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