friederike's Reviews
11 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 11Sort by: Title 
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By John Burton Race
Quadrille Publishing Ltd - 2008
Very delicious, and a true spring/early summer dish!
Cooking all the vegetables first took a lot longer than I had expected, so make sure you plan enough time. We often eat them with pods, but for this dish make sure you remove it. The rice took a lot longer to cook, until I finally figured that there is a point where the stock will evaporate, but is not hot enough to cook the rice - it's about a mm difference in the setting of my gas stove. Also, be sure you reheat the veggies properly again, that may take longer than you expect.
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Baked Apples with Prunes and Walnuts : page 201
Very delicious! DB thought that they could have cooked a little longer, especially for the filling, though I actually enjoyed their firm texture and slightly zingy flavour. I wasn't sure about the plums, whether they should be fresh or dried (I guessed dried) - however, this could also have been the translator's mistake. DB also thought that the caramel wasn't really necessary; again, I don't entirely agree, but I guess that also depends on the meat dish you serve. Absolutely recommended in any case!
Served alongside Roast Loin of Pork with a Cider Sauce with potatoes and salad, with Shallot Tarte Tatin as a starter and Gingerbread Soufflé with Cranberry Sauce as dessert.
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Excellent salad! It tasted very nice, and I also enjoyed the fact that I would never have dared to combine these ingredients. It also makes an excellent lunch box - or cat food; at least this is the very first dish our kittens have shown an immense interest in (though I'd rather give them only mackerel if I'd have to).
Edited 4 August 2013:
When I served this as a lunch/picnic today, I forgot to add the horseradish cream, prompting my SIL to comment 'that the Jew in her longed for some gherkins', though she was quick to accept horseradish as a valid substitute once we found the jar with horseradish cream. I guess she was thinking of the Herring Salad with Beetroot and Gherkins her grandmother used to make (will have to make that some day...).
Served with Honey Chicken Salad and a rocket salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette. Served these dishes as a lunch to four people - I was afraid that it might be too much, but we finished it all!
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Excellent dish! Anybody who has read my previous reviews of mussel dishes will know that I'm not really hard to please in this respect anyway.
What I really enjoyed in this version is that everything made a difference. You could taste the coconut, you could taste the spices (coriander, cumin, to name a few), it was slightly spicy, and of course you could also taste the mussels. The main difference between this dish and the other two are the spices added to this one.
We used 2 instead of 3 kilos of mussels, and 2 instead of 4 chillis - yesterdays Beef with Green Pepper was hot enough. We also used 300ml coconut milk and 100ml fish broth instead of 200ml each, because I was afraid the dish would otherwise turn out too salty; I thought it was on the salty side, DB didn't mind.
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Pumpkin Risotto with Sage and Parmesan : page 64
At a certain moment while preparing this dish I thought: this isn't a five star-recipe, it's four stars at most - too many vague or misleading instructions. The squash wasn't roasted but cooked and thus soft, it didn't say anything about how the squash should be added (chunks of 5 cm? Cut into smaller cubes?), and 100g of parmesan really would have been too much - but in the end I was really addicted to it! I'm normally not such a fan of a risotto, partly because often it's just not well done, but also because I don't want to have only mush for dinner. Well, this one really was the exception.
And it wasn't really complicated to make, on the contrary, you could even prepare it for guests - just turn off the gas just before it's nearly done - with 2-3 ladles of stock to go, and the re-heat and finish off when needed. Do be careful with the liquid, our's was just a bit too dry, though I take full responsibility for that, we started re-heating it too early.
What I would recommend to do is add some extra sage to the risotto, while you begin to cook the rice - the sage on the squash won't be enough at all.
We served this with the Bacon-wrapped Pears with a Celeriac and Lamb's Lettuce Salad as a starter and Lemon Moussse as dessert - a wonderful seasonal and easy to prepare menu, although the season just didn't behave accordingly.
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Rösti Potatoes : page 44
Very, very nice, very simple to do. I'm only wondering how this will work for four portions - I only made two today and ended up with the 20 cm pancake described. For four portions you might have to adapt the cooking time.
Served with Roasted Monkfish with Red Wine Dressing, as suggested - just don't serve the fish on the Rösti as it'll lose all its crispness.
Similar to Kartoffelpuffer with or without Apple Sauce.
The nice thing about Rösti is that it's a nice way to prepare potatoes in advance; once they're cooked they won't discolour, and you can reheat them in no time (as opposed to having to peel and cook potatoes). Good for midweek suppers! This dish is also ideal when you're expecting guests as you can prepare it in advance and easily reheat it. The first time I did this, I unfortunately thought that reheating would reduce the time in the oven to 10-12 min – it doesn't. Just prepare it as if to serve immediately, then reheat. If in doubt, you could retrieve it maybe 30-60 sec earlier, but not more.
Edited 3 May 2014:
Preparing the Rösti for four persons isn't any different than for two, only the the pancake will likely be thicker. I'm not sure if it's because of that, or because my supermarket changed the kind of potato recently, but the Rösti we made this week was slightly glibbery on the inside. It will probably help to either make thinner Röstis, or bake them longer (the potato was cooked, but just not nice in texture), or try a different kind of potato.
Also, when I took a bite of Rösti, I all of a sudden had the inspiration that it would go really really well with truffle (or at least faux truffle oil). If ever there was a glorious food idea, this is it!
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Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble : page 230
It was quite nice. DH really enjoyed it and would consider a 5 star rating; I was in doubt if the tang of the rhubarb and the sharpness of the ginger really went that well together. I know it's a classic combination - we were also considering James Martin's Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble. Irony has it that we chose this recipe, because in comparison it packs more sugar into the crumble and less into the rhubarb, thereby emphasizing the rhubarbs tang. Looking back, the other recipe might have been preferable..
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Roast Loin of Pork with a Cider Sauce : page 172
It's really hard to judge this one as I believe it might have come down to the fact that we just had the wrong cut of meat! Ours was dry after only one hour (instead of 1 1/2 hours) and pretty lean, instead of juicy and slightly fatty, and had no crust to speak of. The sauce was very nice, but we left it too liquid as there would have been too little otherwise. It's possible that it's a simple translator's fault (Dutch version), as that seemed to be the problem elsewhere too.
Served alongside Baked Apples with Prunes and Walnuts, potatoes and salad, with Shallot Tarte Tatin as a starter and Gingerbread Soufflé with Cranberry Sauce as dessert.
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Roasted Monkfish with Red Wine Dressing : page 133
Exciting! As monkfish is really expensive and I was cooking this dish on a normal Monday evening just to try this recipe, I opted for pangasius instead, knowing that monkfish is stronger in flavour and texture than pangasius is. Yet it was very, very nice. The red wine dressing was a bit of a surprise - I thought that I had bought a good wine, but when I opened the bottle, the wine had already turned sour! As I didn't have another red wine, and the sauce contains vinegar anyway, I decided to proceed with the spoiled wine, and lo and behold, the sauce actually turned out quite nicely, in spite of the wine. Definitely something to remember!
I made a few minor changes: I used only about half a shallot (looked like too much) and 1/4 tsp dried oregano (it's winter...). For the fish, I used only two pieces of fish for two portions, but still used a whole clove of garlic.
I liked the sauce so much that I then used the rest of the bottle to make more sauce, and froze it (though I forgot to add the vinegar and sugar, yet added half a shallot - I wish there was a way to attach post its to ice cube trays). I also froze the remainder of today's sauce, though I tried to remove the oil with a paper napkin as much as possible, as fat doesn't freeze well.
Served with Rösti, as suggested - just don't serve the fish on the Rösti as it'll loose all it's crispness.
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Scallops with Ginger Sauce : page 94
Restaurant quality, absolutely! The scallops were very tender, cooked just right (which was very easy to achieve!), and the sauce was just delicious! The ginger flavour actually wasn't very distinct; maybe for the best, as I had my doubts about the combination of scallops with a sharp gingery taste. Instead, the sauce was mild and velvety, perfect to accompany the scallops!
Served as a starter with Coq au Vin as a main, Celeriac Mash and flat beans as a side and Apple Pie with an Almond Crust and David Lebovitz'Vanilla Ice Cream as a dessert - a perfect dinner for a special occasion!
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Tarragon Vinaigrette : page 250
The garlic was overpowering; other than that it was nice. I didn't actually taste any tarragon (probably due to the garlic), but the others did.
Served with a rocket salad, and Beetroot and Potato Salad with Smoked Mackerel and Honey Chicken Salad for lunch.
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