Sovay's Profile

From: Northern England,

Joined: October 7th, 2012

About me: I've embarked on a mission to cook something new from every cookery book I own - currently 260 - and am planning to use my account here to keep track (thanks to rfb from Librarything for tipping me off to the existence of this site). I've made a couple of rules for myself: to cook the recipe as given, with no substitution or variation unless suggested by the author; and to try to pick a genuinely new dish from each book - in other words, as I've cooked many Leek and Potato Soups in my time, I don't get to count Leek and Potato Soup as a new dish just because I haven't used this specific recipe before (unless it has really significant differences from the usual versions).

Hodge Podge from Mrs Beeton's Cookery Book

Beef and vegetable soup with beer - turned out disappointingly bland. The recipe had no seasoning other than salt and pepper - having tried it, I added a stock cube and some Worcester sauce, which helped... read more >

recipe reviews (241)
book reviews (5)
useful review votes (43)

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Sovay's Reviews

6 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 6Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Hairy Dieters: Good Eating (Hairy Bikers)

By Hairy Bikers, Dave Myers, Si King
W&N - 2014

Lovely fresh flavour - but do not fail to remove the skin from the individual beans, it makes all the difference. The dill is great with the beans but I've also substituted mint with good results.

I tried the variant with chicken but it didn't work so well - the marinated chicken pieces gave off a lot of liquid when frying and didn't brown. Better to grill a chicken piece separately to serve with the pilaf.

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I've made the bacon and black treacle version of these beans which is excellent. I think it's worth cooking the beans from dry as more flavour can be added and they're less inclined to get mushy when simmering in the sauce. I generally add a little mustard.

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I've taken off a star because of the dried sage, which I hate - fresh sage is indispensable. Apart from that it's delicious.

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This is in the Breakfast chapter but I found it substantial enough for a main course, with some steamed leeks and beans. I used about 1tbs Parmesan instead of Cheddar, and a spring onion instead of the chives. Best to add the cornflour gradually as I found the full amount made the sauce a little too thick.

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Pleasant enough (and with the authentic very small proportion of bulgur) but I'm not a big fan of either raw celeriac or raw courgettes -I prefer to substitute cucumber and radishes.

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More substantial than the average tomato soup due to the presence of lentils - I often add an extra 25g to make a thicker soup. Vegetables can be varied - e.g. courgette and red pepper instead of squash and celeriac. I strongly recommend NOT omitting the fennel seed as it makes a significant difference.

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