Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 38

On our return from holiday I wanted something reasonably straightforward to ease myself back into the real world with, so I chose Autumn Tacos with Squash & Chorizo from Mexican Food Made Simple. It was the perfect dish for chilling out with in front of the TV while we caught up on some of the TV we’d missed while we were away (god bless Sky+, and The Newsroom). The fact that it didn’t take too much effort either was a bonus, simply roast the squash and then add it to the pan with the chorizo and you’re practically done. The squash was lovely and tender, with the chorizo adding that little bit of bite that was much needed. Autumn is one of my favourite times of year so while it’s sad to see the end of summer (and that nip in the air is definitely getting colder) I can’t wait to have more autumnal dishes like this…and it’ll be Christmas soon too!!

In a bid to justify my recent holiday purchase my next dish was Salsicce e Lenticchie (or sausages and lentils) from Gino’s Italian Escape. Now while I cannot claim to have sourced some genuine Italian sausages for this dish I did make sure to get some packed with herbs from the local butcher, and I think they were just as good as any fancy Italian ones. I’ve made similar dishes to this in the past but I think this one does surpass them all by a mile, there was still enough liquid to keep the dish moist without making it watery and the gentle buzz from the chilli really gave it that extra hit of flavour. I didn’t feel the need to serve anything with it, I suppose some bread might be a good accompaniment but for me the lentils provided more than enough substance and I was definitely satisfied by the time I’d cleared my plate.

In order to use up the rest of the butternut squash I had lurking in the fridge I chose to make a Harissa Chicken Traybake from BBC Good Food Magazine, a recipe that kept staring at me from my file but I had yet to try. The marinating time was minimal so I could cook this after getting home from work, then all I had to do was chop up the vegetables and roast them briefly before adding the yoghurt and harissa covered chicken. I love the smells that permeate the house when I cook things with spices; the best place is the spare bedroom at the front which is sometimes where hubby likes to hang out when I’m in the kitchen. When the chicken was almost cooked I simply soaked some couscous and set the table. I should probably also mention that I did chuck some marrow into the tray as well since it needed using up, and I figured that a few more vegetables couldn’t hurt. The chicken was lovely and moist and had really absorbed the spicy marinade, and the vegetables were tender and juicy which was perfect for accompanying the couscous.

My final new dish of the week was again courtesy of my new purchase but this time was a pasta dish, Rigatoni all' Arrabbiata con Salmone (Rigatoni with Salmon and a Spicy Tomato Sauce). It was simply a matter of making the tomato sauce and putting the chopped up salmon in right at the end to cook through in the heat of the sauce. By doing this the salmon was still nice and moist and did not overcook, I love pasta with a tomato sauce (and the chilli goes without saying) but the salmon was a really nice touch, it was soft and delicate in amongst the robust sauce and the substantial pasta – a nice twist on the classic arrabbiata.

Recipe Count: 124
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 37

This week I was away on holiday so not only was there very little cooking there was also very little chance for me to experiment with new recipes. But fear not, I still managed to sneak one in before I left! I thought that it might be nice to take a lovely homemade cake with us to enjoy with our holiday teas, and it obviously needed to be one that could travel well, there’s nothing worse than excitedly opening the cake tin to discover that all the icing has been daubed everywhere and there’s barely any left on the cake. To this end I chose a recipe that had been intriguing me for a while, Rachel Allen’s Ras-el-Hanout Spiced Fruitcake from Cake. The thought of cramming that wonderful combination of spices into a cake sounded amazing, and the fact that it was fat-free was an added bonus. The recipe really could not have been simpler, all you had to do was soak the fruits in some tea with the spices and then mix with the rest of the ingredients. The best part of making this cake was the aroma it created in the rest of the house, the smell of the spices was unbelievable – I didn’t really care what the cake tasted like at that point it was worth it for the smell alone. It was really difficult not to tuck into it once it had cooled but I was adamant that it would make the journey intact. A couple of days into our holiday we attacked it with relish (that is to say with delight, we didn’t have some kind of pickle with it – that would be weird!) with our evening cup of tea, and it was lovely. Now I’m not a big fan of fruit cake per se, but this one was incredibly light and moist and was the perfect antidote for a day of walking.

Recipe Count: 120
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 36

I’ve really been enjoying my baking recently, and hubby has enjoyed his afternoon tea and cake at work so I thought to keep the tradition going this week I’d make the Passion Fruit Cake from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook. I diligently made the passion fruit curd the night before so that it could cool and thicken in time for me to use, though it did mean there was more chance that there’d be none left by the time it came to actually use it – I absolutely love passion fruit, but in this case I did manage to resist. I found the finished cake a little disappointing I have to admit, the zing of the passion fruit doesn’t really shine through and I think that if I’d put the fruit juice directly into the cake it would have been more impact than making it into a curd first. My other slight niggle is that the recipe stated that the flour should be half white and half wholemeal, I have to disagree here I think it would have been much nicer with just white, the lack of passion fruit flavour meant that all you could taste was the wholemeal. As much as I love passion fruit, this just did not do it justice!

 

After coming across a couple of green peppers at the back of the fridge I decided to make Paneer-stuffed Peppers from Anjum’s New Indian, a book I have not made enough use of recently. In the past I’ve been put off trying paneer in Indian restaurants because they describe it as ‘cottage cheese’, and this is something that has never appealed to me at all, but I have to say that I find it like a cross between halloumi and feta. The peppers are roasted in the oven while the stuffing is prepared and cooked, and then they go back under the grill for a brief period to brown on top. I think my only issue was that my peppers were slightly on the small side so I had some leftover stuffing, but I served that up on the side anyway. There was a really nice heat to the spices and the cheese had absorbed so much of the flavour, I served them with a green salad as I didn’t want the meal to be too heavy and this was absolutely perfect.

 

For some reason this week I’ve decided that stuffing is the way to go, as my next recipe was Spanish Stuffed Marrow from BBC Good Food Magazine. I couldn’t tell you why I chose two stuffed vegetable recipes at once, but I guess I just took one idea and went with it! I love Spanish flavours and hubby is a huge fan of chorizo so this jumped out at me as soon as I saw it in the magazine, yet it has still taken me a long time to actually make it (I think it was in an autumn issue last year, oops!). Packed full of chorizo, peppers, tomatoes, paprika and topped with manchego cheese this was a beautifully balanced dish and evocative of several wonderful evenings in Barcelona. The crispy topping really made a nice contrast to the tender marrow and the wonderfully spiced filling, served with a simple green salad this was perfect midweek dinner and I give it two very enthusiastic thumbs up!

Recipe Count: 119
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 35

I started the week off with a mammoth session in the kitchen and, with the hubby ensconced at a football game I even had to do my own washing up – sad times! First on the agenda was some Sticky Toffee Cupcakes from Boutique Baking, a recipe I had had my eye on for a while. Luckily before I started a noticed that I needed to halve the recipe (something I had failed to spot earlier), I mean I like cake but I don’t think the two of us could have got through 24 cupcakes without being seriously sick. So I diligently made the icing and left it to firm up, did the washing up and then cracked on with the cakes themselves. The mixture was really easy to whip up and I could smell that delicious scent of warm toffee before I knew it and dousing them in syrup when they came out of the oven ensured that the cakes were suitably sticky. Once cool I removed small pieces from the cakes and filled with dulce de leche before piping on the icing and sprinkling with fudge pieces (I opted not to make the very fancy toppers). Having not made any cupcakes for quite some time I think perhaps my piping skills need a little more work, but despite that these were absolutely heavenly – they tasted exactly like sticky toffee puddings and with the caramel oozing out of the centre they were a really luxurious treat! 

In between the various stages of cupcake making/decorating I was also putting together the evening meal of Hummus Kawarma (Lamb) with Lemon Sauce from Jerusalem. This not only added to the washing up but also the very slight possibility that I might pipe hummus onto my cupcakes instead of icing – thankfully I did manage to avoid this faux pas! I had already soaked the chickpeas overnight with some bicarbonate of soda and just needed to cook them for thirty minutes or so before blitzing with all the other ingredients. What I was left with was some of the nicest hummus I have made, and a jolly great big bowl of it at that! Once the hummus was made I chopped the lamb and left it to marinate until dinner time, when I quickly fried it and topped a delicious bed of hummus with the spiced lamb and drizzled with the herby lemon sauce. Served with some warm pitta bread this was a deliciously hands-on meal, and the generous amount of hummus that the recipe made meant we could enjoy more of it for lunch the next day (though sadly as I was so full of hummus this was the day that hubby had to go without any dinner as I didn’t feel like cooking the pork chops I had planned on…not that he ever mentions it at all!).

With some leftover smoked salmon in the fridge I made Penne con Zucchine e Salmone from Gino’s Pasta, although I did alter the recipe slightly as I had used all my lemons for the hummus and part way through cooking I decided a splash of cream would be a nice addition…so for the most part it is true to the original. I just find dishes a little dry when there is absolutely no sauce with which to coat the pasta, and I’ve cooked enough pasta to know what I’m doing by now (I hope). Well there were certainly no complaints in our house, though to be honest he was just grateful to be given some food as the events of Hummus-gate had left him feeling very nervous.

My final recipe of the week was a Gratin of Sliced Tomatoes from Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book, a very simple dish of sliced tomatoes baked with basil and sherry, to which some cream and a topping of cheese is added towards the end of cooking, and for someone who likes tomatoes as much as I do it was a must. This was a lovely simple dish to end the week with, which is always appreciated on a Friday night and served with just some crusty bread was not too heavy either – just perfect when you have cupcakes for supper! 

Recipe Count: 116
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 34

After a few days of not feeling too good and being generally lazy when it came to the evening meal I felt the need to snap out of it and make more effort, so to this end I cooked Duck Breast with a Rich Tomato, Jalapeno & Green Olive Sauce from Wahaca (Thomasina Miers). I love duck but haven’t had any for a while and the thought of making it in a Mexican style sounded very appealing. The dish was really easy to make, the sauce just needed to simmer, with the duck being cooked at the last minute, and served with plain boiled rice it really could not have been simpler. The duck could have done with slightly less cooking, because although it was still moist and by no means tough it was just not as pink as I’d have liked it – a note for next time I think. The sauce had a lovely spicy hit from the jalapenos and worked beautifully with the duck, I think to make it a lighter dish I might serve it with something other than rice, but it certainly worked well as a more substantial meal.

The mighty aubergine made a comeback this week with my next recipe taken from BBC Good Food Magazine, for our Sunday meal I cooked Baked Aubergines with Cannellini Beans. Just the thing having walked 15km the day before (accidentally I might add, there may have been a wrong turn somewhere…and some scary cows!), this dish basically looked after itself in the oven leaving me to rest my weary legs – they’re only little so it doesn’t take much! I did take a couple of liberties with the recipe in that I added some crushed chilli flakes to the sauce (naturally), and then when I was ready to serve I scattered some rocket liberally over the top, a dash of green really perked the whole thing up. The aubergines were wonderfully soft, and slightly crispy on top from the layer of parmesan, the beans added a lovely texture and the added kick to the sauce really gave the whole thing a nice lift – I figured the dish was substantial enough so didn’t feel the need for any accompaniments, aside from the rocket garnish that is! 

Feeling invigorated from a healthy weekend I wanted to continue feeling virtuous and so returned from work on Monday to cook Thai Trout with Red Pepper Noodles from Fast, Fresh & Easy Food (Lorraine Pascale). Cooked en papillote it meant that all I had to do was chop the veg and place it along with the trout, and various seasonings, in some little foil parcels ready for the oven later on. The noodles were cooked quickly just before serving and only involved frying some red pepper, adding the pre-cooked noodles and heating through with some soy sauce. This was incredibly tasty, the flavours of ginger, soy, chilli and trout had infused beautifully in the parcels and the aromas alone were absolutely delicious. Hubby was especially pleased with this dish, and even more so when he did his Masterchef ‘palette test’ and managed to identify all the ingredients – next time I’ll just have to make it harder! 

 

Next up was the obligatory weekly pasta dish and this week I chose Penne with Chorizo & Broccoli from BBC Good Food Magazine. I have to admit that I did mess around with the method a bit though, I prefer to cook the broccoli for the same time as the pasta instead of adding it for just a few minutes at the end, I like it when it breaks down into the sauce and is completely cooked – especially in this dish when you have the chorizo for extra texture. I also added the cream cheese to the chorizo before I added the pasta as I find that it breaks down a bit quicker and creates a sauce which coats the pasta more easily. Next time I’m not sure I would add the fennel seeds as I’m not sure they added anything useful to the dish, but aside from that (and my minor modifications) it was a lovely recipe and made good use of the chorizo I had in the freezer.

My final new recipe of the week was Elderflower Cordial Cake from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, and was in honour of my friend’s birthday – she had previously admired the recipe in the book so when I decided to make a cake I knew it would be that one. This was a work in several stages as I made the sponge one night after work and then the following night I made the buttercream and the white chocolate ganache; which I had to leave to thicken and was subsequently slathering over the cake at ten-thirty that same night. My next challenge was to get it into the office the next day without destroying all my hard work, so for any cars following me on Thursday morning I’m very sorry but I had precious cargo (I’d like a ‘Cake on Board’ sticker for my car so that people know why I’m taking my time!). Fortunately it arrived in one piece so all I had to do was add a candle and leave it on the birthday girl’s desk. As she consumed three slices before the designated tea-break I’d say it was a success, and I believe a small piece may have made it home for her hubby to try.

Recipe Count: 112
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 33

This week I have discovered that if you get up before the crack of dawn you may well be worn out by the end of the day, but you’ll have an awful lot of cake! Upon waking on Saturday at 5:50am I decided that the best thing to do was to get baking, I mean that’s never a particularly bad idea is it? First up was the Lemon Limoncello Cake from Peggy Porschen’s Boutique Baking, as I had purchased some new cake tins and I thought I had better justify their place in the kitchen. The sponge was very simple to make and they were on the cooling rack in no time, soaking up the limoncello syrup nicely. Mine may not have looked as smooth and chic as the picture in the book (I’m going to blame my lack of a turntable!), but it sure did taste good – the weekend must be off to a good start when you’re baked and iced a cake before 9:30am. Though I must confess that I did not go to the effort of making the delicate daisies to adorn the top of my cake, I went for the retro ‘crystallised lemon slices’ instead.

Since one cake is never enough a few hours after my first creation I turned my attention to the Caramel Cake from the same book, it is essentially the same recipe but with a few changes in flavours – brandy in the syrup instead of limoncello, and dulce de leche in the buttercream instead of lemon curd. I managed to ice this one a little better as I discovered a cake board I didn’t know I had and once this was placed on my cake plate it created a make-shift turntable upon which I could work. Instead of dusting with cocoa powder, which would have turned moist before hubby returned from his trip, I had a little bag of fudge pieces in the cupboard and thought they would work perfectly, so I sprinkled them around the edge of the cake. This was without doubt one of the best cakes I have ever made, the sponge was lovely and soft, the syrup had made sure it stayed moist and the caramel icing was just divine – it was so good that hubby put in an order for another one before we’d even finished it. 

Having been up to my eyes in cakes so far I thought it was about time I turned my hand to cooking something savoury and with hubby returning from a festival I thought he might appreciate a nice bit of home cooking. So my third new recipe of the week was Masala Chicken Pie from BBC Good Food Magazine, I think it was in a pre-Christmas issue last year so I’m a bit behind! Essentially it’s a curry with a mashed potato topping which is then baked in the oven to get nice and crispy. I made it the day before so that I could just pop it in the oven when I got home, and then listen to all the exciting festival gossip. It was the perfect thing for a Monday evening dinner, with all the work already done it was like being cooked for by someone else and it was really tasty to boot – I think hubby certainly appreciated some hot food.

My final recipe of the week was Farfalle Salmone e Piselli from Gino D’acampo’s Fantastico! which was another resounding success, I love pasta but I do get fed up of always cooking the same thing over and over, and it’s frustrating when you go out for pasta and always get the same tired choices wherever you go. Therefore I’m making the effort to try loads of new recipes to see what works and to find some more exciting variations on a very tired theme. Having not been a fan of farfalle in the past I have really come to love it recently, the de cecco brand is especially nice and one of my favourites at the moment. This was a really simple dish of shallots, peas, smoked salmon and cream, all tossed through the cooked pasta and served immediately. It was full of flavour and made for a really delicious mid-week meal.

 

Oh, and I've had to up my target again...who knew I'd actually stick to this challenge!

Recipe Count: 107
New Target: 156

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 32

First off I need to make a small confession, I was quite innocently browsing cookbooks on a well-known website when out of nowhere two cake books just fell into my basket and before I knew it they had been delivered to my place of work…in a bid to appease my conscience I felt that I had to make use of them as soon as possible. Therefore my first tasty treat of the week was a Marbled Chocolate Crumble Cake from my brand new copy of Rachel Allen’s Cake. Extremely easy to make this was swirled, crumbled, and in the oven before lunch – and more importantly, ready for consumption just a few hours later. I did take one look at the size of it and think we’d have to give some away (I know, I know, what did I just say?!), but luckily hubby stepped up and accepted the challenge – he’s been putting on a brave face and packing some in his lunchbox every day. Slightly bizarrely when we sat down to enjoy a piece for breakfast on Sunday morning we switched in the TV to find Rachel Allen cooking this exact cake…spooky!

Following a successful cake-making session I decided an easy dinner was called for, so I whipped up some Aubergines with Buttermilk Sauce from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty. This was quite possibly the easiest dish to prepare, the aubergines take care of themselves in the oven while you prepare the sauce, and whack the hell out of a pomegranate to release the seeds (boy did I have fun with that, though I do wonder how many stray seeds I’ll find scattered about the kitchen this week!). Thanks to the thyme and the za’atar there are delicate hints of lemon, and then bursts of sweetness from the pomegranate, finished off by the creamy yoghurt dressing and the soft flesh of the aubergine – a wonderfully summery dish which I served with just a side salad. If you’re a fan of aubergines, which I definitely am, then this is the dish for you.
  

Having abandoned this next recipe in favour of an easier dish the night before I finally got round to making the Salmon Fishcakes from Delia’s Frugal Food for Sunday dinner. They didn’t actually involve much work but clearly the thought of waiting for potatoes to cook and then making the fishcakes was just too much for a Saturday. They were made with a tin of salmon, so nothing fancy at all, and much cheaper that way too (always a bonus!). With a pinch of cayenne pepper they had a slight kick to them which, along with the crunch and zing of the cornichons, lifted these from being just mundane fishcakes to being very tasty indeed. With just a side salad to accompany them this was a lovely fresh and light meal, just the ticket when you’ve got a massive cake stashed in the kitchen for supper! 

 

A week in our household just wouldn’t be complete without some form of pasta dish sneaking its way onto the menu, this week’s offering was Penne al Mascarpone e Pancetta from Gino’s Pasta. The recipe was in the gluten-free section of the book but I just substituted regular penne, and cooked it anyway (because I’m crazy like that!). I guess when I get aubergines on the brain one dish a week just isn’t enough, but when it’s finely chopped it doesn’t really count right? The aubergine cooked down and soaked up all the juices from the pancetta, I did add a little bit of the cooking water from the pasta towards the end, just to slacken the sauce slightly – I usually find that mascarpone sauce can dry out a little so this helped it coat the pasta nicely.


Recipe Count: 103
New Target: 104

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 31

This week began with a very exciting and impromptu trip to Borough Market, when I arranged to meet up with a friend of mine in London. The place was absolutely packed, and every available space around the market was taken with people picnicking on the purchases they had just made. Since the main purpose of my visit was to catch-up with my friend we found a lovely little café in which to park ourselves for an hour or two, the fact that they had a table outside with all kinds of baked goodness may have lured us in! After several cups of tea and a almost an entire wedge (well it was enormous) of red velvet cake we headed for a quick look around, I managed to avoid the temptation of buying everything in sight and limited myself to a small pot of za’atar – I mean those Ottolenghi recipes just won’t be the same without it. I have resolved to go back here when I have some more pocket money!

Since the weather had turned wet, and a bit miserable, I decided that a nice warming/cheery curry was the answer and so I made Chicken with Spices and Cream from Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food. This was such a quick and easy dish; I do urge everyone to try it, even if as Nigel points out in the introduction, you’re sceptical about using a ready mixed curry powder (I used a Rajah madras one). The chicken was still nice and moist and the spiced sauce was just heavenly, a good job really as the house still smelt of it two days later. I served it with some plain rice, and a nice glass of chilled wine – bliss! The recipe can be found here if anyone’s interested: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/apr/21/foodanddrink.recipes5

Next up was another curry; somehow the slight drop in temperature has brought me out in a wintery mood, so heaven help me when it actually turns cold! This was a dish that I had already had the good fortune of trying when my mum cooked it for us last year, so I was more than a little anxious about doing it justice. The recipe was Fisherman’s Curry from BBC Good Food magazine, another one that’s been lurking in my recipe file for too long. This was a lovely fresh dish, the fish absorbs so much of the flavour and spice (it may have been a bit on the zingy side!) and the sauce was just begging to be soaked up by the naan that I served it with. 

 

My final recipe of the week was Middle Eastern Koftas from Rachel Allen’s Home Cooking, and it meant donning my CSI gloves to avoid turning up at work looking like I had jaundice, there’s nothing like turmeric stains to make your hands look decidedly unattractive. We were heading to the cinema that evening so I wanted to get some of the preparation done ahead of time, therefore when I returned home all I had to do was cook them and arrange the smorgasbord of accompaniments (think Build-a-Better-Burger, but with koftas and pitta – anyone who didn’t have this game as a child just hasn’t lived!). I know my cooking always goes down well with hubby because he’s very good with the compliments, but there’s nothing quite like the twinkle in his eye when he gets to ‘build’ his food, the fact that it was also super tasty was merely a bonus!

Recipe Count: 99
New Target: 104

 

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