Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 45

This week began with a particularly good turnout for our Halloween cake club meeting, the largest gathering to date which saw us sampling seven different cakes…the pieces getting noticeably smaller by the time we got to the last one. My contribution to the event was a Pumpkin Spiced Bundt with Maple Cinnamon Glaze, the recipe for which I discovered on Pinterest, and without any time to concern myself with ghoulish decoration it was perfect! I decided to forego breakfast that morning which turn out to be a shrewd move given the quantity of cake on offer at 10am. We spent a very enjoyable morning in the local garden centre café surrounded by beautiful cakes and making the other patrons very jealous. My cake was fairly large and as we were all limiting ourselves to smallish pieces I had plenty to take home again afterwards, hubby was mightily pleased and has spent the week carefully working his way through it. The addition of pumpkin made it a slightly moist sponge and the spices gave it a very warm and autumnal feel, while the crunch of the maple syrup drizzle added a very welcome sweet hit.

Still feeling the need for a pre-Christmas cleanse (if you ignore all the cake, obviously) my next new recipe of the week was Salmon & Sushi Rice from Nigella’s Kitchen, if only for the reason that I had some sushi rice hiding at the back of the cupboard which needing using. I think I’ve overlooked this recipe in the past because it just looked like salmon and rice and not particularly interesting, but after a lunchtime work trip to a Thai restaurant my taste buds were craving that salty, sweet and spicy hit that this recipe has in abundance. The most time-consuming part of this dish is cooking the rice and even that isn’t difficult so while that was cooking away I mixed up the chilli dressing and cooked the salmon. Even while I was plating up I thought it still looked a little dull, but happily looks can be very deceiving. We drizzled some of the dressing over it, tucked in and immediately we were won over – the dressing was absolutely beautiful and soaked down into the rice to completely transform it into something special. I love it when I get to the end of a meal and my lips are tingling from the hit of chilli, literally buzzing from the excitement of the dish!

My final new recipe of the week was Pan-Fried Sea Bass with Basil & Pine Nut Sweet Veggie Sauce from Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh & Easy; I really am loving fish at the moment. The sauce was a sort of cross between a French ratatouille and an Italian caponata, as the aubergines cooked down nicely to create more of a vegetable stew than a sauce. I was very sceptical while I was cooking this dish and I’m not sure I’m any more enamoured with it now, hubby said he really enjoyed it and while I didn’t dislike it I can’t really summon up enough enthusiasm to write about it let alone cook it again – suffice to say the fish was well cooked and the sauce was ok.

Recipe Count: 144
New Target: 156