Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 16

Again this week I felt the need for something to prolong the glimpses of summer that we’ve had recently, and thinking back on some lovely hot days in Marrakech I decided to cook Spicy Moroccan Fish Stew with Couscous from Jamie’s Ministry of Food. I think maybe the warmer weather has made me lazy because any dish where I can just soak some couscous for ten minutes makes me inordinately happy at the moment (lord knows what I’ll be cooking when some truly hot weather arrives!). This dish was very quick and easy to put together and was incredibly fresh and light, definitely a winner for a work night!

Next up was the obligatory weekly pasta dish, and so I dug out the packet of ziti that I had stashed at the back of the cupboard and diligently studied my cookery books looking for inspiration. Eventually after many long and happy hours with my cookbooks I settled upon Ziti Lardati from The Geometry of Pasta. Now I’m happy to try any new pasta and I do appreciate the subtle differences in texture and taste but what’s the point of ziti really? I mean, it comes in long tubes which you have to break into four even pieces before cooking, by the time I’d broken it all down my fingers were sore and there were tiny little shards of pasta all over the kitchen. Regardless of the trauma involved in the preparation the dish was quite lovely; the crispy pancetta lardons working very well with the cherry tomatoes.

My final new recipe of the week was one that had kept being put off for various reasons (couldn’t be bothered to cook after a night away, hubby taking me out for dinner because my head hurt…I won’t go on). So finally I made Haricot & Lentil Chilli from Delia’s Frugal Food, and I will admit that when I opened up the book and saw that it included a small amount of pearl barley* I shuddered (though not so much as to upset my still-throbbing head) and decided to simply up the quantity of lentils instead. I halved the recipe since there was just the two of us but still ended up with enough to feed a family of four – another little food parcel for our camping trip I think! I served it with some tortilla chips, and resisted the urge to cover them in cheese and heat through in the oven – the dish itself was meaty enough without the need for anything else.

 *Now I should probably apologise for my misgivings surrounding pearl barley, I think coincidentally that I’ve managed to eat it around the time that something else has upset me – firstly I had some just before a hellish week of mushroom poisoning (ok, so it’s just an ‘intolerance’ but I literally thought I was dying at times) and now it seems my new contact lenses were the wrong prescription and therefore they're what's giving me the most horrendous migraines and not the barley. So what can I say…I’m…er, really sorry for giving pearl barley a bad rap. <Whisper>…though I’m still not in any hurry to have any more, it’s become psychological now.

Recipe Count: 51
Target: 52
….I’m seriously going to have to up my target otherwise the rest of the year will not be so tasty!

 

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 15

Maybe it was the tiny glimpse of spring we experienced this week or maybe I just felt we deserved some warmth at long last but I just fancied something Mediterranean and summery. It may seem an odd choice given I had to remove all the shellfish from it (due to hubby’s allergies) but I chose Mediterranean Fish Stew from BBC Good Food, and simply added in a lot more fish to compensate. I served it with lightly grilled ciabatta which I rubbed with a garlic clove while they were still hot; the combination was absolutely wonderful – and so simple to do. Come the (actual) summer I look forward to doing this dish again!

 

Given the success of the last slow-cooked meal I wanted to keep the momentum going so I chose Beery Barley Beef from The Complete Slow Cooker as our Sunday lunch, and I duly took myself off into the kitchen first thing, in my pyjamas, to get everything ready. I really could get used to cooking at breakfast time and then making no effort whatsoever come dinner time – it’s awesome! Although given I spent the day ironing, and my husband did the gardening, I think we both deserved some rest come the evening. The beef was very tender and all the veg and barley meant I didn’t even have to cook any accompaniments to go with it, that and the lack of washing up gives this dish a very enthusiastic thumbs-up! (NB: I’m not sure if pearl barley can give you a migraine, but it’s funny how the last time I ate it I suffered for a while afterwards too…anyone else experienced this or is it just me?! I’m not sure I feel brave enough to eat it again just to find out, it's really painful!)

A recipe I have wanted to try for a while is Lemon & Aubergine Risotto from Ottolenghi’s Plenty, and this week I thought why not – I think what put me off for a while is that the recipe is hard to halve as it includes roasting a whole aubergine and then dicing and frying a second. But I figured with aubergines being so tiny at the moment that I’d give it a whirl anyway (you can never really have too much aubergine after all!). The prep work took a little bit of time, but it’s all very easy to do and the resulting dish was so creamy and meaty that any extra effort was well worth it. I really liked the fried aubergine mixed through right at the end, it was a gorgeous risotto.

Recipe Count: 48
Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 14

Easter isn’t really Easter without lamb but instead of serving it on the Sunday I chose to do it the day before, as my lovely cousin was coming to stay and I thought I should make her a decent meal – well, give it my best shot anyway. I had very kindly been given a slow cooker for my birthday and thought that this was the ideal opportunity to try it out and so I chose to cook Sticky Spiced Lamb Shanks from BBC Good Food. Having browned off the onions and the lamb in a little oil I popped all the ingredients into my new toy and hoped for the best. It’s a little disconcerting when something has been ‘cooking’ for 4 hours but doesn’t seem to have progressed at all (despite some condensation on the lid), but then around the 5 hour mark I did a little jump of joy at the sight of it bubbling away. By the time the 9-10 hours was up you could see that the lamb was ready to come away from the bone with just the merest prod, and the smells coming from the corner of the kitchen were divine. Luckily with all the cooking taken care of I could sit back and enjoy a few cocktails with my guest before we ate – so after a few French Martinis I returned to the kitchen to reduce the sauce and stir some olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate seeds through some couscous I had just cooked. These were easily the best lamb shanks I have ever cooked, the mix of spices was absolutely delicious and the little burst of sweetness from the pomegranate seeds in the couscous complimented it really well. It seemed to go down well with both hubby and my cousin so I couldn’t ask for more than that. For dessert I made Rose Cream & Raspberry Jellies from a New Year copy of BBC Good Food, and I served them in Moroccan tea glasses, which I brought back from honeymoon in Marrakech, with extra raspberries and pistachios on the side. It was a very relaxing evening, thanks to the slow cooker all the effort was taken out of preparing the meal and I didn’t feel like I spent more time in the kitchen than with my guest. Thumbs up for the slow cooker and a big thanks to my very generous In-laws for a wonderful birthday present! Oh and just a quick footnote on the evening, my cousin made me a super tasty rosemary cake (a lovely surprise) which I shall definitely be making in the future – as I always say, everything’s better with a little bit of Rosemary!

 

It’s been a fair few weeks now since I’ve mentioned Ottolenghi so it seems only right that on a long Bank-Holiday weekend I should head back to Jerusalem, and this time I chose to make Mejadra. The most time consuming part of this is frying off the onions until they’re crispy, but this is well worth doing as the texture they add to the finished dish is just wonderful. I served this with some yoghurt that I had stirred some chopped herbs through, the combination of the creamy yoghurt and the spiced lentils and rice was lovely – I think that without this it might have been a little dry.

Having received a new copy of BBC Good Food magazine just before Easter I spent most of the weekend with my head buried in it, and for my final dish of the week I decided to make the Pea & New Potato Curry. With plenty of spices and a creamy yoghurt sauce this dish was really tasty and very easy to whip up after a long day at work – this will definitely be going into my recipe file.

Recipe Count: 45
Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 13

I’m not going to lie, following a heavy birthday weekend I was a little worse for wear come Sunday afternoon and the energy needed to do anything at all seemed to have escaped me – but ever the pro I pulled myself together enough to cook the evening meal. I had chosen Chicken with Greek Herb Sauce from Nigella’s Kitchen. There wasn’t a lot of prep work as the chicken thighs just needed some time in the oven so all I really needed to make was the sauce, a kind of tzatziki, and I figured I could probably manage that. What we had was a very refreshing meal, and I served it with a green salad and a simple dressing – exactly what I needed after a weekend of excess. Luckily I didn’t have to clear up after all my efforts…thanks hubby!

So on the Monday night when I was feeling a little more with it I made Lentil & Vegetable Moussaka from Delia’s Complete Cookery Course. Although it was very tasty I felt it was a little dry, and I do appreciate the porosity of lentils but I figured that this would have been accounted for in the recipe. The flavours were very nice but the filling could just have done with being a little moister. 

 

Sometimes towards the end of the week I feel a little tired and that’s perhaps why I tend to make new recipes at the beginning – so that I’m giving them my full attention – but I think the thought of the long Easter weekend meant I had a late surge of energy this week, and having broken-up for a four-day weekend I decided to make Chorizo & Chickpea Stew from Nigella’s Kitchen. Now I decided to serve it with plain couscous, as I couldn’t be bothered to faff around with all the components of the bulgur wheat accompaniment, but this was a really easy and delicious dish. I had received a set of very nice frying pans for my birthday and this was the dish that christened one of them (I may have been a little over-excited about this). Although a note to self for next time, don’t burn your mouth on the first bite - ouch! 

 

As is traditional on Good Friday I opted for fish and chose Smoked Haddock with Buttered Spinach & Mustard Sauce from a recent BBC Good Food magazine. It was a nice simple dish and I even managed to poach the eggs so that I got a nice runny yolk to burst…ok, so mine may have looked a bit special but I gave the good one to hubby and he seemed suitably impressed. 

 



Recipe Count: 41
Target: 52