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

7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Hairy Dieters: Fast Food (Hairy Bikers)

By Hairy Bikers, Si King, Dave Myers
Weidenfeld & Nicolson - 2016

This is mainly about the beans - they would make a good accompaniment to pretty much anything. The fish doesn't have to be baked - I brushed mine with a little oil and fried it, but steaming would also work.

useful (0)  

I love the "proper" version of this (with the double cream) and have to say the low-calorie version is quite a come-down, especially with fat-free yoghurt. However it does engender a bit of a virtuous glow which is some compensation, plus it's a lot quicker to make than porridge (and the washing-up is infinitely less trouble).

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I made these to use up a small amount of leftover gammon and was surprised by how good they were. The amount of fritter batter looks ridiculously small but is just enough to hold everything together. Three fritters were plenty for one, with some additional veg. A little mint or dill, either in the fritters or in the sauce, would be worth a try.

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Needs quite robust salad leaves - I used baby kale instead of spinach.

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A handy option for a quick breakfast - needs careful watching as it toasts though, as it can start to scorch very quickly. I made a batch on the spur of the moment and used what I had to hand which was pistachios instead of almonds, honey instead of maple syrup, and chopped dried apricots (which need to be proper dried ones not the soft, squishy "ready to eat" ones that seem to be taking over). I omitted the seeds as I didn't have any.

useful (0)  

Generous helping though very light on protein - however also very light on calories so could accompany some grilled fish or chicken. I resent paying the same price for "light" coconut milk as for whole coconut milk (since I suspect it's rendered "light" simply by adding water) so I used extra stock plus about 15g of grated coconut cream.

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I made these with tuna but will definitely be trying the sardine variant (so much cheaper). The mixture is quite soft and remains so until well on in the baking time - the cakes need careful turning with a fish slice. The sauce was too mustardy for me (and I love mustard) - I think a generous teaspoonful would be enough.

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