhat. I'd like to make it with olives at some point, but I figured the tomatoes had more mass appeal. Easy to make and worked well - even though I totally ran out of white flour and had to use more wholemeal than the recipe called for. The online link doesn’t include instructions, but the book says that you can bake for an initial 8 minutes, freeze, then cook for another 6-8 minutes when you want to serve them. Other than one which I tried for quality control, that's what I did with this batch.

Ottolenghi chicken Marbella from the simple cookbook. Really easy and surprisingly delicious. The online version stresses the importance of marinating but the book says you can skip. I marinated for a couple of hours. Will definitely make again.

@Frenchfancy that takes me back, chicken marbella was my mum's go-to recipe for entertaining when I was a kid, out of the Silver Palate cookbook! I must make it again soon. She used to marinate it at least overnight, if not longer. It's lovely at room temperature as well if you're doing a buffet lunch in the summer.

I made a new dish - ras al hanout chicken, squash and shallots roasted together in one pan, from an Instagram reel by @ RuhamasFood - absolutely delicious. Very simple, just chunks of boneless chicken (recipe called for breast, I did thigh), a small butternut squash in cubes, 4 shallots and some garlic - the marinade poured all over it just before baking was what made it sing, a combination of warm water, salt & pepper, harissa, honey, ras al hanout, paprika and garlic. She does this thing in a lot of her recipes where she crumples up a sheet of baking paper and gets it all wet and covers the tray with it for the first 30 mins, then removes for the last 10 mins - so there's a good amount of liquid in the tray for having with rice.

I've made quite a few things of hers now, and all have been winners! I think she's an Mizrahi Jewish lady living in the USA so the ingredients are not hard to find. Lots of traybakes, lots of rice, and a complete rainbow of veg treated beautifully.

Chicken Tinga Quesadilla, Ethan Chlebowski
Simple, quick, and tasty. Not my favourite ever quesadilla, but for effort I can’t complain.

Breakfast Burrito, Joshua Weissman
I used this recipe as a base for a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast burrito adjusted for my own preferences. I really enjoyed, and found them surprisingly easy to wrap having never made a burrito before.

Joe Woodhouse cabbage gratin

I made Joe's savoy cabbage gratin last night - super easy and delicious. The cheesy, oniony, mustardy sauce is just perfect for it. We had it as a side dish to some merguez sausages and so I left out the chestnuts from the recipe. But I'd be happy to include and have it as a main.

Am pleased that this worked out as the cheese and potato pie (also available on the link) was a rare fail so feel back on track with joe!

This week I’ve cooked a couple of recipes from Nathan Anthony’s Slow Cooker book. The first one was my favourite- Beef Barbacoa this was so delicious. Full of flavour and so so easy. I had with mashed potato and green veg. The second meal was Chicken Cacciatore, again very delicious and easily made with many store cupboard items. I’m going to take a look and see what else I can cook from here, the ideal cook book for this weather.
Cheese and Pesto Bread Swirls - these were so good. I made for a friend who doesn’t like pesto so that was omitted and they went down really well. I imagine they would be even better with a taste of pesto throughout. These would be great to have over Christmas with a charcuterie.
Funfetti Cookies - not only did these taste great but looked great. I didn’t have enough white chocolate so I substituted milk chocolate which worked perfectly well. These were made a few days ago but I’ve just had one slightly warmed through in the microwave and it was fab.

Chicken & Brocolli Pad See Ew, Ethan Chlebowski
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and it was so quick and easy. But I really do need to master stir-frying noodles into the other components, I always end up with a pile of noodles and the surrounded by chicken, broccoli… rather than them being beautifully distributed throughout.

Alternative “Mince Pie”, Nicola Lamb, Kitchen Projects
I don’t like mince pies, but we had guests over and I couldn’t resist trying this recipe for a festive canapé - essentially a cheese scone layered with mincemeat - especially since my lovely mum gave me some of her homemade mincemeat. Plus it gave me major nostalgia for the local Boxing Day party of my childhood where all the grown ups ate mince pies with Cheshire cheese. I surprised myself by actually really liking these.

Baby Aubergines Stuffed with Peanut and Coconut, Meera Sodha, Fresh India
I couldn’t find baby aubergine and don’t like peanuts so made adjustments to some title ingredients. These were really nice and had that that silky texture I adore in aubergine, it felt like a treat but still suitable for a mid-week meal. I served with rice and Meeras golden garlic raita which was perfect.

Ooh that cabbage gratin sounds amazing!

Romesco sauce
Quick easy sauce to serve with the breadsticks I made last week. I reheated the breadsticks from frozen this week and it surprised me but I felt they were as good as fresh.

I made dinner from BoldBeanCo last night - as they say less of a recipe and more of a concept.

Butter beans with bit of slow cooked onion, bit of creme fraiche (optional but I had some in the fridge to use up) - get them all lovely and gloopy then top with charred cherry tomatoes and a salsa verde - recipe in book went with basil, mint, parsley, capers, anchovy, mustard, sherry/red wine vinegar, lemon and evoo - but again salsa verde can be freestyled up!

I served with some pork chops that I'd brined to make extra juicy but would be just as happy meat free and with some crusty bread.... Delicious flavours and super easy...
(I've not yet tested their bean base approach - where they pimp up canned beans to give an extra va-va-voom but will try this week and share back!)

Can't find a recipe online but here's a link to their tik tok! https://www.tiktok.com/@boldbeanco/video/7267438725972430113

Ha @toastofthetown have just realised your link was also to the BBC (our thread version rather than broadcasting entity!)

Porcini Ragu, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
So rich and full of flavour for a speedy, low effort dish. Highly recccomend and will make again. I agree with the note upthread from @toastofthetown that the pasta water amount is too high, so I just added what I felt was right.

Honey Harissa Carrots, mob
Apparently these went viral in 2022 which I missed! I skipped over the carrot top oil entirely and served over greek yogurt rather than whipped feta. I thoroughly enjoyed these, and I’m confident the extras I cut would enhance the dish further. My only note is that the resultant dish was really oily (despite missing the carrot top oil). The rose harissa I use is quite oily so I wonder if adding that to the carrots from the off, rather than coating them in olive oil for baking then adding harissa at the end, would work better?

Caramelised Red Onion Rice, Meera Sodha, Fresh India
I somehow didn’t realise we barely had 1 portion of rice until just before cooking. I could have nipped out, but thought it would be easier to simply switch it for couscous. This would good, but I think with rice (my preferred carb) it would be really good.

Miso Butter Butternut Gnocchi, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
Wow, a winner of a dish. Such a lush, unctuous sauce, and the flavours melded so well. Both the zaatar butter and the salsa were important supporting roles. I felt the quantity of sauce was a touch overkill, could be reduced to 2/3 or 3/4. Following reading notes from others who made the recipe I changed up the salsa to be more akin to pico de gallo with diced cherry tomato, garlic, fresh chilli, parsley, and lemon juice - which I thought would have more texture, heat, and acidity.

Gnocchi, Felicity Cloake, The Guardian
Used in the above recipe. I found this pretty easy, except almost burning my fingers handling hot potatoes! As it was my first time making gnocchi I wasn’t sure what the texture of the dough should feel like, one of the difficulties of trying something new, but the end product was wonderful so I should have been more confident.

Did a shoulder of pork for a roast yesterday and tried three new recipes for sides:

Carrots with white wine and dill, On the Side, Ed Smith - I would definitely make these again but the recipe called for 45 mins. Even after 90 mins at 180c my 1 inch thick carrots were still pretty firm, so next time I will cut in half at least. I loved the combination of carrots and dill though!

Cavolo nero with orange & garlic from the same book - Another one that was a bit faffy - blanching cavolo nero leaves having stripped the stalks, then peeling orange rind, scraping all the white pith off with a teaspoon and slicing into shreds, then frying with olive oil and adding in the juice of the orange. It was all worth it as end result was delicious - would have been even nicer with a bit of chili but left it out for the kids, who loved it with the orange juice. A good way to get them to eat a surprising amount of dark leafy greens (and green beans which I threw in as well).

Smashed potatoes - this has been going round the instagram reels, where instead of making roast potatoes you boil and then crush with the bottom of a water glass, and then drizzle with oil. The end result was...fine. I didn't find the potatoes smashed evenly and then I got lots of tiny bits of potato without any nice internal fluffiness. Too much crunch relative to unctuous internal softness.

Reminded me why I seldom do a roast though - I like that the kids get lots of veg, but I'd much rather do a traybake or a one-pot recipe!! Getting all 3 of the above plus the meat ready and hot at the same time, crackling edible, etc is such a faff and I actually ran out of steam at the end and didn't make any gravy. And the washing up was mountainous compared to my usual dinner.

Winter Salad with Citrus-Maple-Ginger Dressing, Melissa Hemsley, Feel Good
Had planned to make a pie, but on the day it just didn't appeal - too stodgy - I was after something that felt winter appropriate at the same time as fresh and light, this fit the bill. Full transparency, I took inspiration and completely bastardised it, with changes such as roasting kale for the bed of greens and searing and slicing a rump steak as an extra topping, but this was right what I was looking for.

I hope you all had the best Christmas filled with lots of great food.
This year I made three desserts for Christmas Day, after much deliberation I decided to make;
Triple chocolate Cheesecake Bundt from Bundt by Melanie Johnson. This was the star of the ‘show’. It really was delicious and as a little goes a long way we are still enjoying it today. Unfortunately there is no link,

Jamaican Ginger Sponge Pudding - this is a hot sponge pudding that I made in advance and kept in the freezer. I chose this as an alternative to Christmas pudding which can sometimes be on the heavy side, this was light but warming.

Japanese Soufflé Cheesecake - this was beautifully light and delicate. I added a blackcurrant compote which complimented it really well. Though this was straightforward to do I found it felt slightly ‘damp’ on the base. I decided to turn it upside down and continue cooking for another 15 minutes. Personally, I felt it was the right thing to do.

Christmas Slaw - this worked as a really good addition to the Boxing Day spread, easy to do and very tasty.

@toastofthetown @Xiaoxiong I love the sound of the Dan Dan noodles, but don't like celery, would it work without it, or with a substitution?

Celery, Mushroom And Leek Dan Dan Noodles, Hetty McKinnon, LA Times
Thanks for the recommendation upthread Xiaoxiong, I didn’t adore it but it was tasty enough and perfect for using up the celery and leeks I had leftover. I think tahini based noodle dishes just don’t work for me as well as soy or oil based sadly.

Fluffy Snow-Capped Christmas Morning Buns, Nicola Lamb, Kitchen Projects
I had no plans to bake over Christmas but this recipe appealed so much, and my in-laws were kind enough to let me commandeer the kitchen for a while on Christmas Eve and a fridge-shelf overnight. Making brioche outside my normal baking set-up and without my usual equipment was a choice - no stand mixer, no mini digital scale, no thermometer, no bench scraper, nor my favourite spatula… It was sticky and required perseverance, but such a treat having homemade fresh and warm fragrant buns on Christmas morning - perhaps a new tradition?

Mango and cheese salad with jalapeño and lime, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
I don’t like cheese, but I made this for guests who gave it good reviews! I also enjoyed the bits without I tried without the cheese despite missing an important ingredient.

Charred red pepper tartare with crispy ginger dressing, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
This took a little bit of time, but was well worth the effort, a really tasty snack, and looked so pretty and festive.

Happy New Year to you all!

Some new recipes over the festive period… (apologies for length!)

On Boxing Day, my daughter had requested a Chinese meal - so I did yuk sung, salt and pepper ribs and duck leg pancakes for starters. The ribs and duck legs were new recipes

Salt and Pepper Ribs
These were good but due to unexpected domestic delay I had to keep them warm in the oven for about 40 minutes so they felt a little bit drier than I would have liked… I would make them again but I think I’d probably try Jay Rayners ribs from MasterChef - the critics.

Duck Legs & Pancakes
These worked really well - I went for duck legs rather than whole duck as I thought I’d get more usable meat off the legs (this may well be my imagination - in a similar vein I always find getting meat off a spatchcocked chicken harder than a normal chook!). The marinading process was super easy and the slow braise meant we had tender duck. The flash grilling gave the skin a shiny brighter red look, burnished in parts and crisped up nicely. We had loads of meat! (I bought ready made pancakes, obvs!)

For mains, I did two Fuchsia Dunlop recipes which are old favourites - mapo tofu and Sichuan style sweet and sour chicken, Gok Wan’s twice cooked pork belly and a new recipe for me Gong Bao Prawns -I was going to Fuchsia again but noticed too late her recipe had a longer marinade time so I switched to Ed Smith
thetasteedit.com/gong-bao-prawns/ Gong Bao Prawns
This was delicious - very spicy as it should be but super easy to pull together and would use this recipe again.

Since Xmas, I’ve also made arancini from a left over risotto milanese. I used a combination of Felicity Cloake’s main recipe but x-referencing with a Jamie Oliver one (and using his idea of arriabiata sauce to accompany the arancini)
Arancini
I loved these! As I was starting with a left over risotto rather than making from scratch, I had to wing it a bit on amounts and not having made them before, I was a bit uncertain on how much mozzarella to put in (and for future iterations I’d up that a little bit) but having made them now, I feel much more confident with decision making!. Will plan more risottos to ensure left over arancini.

Finally, yesterday I made a nice warm salad from Bold Bean Co
https://boldbeanco.com/blogs/beanspo-recipes/cauliflower-with-crispy-chickpeas-tahini-yogurt/ Crispy Chickpeas/Cauliflower salad with tahini yoghurt
Classic combinations and it worked a treat - very easy to do - I went down the cauliflower floret route rather than steaks as I had the oven on for the chickpeas and I tend to find slicing a small cauliflower into steaks is a bit crumbly…

Messed up final link - here it is

Cauliflower & Crispy Chickpea salad with tahini yoghurt

Not been on for a while life has been busy but I've been reading and enjoying all the new ideas.

Made recipertineats pasta a la Norma. I've nothing to compare it to because I don't think I've ever had it before but it was tasty, easy and the aubergine was tasty and held its shape. I did cook the sauce for longer than suggested but I also used tinned toms ans a fresh plum Tom instead of passata

Beef Short Rib Rendang, Marion’s Kitchen
Completely bastardised this by axeing the short rib in favour of tenderstem broccoli and seared rump steak to make it more weekday friendly (time and effort). I adored this, it was rich and spicy. I will have to try it with actual short ribs at some point!

Chard and Scamorza Risotto, Jacob Kenedy, The Times
I bought what I thought was a ‘big bunch’ of chard at 250g, however authors idea was 700g! While I could have happily had more wilted and blended greens, all those extra stalks would have added a fair amount of bulk to an already substantial meal. I cut down the butter to 30g and olive oil to 45ml and didn’t miss the extra. Great recipe I will make again.

Easy Apple Galette, Sallys Baking Addition
Perfect for using up some homemade sweet shortcrust I had stashed in the freezer, around 220g, which was about right for half the recipe. It was delicious and as I had already made the pastry it very low effortl.

Happy New Year everyone! I forgot to post over Christmas, so it's a fairly long one from me.
Kale pesto strata - Yotam Ottolenghi
Fairly simple to make, and delicious. I was concerned that the long cook time combined with the fact that I only had enough pesto to cover one side of the bread rather than generously coating two as the recipe suggested would mean the flavour would dull, but it kept the vibrancy even on reheating.

Ricotta dip with hot sauce butter pine nuts - Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
Came together quickly and was amazing. I just had as a dip but I love the recipe suggestion at the start for transforming it into a potato salad.

Pineapple pizza dip - Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
Another quick and simple dip to make. Next time (depending on the spice tolerance of who I’m sharing with) I might add a habanero to the mix.

Baked feta and ras el hanout broccoli salad - Melissa Hemsley, Feel Good
Loved this one and perfect for this time of year. Warming, while still feeling somewhat light. I don’t have much to say because this is one that I knew I’d love and I did.

Creamy Mushroom and Spinach Pasta - Melissa Hemsley, Feel Good
A really good creamy mushroom pasta. I probably didn’t need a recipe for this one, but mushroom pasta is something I never think to add to my meal plan.

Cauliflower and pomegranate chaat - Meera Sodha’s, Fresh India
I mostly made this because I had all the ingredients to use up and thought it would fine but nothing special but I ended up loving it. I added the tamarind chutney from the chaat recipe from East, which added to it, but probably isn’t necessary.

Masala chips - Meera Sodha, Made in India
Another one where I didn’t really need a recipe, but these chips were great (with the caveat they are oven chips).

Shaved Sprout Salad With Brown Butter Apple Vinaigrette - Ben Lippett
Amazing recipe, and a great excuse to use the mandoline I got from Father Christmas. The reduced apple juice caramel was wonderful - though it took twice the time suggested and increasing the heat to medium high to convince it reduce enough. I skipped the pancetta and topped with toasted walnuts instead. I didn’t feel it was missing anything.

Suet pastry - Nicola Lamb, Kitchen Projects
I haven’t made any pastry other than shortcrust since being scared off by a Y9 cookery lesson. This pastry was easy to make, behaved well and cooked like a dream.

Butternut squash, leek and cheese pie
I saw this on Instagram and had to make it. One of those one where I knew I would enjoy it and I did.

Rosemary sauce
A local pub to me makes a pie with rosemary sauce, and I tried to steal the idea here. The sauce was nice enough, but more of a white wine sauce than rosemary - which ended up fairly lost flavour wise.

Spicy Hakka Noodles, Monica Haldar, Shikshak
Full of vegetables and flavour, very quick, perfect mid-week meal.

Baked Cod with Creamy Mushroom & Leek Orzo, BBC Good Food
Simple and tasty. Exactly what I thought it would be from reading the recipe.

Ciabatta, Brian Lagerstrom via YouTube
I’m not experienced working with high hydration dough, so the video meant I could watch processes like the folds and lamination, as well as see the texture at each stage. I really struggled with the last stage of shaping, cutting, and moving to baking pan - I needed to be even more heavy handed with the flour. I also found that a damp tea towel wanted to stick to the dough, so had to use an upturned baking dish to cover for the final prove - this seemed to take an age, perhaps my kitchen was much cooler as it has been cold. The result was a brilliant ciabatta, but I definitely need to practice here as it requires more finesse than focaccia it seems.

I got a few new cookbooks for Christmas and the most used so far is Moro Easy by Sam & Sam Clark - I have the old Moro cookbook and used to go to the restaurant in Exmouth Market 20(!) years ago so this was a brilliant one. So far I've made:

• Bulgur pilaf with leeks, peppers and walnuts
• Whole roast sea bass roasted on a bed of rosemary, fennel and potatoes with a parsley and caper sauce
• Tortilla on sourdough toast with aioli and roasted green peppers

Nothing revolutionary but everything was (genuinely) simple, healthy and loads of veg, and gutsy Spanish/North African/Levantine flavours.