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?

Brown-Butter Butter Beans With Lemon and Pesto, Ottolenghi
A star of a dish, it seems like alot of butter (and it is) but it is delicious and the pesto compliments it perfectly.

Chocolate & coconut breadcrumb cake, Benjamina Ebuehi, I’ll Bring Dessert
A really fabulous, simple cake. Very easy to pull together and has such a lovely texture.

Prawn Okra and Mango Juice Stew with Coconut Rice, Ixta Belfrage
I’m an okra doubter (only ever tried okra fries at Dishoom) and loved this, not at all slimy - vibrant and low effort.

Very Vanilla Birthday Cake, Benjamina Ebuehi
Just what it says on the tin, the crumb is rich and dense, and the topping buttery. I love that the full quantity perfectly uses up a tub of sour cream.

might have to try this @SummaLuvin
found it here also Yotam Ottolenghi's brown-butter butter beans with lemon and pesto recipe - Recipes - delicious.com.au

Porter beef shin ragu with parmesan orzo, Alexina Anatole, Bitter
Apologies for the daily mail link, the only online resource I could find with the recipe. A really tasty ragu, I’ve never done a version with milk before and it came out lovely. I served with the suggested parmesan orzo, which was nice but very rich especially alongside the ragu, I think I would prefer with the hunk of crusty bread.

A very quick clam stew, Ixta Belfrage, Mezcla
Super simple and a pretty basic ingredient list (for Ixta) - cracking dish. I choose to add the optional beans and serve with toast to mop up the broth and found it really satisfying.

18-carat laksa, Meera Sodha, Dinner
As a tofu sceptic and non-vegan I choose to substitute the puffs for king prawns - very happy with that choice. I added an extra step of straining the broth as I dislike the graininess I always get when blending carrots (am I doing something wrong?), I also misread and blended all the carrots which I won’t do next time as it would have been nice to have some solid pieces to eat. I will be making this again, especially since in cold weather I crave soups.

Ottolenghi smoky aubergine pasta
Loved this dish, I have OTKS but hadn't looked at this recipe before - I've been missing out! Takes a while but not faffy... I charred the aubergine/onion/tomato in the oven because I couldnt be bothered to griddle and ventilate for 45 mins. Super tasty and very smoky and will definitely put this on rotation!

Curried cauliflower and cheese filo pie, Ottolenghi Test Kitchen Shelf Love
Predictably tasty. Not much work over a classic cauliflower cheese and looked special.

Guajillo Butter Spatchcock Chicken, Susana Villasuso, Sobremesa
Really enjoyed this, I wonder if next time I would be better pushing the spiced butter under the skin and sprinkling the top liberally with salt to get a crispier skin.

Heirloom Tomato Pico de Gallo Salad, Susana Villasuso, Sobremesa
Just what it says on the tin - vibrant, fresh, and well balanced.

Roast potatoes with green sauce and tahini, Ottolenghi
I did roasties my own way, but the sauces were amazing with them, a real treat.

Plum and Mascarpone Karpatka, Nicola Lamb, Sift
I don’t think I took the plum element thick enough so it caused structural problems when layered, made worse by the fact I didn’t have the correct size spring form tin so it wasn't all contained nicely in a tin resting in the fridge (mine was just stacked on a plate). It was a charming mess and utterly delicious!

Sweetheart Cabbage Okonomiyaki, Meera Sodha, East
I’m glad I searched this thread for the recipe and found a note from toast saying it was massive, I halved the recipe and am very pleased I did. I made it for brunch with a piece of sourdough toast on the side and found it very filling. One of my guests was veggie, so this recipe made sense and we all really enjoyed, but I’m eager to give the Felicity Cloake version with dashi and pork a go.

I made those potatoes this week too @SummaLuvin! I had bought a week or so ago a large tub of tahini from a local international food store rather thatn the smaller more expensive ones at Sainsburys and have made a proper dent in it with a tahini heavy week!

bloody hell - would one of you invite me over.

PLEASE?

So much goodness to gobble up.

Crisp soy chicken biryani, Ottolenghi
I didn’t get the crisp base sadly, but it was great regardless and has such lovely flavour. As suggested I served with a simple herby cucumber salad which was perfect. This is the first time I have found Ottolenghis portion size way off, this was massive, it would feed 6 hungry people easily, or 8 people if a good pudding was to follow.

olive oil & toasted almond cake with burnt honey cream, Benjamina Ebuehi, I’ll Bring Dessert
A beautiful cake, as I have come to expect from Benjamina, and the burnt honey cream was really special and very strongly flavoured - ideal since the oatly cream I had bought in for my dairy free guest had a slight UHT taste which was entirely masked.

Smokey Spanish rice with peppers and peas - Gousto
Super basic, and exactly what I expected. Not going to set the world alight, but a nice midweek meal.

Banana self saucing pudding - Nicola Lamb
So easy and really delicious. I added miso to the sauce and some walnuts to the batter. Definitely going to be a winter staple pud here.

Just wondered if anyone has a baked falafel recipe that they’d recommend?

@Pompoms88 no, sorry, I wonder if Felicity Cloake does?

Spicy Pinto Bean and Lemon Soup, Susana Villasuso, Sobremesa
Hearty, warming, and tasty - just what I wanted from this soup.

Pie Dough, Nicola Lamb, Sift
I think it’s the same recipe as the one included in the link. I made it a few weeks and froze as a way to use up crème fraîche. Perfect - butter, flaky, and crisp. I think this will be my go to for leftover crème fraîche.

hello,

This from Jamie oliver is currently in my oven. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken/dukkah-roast-chicken-smashed-aubergine

I will post a review once it has been eaten.

Just wanted to direct those of you who have descended into the fabulousness that it keema. This is the recipe for me. Yes, you prepare overnight but the actual cooking the next day results in a lovely dinner. Here's the recipe I use ( I usually use room temp yoghurt rather than double cream): https://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13928

Didn't get round to making the falafel, just bought a box...

I did however make Meera Sodha's Leek and Beans Romesco which was recommended several pages ago. This was very simple and really delivered on flavour - I served it with garlic bread which felt a bit more exciting than just bread. DP wasn't that thrilled with it, I get where he's coming from it's quite simple. I wondered if it needed topping with cheese (thinking feta or halloumi), but I think that about most dishes, that said it didn't need it. I'd make it again!

After being away for a couple of weeks eating too much rich food, it’s back to reality.
This week I made One Pot Spiced Linguine, whilst this was good I didn’t love it like many other recipes from Dinner Tonight by Meliz Berg. From this book I also made Creamy Chicken & Vegetable Stew (sorry no link available) , the name sounds really dull but the dish certainly wasn’t. I really loved this, it suggests serving with rice I would swap this for a big hunk of crusty bread to lap up this delicious sauce. A real winter warmer.
Finally, I was asked to bring a dessert for a party that you could pick up with your hands. I had mentioned on a previous post that I made the Chocolate Marble cake from Sift which I made again. In addition I made Raspberry Cheesecake Streusel Bars, both of these desserts were perfect for this situation and a big hit with the guests. They can also be made the day before and not ‘suffer’ in any way. If you don’t like raspberries I imagine this would work with blueberries too.
Enjoy your weekend

Ottolenghi - Helen's bolognese
This is from Comfort, which I've not bought but several recipes from it are on the website and there is a video of Helen making this on YT.

I loved it! She describes how she and her children love ragu bolognese but she had a craving for something deeper with more spice and ta-dah! She really delivered!. The pappadelle works well (it reminds me of that phase a couple of years ago when everyone seemed to be doing a version of hand pulled noodles with braised lamb) but she says it also works well with noodles or rice. I used just pork mince but would be interesting to try it with a beef & pork mix which is often what I use when making bolognese anyway.

Easy to do, bags of flavour, not much faffing (I had a bag of sofrito in the freezer which I used so faffed even less by avoiding chopping onions/celery/carrot - I determined that my palate would be unlikely to notice a significant difference in any variance of sofrito proportions compared to recipe and my eyese were very much more happy being tear free)!

Just had this for lunch: Honey-roasted squash and goat’s cheese salad with chickpeas

Very yummy.

And lovely comfort food for dinner last night: Mushroom, Leek, And Borlotti Bean Pie

I messed around with it a bit in that I'm not vegan so I used Philadelphia and about 50g creme fraiche. I also seared the mushrooms first for added flavour.

Sage & White Chocolate Madeleines, Benjamina Ebuehi, I’ll Bring Dessert
I skipped the chocolate as to me there a few things as joyful as madeleines warm and fresh from the oven and I didn’t want to wait. Maybe next time I will serve some molten white chocolate as a dip, I might also increase the sage amount for a stronger flavour.

Farinata -Rachel Roddy
I've never had or made farinata before -I've been missing out! I used Rachel's recipe but also cross referenced with Claire Thomson as she added chopped rosemary and red onion rings to the batter. I think I'd reduce the oil a smidge in future. But what a delight! I served it with some slow cooked collapsed courgette, some salami, hummus and a yellow sticker'd pot of very good garlic sauce from Odessa brand (may not be entirely correct on the brand name).

For various reasons we're going to have an italian themed grazing table/buffet for Xmas lunch this year and I've added farinata to the list to cook!

butternut squash and spinach pasta, with sage, meant to have walnuts but dont have any, delicious

Squash & roasted garlic pasta with crispy pancetta, Benjamina Ebuehi
Benjamina didn’t provide a recipe, just the core ingredients and some pictures, but it sounded like a delicious foolproof combination, and it was!

Beetroot Butternut Squash & Orange Habanero Salad, Susana Villasuso, Sobremesa
Switched the beetroot for BNS to suit preferences and what we had in. This was nice, didn’t feel it was revolutionary, but I did change the main ingredient.

Salted Vanilla and Pistachio Layer Cake with Lemon Syrup, Nicola Lamb, Sift
This is a pretty involved recipe with quite the number of components - genoise sponge, vanilla & lemon syrup, pistachio mousseline, vanilla custard, crystallised pistachios, and salted vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. The cake came out looking and tasting as special as I hoped, all elements worked perfectly as per the recipe, and could mostly be done the day before since Nicola recommended resting the constructed cake overnight before coating in buttercream. The lemon flavour didn’t come through much, perhaps it was more of a background element to balance richness rather than to stand out in its own right? Time consuming but worth it. (she doesn’t suggest bringing out the cake to sit at room temperature for a couple of hours before serving, but we did this the second day and found the textures and flavours enhanced rather than straight from the fridge)

jerk pork belly with grapefruit hot sauce, Alexina Anatole, Bitter
I had made the grapefruit hot sauce a few months ago which I really enjoyed, the jerk pork belly was insanely good though. Pretty simple and can be prepped the day before and just cooked on the day you wish to serve. The instructions were bang on for perfect soft pork and crispy crackling.

18 Carat Laksa - Meera Sodha, Dinner
Only the second dish I've cooked from Dinner somehow, and really delicious. One of my favourite of Meera's soups for sure. Rich and warming and full of flavour. One I can see me making a lot over winter.

Nando's rolls

My early 20's daughter decided she was going to recreate Nando's chicken burgers for her and her boyfriend. I found this recipe and offered to make (we had some ciabatta buns as a back up!). What a delight (I say that having not tasted them!) Easy to do, and whilst they take some time, they're not time consuming. Loved the rise on them and as an infrequent bread baker I was very happy with how they turned out. Am pondering on having a 'sunday bake' challenge for a while...