wester's Profile

From: Soesterberg, Utr Netherlands

Joined: September 24th, 2009

About me: I love cooking, I love eating, I love discovering new recipes. I have so many cookbooks I sometimes lose track of which recipe is where - though this site helps a bit. I have gone low-carb in 2010, so that's different recipes to explore again. This also means I may not agree with my own reviews anymore if they were written in 2009 or before. ------------------ I have a lovely husband and ten-year old twins who also love eating. ----------------- You can also find me on LibraryThing, BookMooch and EatYourBooks, using the same handle.

Favorite cookbook: The Complete Meze Table by Rosamond Man

Favorite recipe: Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp

Daond Pasha (Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Tomatoes) from The Complete Meze Table

The meatballs were very tasty, but I did not really like putting all the pine nuts together - it made for fussy cooking and I think I would prefer finding a pine nut here and there instead of finding them... read more >

recipe reviews (741)
book reviews (74)
useful review votes (327)

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wester's Reviews

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

Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Ebury Paperback Cookery)

By Simon Hopkinson, Lindsey Bareham
Ebury Press - 1999

Excellent. Fresh, creamy, garlicky, lemony.
And easy to make too. Even frozen spinach will work.

useful (0)  

Quite simple and as festive as you want to make it. I thought the aubergine responded best to the grilling, and the fennel was brilliant with the aïoli. The onions, peppers and courgettes were nice, but not as great as the others. Next time, I will use fennel and aubergines, and one or more of the others just for variation.

I did make the aïoli with whole eggs, and in the blender, even though mr. Hopkinson explicitly tells us not to. I thought it was fine, but it might possibly have been even better if I had bothered to follow his instructions.

I do have a cast-iron ribbed grill on the hob, and this recipe was the first one I tried where the food didn't stick to the grill, so there must be something right about the method.

useful (0)  

A good version of a good basic recipe.

Why oh why does no cookbook ever tell you for how long you should cook leeks?
I need 10 to 15 minutes till tenderness when dropped in boiling water.

useful (1)  

So I had this recipe in two cookbooks already (It came from Elizabeth Davids Italian Food, but I used the recipe in this book. I don't even have Delia's version), but I had to see a photo on a food blog to actually make it (this photo: http://racheleats.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/piedmontese-peppers-again/ ). I just didn't notice it before. The ingredients are simple - peppers, tomatoes, garlic, anchovies - but the whole thing just works out fine. Don't forget some nice bread for the juices.

The main differences between the recipes are the cooking time - Simons is much longer and I prefer it that way - and when to add the anchovies - I might experiment with that.

useful (2)  

The taste of this stuff is pretty good, but it resembled a soup rather than a mash and the recipe does not really allow for control on that. Disappointing.

useful (0)  

Very nice. Lovely egg-yolk yellow, and a subtle flavor. I did find the mustard taste too strong, so next time I'll halve that.
I served it with salmon, which was good.

useful (0)