friederike's Reviews
1109 recipes reviewed. Showing 51 to 100Sort by: Book Title | Date 
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Website: Serious Eats
This was brilliant! Easy to prepare and delicious to eat, and with the squid an impressive dish to boot!
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Grains
By Molly Brown
Hardie Grant Books - 2014
Similar but slightly more elaborate (and laborious) version of a family recipe. I quite liked it, if only because it was a little different. The dressing didn't work at all, though, or rather: it was way too much. I only made half of it, and even then we still have half of that (so one fourth of the original quantity) leftover.
I used my pressure cooker to cook the beans (I used pinto), and failed miserably the first two times (one batch ended up as mush, the other was severely undercooked with a few mushy beans inbetween).
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Lust auf Genuß
(July, 2017)
These were nice, but as pancakes rather than crêpes; making them as crêpes didn't really add anything noteworthy. We had these for breakfast, without the brambles (or, gasp, the ice cream).
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Website: All Recipes
Used for Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Sausage.
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Website: All Recipes
Very nice. The only problem was that after 30 min of pressure cooking, the beans (we used dried red kidney beans) were still undercooked, and we don't know why. According to the handbook they should even be done within 15-20 min, and they weren't even old. We pressure cooked them for another 10 min and they were fine.
Re: the beans. Apparently this seems to be a topic of some dispute. Most swear by 'small red beans', which in some cases turn out to be aduki beans, and in others as 'from the mexican market' and definitely not aduki. Some (fewer) go with red kidney beans. Because my only options were aduki and red kidney beans, I chose the latter as it felt more authentic; I might go for aduki beans next time.
Made with this Cajun Spice Mix.
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Website: Hip Pressure Cooking
I actually combined several recipes in one: this one and my usual recipe for Pumpkin and Sage risotto, plus a good measure of my own ideas (I also read this one, specifically including the comments, but decided I'd try this one first).
I think the most important part of this recipe is the question how much stock you need to add in relation to how much rice and other ingredients, and how long and with how much pressure do you need to cook it. This recipe gives a ratio of 1 part rice to 2 parts stock, which you'll cook for 5-6 min on 'high' (I did 6 min). Unfortunately, the resulting risotto was undercooked; I'll make the risotto again and use a ratio of 1:3, and maybe 8 min. That said, using a pressure cooker for risotto is an enormous time saver, especially because you can prep everything up to the moment you add the stock and start the pressure cooking!
According to my usual recipe, 350 g rice should be enough for 4 servings, so 175 g (equals exactly 1 of these plastic cups of 160 ml that come with the Instant Pot and most rice cookers) should be enough for 2 servings. It wasn't (though maybe yes as an appetizer?). It wasn't immediately obvious to me if this 7-min risotto recipe was referring to plastic cups or standard cups, but given that 4 cups of stock are given as an equivalent of 1 litre, it seems to be the latter. ½ standard cup aka 120 ml equates 130 g rice, which should be enough for 1 serving.
I also used defrosted roasted pumpkin – my, it lost a lot of liquid! It went from 370 g both fresh and frozen to 190 g thawed and roasted. I dithered quite a while how the pumpkin would influence the required amount of stock, until I read the whole pumpkin risotto recipe and realized that the pumpkin is only added at the very end, after cooking. Duh!
PS: How very fitting that I reviewed a 'Risotto in 7 min'-recipe on 7/7/17!
Edited a few days later:
A rice to stock ratio of 1:3 with 8 min on high resulted in mush! I might try 1:2.5 and 7 min next time, or just stick to 1:2 and 6 min and finish it off the traditional way. Complicating factor was that I used a different rice, though, so may be it was actually the rice?
Edited 5 August 2017:
We're getting closer, or not. I made a Tomato and Basil Risotto, using the same rice as the first time, the same rice-liquid-ratio (1:2), and the same amount of pressure cooking time (5 minutes). I planned on getting undercooked risotto, because then I'd be able to put half away to finish cooking tomorrow, and I'd have the chance to add mozzarella during the last few minutes on the stove. Alas, the rice wasn't undercooked.
At first I couldn't make any sense of this, given the different result of the first time; but the one thing that was different was that this time I made a full recipe, with 350 g / 400 ml rice instead of just half of that. So my hypothesis for the time being is that quantity also matters, and is probably also related to the size and make of my pressure cooker (8 litre/quart Instant Pot) (eagle-eyed readers will observe that this time 350 g equals 400 ml and not 320 ml - I used a different measuring cup. No idea if this is simply what you get with measuring cups of different width, or if one of them is plain wrong).
Edited 7 October 2017:
350 g rice, 750 ml stock and some glugs of different wines, 6 minutes - just/nearly cooked.
useful (1)
Website: Serious Eats
Too much sauce, too much salt, and very few vegetables.I have no idea what the function of the gelatin is; the sauce was runny as if it didn't contain any gelatin at all.
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Website: Serious Eats
Nice, but a little bland. I thought it was funny that we were able to taste the coconut oil even though the cake only used 30 g of it!
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Real Fast Food
By Nigel Slater
Penguin UK - 1993
Quite nice, but it needs to be way stronger saltier than you'd expect. I used about 55 g black olives, 40 g of butter and two anchovy fillets, and I think I should have used at least one or two more of the latter (and I'm normally always very, very careful with salt!).
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Website: Smitten Kitchen
Agreed with Zosia - a great but easy dinner! We served it with rice and corn on the cob; I'd probably add a salad if the kids had been old enough to eat it.
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Website: Guardian Recipes
www.guardian.co.uk/tone/recipes
Several things went wrong for us: the beans never cooked properly, there weren't enough of them, the garlic ended up being burnt, the chorizo was too strong in flavour, and the parsley wilted. Most things are probably nuestra culpa, except for the quantity of the beans and the wilting of the parsley.
100 g of dried beans just isn't enough for four servings, unless you're serving fine dining serving sizes with a starter and a dessert, and possibly a few dishes inbetween.
And why were we supposed to add the parsley to the frying pan - together with the garlic and other ingredients - and then cook it for another minute? That can't be right.
It's a nice dish, very delicious if you ignore the issues we had, prepares well in advance and is easy to serve nicely - and the padron peppers are a great talking point; did you know that apparently they are just normal mild small peppers, except for the fact that one or two out of ten will be really really hot?
Edited the next day:
Fry the ingredients added during step gently, and you'll end up with a great dish. Upgraded to 5 stars.
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Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day
By Diana Henry
Ten Speed Press - 2009
Excellent! Easy and very, very delicious. We also used this dish to finish various bits of white wine - worked like a charm! We had plenty of sauce leftover, which we then drank with sparkling water - very delicious as well!
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Website: Cooking Classy with a Sprinkle of Fancy
We made this a while ago, so I don't remember everything, but I think the gist was that it was nice but a little bland. We also thought this might work better with a white fish instead of salmon.
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Website: Serious Eats
I quite liked this one. Nothing noteworthy, but a solid recipe for braised chicken legs. Produces quite a lot of sauce which I froze for later use (sauce + rice or noodles + veggies = extra dish for another day).
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Website: Serious Eats
These are brilliant! I've just had a few right from the oven (they're not even done yet), but they taste great! Juicy, sweet, floral, way better than any raisin I've ever had. Definitely something that would be an excellent addition for a cheese platter. Or a healthy snack. Or anything really (though they would be a waste to use in baking).
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Website: Chefkoch.de
The filling (intended to go with half a recipe of this recipe) tasted nice, but it didn't work with the yeast bread - it made the yeast bread dry. Also, it transformed it from a bread I'd eat for breakfast/brunch to something I'd eat with a cup of coffee sometime inbetween; but for such occasions, I think I'd much rather go for a Franzbrötchen, such as this one or this one (might make one of those next week).
Very reminiscent of this Cinnamon and Date Scone Bread. Funny, that bread, too, turned out a little dry, I wonder if it's the filling that dries it out.
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Website: Chefkoch.de
Very nice, though not quite as nice as the Brioche we made these past two weekends - or maybe we're just getting spoiled already?
The dough was really sticky, and judging by the weight of the dough when I started braiding, I probably added snother 200 g or so of flour during kneading. With one full recipe, I made a three braid loaf with raisins and four single-braid loaves without raisins. I used 75 g pre-soaked raisins (for half a recipe, I divided the dough by weight), and it definitely could have had more; I think maybe 110 g of raisins. My husband even suggests 150 g raisins, and I'm pretty sure my toddler agrees with him, even though - or maybe because - then you'd have raisins with bread instead of bread with raisins.
Unfortunately, though, we used too high temperatures for baking. My dear husband let me sleep in (bless him!), and because I hadn't printed the recipe for him and he has ample experience with sour dough bread and very little with challahs and the like, he coated the bread with egg instead of milk and preheated the oven to 250 C.
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Express-Abendessen
By Cornelia Schinharl
GU - 2015
Nope, not enjoyable. It's not even the flavour (bland), it's mainly the slightly slimey texture that makes this soup unappealing. I forgot to add the cream, though I'm not sure if that would make such a difference. I'm also not a fan of the addition of mustard.
Edited the next day:
Turns out, adding cream actually changes the texture a lot, though it's still not something I'll be making more than once. Upgraded from one to two stars.
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Website: Foodness Gracious
Hard to rate this one. I really enjoyed the sauce, although we used only one orange instead of all three, and even that was way too strong for the cod. We used salmon the next day, and that worked a lot better, though DH forgot to use lemon or lime juice, which made the sauce a bit too sweet. I could also see this sauce go well with chicken or pork.
It looks like a simple recipe at the first glance, but it isn't, as you need to prepare quite a few individual components, not to forget vegetables (peas work really well!) and either rice or potatoes.
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Holländisch kochen: Gerichte und ihre Geschichte
By Erik Winkelmann, Christine Moser
Verlag Die Werkstatt GmbH - 2011
Too salty for our taste, but otherwise good. We'll try half a tsp of salt next time. Also, they definitely need more raisins, I'd double the amount. Nice that it's a sugar-free dessert, though a little sugar would probably work nicely as well.
Edited the next day:
Haha, DH made these yesterday, and complained about the amount of salt. Today, he confessed that upon re-reading, he found that the recipe only advised 1/2 tsp salt - no wonder that they were too salty!
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Heimwee naar Bella Italia
By Onno Kleyn
Het Spectrum - 2002
My MIL actually made this soup in my absence, but apparently it was really good.
Edited 3 January 2017:
We made this dish again. Actually, I had somehow expected something rather like the unpuréed version of this White Bean Soup with Bacon, so I was a bit surprised at the addition of the tomatoes and the pasta - my fault, of course. Still, the addition of the pasta (we used fusili) wasn't necessarily the best of ideas, though mainly because we prepared the soup in advance and then reheated it, thereby overcooking the pasta. Using tiny pasta (alphabet pasta and the like) might help with this problem.
Edited 15 January 2018:
Nah, don't like it; it's too much, too confused. Canned tomatoes, half-puréed white beans and savoy cabbage? It just doesn't go well together in my opinion.
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Ich helf dir kochen: das erfolgreiche Universalkochbuch mit großem Backteil
By Hedwig Maria Stuber
- 2000
Very delicious, and unlike most recipes I've seen, not that labourious. The only thing that always remains tricky is not to overcook the fish. 6 servings instead of 4.
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Marie Claire Comfort
By Michele Cranston
Murdoch Books - 2006
Very, very easy, and quite delicious for such an easy meal.
We only had one problem: I used dried beans (I think cannellini beans), soaked them overnight, then cooked them for half an hour before adding them to the dish. Some of them ended up being a bit hard, others were softer. I'm not sure if I might not have cooked them in water long enough, and whether they then went hard when I cooked them in the acidic tomato sauce, or if the problem was that they weren't covered in liquid when I added them to the rest of the ingredients. Either way, next time I'll try to find canned ones.
Edited 26 January 2017:
I used dried beans again, other brand though, and this one recommended to cook the beans not for 1/2 hour, but 1 to 1 1/2 hours - of course I did 1 1/2 hours. And the dish was really nice, and supereasy!
Do not add salt, the sausages likely add more than enough salt.
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Casa Moro: The Second Cookbook
By Sam Clark and Sam Clark, Samuel Clark
Ebury Press - 2004
Quite bland, I'm afraid. It didn't help that this paella only contains prawns and chicken, which is quite meagre for a paella - I chose this recipe specifically because I'm pregnant and would rather not eat mussels, but why not add some fish? Either way, it needs way more spices as well. Also, we used peas instead of runner beans (though I don't think that really made a difference).
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Website: BBC Good Food
I made this a couple of weeks ago and never really had the time to review it properly, so my memory is a little hazy. I think I omitted the stock cube, as tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce already contains more than enough salt, and added a few more carrots and celery sticks - though next time I'd only add more carrots, not also celery sticks (other additional root vegetables might work well, though). The result was fine, although you should remember to stir it once a while to make sure everything is evenly covered.
useful (0)
Ich helf dir kochen: das erfolgreiche Universalkochbuch mit großem Backteil
By Hedwig Maria Stuber
- 2000
Very nice dressing that goes well with butterhead lettuce. The only caveat is that it produces a lot of dressing, and you won't need that much, unless you like to drown your salad in dressing - I think that for one head of lettuce we used about half the amount of dressing I made.
useful (0)
Website: Jamie Oliver's FoodTube
www.youtube.com/user/JamieOliver
I groaned when I asked DH if he had any idea what to eat this week, and in return he presented me with a video. A video! How useful is that when you're standing in the kitchen, pans sizzling on the stove, toddler pulling at your leg, cat couched on the floor right in front of the worktop, and all you can think of is "err, where was I again?". So I watched the video beforehand and took notes (it's short, luckily!).
And the result was really good! I omitted the chilli and all salt except for the salt in the pasta water, and used one filet of bass instead of the grey mullet - one filet was just about enough for the two (two and a half) of us. I considered using cod, but that probably wouldn't have worked that well, too flaky - my fishmonger also recommended tub gurnard (rode poon).
It's quite similar to this Cod with Tomato Confit dish, though a bit better, and also way quicker - you can probably whip this up in 15-20 min total time!
PS: There's actually a transcription available of the video at http://www.allreadable.com/e059E6Di - though you'll miss his wonderful accent (passoley!) and some of the helpful subtitled hints.
useful (0)
Website: AH
Very delicious! My MIL made this last night, and it was really good! She's considering mixing the mascarpone with the meat sauce directly because she had a few bites of mascarpone with too little meat sauce or spinach, but I didn't even notice.
Edited 30. October 2016:
I made this lasagna tonight, and I get why my MIL was considering mixing the mascarpone through the meat sauce - it's simply impossible to spread it in a single layer, scattering small bits of mascarpone on each layer with the help of two teaspoons is the best you will manage - and it simply doesn't look nice, as you can see from the photo. My first thought was to add a little milk, but I'm not sure if you wouldn't add too much liquid that way, and of course that would be an extra step, and more dishes to wash.
Definitely remember to defrost the spinach, otherwise you won't be able to layer that either (you might even want to chop it, if you don't mind the extra step). Although not mentioned, I squeezed most of the liquid out of the spinach, and also added a finely diced carrot to the meat sauce (never miss a chance to add extra vegs!). Also, keep an eye on the lasagna, mine browned pretty quickly, so I had to cover it with aluminium foil again for the last ten minutes or so.
useful (0)
Website: Marions Kochbuch
I can't believe I've never reviewed this dish! This is the sparerib recipe we usually make, and it's really delicious. You'll need to marinate the meat for more than an hour, though. And better come up with a light dish for the day after!
We tried slow-roasting this time - 2 hours 15 min at about 150 C produced meat that was a tad dry, we'll try 3 hours at 120 C tonight.
useful (0)
Delicious (NL)
(February, 2014)
This was really delicious! It's been quite a while since I've been wowed like this by a dish I made for the first time (well, it's been quite a while since I've regularly made dishes for the first time anyway, but let's ignore that detail for a minute). Actually, we have this unwritten rule that a dish needs to be good enough to be served to guests to receive a 5 star rating, and this dish does not fulfill that requirement as it's too much comfort food - but omit the crème fraîche in the tomato sauce (though not the filling), and I think you're there already.
I changed a few smallish things: I added a finely chopped carrot and celery stick to up the vegetable content; I swapped the red wine for stock, and I used 2 instead of 1 tbsp of tomato concentrate, a few leaves of fresh sage instead of dried, and 500 g instead of 400 g of minced meat.
I chose not to purée the filling as I found that idea ridiculous (purée minced meat? come on!), but then proceeded to chop the mushrooms finely, which was tedious, and when it was time to fill the cannelloni, I finally realized why puréeing, or at least pulsing the filling might not have been such a bad idea after all. I made only one half of cannelloni today, I might pulse the rest of the filling before stuffing the other half of the cannelloni tomorrow.
If you do decide to omit the crème fraîche, it's probably a good idea to add extra cheese, ie. mozzarella.
Edited somewhat later:
Pulsing actually didn't help at all! Well, ok, it might spare you the chore of finely chopping the mushrooms, but it didn't help with filling the cannelloni! That worked best by holding one vertically in the baking dish, adding the filling with a teaspoon and lightly tapping the cannelloni once in a while so that the filling sinks down until the cannelloni is full.
Edited 10 October 2016:
This time I used the kitchen machine to chop the mushrooms - and I definitely did not like the results, as the mushrooms came out as a purée (which was, I guess, totally foreseeable - but that's also the reason why I use my kitchen machine so rarely...).
As the last time, I made two portions to finish on two different days. I decided to purée one of them, properly, in my MagiMix (and not the silly small handheld thing I used last time for pulsing) - even puréed, I wasn't able to fill the cannelloni easily, so for the second portion, I decided I'd simply smash the cannelloni and just layer the pasta with the meat. I don't think I'll ever use cannelloni again (at least not for this recipe) - I might actually use lasagna sheets instead. The first version with the puréed meat sauce also had the unfortunate side effect of drying out faster than it should.
useful (1)
Chicken with Apricots, Chickpeas and Sweet Potato / Abrikozenkip met kikkererwten en zoete aardappel
It was quite nice, but it wasn't at all what was in the recipe. I forgot to buy sweet potatoes, so I simply omitted those; the dried apricots smelled off, so I replaced them with prunes; I had about 700 g of deboned chicken thighs instead of the 500 g of chicken filets required. And last, I didn't trust that 1 tsp of ground cumin would be enough for such a dish; also, with the green beans recommended as a side, it just sounded so French that I decided to omit the cumin and add a bit of bacon instead (you can never go wrong with bacon).
The result was very delicious, but quite different from what it would have been. Omitting the sweet potatoes was a mistake; I added new potatoes the next day when we had the second half of the dish; roasted pumpkin probably would work as well, when in season.
useful (0)
Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes
By Tessa Kiros
Murdoch Books - 2004
Very strangely flat. The house smelled of curry for at least a week, but unfortunately, we weren't able to taste that. Are our spices too old? If the flavours had been a lot stronger, it would have made a nice dish.
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
We used beef mince instead of lamb (does that make it a Milkmaid's Pie?), and about 2/3 of a can of tomatoes, as I had run out of tomato concentrate. We also served it as 'Deconstructed Shepherd's Pie' tonight, as I was in a rush and didn't have the time to bake it in the oven - as all ingredients were already cooked through, why not?
The result was delicious, but a little flat - unsurprisingly, if you've read the comments below the recipe. We ate half today and will eat the other half tomorrow, properly baked as it should be, with lots of cheese added, we'll see if that makes a difference.
Edited later on:
Yes, it does.
Edited sometime in autumn 2016:
Don't make the potato purée according to that recipe - it uses way too much butter! Just make it the way you always make it.
useful (0)
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman, Alan Witschonke
Wiley - 2007
Very similar but quite a bit nicer than the sautéed (or boiled?) cauliflower with a layer of breadcrumbs that I used to eat as a kid. Unfortunately, quite a bit more work as well.
It's a bit unfortunate that Bittman doesn't give any indication whatsoever as to cooking times. I cut my cauliflower into large florets and parboiled (or rather parsteamed!) them for 5 minutes in several batches - this wasn't enough, 6 or 7 min would have been better.
Once they were cooled down and dry, I then cut them into small florets - more surface, more crust! It's also a lot easier to get small florets covered in flour, egg, breadcrumbs etc. (this is assuming you are using plates - bowls might work better for larger florets).
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Very, very nice in taste, BUT:
- we made half a recipe as a side dish for the two of us (three including baby, but normally that doesn't really matter), and it wasn't enough at all! How is a whole recipe supposed to be enough for 4 persons as a main?
- we omitted the ham, and thought the gratin (other than the cheese crust) wasn't salty enough. Next time I'd either add salt or bacon.
- I only remembered to add the cheese once I took off the aluminium foil; which was useful, in a way, as I was able to spoon the stock mixture over the potatoes one last time. Once I had added the cheese, spooning liquid over the potatoes doesn't really work as you'd destroy your cheese crust.
- the online recipe only requires a 'carton double cream', without specifying which size carton. I image-googled a carton double cream and assumed that they meant a 300 ml carton; I only now read in the comments that the original printed recipes calls for a 142/150 ml carton. I might try it with less cream next time, but there is a danger that the potatoes will then not be submerged in liquid and therefore not cook as well as they should (see point above re: spooning over liquid).
- next time I'd definitely use double the amount of leeks and garlic
useful (0)
Website: The New York Times
Hm. The salmon tasted nice, but that was because it was salmon. We hardly tasted the marinade at all (and definitely not the sage in the marinade), and didn't like the sautéed sage leaves either. I also made the mistake to fry the sage leaves and the salmon pieces (I cut our salmon into smaller portions) in the same pan and the same oil, and that wasn't a good idea as the sage leaves left a lot of burnt residue. Although, who know, maybe the marinade also got burned and I simply didn't notice?
Next time I might leave the salmon in the marinade for a day or so (instead of the hour or so it marinated today), and omit the sautéed sage leaves entirely.
useful (0)
Grains
By Molly Brown
Hardie Grant Books - 2014
@ bunyip, if you read this, could you do me a favour and check the recipe in your edition? See below.
Thanks!
===
Not the very best I've eaten. In fact, it was quite plain before we added the yoghurt and coriander leaves, and also some mint. It contained too much tomato, either tomato concentrate or canned tomatoes (or both), which produced a slightly acidic flavour. Omitting the tomato concentrate and/or using fresh instead of canned tomatoes should help, though this was less of an issue once we added the yoghurt and herbs.
It also suffers from a few major translation errors, at least in my Dutch version. The introduction states that it is "also delicious with 'rode pepers' and aubergine"; the list of ingredients mentions '1 rode peper' to be added with the onions, and '1 rode chilipeper' to be added with the lentils and tomatoes. The thing is - all of the above mean chilli peppers, even though at least once (if not twice) I would have expected it to mean (bell) peppers. Also, it doesn't make sense to write 'also delicious with ...' if '...' is already in the recipe, does it?
useful (0)
Delicious (NL)
(February, 2016)
Tastewise, it was really delicious, and it was quite easy to prepare as well!
We had only two issues, one of which was that the meat had dried out slightly. That might have been partly my fault, as I had accidentally bought deboned chicken thighs that, when stirred, folded open into a long strip of meat - not very practical! Also, the first time we had this, I had forgotten to add the crème fraîche; the second day, I did add the crème fraîche, and the whole dish immediately tasted much juicier. It also tasted mellower, though I find it hard to say if that was due to the crème fraîche or due to the fact that the flavour already had one and a half days to blend.
The other was that we thought it was a shame that there wasn't as much sauce as we had liked. This, too, was remedied by the addition of the crème fraîche (who knew that a few spoonfuls of something could solve so much?). If you choose not to add crème fraîche, I would opt to make double (or 1.5 x) everything bar the chicken.
We served this with potato mash and the recommended steamed (boiled) green beans; you can omit the potato mash if you like.
useful (0)
Holländisch kochen: Gerichte und ihre Geschichte
By Erik Winkelmann, Christine Moser
Verlag Die Werkstatt GmbH - 2011
Very nice! It was a bit of a pity that the instructions were scarse - I didn't know if I had to chop the gingerbread into pieces before adding it, if only 40 ml vinegar leftover for the marinade would be enough, if the braise needed to be covered, etc. - otherwise I would have given 5 stars.
To address the questions I had: I decided to add the gingerbread slices in cubes - I didn't like the texture, though, so next time I will probably chop them finely or even pulverize them. Because I probably used a much larger pan than they did, I had to add 300 ml water above what was instructed, so I decided not to cover the braise. I also decided that 40 ml vinegar would be quite enough, as the other 60 ml of the original 100 ml in the marinade haven't disappeared but have simply been absorped by the meat.
It does seem to be Rheinischer Sauerbraten, which is probably the version most Americans know, containing gingerbread or lebkuchen and sugar beet syrup or apple butter. The only exception here is that the meat is cut into cubes, which means that the time for both marinating as for cooking is greatly reduced, very useful.
useful (1)
Website: BBC Good Food
WHY didn't I read the comments? The finished dish itself was good and definitely has potential, but the recipe just didn't work! The thing is - you don't add any proper liquid. None. At all. Granted, the puréed tomatoes are slightly liquid, but other than that? Not at all enough to either cook the lentils nor the broccoli. I had the recipe printed (without comments, of course) and at a certain point I started adding glugs of water. Once I read the comments, I added whole glasses of water.
If making again (and I'm planning on making this again), I will probably indeed double the spices (it tastes very spicy in the beginning, but definitely mellows down once you add the broccoli, chickpeas and spinach!), use coconut cream and a can of coconut milk (with another one as backup), and I might actually also use sweet potatoes, I like the idea. Pumpkin would probably also work. Or add both (broccoli and pumpkin)!
Edited 18 July 2017:
I've made this a few times since, and with the changes described above (excl. the sweet potato/pumpkin), it makes a decent weeknight dinner.
I used two large sweet potatoes this time, pressure-steamed and added at the very end; at the very last moment I realized that it would probably be best to use them as a substitute for the chickpeas. As usual, I forgot to add the sesame and cashew; I also forgot the spinach. DH thought something was missing, and it might well have been the cashews.
useful (0)
Website: All Recipes
Very easy and quite nice. We made them twice, once with kidney beans and once with black beans (both canned), and to be honest, I didn't really taste a difference. The kidney bean version might have been a bit creamier but other than that?
Served with guacamole, chopped tomatoes, corn and grilled chicken, and plenty of extra tortillas, this recipe for two is enough for four.
I do think the author missed a chance when she posted the recipe - I mean, why not Brilliant Black Bean Burritos? Come on...
Edited 24 May 2017:
225 g dried black beans, unsoaked, cooked in ca. 1l water, yielded about 480 g, a little more that 15 ounce (425 g). Cooked in about 2 - 2.5 hours. Should have used less water, about 800 ml.
Edited 5 July 2017:
200 g dried black beans, unsoaked, cooked in 700 ml water in a pressure cooker for 25 min; it took about an hour total. Could have used way less water, and less cooking time; maybe 20-22 min?
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Website: BBC Good Food
Very nice, and quite simple! Easy enough to make it a weeknight staple, but tasty enough for guests, too! My only quibbles are that I think that 5 dried apricots is a little stingy, and that all in all, the dish itself isn't really generous either - we used 600g instead of 500g lamb and served it with Zahlouk and couscous, and it was just barely enough! Make sure you make about 1.5-2x the amount if you expect hungry eaters.
Also, I am considering trying this with beef instead of lamb - lamb is just too expensive around here. Will probably work, even though it'll need to braise a little longer.
Edited the next day:
Good god, I'm such an idiot! The recipe serves two only, so no wonder it was a little meager. The thing is - I knew, which is why I bought 600 g of lamb, as opposed to just 250 g, but apparently, I forgot that immediately again!
That said, for four servings, I'd definitely double or even double-and-a-half the amount of meat and apricots, but I'm not sure the rest of the ingredients need to be doubled - we quite liked it the way it was.
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The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook: Over 130 delicious recipes for the whole family to enjoy
By Gill Rapley, Tracey Murkett
Vermilion - 2010
The cake is not too bad, actually. Of course, it's sugarfree, and therefore not (very) sweet, and I'd definitely be disappointed with it as my birthday cake, but what does my son know? (I don't think it'll pass with his three-year old niece. I guess we'll have to give her a piece of the adult's cake).
It didn't really rise, though, and I'm not sure why. Lack of sugar shouldn't have anything to do with it, should it? I used 2 tsp of baking powder for just two handsful of batter! Will probably make cupcakes on the big day, as the cake looks pityfully flat even in our smallest cake dish.
Edited 25 March 2016:
I forgot to comment on the baking process. This is another baking recipe, similar to this one, where I suspect that the author had little idea of what she was doing. First you are instructed to mix flour, spices and baking powder; then to add the butter and rub it between your fingers until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs - this latter step is a technique for making shortcrust pastry (hint: banana cake does not contain a shortcrust pastry. Not even this particular recipe.). Then you are instructed to mix the mashed bananas and the egg (= the wet ingredients) in a separate bowl, and at the very end, fold them into the flour mixture - classical muffin making technique, with the exception that butter is a wet ingredient and was supposed to go into the second bowl.
To make matters worse, the raisins go in one bowl, the walnuts into another - that doesn't make sense. Also, the walnuts are optional and can be added either finely chopped or ground - but if ground, they would change the ratio of dry vs. wet ingredients, the same way you can often substitute part of the flour with ground nuts of your choice.
Sometimes I think it's too bad Ms Rapley didn't ask a cook or a nutrionist (or both!) to help her write this book.
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Delicious (NL)
(February, 2016)
How good can a soup be if it relies on four (yes, 4!) cubes of instant stock? Unfortunately I tend to choose recipes before reading through the list of ingredients properly, or thinking about what those ingredients might mean, otherwise I probably would have looked for another recipe. Because we had kiddo eating with us, I only used one cube of low-salt stock, and added salt directly to our bowl once served, but even then, I would have much preferred adding flavour by using veggies like carrots and celery.
Also, the instructions were written sloppily. They went along the lines of 'add everything and cook 1.5 hrs until the peas fall apart. After 1 hour remove the meat, cut into cubes and return to the pot. Add sausage and warm through for 20 min (do not cook).' - so when do I remove the meat, 1 hour after starting to cook everything? When do I add the sausage - I thought maybe when I'm returning the meat, but at that point, the peas still need to cook for 20-30 min, while they state explicitely that the sausage should not cook, just be warmed through.
In the end, although we added plenty of salt, I thought the dish still lacked oomph. Will not make this again
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Website: BBC Good Food
Similar to the (original) Cranachan we made a year and a half ago, and about just as good.
Again, you need to be really careful with the oats - I let them burn on my first attempt, but luckily it's easy to just toss them out and start again. Remembering the other recipe, I didn't use the cheap clear, runny honey we had, but our good-quality heather honey, and that really made a difference (we used a cheap whisly, however - now I'm curious how it'd taste with a, say, earthy Tallisker).
I was surprised to see that you were supposed to mix the oatmeal through the cream, as I remembered that the other recipe differed in this respect - in the end that didn't matter, both versions are nice. And I noticed that this version used a mixture of single cream and Greek yoghurt (which we substituted with Quark), not solely double cream.
We actually used 2 oranges and 2 blood oranges (would have used 4 blood oranges if we had had them). I could actually see this recipe work with quite a number of fruits. For some reason, pomegranate is the very first that comes to my mind; mango would probably work as well.
Edited 20 March 2016:
I made this again, though this time I mixed all ingredients (except for the oranges and some of the oats) a few hours in advance instead of just moments before serving - and the flavours just disappeared! I could hardly taste any whisky, nor honey nor anything else! I think they used their time to meld into one big flavour, while I prefer to taste them seperately. So whip the cream beforehand, but assemble everything a la minute.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Very nice! I've made tortilla once before, years ago, and it didn't work out that well. It was different this time, it simply worked well. I did my best, however, to slice the potatoes very thin, and I guess that covering them helps as well. We didn't serve it with the bread with tomato and garlic, as suggested (we simply made oven-roast tomatoes instead), so the tortilla itself could have used a bit more garlic - maybe not necessary if you do add the bread.
I though it was a bit on the small side for four persons as a main dish - add an extra side dish, or make a little more. I also thought that the potato-to-egg-ratio could have been a little more favourable towards the potatoes - using, say, 600g potatoes probably solves both problems in one go.
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Website: BBC Good Food
It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't particularly impressive either. And what else can you expect of pasta, a can of tomatoes and some flavouring?
I didn't dare cook the pasta in the sauce directly - I cannot see how that would work, as you'd need to add a whole litre of stock to the sauce - and then you'll end up with what, tomato soup? So I omitted the stock and cooked the pasta seperately.
Fine for a weekday dinner in a really busy week, but otherwise I wouldn't bother.
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Website: All Recipes
It was quite nice in taste, but the cooking time is totally off (it might have been right if the recipe hadn't specified that you need to cut the celeriac and potatoes in 1/2 inch cubes). Also, our mash turned out pretty liquid - maybe I haven't dried the celeriac and potatoes long enough, but even if I had, I think adding a 1/3 cup of cream kind of defeats the purpose of that (and then let's not even talk about if that's such a healthy choice).
So, cut back on the cooking time, dry well and just add a little butter and cream, and you should have a really nice celeriac mash.
Edited 19 October 2017:
Steamed cubed celeriac and potatoes for four minutes on high pressure and added just a dollop of butter and a shot of cream - much better. Be generous with the salt and do add spices - something like nutmeg or mace. Celeriac appears to have a very watery flavour by nature; I wonder if it needs to be roasted instead of cooked.
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Tender: Volume II, A cook's guide to the fruit garden
By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate - 2010
... hereforth known as 'Qumble' (or 'Quumble'?)...
This was a really nice dish. It's not a lot work, though peeling and cutting the quinces is always more than you'd expect it to be, but the best thing is that you can prep it so that all you need to do is just pop it in the oven (once the quinces are cooked you won't need to worry about them turning brown).
The recipe didn't mention whether or not you would need to cover the quinces while they cook; I believe they do need to be covered. I covered them partly, and found that they were close to being burnt after only 15 minutes. So close the lid, check regularly and perhaps add a little water (I also thought they tasted a little dry, which is no wonder when all the liquids had evaporated, but I was the only one at the table who thought that). The quinces might not need to cook the full 25 min anyway, but if you prepare them in advance, it's best to cook them till they are really soft, and add an extra 5 min baking time to warm them up.
I made these in a wide 32 cm pan, and I felt it could have used a little more crumble, but again, I was the only one at the table who thought so. Definitely serve with something on the side, ice cream or something like that.
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Website: BBC Good Food
These held together well (in contrast to our last attempt at fish cakes), but the portion sizes were quite small - it looked more like a large appetizer or a small lunch than a main dish. It also could use a bit more potato - fish cakes with that much fish are of course a treat, but if that's all you serve, it's a lot of fish and little else (you could, of course, also just serve it with potatoes on the side). All in all, though, I'm beginning to think that making fish cakes is a small art in itself, and that it doesn't consist of adding I don't know how many special ingredients, but of getting the consistency right, and being able to fry without them falling apart, or getting burnt, or both.
The sauce, by the way, wasn't really necessary, and even if, a simpler sauce would have done as well.
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