| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 1st October 2009)A wonderful and sophisticated vegetarian tart, ideal for picnics and the like.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here. |
| Never in my life have I had a better ice cream. Make this ice cream if you want to teach your children the difference between natural flavours and artificial flavouring - I can't imagine they would ever prefer the latter again.
If you don't have an ice cream maker don't despair - I simply used my kitchen machine and then transferred the ice cream to a tupperware box for freezing (and back again for stirring). |
| BF and I have made Paellas on several occasions, using two different recipes from two different books (Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche being the other one). Now, if only I could remember which one was which. But may be that doesn't matter at all: both were excellent, and judging from the recipe the main difference is that this one contains only fish and seafood while the other one also contains poultry and no fish.
Making a Paella can be a lot of work because of the various ingredients involved; the good news, though, is that you can prepare a lot (basically, everything you need to do before adding the rice), and once your guests have arrived, you only need to warm your pan, boil the rice and add all other ingredients. |
| If you’ve never boned a quail (or any other bird, in fact), reckon with several hours of preparation for this one. Unfortunately, we didn’t, and ended up having our Christmas Dinner at midnight. What was worse was that we had screwed up these delicate birds so much that we had to stitch them up with needle and thread to keep the filling where it should be – not something described in the recipe. Luckily, it didn’t impair the taste at all – it was heavenly! |
| Oh my, this was delicious. Of course you shouldn’t make this on the day you’re planning to serve it. And I was surprised how little chicken livers cost me.
Edited to add:
Try to use a bowl or container not higher than a 3-4 cm, otherwise you'll end up with too little surface area to spread out the oranges and jelly.
When I fried the livers they lost a lot of juices. I tried to catch the juices so that the liver would continue to fry, not cook, and kept the juices to add them later again. Don't worry that the pate could become too moist/liquid if you add all the juices, it won't - I added only half of the juices and the pate could have been slightly softer/moister.
Served on Christmas Day 2006 and Easter Sunday 2011 |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Perfect dish for guests, you can put it in the oven for hours, and even when they’re late it doesn’t matter at all. Plus it’s extremely delicious.
Edited 28 October 2012:
We made this again. It was jaw-dropping. It tasted great, and the meat was so tender it literally melted into pieces. Unfortunately, it was quite expensive too, so it's something for very special occasions (and small dinners).
Served with fried chantarelles, mashed potatoes and a salad of rocket, walnuts, gorgonzola with a sweet fig vinegar dressing as side dishes. |
| From: Culinaria Germany (reviewed 2nd November 2009)I absolutely loved this! BF and I still talk about it after more than 2 years. Living in Hamburg at the time and standing up at 4am to go to the traditional ‘Fischmarkt’ to get the eel when it was freezing cold may have been part of the charme, though...
Amendment 6. Nov. 2009:
I’ve made this dish again, albeit with modifications: I used app. 450g smoked eel instead of 800g fresh eel, and roughly half of the amount of vegetables and other filling, omitting the asparagus and substituting it with the other vegetables. For the other ingredients (meat, broth, etc.) I used the amounts given. Enough for 3-4 persons. |
| From: Essen & Trinken (reviewed 25th November 2009)Very interesting variation of the usual panna cotta, and delicious as well. BF prefers the original dish, though. |
| From: Essen & Trinken (reviewed 25th November 2009)Wonderful tartlets, as if straight from the confectioner! One caveat: my first batch ended up looking pretty burned, although I later discovered that they didn't taste burned at all. For the second batch I therefore reduced the baking time by 10 minutes and slightly lowered the baking temperature. They ended up looking marvellous, but tasting as if they weren't 100% cooked – nevertheless delicious, but I did prefer the burnt looking first batch.
While they are perfect as they are, it should also be possible to make smaller circles and heap a little pile of caramelised walnuts on them, and then bake them on a tray – saves you the effort of forming the cups of dough, and makes waist-friendlier bites...
Edited 27 January 2013:
We made these as cookies this time, making 4,5 cm circles with the help of a champagne glass. As it happens, this is exactly what you need for half a walnut, or even two halves stacked on each other. They looked beautiful and definitely were a lot, let's say, consumer-friendly. The only disadvantage I saw was that the caramel escaped during baking and most of it ended up on the baking tray instead of on the cookies. Still, they were sweet enough and very popular.
Served these with Goat's Cheese Canapées with Pears, Parmesan Cookies, Marinated Feta with Olives, Mini Tiramisu and Meringue Towers with Rose Cream |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 25th November 2009)Wonderful dish! Easy to prepare, visually attractive and delicious in taste; and on top of that it falls into what BF calls the 'fire and forget'-category of dishes, giving you a whole hour to prepare other dishes and clean up before your guests arrive… |
| Mussels are always delicious, and I would probably find it hard not to award a 5 star rating to any mussel-dish that keeps it simple. This one is no exception. With coconut cream, fresh coriander and a hint of green curry, it's a welcome change to our usual dish of mussels in white wine.
I was careful with the green curry paste as I didn't want the sharpness to overpower the taste of the mussels, but that wasn't the case; using one teaspoon shouldn't be any problem. Also, we used coconut cream instead of coconut milk, which was a good move, but not enough, for my taste; I would have liked to have a thick sauce not unlike garlic sauce or mayonnaise for dipping. It might be worth it to either try to make an additional sauce based on coconut cream, or to add less white wine and use coconut milk for cooking instead.
You can serve this as a main for two persons, or as an appetizer for up to six people, I guess (the book suggests it is a main dish for six, but that's humbug).
This recipe is nearly identical to the Thai-spiced Steamed Mussels in the BBC Good Food magazine, Oct. 2009 edition. |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 8th December 2009)Very delicious, true comfort food! Of course, this recipe suffers from the same problems as every other lasagne recipe I’ve seen until now: not enough sauce and cheese. You can easily double the tomato sauce, and add some extra herbs eg. thyme, while you’re at it. You might want to make some extra ‘white sauce’ (why not call it Béchamel?), but it’s not really necessary, just remember to push down the lasagne sheets before adding another layer of sauce. Also, add lot’s of salt and oil to the aubergines.
Another downside is that any lasagne will take quite some time to assemble. But it's worth it, at least with this recipe. Serves 6 women, or 4 hungry men.
Do you want to prepare this dish? You'll find the recipe online here.
Variations? See my Salmon Lasagna, or my review of Delicious Magazine's Classic Moussaka.
Edited 2 September 2014:
Continues to be a classic. Regarding quantities, I made a tomato sauce as suggested, but using 2 cans of tomatoes, no wine, most ingredients finely chopped by hand, and no stop-over at the food processor. I made the bechamel with 50 g butter/flour and about 600-700 ml milk, and I substituted one aubergine for a courgette, as the latter happened to linger in my fridge. |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 15th December 2009)This recipe is nearly identical to the Mussels with Coriander Cream, Thai Style in Olive 101 Quick Fix Dishes, which is why I will cross-post my review here:
Mussels are always delicious, and I would probably find it hard not to award a 5 star rating to any mussel-dish that keeps it simple. This one is no exception. With coconut cream, fresh coriander and a hint of green curry, it's a welcome change to our usual dish of mussels in white wine.
I was careful with the green curry paste as I didn't want the sharpness to overpower the taste of the mussels, but that wasn't the case; using one teaspoon shouldn't be any problem. Also, we used coconut cream instead of coconut milk, which was a good move, but not enough, for my taste; I would have liked to have a thick sauce not unlike garlic sauce or mayonnaise for dipping. It might be worth it to either try to make an additional sauce based on coconut cream, or to add less white wine and use coconut milk for cooking instead.
You can serve this as a main for two persons, or as an appetizer for up to 6, I guess (the book suggests it is a main dish for 6, but that's humbug).
*****
Thai-spiced Steamed Mussels uses red curry paste instead of green one, chicken stock instead of white wine, and spring onions instead of a red onions (we used normal onions anyway). Additionally, it uses a red chilli, less garlic (2 instead of 4 garlic cloves) and more coconut milk (400ml instead of 142ml). I suspect that these differences won’t make any difference, except for the quantity of coconut milk, which I suspect will be far too much – we probably used no more than 300ml liquid in total for Mussels with Coriander Cream, and even that was a bit too much in my opinion. Using a total of 700ml liquid you’ll end up cooking your mussels, not steaming them. Another slight difference is that you add the garlic and spring onions at the end of the cooking process, without frying them. This is probably a question of personal preference, but I love the taste of roasted onions.
Recipe originally published in Economy Gastronomy by Allegra McEvedy & Paul Merrett. Don’t buy this book, this dish is anything but economic (app. 6 Euros per serving; serves 2, not 4, see review above). |
| From: Habeas Brulee (reviewed 19th January 2010)Extremely delicious, definitively a keeper!
We had it with Escalivada, which was nice, but a more typical Middle Eastern side dish would have been a good choice as well. |
| From: Eat Like A Girl (reviewed 19th January 2010)This is such a great recipe! It's very delicious, but even better, it's an impressive sight, easy to prepare and a relatively cheap cut of meat as well.
One caveat: The recipe is calculated for 2 persons. If you double or triple the amount, be sure to re-calculate the time you'll need for roasting, or ask your butcher to cut the roast into smaller pieces. Also, warm up the cider before you add it, especially if you have multiplied the ingredients, as every drop of cold cider will decrease the dishes temperature.
Also, make sure you have enough extra cider - not for cooking but for drinking of course!
I served this for my birthday last year with a variation of the Roasted Squash and Goat’s Cheese Gnocchi (without the gnocchi) as a starter, some cabbage as a side dish (not that any side dish is really necessary), and the Engadin Walnut Tartlets as a dessert.
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| From: Joy of Baking (reviewed 22nd January 2010)So delicious! Friends and colleagues loved me for baking (and sharing!) these, but if I remember well they don't hold well for more than a few days (they don't need to, anyway).
Edited 30 November 2012:
I was about to make the recipe from Ad Hoc At Home when I discovered that they were actually nearly identical. Keller uses dark brown sugar instead of golden, as well as a 1/4 cup extra sugar, and two kinds of chocolate instead of one, and again just a bit more chocolate than this recipe does. Yet, all in all they are surprisingly similar. And I'm still a big fan!
One remark: Unless you want plate-sized cookies, two tablespoons of dough is much too much. Even one tablespoon makes saucer-sized cookies - a teaspoon full is what you need for a 'normal'-sized cookie. I made just one sheet of cookies and froze the rest - I used ice trays to be able to freeze them in small portions so that next time I need them, I can bake them immediately. Silicone works best, if your ice tray is made from plastic you might have to carefully hold the back under hot running water.
We baked some of the frozen ones today (1 Dec, one day later). We probably got them out some 20 minutes or so before we placed them in the oven, and we baked them for 20 minutes at 160C - they ended up being very crisp, next time we'll start checking after 15 minutes. You can also bake while frozen, just adjust the baking time; also, they might turn out a tiny bit less flat (but just as delicious).
Frozen, they had the shape of heart (I used an ice cube tray similar to this one), but the cookies ended up being normal circles. Now I'm really curious to find out what would work - placing the dough in a cookie cutter maybe?
Edited 11 July 2014:
I made the cookies using orange M&M's, as a token of consolation for DH - for times like these, you'll need chocolate in some form, right? A great success with him and his colleagues.
Next time, I would not just mix in the M&M's with the dough and then spoon the dough on the baking sheet; it's actually easier if you place blobs of cookie dough on the baking sheet first and then add the M&M's afterwards. This way the M&M's will be nice and visible (see photo, I had already mixed them, then tried to scratch the dough off the surface of the M&M's).
Also, if you're using several colours, working this way means you can much easier ensure that each cookie will contain all the colours you want. I.e. if you striving for black(brown)-red-yellow, you wouldn't want to end up with red-yellow-red, would you (gasp!)? Look out for the winner's edition on Monday (hint: there's no such thing as light blue and white M&M's...). |
| 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. |
| Really delicious! We unfortunately forgot to add the sauce to the fish-cuttlefish mixture, which made baking a ‘pancake’ somewhat more difficult, but we succeeded, and the result was perfect! As the dish is cooked rapidly, it has little time to actually get warm, so keep an eye on that and don’t prepare the fish in advance as you’ll need the heat it looses.
Don’t be mislead by the portion sizes – I believe that they take into account that several dishes would be served to a party of six. We served this dish together with Black Pepper Beef, Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce and plain rice to three, and I doubt we could have fed six with this dish alone.
|
| Very delicious, although you should keep an eye on the chilli peppers. We added little more than a tablespoon of red chillies, and no green chillies at all, and it was hot! But still delicious.
Don’t be mislead by the portion sizes – I believe that they take into account that several dishes would be served to a party of four. We served this dish together with Good Luck Fish Cake, Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce and plain rice to three, and I doubt we could have fed four with this dish alone.
Edited 6 April 2011:
Upgraded to 5 stars - we returned to this recipe again and again because it's so good! Much depends on your stir-frying techniques - do not overcook the meat! |
| From: Delicious (reviewed 6th March 2010)Very delicious! It was an unusual dish, beautifully presented and very nice in taste, although for my taste it might have been a little sweeter to counteract the chicories’ bitterness.
The only problem we had was with caramelizing the bottom (or top, depends on how you see it): You’re instructed to melt butter in an oven proof pan, sprinkle sugar into the pan in an even layer and let it melt, without stirring, on low heat; then increase heat until caramelized.
For our first try, we used our old spring form baking tin due to a lack of any other suitable pan. The sugar in the centre melted and burnt, the sugar at the edges didn’t even melt. So we decided to melt the sugar in a normal pan and then transfer it. BF insisted on cooking it on a very, very low temperature (electric level 1) – the butter coloured, but again the sugar didn’t even melt. Then it was my turn again. I used a higher temperature (level 3-4), but the caramel began to agglutinate – ah, there was some reasoning to the instructions! In the end, we poured the caramel into the dish as quickly as possible (albeit not with the expected success of spreading it) and then broke it into shivers, which worked well.
We only managed to fit three chicories in our 23cm square baking pan (no, not the spring form one) – just about enough for four not too hungry people. Add extra onions and sugar/caramel, and take care that the caramel doesn’t turn too dark to get a slightly sweeter flavour.
See also my Chicory and Goat’s Cheese Puff Pastry Pie.
PS: Want to cook this dish? Get the recipe at deliciousmagazine.co.uk and then post your review here.
Edited 27 March 2014:
I made this again today. In the meantime, I've found a pan I can use both on the stove as well as in the oven - very, very useful! I started melting the sugar with the butter on the stove, but the sugar caramelised irregularly. I decided that it would probably melt well enough while in the oven, so I just added the other ingredients and baked it, and it turned out fine! Next time I might not even bother with melting the sugar (though it's important to melt the butter first, then sprinkle the sugar).
Also, I piled up 6 squares of puff pastry to roll out, which was more than I needed. 5 or maybe even 4 should be enough. Again I found that my pan will fit 3 chicory, which makes for a very light meal for 4, but is better for 3. |
| Such a simple dish, and yet such delight!
It's a very straight-forward recipe, just remember to have everything prepared before you start stir-frying, and yes, that includes the rice too! Serve it with one or two extra dishes (eg. one vegetables, one meat) to a party of four. You can also opt to add extra vegetables (peas make an excellent addition, or otherwise perhaps green beans) to serve it as a main course. And substitute the bacon with salted nuts to make it vegetarian. |
| Very delicious! It was an unusual dish, beautifully presented and very nice in taste, although for my taste it might have been a little sweeter to counteract the chicories’ bitterness.
The only problem we had was with caramelizing the bottom (or top, depends on how you see it): You’re instructed to melt butter in an oven proof pan, sprinkle sugar into the pan in an even layer and let it melt, without stirring, on low heat; then increase heat until caramelized.
For our first try, we used our old spring form baking tin due to a lack of any other suitable pan. The sugar in the centre melted and burnt, the sugar at the edges didn’t even melt. So we decided to melt the sugar in a normal pan and then transfer it. BF insisted on cooking it on a very, very low temperature (electric level 1) – the butter coloured, but again the sugar didn’t even melt. Then it was my turn again. I used a higher temperature (level 3-4), but the caramel began to agglutinate – ah, there was some reasoning to the instructions! In the end, we poured the caramel into the dish as quickly as possible (albeit not with the expected success of spreading it) and then broke it into shivers, which worked well.
We only managed to fit three chicories in our 23cm square baking pan (no, not the spring form one) – just about enough for four not too hungry people. Add extra onions and sugar/caramel, and take care that the caramel doesn’t turn too dark to get a slightly sweeter flavour.
See also my Chicory and Goat’s Cheese Puff Pastry Pie.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the Delicious Magazine, March 2010 edition. |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 15th April 2010)Very delicious, true comfort food! Of course, this recipe suffers from the same problems as every other lasagne recipe I’ve seen until now: not enough sauce and cheese. You can easily double the tomato sauce, and add some extra herbs eg. thyme, while you’re at it. You might want to make some extra ‘white sauce’ (why not call it Béchamel?), but it’s not really necessary, just remember to push down the lasagne sheets before adding another layer of sauce. Also, add lot’s of salt and oil to the aubergines.
Another downside is that any lasagne will take quite some time to assemble. But it's worth it, at least with this recipe. Serves 6 women, or 4 hungry men.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, May 2009 edition.
Variations? See my Salmon Lasagna, or my review of Delicious Magazine's Classic Moussaka (including online recipe). |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 15th April 2010)A wonderful and sophisticated vegetarian tart, ideal for picnics and the like.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, June 2009 edition. |
| From: Modern Moroccan (reviewed 17th April 2010)Oooh, very delicious. We only used half of the amount of chillies, and yet it ended up being quite, but not too, spicy (and salty!). BF commented that it looked like "radioactive waste - and it smells like that too!", but in the end he just loved it. I considered freezing it, but as it's a oil-based paste it probably wouldn't work. Expect Moroccan cooking from us during the next few weeks.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in Ghillie Basan’s other Moroccan cookbook, Moroccan: A Culinary Journey of Discovery.
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| Oooh, very delicious. We only used half of the amount of chillies, and yet it ended up being quite, but not too, spicy (and salty!). BF commented that it looked like "radioactive waste - and it smells like that too!", but in the end he just loved it. I considered freezing it, but as it's a oil-based paste it probably wouldn't work. Expect Moroccan cooking from us during the next few weeks.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in Ghillie Basan’s other Moroccan cookbook, Modern Moroccan.
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| Actually, this is more of a dip than a salad, although you can also eat it as a side dish. I hardly tasted any tomato, except for a slightly sweet taste, and just a faint hint of aubergine. The rest was spice, spice and garlic; in a way, we joked, it was like a spicy garlic mayonnaise but with much better nutritional values.
It was extremely delicious, and you can be sure we'll make this again, be it as a side dish or as a dip. We used homemade Harissa and served it with Mutton Leg Chops with Ginger and Pomegranate Salsa and buttery couscous, and it went together really well.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in Ghillie Basan’s other Moroccan cookbook, Modern Moroccan.
Edited 11 March 2017:
It's a good idea to steam the aubergine in batches, especially when using larger amounts than given. I also only chopped everything this time, and I think I prefer the puréed version. |
| From: Modern Moroccan (reviewed 17th April 2010)Actually, this is more of a dip than a salad, although you can also eat it as a side dish. I hardly tasted any tomato, except for a slightly sweet taste, and just a faint hint of aubergine. The rest was spice, spice and garlic; in a way, we joked, it was like a spicy garlic mayonnaise but with much better nutritional values.
It was extremely delicious, and you can be sure we'll make this again, be it as a side dish or as a dip. We used homemade Harissa and served it with Mutton Leg Chops with Ginger and Pomegranate Salsa and buttery couscous, and it went together really well.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in Ghillie Basan’s other Moroccan cookbook, Moroccan: A Culinary Journey of Discovery.
Edited 21 March 2016:
Served with Lamb and Apricot Stew, which worked really well! |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 21st April 2010)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. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food series cookbook, 101 Store-cupboard Suppers. |
| Extremely tasty! Full of flavour and very delicious! I had some issues with the preparation, however.
First of all: take your time. Making the aubergine cream will take a while, and if you don't have a large oven that fit's two trays of veggies, such as me, you will have to prepare one after the other. That is not necessarily a problem; just be aware of it. You can easily prepare the aubergine cream a day in advance, then all you'll need to do is chop the veggies, throw them into a baking dish, off into the oven and you're done.
Slater didn't give an indicator how long the aubergines would need to become soft. Some of my aubergines were quite soft after 10-15 min, others weren't. I guess it helps making really deep, regular cuts and using lots of oil, at least I suspect that that was the difference between my different aubergines. All in all I think they spent at least 25-30 minutes in the oven, perhaps even longer.
Then the baking time for the other veggies: He estimates 45-60 minutes, we baked our veggies for at least 1 hr 15 min, and even then some of the courgettes weren't really soft. Some of the peppers and onions, and especially the raisins lying on top (15 min) were burnt. Possibly this was partly due to the fact that the baking dish was stuffed full with veggies - but actually I was glad that at least half of the dishes' veggies actually fit into my 23x30cm baking dish (and that didn't need to feed 4 but only 2 today). So, if you have a larger baking dish (or even two of them), go for it. You might also want to consider to chop more and bake shorter.
Because I forgot that I had only used half of the veggies I added all of the cumin, homemade harissa (from Modern Moroccan), raisins and pine kernels/almond flakes, but that was a very useful mistake as it gave some extra flavour. The courgettes actually fell away a bit, tastewise, but had a nice texture, and all in all it was great. Great mediterranean side dish, great vegetarian main dish.
Edited the next day:
Making the aubergine cream a day in advance really is a good idea. Yesterday the mint was hardly noticeable - today it made the cream taste very fresh!
Edited 30 December 2012:
Definitely try to make the aubergine cream at least a few hours in advance so that you can chill it - makes a great contrast to the hot and spicy vegetables. You might need to puree the cream.
Edited 7 December 2017:
For 5-6 pers we used 3 aubergines, 2 red and 2 green peppers, 2 onions, 2 enormous zucchinis and maybe 4 tomatoes? |
| From: Foodie (reviewed 12th July 2010)Very delicious! I slightly amended the recipe, though. The recipe calls for half a stock cube to be added directly into the soup. I try to avoid stock cubes whenever I can, and this clearly was one situation where I thought it couldn't do any harm to try it out without - and it worked! I didn't add any salt or pepper either, and I enjoyed the taste of the vegetables with the edge provided by the garlic as it was. I also left out the raw onion (I don't like raw onions).
I do find it a little strange that this recipe was presented as the "foodies cooking school" with step-by-step illustrations - they didn't actually explain or show anything you couldn't expect a beginning cook to know. What is more, the gap between this recipe and the pretenses of many of the others (see e.g. the indexed Ham Mousse with Fennel Salad) are so large that you can't wonder whom they have in mind as a target group. Also, I disliked that afterwards I discovered a herb on the picture (thyme, I think) that isn't even mentioned. No big deal, but it wouldn't be a big deal to mention it either, would it?
As except for the croutons no cooking is involved (blanching tomatoes doesn't count, you can do that in a water cooker), this recipe is as good as camping-proof, and very definitely moving-and-kitchenless-proof. Well, you'll need a blender or a kitchen machine, so may be you should forget about this being camping-proof.
Amendment 13. July 2010:
This isn't enough for four servings, rather three, unless you serve it as a starter. The two of us shared whatever was left and ate it with extra croutons, half a cucumber, and two hard boiled eggs, at Elizabeth David's suggestion. |
| If you ever want to impress anyone with rich French cooking - here's your dish. It's quite an effort though, so it's not something you'd like to do as a midnight supper - but other than that, it's really really worth it - I'd give it 6 stars if I could.
It's way better than the version in The Cook's Book, though the latter is much easier, too. The version from Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche sits somewhere in-between.
Edited 12 October 2012:
I think we've made this recipe three times in the last two years. Actually, it's not that hard. It's a lot of chopping and cleaning and frying and braising, yes, but not more than you would really expect. For just the two of us, I'll turn to this version or this one, but for guests, it's definitely Coq au Vin Bourguignon! |
| Very nice! While this recipe uses roughly the same ingredients (not checking the amounts used) as the one in The Cuisine of the Rose, it's a lot easier as you don't need to cook every ingredient individually - saves you a lot of effort! Nevertheless the dish gains a very deep level of flavour, unlike the recipe in The Cook's Book.
I strayed slightly from the instructions - I fried the chicken in batches, and little bits in the pan got burned - was it the flour or too much heat? In any case, by the time the pan had cooled down enough to be able to clean it the chicken had become cold too and I wouldn't have been able to flambé it. Instead, I added the red wine first, reheated everything again and added the flaming cognac then. I don't think this changed anything, though. |
| Just like the Potato-Pear-Gratin from Die Echte Jeden-Tag-Küche: Very sophisticated and just the perfect side course for any festive autumnal meal. Love it! |
| I loved this gratin. Very sophisticated and just the perfect side course for any festive autumnal meal. See also the Potato-Pumpkin-Gratin from Brigitte – Unsere Besten Menüs. |
| Quite nice. We chose this recipe as it was quick to prepare and we could let it simmer while painting our bedroom - by the time we had finished painting, it was the perfect meal you would want to eat after a day of hard work. I'm not a big fan of beer, but after hours of braising you couldn't taste any anyway.
In my opinion, though, the apple sauce was quite superfluous. It was too much - I had used only three (albeit large) apples instead of the 5-6 required, and ended up with lots of apple sauce after I had finished my meal - with a scoop of ice cream it would have made it the perfect two-in-one dish!. And to be honest, I just preferred a dollop of cranberry sauce with the stew.
As accompaniment I would suggest something crunchy, as the meat is already extremely soft. Think rosemary roasted potatoes, think a gratin (think Potato Pear Gratin, another reason to omit the apple sauce!), and perhaps a salad to go with it to add a light component too.
Edited 7 January 2014:
This has become one of our standard dishes. It's really easy to make, and very delicious! You can also adapt it easily by using other herbs (or even spices), or adding other ingredients (ie. apple slices or raisins).
We used trappist beer until now and never had any issues, but today it somehow smelled strange and tasted bitter. Either the beer changed (though highly unlikely) or it is something we just never noticed before. In any case, you can just as well use other types of beer - Guinness would be particularly suitable, as would be cider.
We made Rösti today to go with it, which was a really nice combination, the Rösti was crunchy, and just as rustic as the stew.
Edited 6 July 2014:
We made this using a Belgian brown beer (Leffe bruin), and it was very nice, and no bitter flavours at all. Very nice! Also decided to upgrade this dish from 4 to 5 stars, because we've made it so often. |
| From: Ad Hoc at Home (reviewed 28th October 2010)I absolutely agree with theprevious reviewer - there are few ingredients, so it very important that you use high quality ingredients, especially with regards to olive oil. If you do, it'll be extremely delicious. |
| From: Ad Hoc at Home (reviewed 28th October 2010)Excellent recipe! The only criticism I have is that there were so few of them. Be careful with the salt, though, ours were slightly salty, too. |
| Brilliant! The chicken was tender and juicy (and it didn't matter at all that I left it in the oven for a little longer), the sauce was full of different flavours and textures, soft and crunchy, sweet and flowery and spicy, just brilliant.
One little point: You are first told to chop the hazelnuts roughly, then to make a paste of the nuts together with honey and rosewater - this won't work, at least not with what I call roughly chopped hazelnuts. Chop them finely, but don't grind them.
We served this with Baked Vegetables with an Aubergine Sauce and plain couscous, and it went together extremely well.
Edited 21 November 2013:
We served this dish to guests in June, and it went horribly wrong - the chicken wasn't cooked, and it took ages until it was. So gave it another try last night, and we ended up with a total roasting time of 1 hr 20 min. Just like in June, we used chicken legs. I'm not quite sure what we used the first time we made this; I suppose it might have been thighs. Will have to test that some time.
I served the chicken with a salad, and a couscous flavoured with cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, salt and raisins - basically this was a nice idea, but because the hazelnuts, honey and rosewater in the chicken, the main dish is already slightly sweet, so it's better to use something less sweet than raisins. |
| Were you surprised? I was. Actually, I was afraid we were having to order pizza tonight. We didn't; we decided to serve it next time we were having a dinner party. It looks great, it sounds daring, and it is actually quite delicious.
The basis of this salad are the lentils (this one time green lentils for us, unfortunately), and the combination of lentils, spinach, dried sour cherries (we used dried cranberries, delicious!) and red wine vinegar is marvellous! The bacon and the gorgonzola add an extra dimension, once in a while; but this is where you need to become careful, as you can better use slightly less bacon and gorgonzola as instructed. Also, check the amount of salt you add to the lentils, and tear the bacon and gorgonzola into small pieces.
Edited 2 April 2011 to add:
We have since made this salad on two different occasions, both times while having a party - people really enjoyed the salad. I have the idea that if you prepare it a couple of hours in advance and also add the spinach, the different flavours mellow down a bit - a good thing in this case :)
Edited 10 May 2011 to add:
For a vegetarian edition, substitute the bacon for salted cashew (or other) nuts. Or do what I do when there are several guests of whom at least one vegetarian: offer both seperately on small plates, right next to the salad. |
| 5 stars, no doubt. It's a very easy dish, but produces excellent results. The meat is juicy, the flavours interesting yet balanced. The only thing I might change next time is that I might cut back the amount of orange zest a bit. A very christmassy dish, if that's your association with oranges and spices.
We served this with wild rice and grilled aubergines and courgettes with Harissa and some leftover lime yoghurt from the Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt - very delicious, though the Harissa just might be too strong. However, the dish didn't taste as Middle Eastern as I had expected with all the spices. Instead, I would recommend some baguette and a chicory salad to go with the dominating flavour of oranges. |
| From: Nest Koken (reviewed 7th December 2010)Oh, wow! Excellent pie! Very full of flavours, the best proof that vegetarian food doesn't need to be dull at all, on the contrary. |
| Perfect dessert for any festive meal in December! I love the fact that it introduces typical Christmassy flavours in a different form. Additionally, it worked perfectly and was extremely delicious.
Edited 26 december 2011:
It was a bit of a mystery what kinds and what parts of the Lebkuchen you were suposed to use, but in the end I decided that any Lebkuchen without chocolate or coloured glazing, with the bottom plate removed, should be ok (colourless, soft glazing is fine). If you don't have a kitchen machine, chopping works well enough.
We didn't need any corn starch at all for the cranberry sauce as these contain enough pectine; on the contrary, I thought the sauce was still too thick but also too strong for the souffles though I certainly enjoyed their zingy flavour. You could perhaps add some raspberries to soften the flavour.
Also, you could add some cocoa to the souffles. I'm not entirely sure what I thought of the raisins; I'd might leave them out next time or replace them by dried cranberries next time.
To serve: They will come out easily though might loose some air. Arrange on a plate with some sauce, stick a sparkler into them and serve.
Served with Shallot Tarte Tatin as a starter, and Roast Loin of Pork with a Cider Sauce with potatoes, salad and Baked Apples with Prunes and Walnuts as a main. |
| Very, very nice. I had problems tasting the beans and mangetouts, though, as the taste of the oranges, garlic, and to a lesser extent the hazelnuts was slightly dominant. The preparation is really easy, too, as there are only a few things to do and you can easily prepare everything in advance and just assemble the salad when needed. |
| A wonderful dish. The added salt and sugar emphasize the delicate flavours of the snow peas while the garlic gives it a contrasting note to run along with. It's quick, simple (no special ingredients!) and very delicious.
However, it's very delicate and needs to be served along with another just as delicate dish, such as fish. We had it along with the Stir-fried Beef with Oyster Sauce, and the latter just overpowered the flavour of the snow peas. |
| Soo delicious, an explosion of tastes, and it looked impressive too! This is definitely on our list of 'food for guests'. We didn't serve it with lime halves as these seemed to be more for garnish anyhow. Kwong remarks that with some steamed rice this can be served as a meal for four - it won't be enough, and you'll need some veggies anyhow. Go for something that is strongly flavoured so that it can stand up to the combination of squid, garlic, ginger and chilli.
Edited 2 November 2013:
Server with Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce, a very good combination! |
| Absolutely a great dish! The broccoli was fresh, crunchy, slightly smokey, and packed with flavour. It tasted nice both hot and cold, and you can also eat it with your fingers (if you don't mind them getting a bit oily). We used one chilli only, which made it nice and spicy but not too hot. |
| I didn't make the roasted fruit (although I would have, had I found any decent plums at this time of the year!), but I used the cardamom cream for the Deeply Appley Apple Crumble, and it was simple and so brilliant! I used slightly more cardamom than suggested, though, just to be sure (3 pods instead of 2, for half the amount of cream). However, don't use store-bought ground cardamom - ours wasn't even very old, and yet I had to add loads of cardamom without getting the same effect. |
| A very simple, straight-forward recipe. The dish worked well and tasted great. A perfect basic recipe to be used in combination with any kind of fruit compote or sauce. Of course you could also choose to modify the panna cotta itself, by adding spices or even using tea! |
| Whoooo. Incredibly moist, and still a little crunch from the crust and the walnuts. Really delicious! A few raisins or chocolate chips would also work well.
We had the cake without icing - I actually don't think it's necessary, the cake is wonderful on it's own (and seriously, for that amount of calories I'd rather have another slice of cake!). I could see serving it with a dollop of Crème Fraîche if you really want to.
Edited 20 August 2013:
We made the cake again and added a few raisins - very nice, but that added a lot of moisture so we had to bake the cake quite a while longer. Not a problem, just something you need to take into account. I'm still eager to try a version with added chocolate chips and spices (cardamom, anyone?). |
| Very delicious, very easy, and fairly quick - really recommended. I preferred this version to the one in The Essential Christmas Cookbook, but may be that was only because I made this version first. |
| I can only agree with everything the two previous reviewers posted. And cadfaels menu suggestion sounds really good!
There was just one issue we had: she didn't write anything about how the ribs were cut. In the section about buying short ribs she presents the two different kinds of short ribs available, both of which are bought in one large piece. Later on in the recipe she gives hints that the ribs have been cut into pieces as she mentions that the rib pieces should be arranged into a single layer, etc. Can anyone enlighten me about what she means? |
| Divine! It took an hour to bake instead of the half hour announced, but hey, who cares when it results in such chocolate goodness? A perfect brownie recipe.
Edited 24 September 2011:
I made this today again and didn't bother to check my own review. I baked it only 10 min longer, and it ended up being pretty gooey on the inside (when testing I thought it was just melted chocolate). I prefer a proper brownie texture; next time I'd bake it for an hour again. Served together with the Caramelised Lemon Cake, a perfect combination of sweet and sweet-sour, chocolate and fruit.
Pictured: Last piece of cake, just seconds before final meltdown.
Edited 28 October 2012:
This time, the brownie spent 50 minutes in the oven when I thought I'd have to take it out to prevent it from drying out. I loved it the way it was, DH thought it was a tad too dry. 45 min next time?
We served it as a 'grand dessert' with some raspberry coulis, Lemon Mousse and Lavender Honey Ice Cream. The ice cream and brownie were great in combination, the rest got lost a bit, even the raspberry coulis we had specially made for the brownie.
Edited 24 November 2012:
Don't bake in an convection oven. The brownie was pretty dry along the top and edges.
Edited 15 December 2012:
Whoops. Because we were in a hurry and I took over halfway through, we nearly forgot to add the butter and the sugar. As a result, we managed to beat all the lightness out of the eggs, which resulted in a very thin, crisp chocolate cake and nearly resembled a very crisp cookie more than a cake. Baking time 55 minutes.
Served with Toasted Almond and Candied Cherry Ice Cream for the classic chocolate-cherry-combination.
Edited 24 March 2013:
Served as a spring version this time, making a hedge with half pieces of Merci and adding some paper flowers. Very impressive and a lot less work than the Mondriaan Cake! |
| Excellent, just excellent! It was easy to make, good to prepare in advance, and everyone loved it and had extra helpings! I really enjoyed the contrasts between the cream's silkyness, the tomatoes' juiciness, the fennel's distinct flavour and the crumble's salty crunchy texture, a perfect mix!
Edited 7 September 2012:
Hmm, not quite as good this time around. Could have been partly my fault, partly not the right tools.
My fault: I used the whole cup of cream (250ml) instead of just 200ml - it seemed such a waste to throw away that little bit of cream, but that could have been the reason why the crumble remained quite soggy.
Tools: I think last time I used a metal 22 x 30 cm baking tin, this time I used a ceramic 25 x 31 cm baking tin - the former was probably better, because the surface was smaller and the gratin therefore was higher, meaning that the crumble had to cover less surface and didn't have as much chance to touch the cream.
Also, don't be afraid to cut some of the fennel into smaller pieces if you're afraid they might be too big.
We served this as a main meal, with Individual Apple Pies to follow.
Edited 10 May 2014:
I forgot to add the cream entirely last night, but I hardly noticed (well, it was a bit different, but just as enjoyable as usually). Now if you can substitute the butter in the crumble with something else (coconut oil?), you could even turn this from vegetarian to vegan.
Edited 11 July 2014:
I forgot to add the cream AGAIN! I also used frozen, defrosted crumble we still had leftover from the last time. It was pretty soggy, and even an extra 15 min baking time didn't really change that. I'm afraid that it didn't help either that the crumble contained 1/3 whole wheat flour. Next time I might just use it frozen and see what happens.
Edited 25 June 2017:
We haven't made this dish in quite a while - we seemed to like it less and less. The soggyness of the crumble was one problem, but the crumble also often ended up being a little too sweet, and the fennel undercooked. So this time we used less sugar and more cheese in the crumble (sorry, not sure how much), and cooked the gratin covered for over an hour, and uncovered for over half an hour, and that did the trick. |
| Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! It's a great dish, absolutely delicious, slightly hot but really really good, one of my new favourites! |
| A really nice salad! I omitted the garlic, because I just didn't see raw garlic work in this salad.
It had a distinct Far-East-Asian flavour. We had it with Roast Chicken with Harissa, and the combination of the two, Middle Eastern and Far Eastern didn't work well together - something too keep in mind, and entirely my own fault I guess.
Edited to add:
I made the very similar Cucumber Salad from the Time-Life book Chinese Cooking (I added my review to the German version I own), and that version is a lot better than this one! |
| Very delicious, and so easy! Just rub the chicken with Harissa and roast. My chicken was just 900g, so it was already done after 45 minutes.
I opted not to serve it with Patas Bravas, as recommended, but just fried potatoes to keep it simple - good pairing! The Spicy Cucumber Salad I served as well was equally delicious, but a less well-chosen pairing. |
| From: 100 Grillrezepte (reviewed 10th April 2011)Really delicious! They were crisp and had this very fine taste of coconut, strong enough to taste it but not too strong to overpower the prawns. Next time however I would marinate them for several hours more to see if the flavours would be even stronger then. I might also consider using garlic, as I served them with garlic butter baguettes and that combination was really nice too!
Edited 10 Sept. 2012:
We made this again and served it as part of a mezze platter together with Chicken Wings with Cumin, Lemon and Garlic, Saffron Cauliflower, Beetroot with Yoghurt and some Turkish flatbread, and it was great!
We made a big mistake with the prawn, though: We just flipped them into a pan without draining them properly, and as a result they were slightly dry. I also believe barbecueing them brings out the flavours better. Technically, this was the only dish that didn't fit the Middle Eastern mezze range, but that wasn't really a problem, though next time I would probably rather go for the Prawn with Citrus Salsa. |
| Nearly identical to the Spicy Cucumber Salad from BBC Good Food: 101 Healthy Eats I made last week; this salad was nicer though. The version in 101 Healthy Eats had a too strong marinade, and too much of it, while in this salad the flavours of the cucumber and the marinade were much more balanced.
The BBC version called for the addition of garlic, which I didn't add - and I was right, there was no garlic in this version either. This version required Tabasco instead of a fresh red chili - I didn't add either today, mainly because I forgot to buy it, and I didn't miss it at all! When having the choice, I would go for the fresh chili instead of Tabasco.
The Chinese name of this dish, by the way, is simply "Cold plate of Cucumber", with cucumber literally being "yellow squash" - all those things you learn from cooking! |
| A very nice dish! Absolutely recommended! We reduced the cooking time of the rhubarb by approximately 10 minutes (too impatient), and because our pork chops were smaller than those recommended (see below) we reduced their cooking time from 7 to 5 minutes, and the meal turned out perfectly.
There was one thing however which kept me wondering. For 6 servings, the book suggests 6 pork loin chops of 8-10 oz. (250-315 g) each. We had 4 chops of 150 g each plus slightly more rhubarb and they easily covered the rhubarb, but I doubt you would have been able to fit a lot more meat in a single layer on top of the given amount of rhubarb.
We served this with the Garlic Fennel Wedges from the same book, a perfect combination! |
| Very delicious, and very quick to make!
The crumble was very delicious and crisp, the strawberries and rhubarb were nicely done, but just quite a bit too sour. Use less lemon juice, and unless you use really sweet strawberries I would add one or two extra tablespoons of sugar. I accidentally added the pinch of salt to the crumble instead of the fruit, I don't think that mattered.
I would have thought that the rhubarb needed to be cooked longer than those delicate berries, but that wasn't the case at all - nor does the Apple Rhubarb Crumble from Marie Claire, coming to think of it. And the choice of fruit really makes a difference, Deb's strawberry-rhubarb crumble really screams Summer!, while the Marie Claire apple version is a lot less boastful about it...
For those Europeans among you: we used 500g strawberries, minus the wrotten ones, and this turned out fine.
Edited 28 April 2014:
We used 430 g rhubarb and 470 g brilliantly sweet strawberries (according to some unit conversion website the recipe calls for 226 g rhubarb and 680 g strawberries). We really liked this proportion of fruit, but because we used more rhubarb than called for, we should have used more sugar also, or less lemon juice.
The crumble also tasted just a bit weird. I think it might have been either the baking powder, or the corn starch, or both. Next time I'll omit the baking powder entirely (why would you need it in the first place?), and possibly reduce the cornstarch to 1 tbsp, or even none (you don't really need that either).
Edited 3 May 2014:
We made this crumble again today to test our assumptions (suffering in the name of science). We did as I suggested in my last edit, omitting the baking powder entirely and using only 1 tbsp of cornstarch. Furthermore, we used the juice of just a quarter lemon, the same amount of sugar, and slightly less fruit (380 g rhubarb and 420 g strawberries, same proportion as last time). The result was a lot better, though there is something to say for the cornstarch - we ended up with a strawberry soup. So keep the cornstarch in there. Sourness and sweetness were nicely balanced, though only if you serve it with ice cream; if you don't, I'd add a little more sugar.
Edited 11 May 2016:
It's that time of the year again, isn't it? So, this time: No baking powder in the crumble, in the filling no salt, 1 tbsp cornstarch, about 480 g rhubarb, 400 g strawberries, not all juice a lemon (half a lemon? 3/4?), and about 175 g sugar - perfection! Served with vanilla ice cream; could probably have a little (tiny bit!) extra sugar without ice cream. |
| Absolutely brilliant! The salmon was very juicy yet very crispy on top (don't put the salsa on the fish, put it next to it!), the salsa was delicious, fresh and garlicky with an extra crunch from the hazelnuts. And the salmon could easily hold up to these strong flavours!
Edited 18 September 2012:
We made it with wild salmon this time, though maybe not 100% PC, I prefer commercially bred salmon as it's fatter and therefore both full of flavour and less prone to dry out. Also try to use fresh peppers if you can, it really makes a difference.
Served with Couscous with Dried Apricots and Butternut Squash and Chargrilled Broccoli with Chilli and Garlic - while all dishes are very nice, the combination wasn't really a hit. The couscous was very much an autumn dish, the salmon felt more like a spring-dish, and the broccoli disappeared somewhere inbetween... |
| Delicious, simple dish where nothing can go wrong, except for one thing: do not assemble the dish too early. You can prepare everything up to the point that the merengues need to be added, but adding those should be something to be done shortly before serving.
You don't need to use solely strawberries, other berries work just as well. Though then it probably wouldn't be Eton Mess anymore. |
| Very delicious, healthy, and really simple, the ideal thing to eat for a quick snack. Or breakfast.
Make sure you have enough shrimps (I didn't really think about it and just bought one pack for the two of us, for two slices each - which is, err, 25g instead of 100g per slice). You can add a few drops of lemon to the shrimp, to bring out that shrimpy taste. And enjoy! |
| Very delicious! A little more complicated than just boiling plain rice, but well worth the extra effort. A few minor points: I would have preferred more spices; say double the amount of spices. Also, we cooked the rice on the stove on the smallest possible flame, and with simmerplate, and yet the rice stuck to the bottom of the pan. Last, the rice was done after 20 minutes cooking time, just keep that in mind.
450g uncooked rice is quite a lot, though. The two of us probably only finished one sixth to one eighth of it tonight, not half (it should serve four). Instead of doubling the amount of spices, you could just halve the amount of rice used.
On the plate in the photo you can also see Lawang Chalau (Meat Stew with Yoghurt) and Peach Chutney from the same book and Stir-fried Carrots with Mango and Ginger from Modern Moroccan; all except for the peach chutney this was a very good combination.
Edited 15 June 2011 to add:
We made the Pilau again last weekend. We used half the amount of rice with the usual amount of everything else, and replaced the ground cumin with 1 1/2 teaspoons coriander and 1/2 teaspoon turmeric. This worked well (and turned the rice a bright yellow!), only that it was too much sugar - 1 tablespoon should be enough next time. This time, we served it with Slow-roast Persian Lamb with Pomegranate Salad, an excellent combination!
Edited 25 June 2014:
I made this again, this time making the caramel in a separate pan, and then just putting everything in the rice cooker, with the amount of water I always use in the rice cooker - and it worked well! It probably wasn't as perfect as made in a pan (it's been quite a while since we last had this), but still very nice, and a lot easier!
Served with Khoreshe Alu / Beef braised in prune sauce, which combined really well. |
| I really enjoyed this dish! Part of my pleasure of course came because someone had taken the effort and cooked and plated this dish, and it looked really nice! But that left aside: It was an unusual combination (for me, at least), it looked beautiful and was very delicious.
The dish was actually quite simple to prepare. The sauce is a bit prone to dry out, but that can be solved by adding water. The recipe recommends to place the filling on the mackerel and roll it up. Actually, we found it worked best when the mackerel was rolled up first, placed against the side of a baking dish, and then filled.
We did talk a while about the sauce and the filling, whether these were too sour, or too strong for the mackerel. Personally, I liked it the way it was (following the recipe instructions). The sauce was not too sweet for a main dish, but appeared to be sweet, at least sweeter than the rest. The filling was slightly sour (very little), but that was necessary to bump up the oily mackerel, in my opinion. And the flavour of the onion in the filling was just brilliant! All in all, the other flavours were quite strong, making it difficult for the mackerel to stand up against them, but that may have been for the better, as I don't think I would have managed to eat it otherwise, never much how much I enjoy mackerel (and fish!). DB probably would have added some sugar to the sauce, and would have prepared the filling without rhubarb, thereby eliminating the slighty sour flavour.
We had potato gratin and green beans as side dishes, but would recommend something different for the vegetable; but what? Perhaps fennel. |
| From: BBC Good Food (reviewed 14th June 2011)Really delicious! We slightly adapted the recipe as we had bought lamb joint instead of shoulder, and therefore followed the instructions of our butcher regarding the cooking instructions. Also, we ran out of ground cumin, and as cumin is difficult to grind we just used whole cumin instead. Everything worked well, the meat was really tender and the sauce very delicious!
We ended up serving the pomegranates scattered on top of the meat, not on the salad, that seemed to work bettter. We served the lamb with a slightly adapted version of Pilau from Noshe Djan, an excellent combination! |
| Brilliant drink. It's fairly unusual (with cucumber, grapes, melon and ginger, amongst others), but these ingredients combine surprisingly well.
You might find it a little on the sweet side, in which case you could use a very dry sparkling wine, or replace it with white rum and sparkling water altogether (white rum might be a good idea either way). Don't use Ginger Ale for the alcohol-free version, much too sweet; rather use sparkling water.
Add the mint early on in the process, so that its flavours are absorbed into the drink as well - such a shame to use it only as decoration. Basil would work perfectly well, too.
The recipe is actually a punch - but why not serve it as a kind of white sangria, by adding more liquid in proportion to fruit? One of the reasons I really enjoyed it is that I can see it as a drink on a lazy afternoon on the balcony just as well as served during a flashy garden party. And with all its green ingredients it definitely is an eye-catcher! |
| Really really delicious!
The main problem was actually that the individual ingredients were too large to take one of each in every bite. On their own, the ingredients are nothing special - instead, this dish thrives on the combination of all these very different flavours. My main piece of advice would therefore be to cut all ingredients into smaller pieces.
Other than that, there are just minor issues to mention. We used rosewater instead of orange blossom water (because we didn't have the latter), but it worked very well. Grilling the peaches (as opposed to using them raw) made them look very nice, but I'm not sure that it really added anything, except for some extra work. The speck was good, but there was too little of it.
|
| A very nice, very simple and very summery dish! I didn't bake the potatoes in the oven but cooked them until they were half-done and then finished them frying. The salad was nice and fresh.
The mackerel was really delicious. Frying gave a wonderful crispy skin, absolutely recommended. Be sure you clean it properly, even if you've been assured that it's been cleaned already, and make sure you have a pan that is large enough to hold the whole fish(es) (or get smaller specimen)! |
| Excellent! Really, really delicious, and as easy as, well, pie! I didn't make them myself but had them at my SIL's and watched her finish preparing them (which is also why I took the photos with my mobile, not the camera). They were great to prepare, the tartlets came out easily and without breaking, the cream was very easy to make and really delicious, and what can you do wrong with berries? |
| So easy, and so delicious! We had this cream as a part of the Tartlets with Fresh Berries, and I can only recommend everything about it.
The Mascarpone Cream was both easy and quick to whisk up, and tasted heavenly. Can be used with any other kind of tartlet or dessert in general (eg. just fruit with Mascarpone Cream? Chocolate Cream with Mascarpone Cream? Whatever, let your fantasy run loose). |
| You shouldn't necessarily expect this to be a seperately listed dish; however, the instruction listed are somewhat more elaborate than usual. One thing I did miss is why you should do whatever you are told to do, eg. brush the tartlet tins with a layer of melted butter and leave to set in the fridge before filling with pastry - according to my SIL, this is to ensure that the come out easier (and/or remain crisp). |
| Absolutely brilliant! Quick to assemble, great in taste and really versatile! We've already had it as a drink, and as a dessert (leftover bit of walnut ice cream served with apricots, almonds and a little ratafia as sauce); I can also see me making this in jam jars to get smaller portions you give as presents.
I did my best to use only ripe apricots in a good shape. I've spotted a few apricots where one half was darker than the other and I'm not really sure what the cause of this could be - have they just taken on some of the dark colour of the brandy, or were they a little overripe? I'll report back in a few days/weeks should that be the cause.
Of course I didn't have a wide-necked screw-topped 1.2 litre bottle, though I had a 1 litre one; I just used all of the apricots, nearly all of the almonds and sugar, and approximately 500ml brandy.
Variations: Definitely add a handful of raisins! I could also imagine a few spices, if you like, something like cinnamon or clover. You might want to consider halved almonds (in length) instead of almond slivers, but I guess that's a question of personal preference.
Edited 22nd March 2012:
We still have a little Ratafia left - I once nearly threw it away because all the apricots turned brown, but actually, that's down to the brandy - they're still perfectly edible, and when I served some Ratafia during a dinner recently, our guest was very glad to go home with the recipe. |
| From: Delicious (NL) (reviewed 13th August 2011)Very delicious (no pun intended)!
Especially the almonds were absolutely brilliant, and something you can easily use for a different recipe! They didn't get grilled while under the other baking tin, so when the plums were done, I placed the almonds in the top shelf. Be careful and watch them closely! Mine were done in a little less than 1.30 or 2.00 minutes.
The plums could have had a little more sugar, and nicer spices. I didn't have 'speculaaskruiden' and therefore made my own mix of spices: 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp allspice, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cardamom. The nutmeg was too strong, other than that it was great. It's easier not to mix the orange (or in our case lemon) zest with the sugar and spices; instead, put them on top of the plums directly once you've sprinkeled the plums with the sugar.
This is a Jamie Oliver recipe, though I couldn't find any version of it online. |
| Really, really good! Comparable to Nigel Slater's Pork with Pears, but much better! It had pork, it had apple, it had plenty of that sweet, savoury and sticky sauce, it was just really good. And it was quick, too!
The biggest problem here was getting the timing right. I had cooked the pork a bit too long, making it slightly dry and tough. My suggestion would be to keep the pork rather undercooked because you can still correct that at the end when you add the pork to the apples. Also, make sure the apples are still on the crunchy side when you add the pork (see above).
I was afraid that 2 tablespoons would be too much mustard, but it wasn't, it was just right. Serve with potatoes and a salad.
Edited 30 August 2011:
Turns out my suggestion doesn't really work, because by the time you return the pork to the pan you will already have added a lot of liquid, and thus you would cook instead of fry the meat. So that means that there is little more you can do than cook the pork well, keep it warm and only return it to the pan at the very last minute, serving immedeately. |
| My SIL served this for her birthday last week, and it was absolutely divine! Very delicious both hot and cold, very juicy and aromatic - I could eat it every week! Absolutely recommended! |
| Absolutely excellent, hot and salty and then that beautiful looking squid - really good! Remember that Chinese dishes are always supposed to be served as one of many, it's not really a serving for four on its own.
Regarding the Chinese characters: Sha Cha translates as Satay Sauce, though it's not what you would find as Satay Sauce (which would most probably be Indonesian or Malay); instead, it's most commonly sold as (Chinese) Barbecue Sauce. Hua Zhi means flowering branch, hua meaning flowers, blossom, zhi meaning branch, limb, to branch off. In combination, they can also mean both beautiful woman and octopus. I can get both associations, though on my own I would never have found that connection between beautiful woman and octopus. |
| Really, really delicious. The two red peppers were somewhat hotter than I expected; next time I would probably use 1 or 1 1/2. The dish was relatively simple, with slightly less cutting work to do and fewer steps. We stir-fried the meat instead of deep-frying it, which worked perfectly well. The meat was especially delicious, very tender, though I couldn't figure out whether that was due to the marinade or the quality of the meat or anything else. |
| From: Flavour First (reviewed 21st September 2011)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. |
| I wondered whether I was doing anything wrong - instead of 24 cookies I managed to get approximately 16 large and 30 small/bite-sized cookies out of the dough. I noticed that the dough made with oat flour dried out quickly and this influenced how thick you were able to roll out the dough - but in the end this didn't matter at all. They were really easy to prepare, and with a little parmesan or at least sea salt you could probably also serve them as crackers in their own right. Especially heart-shaped ones :)
The smoked trout cream was very delicious, and the whole combination just came together really well. A really good choice, and well worth the extra work!
Served as part of a buffet for eight, together with Nectarines with Ricotta and Parma Ham, Papaya Salad, Aubergines with Sweet Harissa, Beef Canapés and Roquefort in Belgian Endive Leaves. |
| From: Flavour First (reviewed 29th September 2011)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! |
| From: Flavour First (reviewed 1st October 2011)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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| From: Flavour First (reviewed 25th December 2011)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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| What's not to love about lemon meringue? And Ottolenghi's recipe is trustworthy as always. |
| I hadn't expected to like this combination as much, especially dill and capers seemed weird but worked very well. Goes well with (and is similar to) Chargrilled Broccoli with Chilli and Garlic. |
| This was really good! It was quick, it was simple, and it's really delicious. We especially liked that you could taste both the fish and the Marsala (so don't use a cheap alcohol, nor bland fish). Absolutely a keeper.
Served with Runner Beans with Lemon and Spaghetti Aglio e Olio - you might better look for something else as a side dish. |
| From: Modern Moroccan (reviewed 27th February 2012)This was a true discovery! Spinach has never really appeared very exciting, until today. The only change we made was that we substituted the pine nuts for almond slivers. We'll definitely make this again!
We served this with Chicken Wings with Blood Oranges and couscous with sweet dried cranberries and spices as a main dish - a very good combination. This was followed by Poached Quinces with Rose Water Syrup as dessert - excellent as well.
Edited 24 March 2012:
Served with Pomegranate and Honey Glazed Chops with Radish and Cucumber Tzatziki, jewelled couscous and grilled aubergines (pictured) - excellent combination! This was followed by the Ginger-spiced Oranges with Caramel Ice Cream - very good as well.
Edited 29 April 2013:
Hmm, we just made prepared it twice, on two consecutive days, and each time it was too sweet, though I'm not exactly sure what we did differently. I guess we'll try less honey next time, and perhaps sour cream instead of normal cream. |
| Really delicious! We marinated this for only an hour or maybe two, and the balance of flavours was spot-on - strong enough to make it interesting but not too strong to overpower the flavour of the lamb. Furthermore the lamb was juicy and tender, just perfect.
There were two changes: I accidentally only bought four (quite smallish) lamb chops instead of eight - I made an extra vegetable dish to make up for that, but in the end that wasn't necessary, as four lamb chops were just perfect for the three of us. For four servings I would recommend five or six lamb chops, though of course that always also depends on the size of the chops.
Second, somebody had sneakily eaten up the cucumber; luckily, that wasn't a problem, it was a very nice tzatziki even without the cucumber. However, I don't think I would add the two spoons of olive oil next time, I didn't see any added value in that.
Speaking of tzatziki, the lamb was just very slightly hot; I didn't really see the necessity for the tzatziki, except for at the end of some of the mouthfuls :) Anyway, even if you didn't use (alll of) it you can always serve it with some bread or potatoes (or grilled aubergines!) the following day.
We served this together with jewelled couscous, grilled aubergines and Sautéeed Spinach with Apple, Pine Nuts and Cream, an excellent combination of dishes! Dessert was Ginger-spiced Oranges with Caramel Ice Cream - this combination worked very good as well. |
| Very nice recipe! It's approximately comparable to the Coq au Vin from Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche in both taste and complexity.
Remarkable about this recipe is that although it uses Cognac, it doesn't flambée it - we did - and that the mushrooms are being fried separately, which means they retain both their flavour and their texture. Minor issue: It's absolutely impossible to fry all chicken pieces in one go, though the recipe seems to imply it.
We served the rest of the topping of yesterdays Grilled Vegetable Pizza as a side dish, which worked pretty well, mainly due to the rosemary.
Edited 27 October 2014:
I was slightly worried that 45 min of braising wouldn't be enough, but in fact it was just right. Bits and pieces of the chicken even tasted just a tiny bit dry, and I wondered if that might have been because we kept the chicken pieces, covered with aluminium, in the oven heated to 50C while we reduced the sauce. One thing I didn't do (and I assume I didn't do it when I made it the first time around) is that I used other herbs - no cayenne (cayenne in Coq au Vin, really?), but instead nutmeg, dried rosemary and dried thyme, and a little fresh parsley at the end. Again, although it doesn't say so in the recipe, I flambéed the cognac again, which was especially exciting as it was the first time I did it while I was all alone.
Served with a slice of bread and Glazed Sautéed Carrots, though prepared with honey instead of sugar, and a bunch of fresh parsley - very delicious! Rosemary would work equally well. |
| Very delicate, light and delicious soup. It's made with white, not green asparagus, and took somewhat longer than I had expected it to; however, most of that is cooking time you can use to prepare other things. At a few points the recipe wasn't very clear, mainly due to the fact that it's a variant of another asparagus soup, but I doubt the results would be very different. I didn't use the asparagus peel as I have learned that it makes the soup bitter; nor did I use the butter at the end - it already contained enough butter, and I liked the taste as it was.
Serves 4 as a starter. I wonder if you could use bacon cubes or something likewise as croutons as white asparagus is traditionally served with smoked ham/bacon. |
| Very delicious, a true Ottolenghi dish! We used spinach and rocket as we weren't able to get Swiss chard; canned chickpeas instead of dried ones, and normal yoghurt instead of Greek yoghurt. It was very easy to prepare and very tasteful. Personally, I would add just a bit more caraway, use less olive oil, and cook the carrots less so they end up having a bit more crunch. And don't forget the salt!
Serves two as a vegetarian main, or four as a side dish. |
| Oh, this was wonderful! Sweet and fresh, and a little soggy puff pastry to go... DH longed for a somewhat dryer, crunchier pastry, but I didn't mind at all. It was vaguely similar to the Shallot Tarte Tatin we made last year but not as sweet. Works equally well as an appetizer and as a side dish, is fairly easy to prepare and looks simply stunning (the photo has a slightly yellowish tint). Absolutely recommended!
We served it with Lemon and Oregano Chicken from Falling Cloudberries (review coming up soon), and it worked very well. I could also imagine this with something more robust, lamb for example. |
| A very simple yet elegant dish! The balance of flavours was excellent, the fish was cooked just right, and it was easy and quick tp prepare!
The only problem we had was that the fish didn't fit into our IKEA steamer - and that the steamer tilted over because all the weight was placed on one side of the steamer. We cut the fish in half lengthwise so we could balance the steamer with two parts, and that worked very well. Alternatively, just use two fish.
We served this with Stir-fried Baby Bok Choi with Garlic, an excellent match! |
| This is one of my to-go-recipes for crumble - the other one being a crumble for traditional German fruit cakes. I used this crumble for the Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Crumble Gratin, and it was really good, and I can imagine that it works equally well in sweet dishes.
Edited 24 June 2013:
I used whole-wheat flour this time, but that didn't work that well as it wouldn't turn into a dough (or at least flakes of dough); I had to use nearly the double amount of butter to make it work.
Edited 5 November 2013:
I tried whole-wheat flour again. This time I only used one third whole-wheat and two thirds plain white flour, and I added about 2-3 tsp cold water, and that worked really well. |
| From: Gelati d'Italia (reviewed 15th September 2012)Absolutely fabulous! It's not very difficult, with or without ice cream machine, and it's incredibly delicious! I wonder whether you can also make this in winter using frozen blue beries. In first instance I thought 'yes, of course!', but now I'm concerned about re-freezing. Any comments?
We planning to serve it on Monday, together with the Elderflower Sorbet, with as a main Whole Roast Pork Belly with English Braeburn Apples and Polenta and Pumpkin with Rosemary on Rocket with a Plum Vinaigrette as a side. I'll keep you posted... |
| Extremely delicious! We bought two small trout of 200g each, and used the cooking time the fish monger advised (ten minutes as opposed to 25), and it turned out perfectly cooked! We did have the idea that you really had to try to get both fish and sauce on the same chopstick to taste the together, and we wondered if that would have been different if the fish had been larger and had to be cooked for the full 25 minutes, but in the end, it didn't matter, it was delicious as it was.
We used just a little bit (approximately 1 tsp) of Hot Chilli Oil, but it definitely could have been more.
Served with Gai Lan with Oyster Sauce, a well-suited combination.
Fun fact: If the Chinese title of a dish is given, I always try to translate the title. I didn't manage to make sense of it this time. The first character is given as 'dry; first hexagram; warming principle of the sun, penetrating and fertilizing, heavenly generative principle (male)'. The other three are fairly straight forward: 'to stir-fry before broiling or stewing' 'sea perch, sea bass' and 'fish'.
Edited 22 September 2012:
We used a salmon trout (400g) today - for some reason, it felt like less fish. We talked about how you could scale this dish to serve it to more guests yesterday and considered using larger fish - turns out that any larger fish than this won't fit in our wok.
It tasted very similar, though both of us are pretty sure we had less sauce, which is strange as we didn't change the recipe in any respect. In consequence, it wasn't any hotter, though we used two tsp hot chilli oil as compared to one yesterday. |
| Really delicious ice cream that makes you wonder how you can ever enjoy that bland, commercial ice cream ever again. Be careful, though, it's very rich in flavour, and you probably wont want to eat more than two scoops.
We served it with Apple Pie with an Almond Crust - it's a great ice cream to substitute for vanilla sauce! |
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