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?

Stuffed Giant Pasta Shells - The recipe actually asked for giant pasted shells. As it’s an America (?) recipe I’m guessing they’re unavailable here. The mix however I vaguely stayed true, as I felt it was open to interpretation!! It tasted really good. Works make again.
i also made Chilli and Peppercorn Chicken Curry from Chetna Makan - Healthy Indian. Though this was totally delicious I would halve the quantity of peppercorn (and I’m a big peppercorn fan). Another one I would make again.

Sweet and Sour Chicken - Seema Pankhania
This was my first attempt at sweet and sour and won't be my last. This is made easy with chicken dippers! I used fake chicken versions - picked up the Green Birdseye ones and they were divine!! Haven't had og chicken dippers for 20 years + but the Birdseye knock offs tasted how I remembered the originals tasting. Anyway...great recipe! Shame pineapple juice is so expensive?! Have been having smoothies with the leftover juice.

just checked M&S food hall sells very large pasta shells, I did some shopping there today & saw them & thought of you,

Sticky BBQ Ribs, Marie Mitchell, Kin
I found cooking time was either too long or temperature too high as my ribs got a touch crisp and charred even without the last 15-20 minutes uncovered. They didn’t go too far over and were still great. One to do again but with adjustment to the cook time/temp.

Cheesy Cabbage & French Onion Gratin, Sebastian Graus
Right up my alley and a real crowd pleaser, just as good as I expected.

Matcha Rum Tiramisu, Milli Taylor
Pretty heavy on the washing up, but well worth the effort as this was so tasty - perfect texture and flavours well balanced.

Spicy Sausage Stew - Rosie MacKean
A perfect Sunday meal. I'd reduce the peppers to one next time because a full pepper each was a bit much for us, and sadly I had no potatoes in but I think it would have been even better with the potatoes - which is what I think about most things to be honest!

Mars bar slice
Saw this while scrolling and it reminded me so much of my high school's crispy cake which I was obsessed with, I had to try it. I used about 140g of crispies in it, and skipped the solid chocolate topping because my school's version did have that. The texture was spot on and I think I'd add a bit of cocoa powder to get it a bit darker and add a more chocolately flavour next time because I think that will take it even closer to what I remember.

Chai Spiced Apple Chelsea Buns - I was gifted a GBBO calendar this year, each month has a different recipe so thought I'd bake along with each month. These were really easy to pull together and tasted great. I'd recommend upping the spice content, I couldn't really taste the spices and there were a lot in the dough! The lemon did come through in a really delicious way however.

One Pan Sausage and Greens Lasagne - Madeleine's Meals
Really enjoyed this however don't think I'd make it again with broken up lasagne sheets, I'd just use a pasta shape, the sheets all stuck together and cooked unevenly. Threw in some green beans for extra veg which worked a treat.

Butterbean and feta bake - BBC Food
This was fine, it tasted like something was missing but I couldn’t put my finger on what. It did the job of using up everything I had going spare in the fridge though.

Miso pasta sauce with cannellini beans and leeks - Emilie Pullar
Delicious and simple, though I think I added too much lemon juice to it - because lemon was the dominant flavour. I’d probably have that and add more to taste next time.

Butternut squash and celeriac al forno - Theo Randall, Verdura
This was ok, the cream split on baking which was really only a visual issue. The other issue I had a me issue, which was my celeriac was really strong tasting, and I’m not a massive celeriac fan - so I’d sub that for something else

Green beans with butter, garlic and parsley - Theo Randall, Verdura
Definitely sits into the category of I didn’t need a recipe for this really, but it was in a book! Unsurprisingly a really delicious low effort side dish.

basil + clove limeade, Ixta Belfrage
The clove was really quite subtle but I thought this was brilliant and vibrant.

Savoury Leek Galette
I used this as a framework rather than following 100% faithfully. I really liked it and the eggs in there gave it a bit more substance and quiche vibes rather than very light with just vegetables in the filling.

Cauliflower Salad with Miso Dressing & Pistachio Pesto, Ottolenghi
A perfect standout dish, never had a roasted cauliflower salad before but definitely will again.

Shredded Sprout and Charred Lemon Salad, Georgie Eats
Tasty and a bit different, I added sweet potato for a bit more variety and as a carb adjacent addition. I will roast the sprouts across two trays next time (rather than one) to ensure more charring and less steaming.

Lahmacun
Apologies, have been MIA - don't appear to have cooked many new recipes! Indeed, today's post isn't a new recipe either - but it was a new version. I made lahmacun several years ago using a Sabrina Ghayour recipe which involved finely chopping and smooshing the meat/onion/spice topping which was therapeutic but did result in quite a thin/dry topping on the dough.

This time around I watched YT of women making lahmacun and they universally used a processor and added some water producing a more paste like texture.

I've attached a non authentic link but was the same recipe as tthe YT videos but also includes oven cooking deets as the YT videos were stove toppers.

Utterly delicious and were more rolleable than the SG version from years ago

Coronation Cauliflower (curried egg and cauliflower salad) - Ottolenghi
Pretty good and way more filling than I thought (but then I had a lot of cauliflower to use up which probably didn't help that!).

Brown Butter Caramelised Courgette Pasta, Carolina Gelen, Pass the Plate
Simple ingredients, fairly long process for a vegetable based pasta dish, really tasty end result.

Chocolate & Custard-Stuffed Cookies, Nicola Lamb
These sounded super intriguing. Both the dough and custard need to be made ahead of time to set up in the fridge/freezer, so little effort on the day you actually want them. These were fabulous and looked impressive.

Pork, Ricotta & Fennel Seed Meatballs with Tomato Cream Butter Beans, Claire Thomson, mob
Cracking dish, but I knew on seeing/reading the recipe that it would be right up my street.

@SummaLuvin -Clare has a new book coming out with a focus on beans - I wonder i this will be in it?
@toastofthetown I think I saw on another thread that you are almost about to have a baby. Very best wishes to you and you'll be excused for taking a break on the new recipe front!!

Chestnut & Cashew Wellington - this was really delicious though I did make a little tweak. I was only making half quantities and the full recipe called for half a celeriac so I substituted for a sweet potato. I would definitely make this again, it was enjoyed by meat lovers too.
Mushroom Gravy I find it really useful to have a vegetarian gravy in the freezer for when my daughter is around when the rest of us are having a traditional meat based try roast dinner. This was very tasty and the remaining amount is sitting in the freezer for next time.

Chicken Barley A really enjoyable winter warmer, full of veg and reheats and freezes really well too.

@myrtleWilson thank you! I'll be living vicariously through this thread for while

Kefir & spelt flour pancakes and pear vanilla compote - Nicola Lamb
Happy pancake day! These were really delicious, but still felt like a traditional pancake day pancake. I used spelt instead of rye because that's what I had in. I'd say I'd make these again, but I always seem to forget pancakes are an option to cook on the other 364 days a year

Sausage Rolls, Milli Taylor
An easy and fun take on sausage rolls, Persian inspired. I froze most of mine so I have tasty snacks at hand now.

Gochujang Butter Steak and Rice Bowl, changhomecook
Really annoyed with myself that I completely forgot the spring onions when serving!! But this was a glorious weekday treat meal.

Chocolate Cake with Soy Caramel French Buttercream, Sophie Bamford
This was utterly divine, the flavours and textures were perfect. I found the buttercream a little tricky to work with, it was very soft and didn’t want to hold the ridges when piped, the quantity was a touch short only having enough to give the cake a naked cake look rather than full coverage on the sides. Regardless I was very happy with the outcome.

Baked Paprika Cod With Peas & Spicy Chorizo Dressing, Ben Lippett, mob
This was lovely, lots of comments saying it’s become a weekly go-to, I can see that happening here too.

10-Min Caribbean-Style Chicken & Pineapple Rice, Gousto
I switched to brown rice and bunged all the rice ingredients in my rice cooker and set it off, which made it as easy and more hands off than using a rice pouch. Solid meal, tasty, quick, simple ingredients.

Crispy Rice Paper Shrimp Cake, Cafe Maddy
Another TikTok recipe this week and another that really hit the mark, tasty and crispy.

Mary Berry pannir and roast vegetable curry, quick and tasty
Paneer & Roasted Vegetable Curry | Mary Berry

Miso mushrooms on toast - Melissa Hemsley, Real Healthy
Fits into the so simple it doesn’t need a recipe category, but it was predictably delicious.

Mini egg fridge cake
I love malted milks and mini eggs, so this stood out to me. Not sure why, but my mix was way wetter and was super sticky even after it had set. Still really good, if outrageously sweet, and I’d definitely have mini eggs and mated milks together again.

Harissa lentil pie with feta mash - Melissa Hemsley, Real Healthy
Really good, though the 750ml stock was way too much and it took a while to reduce down again. I also forgot to add the spinach, which would have been great in it I’m sure.

Air-Fried Prawn Bao, Wanting
Bloody brilliant. Probably misses the point of a bao bun to brush it with butter and crisp in the air-fryer, but I don’t really care when it’s as tasty as this.

Chicken and orzo bake - was going to make a risotto with chicken on the side but I only had orzo in so a quick change of plan. This was very tasty and easy to pull together.
Felicity Cloake’s Banana Bread - this was a winner. I followed the recipe faithfully and it absolutely delivered. The top was nice and crunchy with a soft, moist centre.
Foccacia - I made Nicola Lamb’s three day focaccia but for some unknown reason by the end of day 2 it wasn’t behaving as expected (having made it successfully several times before). So I found this recipe which although acceptable just not as good as a successful NL recipe. Interestingly, I baked both and got my family to blind test them and the NL bread won despite the fact it definitely wasn’t as good as previous occasions.
Blackcurrant and vanilla tart - this was delicious particularly when served slightly warm with plain vanilla ice cream. Would also be very good with home made custard.

I can't find an online recipe but tonight I made Claire Thomson's chicken rendang from One Pan Chicken. I've not made rendang before so no reference points but i loved this. It was spicy and sweet, sour and hot, will defintely be on rotation!

Creamy baked orzo with cauliflower onions and mustard, Meera Sodha, The Guardian
Not much to say as this was exactly as delicious as I expected.

I have become enamoured with trying different kinds of grain of late. This Moroccan freekeh traybake was delicious. It does require you to cook the freekeh in advance but you can do that when its convenient. The rest comes together in under 5 minutes plus hands off cooking time of 30 mins.

Thank you for posting this. I recently bought a packet of freekeh on a whim (as you do😳) and having never cooked it before I wasn’t sure what would work well.