friederike's Reviews
13 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 13Sort by: Title 
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The Cook's Book: Techniques and Tips from the World's Master Chefs
By Jill Norman
DK Publishing (Dorling Kindersley) - 2005
Aïoli : page 29
A lot better than our last attempt at Aïoli. I'm not quite sure why; it's probably just a detail we overlooked, such as too cold eggs, or not whisking quick enough in relation to how quick we add the oil - that topic is really covered well in this book. The only issue I have with this recipe is that it contains too much garlic - 2 or perhaps 3 cloves should be enough.
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Baked Beetroot : page 364
This recipe is so simple you can hardly review it, but I'm going to do so anyway, because it shows you how to gat a beetroot baked - but the beetroot wasn't exiting at all. Pretty boring, actually. Use this as a base and experiment with adding herbs or spices to the beetroot, and see were that brings you - except, of course, if you really need a very simple, slightly boring side dish as to not divert the attention from a spectacular main dish.
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Beef Stroganoff : page 314
Very delicious and very quick! Recommended!
Be careful not to cook the meat for too long. You might want to add more cream to get more sauce. Today (10 Sept 2011) we used oyster mushrooms which I felt were not strong enough for the overall taste.
Serve for example with potatoes and Glazed Sautéed Carrots for a quick and satisfying dinner.
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Beef Wellingtons : page 288
They were very delicious, BUT... it took ages until the puff pastry was done and golden brown - so long that the steaks had already begun to dry out. Actually, it only once we set the temperature to 200°C that anything seemed to happen. Next time I would start at 200°C right away. It probably also helps it the steaks are perfectly round and even shaped. For my taste, it was much too much meat, but then 150g per person isn't shockingly much. I could have seen this without the steak, or perhaps with a filling of minced meat - though then again, it wouldn't have been Beef Wellingtons.
Minor points: When making the pancakes, remember to do a test first - ours ended up being slight too small, we could have better used the larger pan. And we used butter, which worked better than without.
All in all, well worth all the extra effort, but keep an eye on the temperature.
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Celeriac Mash : page 226
Meh. The mash was watery, and not at all creamy. We added some crème fraîche, which helped a bit but not enough. Next time I would do a combined celeriac and potato mash as in this recipe.
Also you're supposed to add a whole teaspoon freshly grated horseradish. We didn't have any fresh horseradish so I used horseradish cream from a glass - 1/4 teaspoon was absolutely enough, I'm glad I didn't naively add the whole teaspoon!
Served with grilled salmon and creamed leeks - a great way to get rid of leftover vegetables from making soup!
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Chicken Braised in Red Wine (Coq au Vin) : page 240
This one is quite simple in comparison with both the Coq au Vin Bourguignon in The Cuisine of the Rose and the 'normal' Coq au Vin in Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche, and its easy to see why - 1-2 bottles of wine (depending on the recipe) are replaced by a mere 250 ml of wine, replenished with chicken stock or water, and with the addition of a spoonful of tomato passata - ack! As a result, it doesn’t have as much depth of flavour; nevertheless, it’s delicious and a great dish for daily cooking.
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Cinnamon and Date Scone Bread : page 478
I made this for a brunch, but left out the dates, and it was a real hit! When I placed the bread in the oven I still had a lot of sauce left (which was supposed to be spread on the bread before forming the loaf), and yet the bread ended up being just a hint too dry. Either serve the sauce with the bread (and then possibly omit the alcohol), or try to roll out the dough even thinner than specified in the recipe, if you can. Nonetheless, this has found its way onto my list of classics.
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Cock a Leekie : page 81
It's probably just the way it's supposed to be, but for us, it was too sweet, and that didn't change no matter how much salt you added. The problem is that not only the prunes are sweet, the leek is sweet as well. It doesn't help either that both chicken and leek are not the most flavourful ingredients, at least not when cooked (roasted is a completely different story..).
I really enjoyed it in the beginning, though - it made me think about Hamburg Eel Soup and made me wonder if a preference for sweet and savoury, or even for using dried fruit in a savoury soup, is a preference in Northern Europe in general, or a cultural peculiarity born out of necessity. Or possibly both.
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Glazed Sautéed Carrots : page 369
Delicious and easy. Nowadays one of our standard side dishes.
If you like your carrots soft, I would recommend to parboil them. If you prefer them relatively crunchy, you can also just cut them into small slices/cubes and use them directly, though you might have to cook them a bit longer to get them at least slightly cooked.
I often substitute the sugar with honey and add other ingredients such as onions and parsley or rosemary. Very delicious!
Serve e.g. with potatoes and Beef Stroganoff for a quick and satisfying dinner.
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Lychee and Rose Sorbet : page 568
A very nice sorbet! In the beginning, I was afraid that the rose water would be too dominant as my first association was marzipan, but that turned out not to be a problem.
I also wondered if the texture would be good enough - we previously made a Lychee and Lime Sorbet which had the texture of melting snow until we added another egg white - this recipe doesn't contain any egg whites at all. But then I guess having an ice cream machine now makes all the difference.
We served it with Poached Quinces with Rose Water Syrup , though we omitted the rose water syrup in that dish, as it would have become too much. I think it combined great, though it was a tad sweet and possibly could have used some crunch. I'm glad we chose this combination instead of the quinces with Lychee and Lime Sorbet mentioned above.
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Minestrone : page 80
Very delicious!
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Rote Grütze : page 621
Wonderful, typical fruit dessert from the north of Germany, Hamburg and surroundings. Light, healthy and yet sweet and puddinglishly. Serve hot or cold, with vanilla ice cream or Crème Anglaise (vanilla sauce), or, classically, with cream (not whipped).
Edited 26 December 2015:
We usually use less water and sugar. This last time I used a total of 215 ml water (instead of 300 ml) and 125 g sugar (instead of 150 g) - 200 ml water and maybe 110 g sugar probably would have been better, although of course that also always depends on the fruit you use. We usually use frozen berries, which is probably part of the reason we not only use less sugar but also less water.
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Sablés Viennois : page 532
Very elegant cookies to be served with tea. If I remember well, though, they don’t retain their crispness very long, so don’t let them lie around for too long (shouldn’t be too difficult).
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