Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 30

When hubby was invited to play cricket with the husband of a friend of mine I had visions of me sat by a pavillion in the glorious sunshine drinking pimms and generally enjoying life…however the reality was somewhat different. Knowing that my friend was providing the cricket tea I naturally offered my services and was asked to bring a chocolate cake of some description, no problem there I thought and immediately hit the books. I chose the Classic Tearoom Chocolate Victoria from Annie Bell’s Baking Bible and I can honestly say it was the best chocolate cake that I’ve ever made, the cake itself was delightfully soft and moist, the buttercream was so light and the chocolate icing was just the shiniest I’ve ever known. My friend had done an amazing job with the rest of the food; there was enough for an army never mind a couple of cricket teams. We spent the first half of the game in the tiny pavillion kitchen making up sandwiches and scones, and making the place look pretty (because I hear that’s what sportsmen really want from their afternoon tea!). When we weren’t cooling down in front of the fan we were rushing out with drinks for the players, this was not the quiet Sunday afternoon I had anticipated, but thankfully after the men had returned to their game we were able to put our feet up and finally enjoy some of the fruits of our labours. I do highly recommend the chocolate cake though, and I take little credit for it as it was all down to the recipe! Once again I must stop giving cake away…

 

Next up was a recipe for Tomato & Anchovy Risotto with Crispy Crumbs from BBC Good Food magazine, which I had squirrelled away in my file and thought it was about time I dusted off. I’ll be honest when I started to cook it I was a little dubious about how it would turn out, I find the smell of anchovies frying to be quite unpleasant and until I added the rest of the ingredients I was not convinced that this dish would work. However, once I’d started adding the stock things were looking up and I found myself getting quite hungry. The finished dish was lovely, there was a trace of anchovy in the background but it did not overpower it at all and the crispy crumbs were a wonderful addition and added a much-needed element of crunch.

My final recipe of the week was Linguine con Cipolle e Acciughe (Linguine with Sautéed Red Onions & Anchovies) from Gino’s Pasta. Now I should really have known that the onions would not look as lovely as they did in the picture because when you cook red onions they lose their vibrant colour and turn a non-descript grey colour, which is exactly what happened here and unfortunately the resulting ‘sludge’ did not look particularly appetising. I persevered though, and just threw in a lot of freshly chopped parsley to help disguise it. Once it was mixed with the linguine, some parmesan, and a parsley garnish it did look a lot more respectable, and to be fair it was extremely tasty but I’m not sure I’ll be in a rush to try this one again – nothing you’re going to eat should resemble sludge!

Recipe Count: 96
New Target: 104

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 29

Given that I gave away most of the baked goodies from last week I wanted to make something for us to enjoy at home, so when I found a recipe for a Rosemary & Lemon Drizzle Cake on pinterest I just had to make it. The cake itself was lovely and light, and the crunch of the zingy icing was a lovely contrast to the sponge – however I could not detect much of the rosemary flavour. I probably put in slightly more than the recipe specified but it was not really coming through as much as I’d have liked, that said however it was a delicious cake and it did not stop us eating the lot…though again I did give away a substantial portion to my family when I saw them over the weekend (I really must stop donating cake!).

After the success of last week’s ceviche, and with us still being in the grip of a glorious heat wave, I decided another one couldn’t hurt. This time I made the Ceviche from BBC Good Food magazine (which I think was a James Martin recipe), as I’ve had the recipe squirreled away in my file for at least the last 12-months. For some reason when I saw that it had green olives in it I was a little bit sceptical that it would work, I like olives but I was not convinced. However I duly stuck to the recipe because I didn’t want to criticise something that I hadn’t actually tried. I’m glad I did because it all worked really well and I can’t now remember why I even doubted it. This was a delightfully refreshing dish after a long hot Sunday.

Flicking through my cookbooks, as I do on a daily basis, I realised that I have shamelessly neglected my favourite chef for far too long and to correct this oversight I chose Sweet Potato Galettes from Ottolenghi as my third new recipe of the week. With the husband and I not being big fans of goat’s cheese I substituted it for feta (hubby’s eyes lit up when he saw that) but otherwise I remained faithful to the recipe. There was a bit of prep work involved, mainly baking the sweet potatoes and allowing them to cool before peeling them (how easy is that to do once they’re cooked – amazing!). But once that was done it was simply a matter of piling everything onto the pastry and popping them in the oven. They were just lovely, the soft sweet potato against the crispy pastry and the creamy feta was a perfect combination – the only drawback was I don’t think my chillies were hot enough to give them much of a kick but I’ll remedy that next time. They were also lovely cold, as we finished off the remaining two for lunch the next day – I love it when you go to the fridge at work and find that you’ve got something exciting and different in your lunchbox!

My final recipe for the week was Halloumi with Broccoli Tabbouleh from the current issue of BBC Good Food magazine, I love a bit of fried halloumi and when I saw this recipe I knew it would be on the menu before long. What I also loved about this dish was the fact that the broccoli is cooked and then blitzed and added to the couscous to give more body and texture – also a great way to sneak extra veg onto the plate of fussy eaters! The dressing for this was great too, consisting of oil, harissa, honey and lemon juice it was delightfully punchy and brought some much needed moisture to the dish as well.

A good week for food and weather, long may the heat wave continue!

Recipe Count: 93
New Target: 104

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 28

When we were invited along to join some friends at a beer festival in their village we were still in the grips of a fairly cold spring, but when the weekend in question actually approached and we heard that it was going to be a scorcher we were delighted. While being in the middle of a field drinking beer isn’t necessarily the way to avoid sunburn and sunstroke we took all precautions and arrived loaded up with bottles of water and sun cream. Even though we were told that we didn’t need to bring anything I figured the more sustenance we had the more beer we could taste, so to that end I whipped up some Everyday Brownies from Nigella’s Kitchen the night before. They were super easy to make and had the added bonus of being robust enough to survive the train journey to the festival (I doubt any fancy cupcakes would have!). They were just the thing come the mid-afternoon munchies and went down well with the friendly crowd we were with. We had a great day at the Haddenham Beer Festival which was rounded off nicely with more beer from the local pub (well the festival had run out) and a few chilli-dogs back at my friend’s house – lord knows how we made it back to the station and on to the right train, but we did. Oh and for anyone that’s interested, if you leave a camembert out in the full sun for an hour it bakes as well as in any oven (umm, fondue!). 

 

Following the over-indulgences of a beer festival and a family BBQ (we were celebrating the British win at Wimbledon, so we just had to treat ourselves!) I decided a nice light meal was the way to go so I made the Sea Bass Ceviche from Wahaca. A little bit of prep was all that was required and I could just sit back and let the fish ‘cook’ in the citrus juices, I then simply made it all look pretty on a platter to serve alongside some tortilla chips. In the middle of the heat-wave we’re experiencing this is the perfect dish, it’s light, fresh and zingy – I may have to make another ceviche next week, I’d forgotten just how tasty they are and who knows how long the hot weather is going to last. 

The following night I made the Tomato & Basil Tarte Tatin from Lorraine Pascale’s Baking Made Easy, it really could not have been easier as there was absolutely no pre-cooking required, just put everything in the pan, cover with the pastry and pop it into the oven. Now I do just have to dispute the cooking time given in the recipe, I had my reservations when I first read it and after 20 minutes I was right, the tomatoes were definitely not cooked enough so I popped it back in. Served with a massive salad this was a very light and healthy dish (if you just completely forget all about the puff pastry).

My fourth, and final, new recipe of the week was Fusilli al Fagiolini from The Geometry of Pasta (my favourite pasta book, I have to say). I can’t say that I’ve ever consciously had pasta with green beans but I thought it sounded tasty (and cheap…that’s always important too). It involves cooking some of the green beans in advance and then blitzing them with some cream, garlic and bit of ground cinnamon but once that’s done all you need to do is cook the pasta and add the remaining beans to the pan towards the end. Once everything is mixed together you get a lovely combination of creamy-coated pasta with the slight crunch of those green beans and just a hint of sweet cinnamon in the background. Another winner from a brilliant book!

Recipe Count: 89
New Target: 104

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - week 27

This week was decidedly lighter on the new recipe front than recent weeks, but it did mean I got to enjoy a nice relaxing Friday night, albeit without the satisfying smell of home-baked goodness. A bit worryingly I have come to the conclusion that I don’t have enough baking books, I feel a book order coming on but there are so many to choose from…all recommendations are welcome!

Since receiving my lovely new frying pans I’ve been meaning to make a frittata so that I can actually remove it from the pan without destroying it, and given that ‘summer’ is apparently upon us I figured now was as good a time as any – well that and the fact that I had inadvertently bought far too many eggs which needed using. From Cook in Boots I made the Pea, Pancetta & Halloumi Frittata, which involved very little effort really, a bit or prep was all that was needed. I couldn’t quite get the halloumi to brown completely on top under the grill as the rest of the frittata was getting quite dark already, and surely nobody wants a charred frittata <shudder>. Served with a simple side salad this made for a very tasty and light midweek dinner, and also lunch for hubby the following day. I always enjoy a nice frittata but the addition of the halloumi was inspired, it has a great texture and a mild salty flavour which worked brilliantly here.

 My only other new recipe this week was Spaghetti with Asparagus, Anchovies, Basil & Pangrattato from Theo Randall’s Pasta. Determined to make the most of the British asparagus season I’ve been trying to inject it into our diet whenever possible, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity. Despite the addition of double cream this was a very light dish, the tender garlic and asparagus were offset nicely with the crunchy breadcrumbs and the salty flavour of the anchovies. Next time I could be persuaded to add a little chilli into the mix (when couldn’t I?) but a really enjoyable meal nonetheless, and one that I will definitely make again. 

 Recipe Count: 85
New Target: 104