Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 18

This week began with a somewhat unusual recipe, from none other than Ottolenghi of course, but it was also the highlight of the week. From Jerusalem I chose to make Open Kibbeh, which can only be described as a sort of meat cheesecake – though it should be noted that this was for appearance only, texture and taste wise it was thankfully very different. It starts with a bulgar wheat and flour base, and is topped with a mixture of onions, lamb, pine nuts, herbs, and spices which is then baked in the oven before being topped with a layer of tahini paste, more pine nuts and some parsley. What can I say about this really, it was just awesome – can you tell that I liked it?! I fell in love with the dish before it was even finished, the smell of the lamb cooking in all the spices was just heavenly and for days afterwards I could still smell the lingering hint of aromatics. I was intrigued by the bulgar wheat base having never cooked it in this way before but it was really lovely. We even had the leftovers for dinner on Monday as it was just as good when reheated carefully in the oven. A definite winner, but I would expect nothing less from my favourite chef!

After all the excitement of the previous days efforts I knew I was never to going live up to that so with that in mind I opted for a very simple Rosemary Chicken with Ratatouille from BBC Good Food. All I had to do was chop up the vegetables and pop them in the oven, adding the chicken a while later – a very satisfying Sunday dinner served with a green salad. The lovely hints of rosemary that came from the chicken were super and the ratatouille had really cooked down nicely.

For some reason I decided to completely decimate my rosemary bush in the garden by also cooking Nigella’s Rosemary Remembrance Cake from Feast. It was a cake that had been made for me previously by my cousin so I wanted to give it a go too – now I don’t know how much of the herb she put in but mine just didn’t seem to have the same resonance as hers (see Clare mine don’t always work – and you were worried about your efforts!). Ah well, I suppose I’ll just have to try again – more cake it is!

 For a simple week night dinner I chose Lemony Salmon with Couscous from Forever Summer, and I was not disappointed. Despite the number of bowls involved in the preparation this was a very simple dish to create, the salmon was lovely and delicate and the zingy couscous complimented it really well – a fresh, healthy, and delicious start to the working week. 

Having rummaged around the contents of the fridge I discovered I had most of the ingredients for Risotto with Courgette Flowers from the Two Greedy Italians, so I figured that even without the flowers (there’s little to no chance that I’d be getting hold of those around here) it sounded like a nice dish. And I was right, packed full of vegetables it was a lovely and colourful risotto – I don’t think the absence of the flowers mattered too much either!

Recipe Count: 60
New Target: 104

 

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 17

To begin another week of culinary adventures the husband and I ventured off to the Cowley Road in Oxford to hit all the wonderfully exotic food shops located there. I had diligently rummaged through all my cupboards and made a list of ingredients to look out for – my recently depleted pasta supplies desperately needed restocking, and my spice levels were running low. Hitting the Asian supermarket first I piled my arms high with all kinds of aromatic spices, and I also stocked up on coconut milk while it was so reasonably priced – hubby took the opportunity to slip a platter of baklava into the basket too. After that we hit the Maroc Deli across the road and I grabbed some cheap harissa and ras-el-hanout, and then it was just a few doors down to the Italian deli, Il Principe, where I loaded myself up with plenty of de cecco pasta – which incidentally was no more expensive in there than it is in the supermarket (when you can get it obviously, my local only sells the spaghetti and linguine varieties). With our bags practically bursting at the seams we ambled over to the pub and made the most of the sunny weather in their beer garden – a very satisfying day all round!

With the sun deciding to hide away again I thought a nice warming dish was in order for our Sunday lunch, and so I made Chicken Cacciatore from Tana’s Kitchen Secrets. Having done the small amount of prep work involved I was able to pop the casserole in the oven and enjoy a nice glass of wine and waiting for the lovely smells to permeate through the house. I served this with some orzo which I had stirred a small amount of olive oil and lemon juice through after cooking – a very pleasant way to end the weekend.

Having received Nigella’s Forever Summer for my birthday I had been waiting for the sun to show its face so that I could whip up some lovely summery dishes, but in the absence of much warm weather I thought I’d actually whip up something that resembles sunshine on a plate. So the recipe for Keralan Fish Curry with Lemon rice looked like just such a dish, and I was not wrong – boy was that a yellow plate of food! Most of the cooking time is creating the curry sauce as you simply add the fish for the last few minutes of cooking – another brilliantly simple recipe for a Monday night. I think the only thing I’d do differently next time is to serve it with plain rice as the lemon rice seemed a little greasy, and obviously just blended in with the colour of the curry – thanks to the powerful staining power of turmeric.

Next up was Penne all’ Emiliana from Gino’s Pasta. Unfortunately on my foray to the Italian deli I had been unable to procure any penne so I substituted rigatoni instead. This was a really lovely dish, I was bit worried that the pork might be slightly overcooked having been bubbling away for a while, considering it was chopped up quite finely, but it wasn’t at all – it was nice and tender.

I’ve wanted to make quesadillas again for a while now but because we have wraps most days for our lunch it always seemed like it would be tortilla overkill, but when I found the recipe for Sweet Potato & Chorizo Quesadillas and remembered I had some chorizo in the freezer, I thought what the hell! With hubby out at cricket I cooked the sweet potatoes and prepared the filling so that I could cook the completed quesadillas on his return. Fortunately when I came to griddle them I discovered that they did actually fit in the pan, phew! I served them with just a side salad as there seemed quite a mountain of quesadillas, but we struggled through them anyway – I think hubby would have eaten twice as many if he could, he seemed very impressed (but then they contained feta so it was only to be expected!).

 

 

Recipe Count: 55
New Target: 104

…I’ve had to up my target because beyond all expectations I’ve already exceeded my original one, despite being only a third of the way through the year – go me!!

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

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 12

This week was a bit of a quiet one in the kitchen and I only managed one new recipe, with my birthday at the end of the week I think I was just too excited! So my meagre culinary offering was Sausages with Chilli Sauce from Frugal Food by Delia Smith. Actually thinking about it this dish was supposed to have been made last week but after a long day of tea and scones on Mothering Sunday I didn’t end up cooking anything at all when I got home. So after all the anticipation I did wonder whether it would have been worth the wait. The sauce made a lovely change to the usual gravy with sausages and anything with a bit of chilli is always a big hit with me. I served it with mashed potato and steamed greens.

…I’ll try and cook more next week!

Recipe Count: 37
Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 11

This week turned out to be more of a baking week, with only one new recipe being an evening meal. Mothering Sunday is always an opportunity to do something a bit different, I mean of course there are always the obligatory flowers, but this time I thought I’d put together an afternoon tea. To make the most of the forced rhubarb season I decided to make some Rhubarb & Ginger Jam and serve it on Ginger & Buttermilk Scones (both recipes from BBC Good Food). So cue the 7am baking session on, I mean no one likes a stale scone now do they! Having made an abundance of jam and scones I was able to pack my husband off to his Mum’s with a little selection of goodies too – which he may or may not have taken full credit for.

 

Having given up chocolate for lent I wanted to find something tasty to bake that would satisfy my craving for something sweet and not ruin my resolution – so after consulting with my husband I chose Sticky Ginger Loaf from Annie Bell’s Baking Bible. This was an incredibly easy recipe, and I always like a recipe where you melt the butter, as the cold weather doesn’t exactly make it easy to ‘soften’ it (in the summer I can just leave it on the kitchen windowsill for half an hour). The cake does need ‘maturing’ for 24 hours before eating so I did have to hide it away until it was ready for consumption. When he finally got to try some hubby gave it two very enthusiastic thumbs up so I shall definitely be making this one again.

And on a none-baking note I made Rigatoni with Aubergines, Garlic & Cherry Tomatoes from Gino’s Pasta. Being a huge fan of the aubergine this was always fairly likely to impress me and it did. It took a little longer than specified to cook it down but I’d rather take the time to do it properly than be faced with a plate of rubbery aubergine.

Recipe Count: 36
Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 10

Last weekend I really fancied a good curry so I pulled out I Love Curry and salivated over all the lovely looking dishes, before finally settling on a Lamb Dopiaza. The recipe also meant that I got to play with my stick blender (and attachments) again so it was a win-win situation in the kitchen last Saturday. It was fantastically easy to prepare and smelt so good while it was cooking, I couldn’t wait to tuck in! The lamb was so tender it just melted in your mouth, and there was plenty of spice so it had a really nice buzz to it – I will definitely be making this one again, yum!

 

Thanks to my lovely Mum I had a pheasant squirreled away in the freezer that I opted to cook for our Sunday lunch, now last time I cooked pheasant I have to admit it was a little dry so I was determined to avoid that this time around. Having found nothing that took my fancy in my cookbook library I took to Google and trawled the web for a while. I eventually happened upon Pot-roast Pheasant with Chorizo, Butter Beans and Parsley from rivercottage.net, which not only sounded absolutely delicious but also like it wouldn’t dry the bird out. Another plus with this recipe was the fact that it was so simple to prepare and it would look after itself in the oven. I chose to serve it simply with some steamed greens because the butter bean stew sounded ample without adding any potatoes or bread into the equation. It was so good, a really tasty way to use pheasant and I’m always a fan of butter beans…and chorizo for that matter.

 

 

For some reason I made all of my new recipes at the start of this week so as I write this it seems to be a long time ago that I cooked them, but it is bringing back some awesome memories. My final new dish of the week was Il Dentice di Gennaro (Gennaro’s Sea Bream) taken from Two Greedy Italians. This was such an easy way to cook fish and the flavours of the fish, tomatoes, and the olives worked so incredibly well together – it just tasted so fresh and light. I served it simply with some new potatoes and a rocket salad, absolutely scrummy!

Recipe Count: 32

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 9

There were some delicious meals in our house this week, and my trusty friend Ottolenghi may have cropped up more than once – his dishes are just far too tasty! My first new dish was Pan-Fried Sea Bream with Harissa & Rose from Jerusalem. I’ve used rose water in some baking recipes but have never cooked with it like this before and I have to admit to being a little sceptical, I don’t like things to taste of perfume. I used sea bass instead of bream, but this was more to do with what I can get my hands on locally rather than a personal preference. For once I actually checked the recipe a few hours before dinner time as I had a feeling that there may be some marinating involved – lucky for me that I did, or we would have been eating at midnight. Now I’m not a big fan of currants in dishes but I thought I’d follow the recipe completely since it was my first time and I’m glad that I did, the sweetness that they added was a really nice contrast to the spicy harissa sauce. I actually enjoyed this dish a lot more than I thought I would, mainly due to my scepticism about currants and rose water, and I think this will definitely feature again in our house. I served it with couscous and some steamed greens - there's more than enough flavour in the dish itself so you don't need anything overly complicated to accompany it.

Next up I returned to The Geometry of Pasta to find a recipe using tortiglioni (my husband refuses to consider this a different shaped pasta because the grooves are simply in a different direction to those on rigatoni, well he may have a point…but don’t tell him that!). I chose Tortiglioni alla Norcina, which is basically Italian sausages cooked in cream. Pasta is always a relatively easy meal to prepare and this one was no exception – however there wasn’t a lot of colour to this dish, it was mild beige which never really looks appetising does it? To counter this I sprinkled liberally with chopped parsley before serving (not technically in the recipe, but looked much more pleasing to the eye).

My final recipe of the week was taken from Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feast, one of the best food shows I have seen for a while. There were so many recipes I have to try from this series but first I opted for Beef Shakshuka with Smoked Aubergine. I didn’t fancy charring the aubergines (and the rest of my hob at the same time) so I popped the aubergines under the grill to soften. The rest of the dish can all be done in one-pan, something my husband is always grateful for (being the official dishwasher of the house) and it is very simple to prepare. Halfway through cooking I have to say it didn’t look overwhelmingly appealing, tomatoes and mince with a couple of eggs baked into it – but when I’d dotted it with the tahini sauce, and scattered sumac and parsley over the top it suddenly looked beautiful. I served it simply with some crusty bread, and I don’t think I’ve ever known a dish to get so many compliments from one person – I think my husband like it! It was absolutely gorgeous, the sumac added a zingy citrus burst and the tahini sauce was lovely and creamy against the spicy beef mixture. All-in-all a super way to end the week!

 

Recipe Count: 29
Target: 52