Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 8

After the excitement of last week’s culinary adventures week 8 was always going to either a challenge or a let-down. So to kick of the week we went for a bit of a Spanish fiesta and brought out the Tapas dishes we’d smuggled all the way back from Barcelona. Now an evening of aTapas is not complete without Patatas Bravas or Chorizo in Red Wine so they were on the list without even thinking about it (and they were recipes I’d used before so don’t really count), and with a glut of eggs left over from Pancake Day an Oven-baked Tortilla seemed the way to go. Also left over from our pre-Lenten celebrations was some shredded ham so I delved into my cookbooks (namely A Passion for Tapas) in search of some sort of cold salad which might take pity on it – fully acknowledging that it wasn’t exactly Jamón Ibérico. Anyway, I spotted Broad Bean & Ham that looked spot on, somewhere in the back of my mind I could see the bag of frozen broad beans nestling in the freezer. For some reason popping the little beans out of their jackets after cooking doesn’t seem to me the chore it should be, I quite enjoy it…is that weird? The resulting salad was a lovely combination of flavours and textures, and was soon demolished. For my final dish I returned to the trusty aubergine, and marinated it simply in herbs and oil before roasting it in the oven for about an hour, while it didn’t give off as much juice as I would have liked it was very soft and went well with the other dishes. So with the Marinated Aubergine dished up we were in for quite a night, and despite there only being the two of us there weren’t many leftovers for lunch the next day – the sauce for the Patatas Bravas packed quite a punch but was washed down nicely with a tasty Rioja. OK, writing this was a mistake as I absolutely must have Tapas right now…

As always at the moment I find myself wandering over to the bookshelf and pulling off one of my Yotam Ottolenghi books and this week I decided to go for the original, Ottolenghi itself. Chickpeas & Spinach with Honeyed Sweet Potato has such an inviting photo that I couldn’t resist overloading on the carbs and tucking into this one. The tender sweet potato was such a contrast to the chickpea stew below and made for a wonderful meat-free Sunday dinner, it was incredibly filling and very easy to make (helped in part by me cheating and using tinned chickpeas…sorry!). 

Following on from a very packed week seven I gave myself a slightly easy week this time (if you discount the hours of Tapas prep I put in at the beginning), but I still managed to include some new recipes and cook something fresh and tasty every day. With the horse-meat scandal currently dominating the headlines it’s rather nice to know that I haven’t touched supermarket meat for quite some time, don’t get me wrong I’m not adverse to eating horse meat, if you eat one animal why the hypocrisy over eating another? If you’re not preparing meals from scratch how can you ever hope to know exactly what’s going into your mouth? 

Recipe Count: 26

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 7

Trying out new recipes is always fun, but sometimes it’s nice to have a reason and this week saw not one but three excuses for having some fun in the kitchen. To celebrate Chinese New Year I opened the prawn crackers and got the wok out. Five-Spice Beef & Sugar Snap Noodles was a very simple stir-fry and relatively inexpensive but was packed with a lot of flavour – and after scoffing a fair few crackers, with sweet chilli dipping sauce, it was a very light way to end the weekend.

One of the only recipes this week to not be affiliated with some kind of celebration was Sicilian Pasta from Nigellissima. Having been disappointed by the last pasta sauce I whipped up I was full of trepidation when it came to this one, but I did buy some better tomatoes this time in the hope that they would have more flavour. Again it was very straight forward, cook the pasta and blitz all the other ingredients in the blender – then stir together. I think I’ve hit upon the reason these sauces just aren’t doing it for me, because it is not cooked and simply stirred into hot pasta there is an undeniable taste of raw garlic. Now I didn’t over-egg the pudding, so to speak, and add too much so I don’t understand how I could still taste garlic several hours later. And also I’m not sure about fusilli lunghi either, don’t get me wrong I love the pretty shape of it but I think maybe it’s too thick for my taste – I shan’t be in a rush to buy any more let’s put it that way!

Pancake Day is always a source of excitement in our house so like a good little girl I whipped up the batter the night before, this allows the flour in the batter to relax and makes much better pancakes. This also saves time on the night itself of course, however I always forget how long it takes to cook a whole heap of pancakes…note to self, next year start earlier! Having purchased a new crepe pan when I was in France last year I was eager to put it to good use, and preparing myself for the obligatory crap first pancake I was pleasantly surprised when it came out perfectly formed (more to do with the pan than me I fear). I thought I had my ‘tossing’ technique perfected, until my husband informed me that I looked absolutely petrified each time – there are two possible reasons for this, firstly I don’t want to ruin a perfectly good pancake, and secondly (far more likely) I don’t want to make a mess of the hob. To accompany our pancakes we had a smorgasbord of toppings, smoked salmon & crème fraiche, cheese & ham, and the traditional lemon & sugar for dessert. As usual by the end of the night the pancake sweats had hit…thank goodness it’s only once a year!

Now we come to the biggest celebration of the week, Valentine’s Day. As much as I enjoy going out for a meal I also like having the opportunity to cook something a bit more special, to this end I chose Nigella’s Roasted Duck Legs with Potatoes. The reason behind this was that I’ve never cooked with duck before, mainly due to the expense, and also it meant very little effort on my part so that hubby and I could enjoy more of the evening together. It was brilliant, I quickly seared the duck and chopped up the potatoes and then it was popped into the oven for 90 minutes while we sat back and opened the bubbly. I served it with a green salad with pine nuts and a pesto dressing – absolutely divine. Now we don’t very often have dessert, but every now and then I do partake in some of the sweet stuff – so to finish an already awesome meal, I whipped up Nigella’s (yes, her again) Tiramisini. Not only did it look the part, but I had all the ingredients bar the mascarpone so it was also super cheap…and I may have made the full recipe and saved 2 for tonight’s dinner (you can’t waste half a tub of mascarpone now can you?).

Well after one hell of a week I am definitely ready for the weekend, luckily I can pull something out of the freezer for tonight’s dinner – Marrakech Chilli awaits me tonight, and not a horse in sight!

Recipe Count: 22

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 6

Right, now that I’m up-to-date I can relax – the last few entries may have been a bit sparse but it’s hard recalling things weeks after they happened. For some reason this week has been a mammoth week of cooking, five new recipes have made it onto our plates – albeit one a cake, and another a side dish – but still pretty darn impressive by anyone standards!

With my Dad’s birthday approaching I thought I’d better enquire as to the baking arrangements, I mean, there’s nothing more disappointing than a birthday without a cake. So I pulled all my baking books off the shelf and settled down. Now my Dad is not into anything too fancy, he’s quite happy with a custard cream with his tea (or a pork pie with his pint) – and so I found myself coming back to the Chocolate Guinness Cake from Nigella’s Feast. It turned out to be a sound choice, not only was it easy to transport (believe me, there’s nothing fun about driving when there’s a cake at risk of destruction), it was deliciously moist and the topping was not at all too sweet even though it was piled on top like the head on a pint of the aforementioned black stuff. And the main thing was that the birthday boy enjoyed it (I’ve since heard that it disappeared fairly quickly so it can’t have been bad!).

Rummaging around in the freezer I found a couple of chicken thighs, now one thigh per person is a bit miserly, but luckily I discovered a couple of sausages as I delved further and I knew I’d seen a recipe in Nigellissima that would be perfect. Cue a Monday evening Italian Traybake, which I served with Insalata di Zucchine con Menta e Rucola (Courgette Salad with Mint and Rocket) from Two Greedy Italians. It was a particularly fortuitous decision as my husband came home from a stressful day at the office (the beginning of the month is always a busy time in finance), but his little face lit up when he saw what we were having (the fact that he’s easily pleased is a real bonus!). The dish itself was a cinch to put together, place all the ingredients in a roasting tray and pop into the oven – I don’t think there’s anyone that could mess that up! While the oven was working its magic I whipped up the courgette salad, and arranged it artistically on a platter – ok, so I flung it on and spent a good ten minutes bemoaning my lack of finesse.  But artistic flair aside it was a pretty awesome meal, hubby even went back for more of the green stuff, I’d say that was a roaring success!

Pasta is always a good option for a cheap week night meal, and while the Italians might prefer a primo course of pasta before the main event, I’m only little and a bowl of pasta is more than enough for me. Add to that the fact that my cupboards are bulging with all manner of different pasta shapes and you’ll agree that it’s the way forward. Therefore I chose Linguine alla Amatriciana from Gino’s Pasta, though I may have adapted the recipe slightly by dicing up a spare gammon steak instead of using the specified pancetta…this is not laziness, it's frugality! I knew it was going to be a good dish when I saw the crushed chillies, and they certainly gave the dish a zing, just how I like it…and the husband too of course!

My final recipe for the week was one that had been postponed several times so there was a lot of expectation for it to deliver something special. Now my fondness for aubergine is no secret, I absolutely love them, so when I saw that the recipe for Roast Aubergine Parmigiana in a recent BBC Good Food magazine I knew I had to give it a whirl. I have said before that there’s nothing worse than an undercooked aubergine so I was somewhat sceptical about them cooking thoroughly in the time specified, but I had no need to worry as they were perfect – the softness of the aubergine flesh was complemented wonderfully by the crispy breadcrumb and parmesan topping. A lot of baked aubergine dishes require slices of the vegetable to be griddled first which, while not exactly difficult, takes time and creates more washing up, so to be able to just stick this in the oven and sit back was lovely. Served with crusty bread this was a fabulous end to an exciting week in the kitchen!

Recipe Count: 18

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 5

Making weekly menus/shopping lists means that I can keep food waste to a minimum by selecting recipes that overlap on ingredients, meaning when I need a handful of spinach leaves for one dish I’m not buying an entire bag for virtually no reason. In light of this I made Asian Chicken Noodle Broth from Jamie’s Ministry of Food and then Salmon & Spinach with Tartare Cream (another Good Food recipe).

The noodle broth was packed full of flavour, and I think the only criticism I can find was that my bowls simply aren’t big enough...and that’s not the fault of Mr Oliver so I can only say that his recipe is my favourite of all the noodle broths/soups that I’ve made recently. I served the remainder of the spinach with the salmon, alongside some crushed new potatoes.

After Christmas I treated myself to a stick blender, with numerous attachments, and have been desperate to try it out – but my penchant for planning menus means I had to wait a few weeks for the dish to come around. I figured some sort of pesto would be a great way to christen my new toy so I turned to The Geometry of Pasta to provide some inspiration. Fusilli Lunghi con Pesto Trapanese was the recipe of choice and so I bunged all the ingredients in the small processor, and had my fun blitzing it to a paste. It was probably the tasteless supermarket tomatoes that let this dish down, or possibly the fact that I was having an unsettling week at work, but this just didn’t do it for me and I struggled to clear my plate.

Recipe Count: 13

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 4

I kicked the week off with another recipe from Plenty, and what a recipe! Ultimate Vegetable Couscous was exactly that, the most flavoursome vegetarian dish I have had for a while. Roasting the vegetables with the spices created the most amazing aroma throughout the house, and opening the oven door to check on their progress became almost addictive. Whilst Ottolenghi might have come under some criticism for the number of ingredients (23 if I remember correctly), with a store cupboard like mine this isn’t a problem – I think all I needed were the fresh vegetables. Packed with flavour and so filling it’s easy to forget there’s no meat in this dish!

Thinking back on an awesome weekend in Barcelona made me crave the spicy delights of chorizo, and possibly the heat of the sun (but that will have to wait), so I made Chorizo & Kale one-pot from BBC Good Food. A very easy and tasty dish, just perfect for cold winter days – almost warms you up enough to believe you’re there…well ok maybe not, but a girl can dream!

My final new dish of the week was Yellow Lentil & Coconut Curry with Cauliflower which was a cutting I’d taken from BBC Good Food a while ago and stashed away in my recipe file, another resource not to be ignored! This one was ok, but I think would have benefitted from less water being added – the lentils can only soak up so much and the resulting dish just seemed a little waterlogged.

Recipe Count: 10

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 3

For some reason all I can remember about this Saturday night is watching The Iron Lady which we’d recorded the previous week, and eating a really delicious dish of Butterbeans with Sumac from Plenty (Ottolenghi, naturally!). The two are in no way connected, the film wasn’t bad but the food was better – my husband is a big fan of anything involving feta so the liberal sprinkling over the beans had him salivating just thinking about it. I did cheat horrendously by using tinned beans, for which I’ve given myself the obligatory hand-smack, but that aside it was a lovely dish which had a lemony zing from the sumac that was off-set nicely by the creamy contrast of the beans and feta. 

Next up was Sausage & Fennel Meatballs with Lentils from BBC Good Food magazine, which was very straightforward mainly because instead of making any meatballs you just take the sausages out of their skins, add fennel seeds, and shape into balls. Very tasty and filling for a Sunday dinner!

When I first read the recipe for Saucy Pork & Tomato Egg Stir-fry, taken from Ching’s Chinese Food in Minutes, I thought the idea of swirling eggs into a fairly liquid dish would be a bit strange (and I like baked eggs in dishes, but just mixing them in seemed a bit odd), however I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It is a more fluid stir-fry than I would normally make, but a serving of jasmine rice was the perfect accompaniment and soaked up all the juices.

Recipe Count: 7

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 2

My proclivity for overburdening the bookshelves can be highlighted by the fact that upon receiving three new cookbooks for Christmas I decided to hit the sales and procure yet more, but to be fair they were ones that I’d had my eye for a while…and it’s not like my resolution was to stop buying them (that would just be silly!). Due to my recent splurge I decided we hadn’t had Mexican for a little while so why not open my shiny new copy of Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home, and see what took my fancy!

 

Still on the obligatory January health kick I opted for another salmon dish, but this time instead of the warming fragrant spices of the middle-east it would be the punchy, fresh taste of Mexico. Grilled Salmon in a Smoky Tamarind Sauce was a delicious burst of freshness on a drab January evening, and has subsequently made me long for the summer nights when we can dine al fresco with a nice fresh ceviche – for now I served the salmon with some wilted spinach and potatoes (not terribly Mexican but, in the spirit of using up what’s in the house, I thought why not?!)

One more thing to take into consideration with this challenge was my subscription to BBC Good Food magazine, my favourite day of the month is when I return home to find it sitting on my doormat, and so I must make more use of my monthly influx of yet more recipes. To that end, my second dish of the week was Chilli Marrakech, a sort of bastardized version of Chilli con Carne but, incorporating all the flavours of Morocco and using lamb instead of beef. I’m always a fan of anything that can be served with couscous as it’s so easy to prepare, but this was super tasty – obviously I popped in slightly more harissa than was strictly specified but I figured it couldn’t hurt!

Recipe Count: 4

Target: 52

Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 1

Having received Jerusalem as a Christmas present I was desperate to get cooking in the New Year, I had already borrowed the book a few months earlier from the library and made the Stuffed Aubergine with Lamb & Pine Nuts which was absolutely divine – the best stuffed aubergine recipe I have come across. So given the excesses of the holidays I thought I’d start with a nice light fish dish and settled on Salmon Steaks in Chraimeh Sauce. I forget now what I served this dish with but I do remember the very fragrant sauce, just perfect for salmon.

Again I felt an abundance of vegetables to be necessary at the start of the New Year so the next new dish I chose was Everyday Lentil and Vegetable Curry from Anjum Anand’s I Love Curry. Having hit all the Indian supermarkets on the Cowley Road, several times, I had stocked up on my spices and pulses so all I had to buy were the fresh vegetables (always a bonus when you’re living on a budget). It was a lovely curry and one of the nicer vegetable ones I’ve made, but I think next time I might cook the aubergine for longer – perhaps fry it off at the beginning before adding to the main dish as I seemed to be waiting for a long time (a lot longer than specified) for it to cook. And there’s nothing worse than undercooked aubergine!

So not a bad start, 2 new dishes in the first week - I think this resolution could be one that I stick too (and not a bad thing when such tasty treats are on offer).

Cookbook Challenge 2013

When I think of my Granny’s solitary little 1950s Good Housekeeping cookery book, well-thumbed, annotated, and generally well-used I feel slightly ashamed of my groaning bookshelves which contain more recipes than one domestic cook would ever need…but in my defence there was a lot less choice back then, you couldn’t just nip out and pick up sumac or ras-al-hanout whenever you fancied something a little more exotic – and how many recipes do you actually need for ‘food’-in-aspic or mock-cream?

I love cooking and generally do manage to include at least one new recipe a week, but since my weekly menus and shopping list are thrown together, rather haphazardly, in my lunchtimes at work I don’t have access to my rather vast library of tomes. Therefore I find myself searching the same websites (thank you BBC Good Food) and coming up with variations on a theme, week-in and week-out. Recently though, watching Yotam Ottolenghi’s Mediterranean Feasts inspired me to delve back into my cookbooks (perhaps helped over Christmas by receiving the full complement of his oeuvre). I got excited by all the fresh looking dishes and all the exciting flavours that I could almost taste, now don’t get me wrong I throw some form of chilli (fresh, crushed flakes, dried, powder) into 90% of my dishes as I like a bit of a buzz, but that’s not always enough – they’re still the same insipid dishes.  

My mission for 2013 then is fairly clear; I have to cook at least one new dish a week from my very own cache of cookbooks – then at the end of the year I have to be brutal and discard those that did not make the cut. Although I have been as good as my word, better in fact as I think I’ve managed about 12 new recipes in the first 6 weeks, I’ve not committed anything to paper and now we’re into February (how did that happen?) – So I’ll write a retrospective piece for those recipes and then continue to document my progress throughout the year. Sorted!