friederike's Reviews
4 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 4Sort by: Title 
| Date | Rating
Foodie
(August, 2013)
Quite nice in flavour, but oh so oily! As aubergines already require a lot of oil while frying, adding extra oil (and garlic) afterwards to let it marinate is just superfluous! Skip the oil and just add the garlic. Also, the yoghurt might have been a bit more liquid to my taste. I liked the nuts, spices etc., so those were good additions.
Served with Spicy chicken with harissa and pilav from the same magazine.
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Caribbean Chicken / Caribische kip : page 67
Okay, but not necessarily impressive. I didn't like the flavour of the chicken wings that much, I think it was the cinnamon that bothered me. DH liked the flavour, but disliked the smell of them. The peppers ended up being slightly burned, which I think was intended by the recipe (why else would you cook them on high heat for more than ten minutes?). I'm not quite sure what the parsley did in there, it didn't seem to go with anything. All in all, it was okay, but not really nice, and I'm still wondering what's supposed to be so Caribbean about this recipe (other than the pineapple).
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Lavender Lemonade / Lavendellimonade : page 76
My first association was granny's wardrobe. Luckily, that association faded quickly and I found to my surprise that I actually quite liked it. It was fresh, sweet, flowery, complex; quite sophisticated really. Who knew that granny's wardrobe could taste so good?
Edited 29 September 2013:
Only on reading it the second time, I actually realized that you had to bring it to a boil with the squeezed lemon (you add the lemon juice later on, together with the lavender). Unfortunately, I didn't have ay lemon at hand at all, I was planning to add the lemon juice the following day once the shops were open again, so I guess there will even be a third attempt in the near future.
Because I was only able to add the lemon juice the next day, I was able to note something interesting: without lemon juice, the lemonade was light brown, like slightly watery black tea; once the lemon juice was added, it turned pink. Like the previous time, I actually added the lavender before bringing it to a boil; no idea if that actually made any difference.
We added a few drops of lemonade to the champagne we served to celebrate DH's birthday, and it was really great! Nicer than Kir Royal.
Other recipes we (re-)visited today: Apple Pie with an Almond Crust, Black Ravioli with Snapper and Prawn, Fig-Stuffed Roast Pork Loin with Fig and Balsamic Jam, Kahlúa Chocolate Mousse, Orange and Szechuan Pepper Ice Cream and Almond and Orange Florentines.
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The chicken was very delicious - crisp skin, lots of spices, juicy meat, just right! Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the rice/pilav - it was completely overcooked and lacked flavour. Nothing that cannot be remedied, though, and the basic idea was very nice - just cook the rice as you usually do, and use at least another teaspoon ras el hanout for the rice, plus smoked paprika (or other spices/spice mixes - za'atar maybe?). I could also see the rice being replaced by couscous is this dish.
For this dish, we used our usual homemade harissa and (new!) also homemade ras el hanout, and served it with Aubergines with Mint and Yoghurt as a side dish, which combined well.
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