kaye16's Reviews
7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title 
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Real Cooking
By Nigel Slater
Penguin Books - 1999
Shepherd's Pie with Spiced Parsnip Mash : page 119
Really yummy stuff. This is supposed to serve four generously -- three of us ate it all. Yes, we were piggies, but it was very more-ish.
Used ~600g parsnips plus some leftover mashed potatoes for the topping. The sweetish parsnips plus the warm spices (cumin, coriander, garam masala) made a lovely topping. Sweet potatoes might work also, all or part of topping.
Used leftover roast lamb for the filling, with some of the leftover sauce from roasting plus chicken stock.
Could be made ahead and roasted just before eating.
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Pancetta and Blue Cheese Risotto : page 169
Good idea for a tasty risottto, but ...
- Serves 2 very generously; three would do.
- Way too much butter. I used about 1tbl olive oil for the pancetta and onion and didn't add the extra butter with the cheese.
- Too much blue cheese, too, even the blue cheese lovers thought so. (Used Fourme d'Ambert, which is middle strong sort of blue cheese. That was good. Stronger would be too much. Slater suggests Gorgonzola.)
- Did the regular sort of risotto making, adding stock ladle by ladle rather than by thirds.
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Pan-Fried Thai Fish : page 41
Quite good this was.
- Slater asks for shredded lemon grass. Hand-cut "shredded" was a bit too chewy. Usually lemongrass is minced. I wonder if he means microplaned?
- Shakes of soy sauce and rice wine? I used 1/4 teaspoon and suspect that 1/2 teaspoon would be better, since the sauce was tasty and a bit more would have been nice.
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Good, easy potatoes with a vaguely Indian taste, but could be used with anything.
If you've got potatoes already cooked this is a snap to make, otherwise you'll have to boil them up first.
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Not bad, easy. Maybe not quite as fantastic as other of Slater's dishes, but still quite good. I used real tomatoes, deseeded rather than canned. Was generous with the two teaspoons of harissa, but the dish wasn't that hot. Served over whole wheat couscous.
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Fragrant Rice : page 213
This recipe is advertised as being a side for 2, but there's a big problem with the amounts. It calls for 225g of rice. I stopped measuring at about 110g, which was about 5/8 cup, way more than needed for two. DH said he'd eat any extra, and he did, but we had enough for four.
I used my smaller amount with all the spices, which probably wasn't necessary, at least for the turmeric, since the rice was very yellow.
Didn't have any kaffir lime leaves, so skipped that bit.
Pretty tasty, and a bright addition to the plate. Just way too much as written.
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Baked Couscous with Chicken and Spices : page 173
Another winner from this book. I had a bit more chicken than asked (skinless, boneless breasts); was generous with the chili flakes. A nice meal with a salad.
Easy to make, but takes a bit of wall clock time, twenty minutes or more to marinate the chicken, then bake for twenty minutes, then combine with couscous and bake for another five minutes. But nothing difficult or rushed. Lots of time to make a nice salad. And a very tasty result.
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