bunyip's Profile

From: Melbourne, VIC Australia

Joined: December 27th, 2009

About me: I've been cooking for over thirty years, and I can remember the days before EVO, couscous and (ghasp!) microwaves. My cookbook collection reflects this personal and national gastronomic history. My own cooking has actually got simpler over the years, and I can do much of my repertoire without looking at a recipe. But I still love collecting cookbooks, although these days I'm a bit over food porn with great big colour photos - I really prefer food writing to recipes.

Favorite cookbook: The Cook's Companion

Salmon with macaroni from A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries III

Simple but delicious. Poaching the fish in 600 ml of cream (that's two bottles), which is then poured over the fish and pasta, sounds richer than it is. This is partly due to the dill in the crumb topping. I... read more >

recipe reviews (225)
book reviews (106)
useful review votes (103)

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bunyip's Reviews

9 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 9Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

A Year of Good Eating: The Kitchen Diaries III

By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate - 2015

Asparagus and blue cheese - who would have thought?

Thin asparagus seemed more suitable, and of course I used Charmain Solomon's no-roll pastry, which doesn't need blind baking. Very rich!

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Quick and easy, provided you've got fresh shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage.

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I do like freekeh, it tastes better than either burghul or brown rice. I cook it in the microwave as if it were brown rice.

Used this dish as a side this time, but it would do well as a light lunch. It's quite colourful with yellow peppers and green herbs.

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As Nigel says, you don't have to use focaccia so long as you have something to soak up the pan juices. I used polenta.

Very tasty although my juniper berries were rather ancient. I have bought a fresh packet and will definitely make it again.

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As often happens with Nigel Slater, his recipe does not need to be followed slavishly. Thus I used small porterhouse steaks, and frozen spinach (Jamie Oliver has convinced me that frozen is better value and less faffing around).

The final result was very a very good complete meal. Next time i will do it with chump chops.

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You can have too much cooking lamb shanks in tomato. Using wheat beer makes a change. I ran into trouble with the pan boiling dry - and of course hubby had drunk the left over beer. Rescued with water, the final sauce was good.

I will make this again, but adapt it to the pressure cooker which should get the meat tender without losing too much liquid.

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Dill, bacon and pasta? It works a treat.

Results in something like carbonara, but thickened with cream and quite a lot of parmesan instead of eggs. Would be a good substitute dish for anyone who can't eat eggs, so long as you don't use egg pasta as I did.

I did the usual thing of adding a little of the cooking water, without which I think the sauce might have been too thick.

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Smoked mackerel, like elderflower cordial, appears frequently in British cookbooks but is not readily available in this country. I substituted poached smoked cod with a satisfactory result.

The quantity is supposed to be enough for 2, but does not specify that they should both be men with hearty appetites. No matter, our dogs are used to gourmet leftovers!

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Simple but delicious. Poaching the fish in 600 ml of cream (that's two bottles), which is then poured over the fish and pasta, sounds richer than it is. This is partly due to the dill in the crumb topping.

I served with a salad of asparagus and tomato for a light Sunday night meal.

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