friederike's Reviews
7 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 7Sort by: Title 
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101 Store-cupboard Suppers ("Good Food")
By Barney Desmazery
BBC Books - 2008
Fruity Coconut Creams : page 190
Easy, quick, healthy, a nice tasting mid-week dessert.
useful (1)
Hoisin Wraps : page 36
A very delicious and quickly prepared fake version of Peking Duck, if you have chicken leftovers from another dish. We tried using Oyster Sauce once because we ran out of Hoisin Sauce - don't, it doesn't work at all.
useful (2)
Hot Coffee Creams : page 206
It's a really quick and very delicious dessert - but only if you get the proportions right. We didn't have any marsala, so I used cognac. I also used cantuccini, as I thought they would retain some extra crunch, and I served only one scoop of ice cream - I don't know how much coffee I used, it might have been less than required.
This resulted in a dessert that definitely had too much alcohol for too little ice cream, and possibly also just a bit too much coffee. Once I added another scoop of ice cream and a tiny bit extra coffee, it was much better!
I could also see this work if you use orange or tropical fruit juice instead both the coffee and the alcohol to make a non-alcoholic version.
Edited a few days later:
Nope, it's just definitely too much alcohol. The problem is also that because you soak the biscuits in the alcohol and pour the coffee over the ice cream, the alcohol doesn't blend that well. Maybe you need to turn it around, soak the biscuits in coffee and pour (a slightly reduced amount of) alcohol over the ice cream? Or just mix the coffee and alcohol before pouring?
5 minutes later:
I sacrificed myself. I had another one. I just had to try. Soaking the biscuits in coffee and pouring the alcohol has the disadvantage that the ice cream doesn't melt as easily - unless you're in Texas in summer. And the sting of alcohol still is there. Perhaps you need to briefly heat the alcohol, e.g. pour it into your espresso maker while it's still on the stove? Or even flambé as you pour it over the ice cream for a dramatic effect?
They look cute served in Bonne Maman jam jars, especially if you tie a bow around them..
useful (0)
Pea, Prawn and Lemon Linguine : page 60
DB prepared and ate it while I only managed to get hold of the leftovers the next day (and believe me, reheated pasta with a cream sauce suffers enormously), so I'll have rely a bit on his judgement.
He liked it a lot, but he thought that it was just a little too creamy and not really moist enough; it's probably a good idea to save some pasta water next time, just in case. He also regretted that he couldn't do anything with the prawn shells, but then again most frozen prawns come without shells anyway. It definitely wasn't enough for 4 servings, it was rather 3 very light servings, or just a main dish for 2 (either that or he must have had a huge portion yesterday...).
Crosspost. This recipe also appears on the BBC Good Food website.
useful (0)
Refreshing Lychee and Lime Sorbet : page 184
Soooo delicious! In fact, this sorbet would have easily gained a 5 star rating if the consistency had been more like that of a true sorbet than that of slightly thawed snow. Still, the flavours nearly made you forget which is even more impressive as I was sceptic that cheap tinned fruit could be turned into anything delicious at all… Let me tell you, it can!
Edited to add:
We made the sorbet again, stirred it several times, and added an extra egg white - it was absolutely great! The extra egg white made the texture much finer. Definitely worth a 5-star rating!
I would recommend grating the zest as fine as you can instead of adding it in stripes - use a nutmeg grater for best results! Biting on a distinct piece of zest definitely isn't what you'd want in a sorbet.
Crosspost. I found out that this recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
useful (0)
Sesame Noodles with Tofu : page 84
Just okay. It was quite bland, so the following day we doubled up the amount of ginger and garlic and marinated the tofu a little longer and yet it was somewhat bland. Roasting the sesames probably would have helped, too.
Crosspost. I found out that this recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
useful (0)
Spicy Coconut and Pumpkin Curry : page 154
Well, it was okay, not really very delicious. I guess pumpkin and coconut just don't make such an exciting mix. It also tasted slightly, uhm, dusty? floury?, which I put down to the pumpkin - I guess I should have used my favourite butternut squash instead.
I must admit that we subsituted/ignored quite a few ingredients, namely one red chilli for the red curry paste, this Peach Chutney, which I guess counts as much as a pickle as a chutney, for both the hot green mango chutney and the hot lime pickle (where do you buy that stuff anyway?).
useful (0)