friederike's Reviews
1109 recipes reviewed. Showing 901 to 950Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
Brigitte - Unsere besten Menüs
By Burgunde Uhlig
Mosaik - 2002
I planned to make this dish, but then with Greek yoghurt instead of Quark and Schmand (two dairy products akin to cottage cheese and crème frâiche that you'll only get in Germany anyway) to reduce the amount of fat. Then I realised that the dessert consisted of mainly cherries, chocolate and whipped cream, and I had an immediate Black Forrest association.
I still used Greek yoghurt, as only such large amounts of whipped cream would have been too much but I didn't mix the two; instead, I layered Greek yoghurt, cherries and chocolate shavings (twice), then a layer of whipped cream with cherries and chocolate shavings, topped off with crushed cookies. The cookies were a nice addition to give it a bit more substance, but softened quickly, so this is something you need to add at the last moment. A leftover brownie (not that that will ever exist) would also work perfectly.
useful (1)
I originally intended to only award a 4 star rating, as the figs hadn't taken on any of the flavour of the port because they were left whole. Then I re-read the first sentence: "Halve or quarter the figs, and marinate in port for 24 hours". Oops.
Other than that, it was really really nice. It was actually a kinds of Coq au Vin, but then with port (allowing us to joke that it's really supposed to be 'Coq au Harbour' - yes, we're as silly as that), though maybe slightly more Mediterranean. And it was quite simple, really. Next time I would omit adding the chicken stock (or just add the chicken stock powder if you feel that's necessary, but not the liquid), as I felt that made it too liquid - I reduced the sauce afterwards again. I also didn't sieve it, because I quite enjoyed the tomatoes and shallots in the sauce.
We served this with the saffron rice from page 50 in the same book, and the French Beans and Mangetout with Hazelnut and Orange Salad from Ottolenghi, with Gazpacho as a starter (heaven sent with these temperatures!) and a Mango and Passion Fruit Pavlova as dessert.
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Bourke Street Bakery
By Paul Allam, David McGuinness
Murdoch Books - 2009
Worked perfectly, though I did regret having to throw away so much starter every couple of days. Yet, it worked, and it didn't spoil when I forgot feeding it once in a while. Worked better than the starter I tried last year (based on this book's website).
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I'm not really sure what to make of it. I had my doubts during several of the preparation stages - never mind how long I (or the bread baking machine) kneaded the dough, it always tore instead of being elastic; it was very difficult to achieve the right temperature and humidity during the last rising stage, and as I had to do that in the oven, there was just no way I could have placed the bread in the preheated oven immedeately afterwards. But in the end, while it looked more like a Turkish flatbread than anything else, it was very delicious and the texture was surprisingly good. It has risen, even though more sideways than upwards (and I can identify with that *sigh*). DB thought the bread tasted too sour; I didn't really notice.
The recipe says it'll make three loaves - tiny loaves, in my opinion; next time I'll divide the dough into two loaves. Because we had only baked the first two loaves in the beginning, we were able to place the third one in a baking tin and see how that went - it looks absolutely fine, though I can't yet tell if it had any other effect. The only thing that would really keep me from making it again is the complexity - really, I spent hours last night, kneading and waiting and kneading and cleaning up again, ...
useful (1)
In the beginning I was suspicious. It just seemed like too much liquid, and too much salt. I added half the salt, then tasted the dough halfway through and decided that yes, the whole amount of salt would actually be a good idea. I also disregarded the advice for the kitchen machine, as the dough threatened to clog my hand-held device very quickly, and I let it rise the way I always do, covered with a clean, wet tea towel, in the oven at about 40°C. Regarding the liquid: it turned out as a fairly sticky dough, but that wasn't a problem for rolling out. And best of all: if you bake it long enough, you'll be rewarded with a very very nice, thin and crispy pizza.
We used this dough for the Pizza with Onion and Smoked Mackerel, a topping I liked a lot.
Edited 18 November:
I used fresh yeast this time, and that wasn't such a great idea. Luckily I only added 300 of the 410 ml water in the beginning - even so, the dough was really, really wet and sticky (more so than last time). I tried rolling it out, but that was impossible, and we ended up adding a lot of extra flour. Better to use dry yeast, or a recipe that specifically requires fresh yeast...
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Website: The Black Peppercorn
I actually merged this recipe with my usual recipe for red cabbage with apples, or rather: I made red cabbage as usual, but instead of cooking it on the stove for an hour plus, I cooked it in the pressure cooker for about 30 min (10 min pressure cooking time, but let's be realistic, it's more than just that).
And I'll have to say that I'm not impressed. For one, pressure cooking cut back somewhat on time, but absolutely none on workload, secondly, because the cabbage wasn't even as soft as I had expected, and last, because even though I had used nearly exactly the same recipe (I used 50 ml less water because I anticipated that less would be able to evaporate in the pressure cooker, and I forgot to add sugar, but added that afterwards), the cabbage tasted much blander than I'm used to. Next time I be back at the stove again.
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Betty Bossis Kuchen, Cakes und Torten
By Betty Bossi
Verlag Betty Bossi AG - 1995
Nice and moist coconut cake - even my husband enjoyed it, even though he isn't a big fan of coconut cake.
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Website: Betty Bossi
Not really a cake, merely a chocolate glazing, but simple and very good.
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Website: Better Homes & Gardens Recipes
Quite nice, BUT: 1) the quantities were way off, and 2) DH actually found it a little bland, and 3) it was a bit of a pity of the (homemade) cajeta, a simple caramel sauce would have worked just as well.
So, quantities: the amount of batter was meager for three servings, and would have been absolutely insufficient for four. Definitely double the amount. Two bananas was just okay for three, for four servings I'd use at least three bananas. The amount of pineapple was probably just right. But the amount of sauce - I used just half of what the recipe recommends, and of that we probably didn't even use half! So you can easily get away with a quarter of the sauce, if not less.
Then, although the recipe was nice, it was a bit too bland / not exciting enough to warrant a 5 star rating. The crepes are sweet, the sauce is sweet, the bananas are sweet, only the pineapple adds a bit of zing. And using cajeta instead of making a simple caramel sauce I thought was a bit of a pity of me standing at the stove for a few hours. I probably wouldn't even have noticed if you'd use caramel sauce instead of cajeta.
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The Best of Baking
By Annette Wolter, Teubner Christian
Peerage Books - 1991
Very nice orange cake. The only problem was that the cake didn’t soak up the juices very well, and I didn’t have a lot of patience to splash a little juice on in every so many minutes. It ended up being quite dry, though I am sure that if you succeed with soaking, it’ll be quite nice (I actually think I succeeded the first time I made this, some fifteen years ago, which is why I kept on returning to this recipe).
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Website: BBC recipes
Yes, I do realize that Chilli con Carne isn't really Mexican, but TexMex at best, but it was a nice change from the empanadas and Baleadas we've had during the last few days (I seem to be thinking that most of the Central and South American countries will drop out in the group stage - Mexico already proved me wrong last night!).
Anyway, about this dish: I enjoyed it. I made a few changes, using about 450 g peeled and chopped tomatoes instead of the tomato concentrate and the passata, and slightly more beans (500 g instead of 400 g).
I had no idea how much '2 squares 70% dark chocolate, grated' was supposed to be - I know chocolate bars where that could be anything from 10 g to 100 g. Because years ago I made a chocolate-based main dish that went horribly wrong, I decided to start out with just a little, about 10 g, and then take it from there. It was fascinating to notice that even that little completely changed the flavour of the dish, making it a lot more earthy, and quite unexpected (with some eating experience you'll probably know what to expect if a dish contains onions, carrots, beef, beans - add chocolate to that equation and it will turn it into something completely different).
Edited 18. January 2016:
I used 1/2 tsp chilli and 1/2 tsp hot paprika, and it turned out quite a bit hotter than I expected. Luckily, kiddo (at 10.5 months) didn't seem to mind at all! He had a bit of a problem with the green pepper and some pieces of carrot as he wasn't able to chew them yet, but other than that this dish worked surprisingly well. Served with white rice for the adults, and potato-fennel mash for the little guy. We omitted the chocolate and the sour cream, mainly because that ended up on the second page of the recipe and I had stopped reading at that point.
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Website: BBC recipes
Extremely simple, extremely quick, and quite delicious! I'm only not very sure if they really tasted 100% like what shortbread is supposed to taste - they actually rather reminded me of normal butter cookies.
Some of them I sprinkled with lavender sugar instead of normal caster sugar, which was a nice accent, but not really noticeable. I guess I would have to replace some of the caster sugar in the dough with lavender sugar as well to get a more distinct lavender flavour.
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Website: BBC recipes
Basically, this is a recipe for braised cabbage, with a serving suggestion of grilled salmon - really, there's not much the recipe says about the salmon. The braised Savoy cabbage, however, was really nice, and I'm especially glad I found this recipe as I don't have a lot of recipes for Savoy cabbage.
I used four slices of bacon as English bacon rashers are usually way thicker than Dutch ones, and I might use 6 next time. I used half a large Savoy cabbage, shredded, and also braised it quite a while longer, about 17 min, but I guess that depends on how al dente you want your cabbage to be. When I wanted to add the cabbage, I noticed that all the butter had already been soaked up by the bacon and onions - don't be afraid to add another knob of butter before you add the cabbage, it'll need it. The vinaigrette was too strong, too dominating for my taste; I thought it was too mustardy and also a little too sour; next time, I would add a little oil (or perhaps even melted butter?), mainly to make it thinner. That said, the cabbage is just as nice without vinaigrette.
Served with plain rice as I forgot to buy potatoes - something like roast potatoes, or maybe boiled new potatoes might go nicely with this dish.
Edited 2 August 2015:
We used a pointed green/white cabbage as we couldn't get a savoy cabbage - savoy cabbage is so much nicer!
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Website: BBC recipes
Quite nice and very easy! I used only six small potatoes for the two of us to serve with Grilled Salmon, Braised Cabbage with Bacon and Onions, though five probably would have been enough as well. I also used one garlic clove, and dried tarragon instead of fresh rosemary as I felt that tarragon would go better with the Savoy cabbage and the salmon. And it did! I really liked the flavour of the potatoes, especially the garlic.
Unfortunately, though, the potatoes didn't get as crisp as I would have hoped, and definitely not as crisp as my usual recipe of Oven Fried Potatoes with Oregano and Lemon from The Olive and the Caper. I wonder if it had made a difference if I had used floury instead of waxy poatoes.
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BBC Olive
(August, 2009)
This one was just okay. I wasn’t exactly wild about it (but then I’m not that much of a fan of fennel), and it didn’t help that the chicken ended up being a little dry.
Crosspost. I found out that the exact the same recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
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Just plain ugh. VERY strange combination of flavours. Too strange, actually, for my taste. The Pepperonata was far too sweet to combine well.
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Very sophisticated ten minute (ehm, okay, 15 minute) pizzas. I absolutely loved the taste, it was fresh, varied, and it definitely showed that you can combine mozzarella with more than tomato and basil.
Our naan-bread was quite soggy, though. I liked it, the same way I I like a Domino's pizza once in a while. But I can also imagine that some might prefer something more crunchy. Baked/grilled baguette might be the solution here, and also makes it possible to serve it as finger food at your next party.
Beware that the quantities of the ingredients aren't completely right – we used only one instead of two courgettes and had some courgette leftovers, while the mozzarella was just enough. So that's a four star rating instead of five...
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
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BBC Olive
(October, 2009)
Quite nice, but can be improved upon. It's very heavy, slightly bitter (though that might be due to the very dark chocolate), and the Earl Grey tea was hardly noticeable (that is to say: DB tasted it, I didn't) even though I already used double the amount of tea. I will probably make it again tomorrow with stronger (and perhaps even more) tea, and with double the amount of eggs, just to see if it makes it any lighter (today, I used 100g chocolate for 2 eggs, always one egg per person). I might even try Lapsang Souchong instead of Earl Grey. I'll try to get other chocolate, too - the one I used today had cocoa nibs in it and didn't really become liquid when I melted it.
We didn't make the Orange Blossom Cream, I hope to try it tomorrow. I could imagine using rose water instead of orange flower water - orange flower water always makes me think of soap!
Edited one day later to add:
As announced, I made this recipe again, albeit, for testing reasons, only half the recipe with a quarter of the given amount of ('normal' dark) chocolate (50g chocolate for 2 eggs). Additionally, I added 2 teaspoons of sugar, and whipped it together with the egg yolks until they were nearly white, at least five minutes. You could really see how the volume of the egg yolks expanded!
Unfortunately, once I added the chocolate, this effect seemed to be gone again. I am thinking whether it might have been better not to use a kitchen machine once you've added the chocolate. In any case, don't use one once you add the egg whites!
The resulting chocolate mousse was wonderfully light but tasted slightly eggy and not very chocolatey. Perhaps I should aim for an egg-chocolate ratio somewhere in between...
PS: Still didn't taste any Earl Grey... I used Earl Grey again because I was afraid the smokey taste of Lapsang could be too strong, but now... Alternatively, coffee would probably work, or orange zest, or mint, or rose water (?)...
Edited another three days later to add:
I used 75g chocolate per 2 eggs and served them in cute little cups to my guests. To my great surprise, the mousse was just as heavy as the first version! Very delicious, though, just not quite what I had expected given my experiments during the days before..
Tastewise, I ignored the Earl Grey and added some cardamom (nice spice!) and a pinch of salt to make the flavour come out more. I was planning to serve it with rosemary cream, but in the end I didn't.
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Very delicious! I used caster sugar instead of white sugar (actually, nothing specific was suggested which made me think they meant white one), and it really made it taste like Caipirinha while at the same time you could definitely taste the berries. It tasted slightly watery, which might have been due to my poor ice-crushing techniques (a few large chunks with lots of 'snow'); and at the same time, the alcohol tasted pretty strong, although that passed quickly :)
You might try cheating by adding some berry juice or sirup to get more flavour, though if you choose sirup don't forget to omit the sugar.
useful (1)
BBC Good Food
(May, 2009)
Quite impossible to cover 4 chicken leg portions with just a little marinade and 125 ml water – you’d have to have a darn perfect fitting pan to manage that. As similar chicken dishes had ended up being slightly dry in the past, I was careful to cover the chicken. After all, the point about stewing is to cook something in lots of liquid. Needless to say, I ended up with a sauce that was far too thin, even though I reduced the sauce for an extra ten minutes.
Otherwise it’s a very nice dish. It’s not as tasty as it smells, which could be due to slightly too much of sour ingredients (lime, mainly), so try to cut them back.
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BBC Good Food
(June, 2009)
A lovely dish from one of my favourite regions, though I replaced the pine nuts with equally suitable almonds.
One caveat: make sure that all pieces of meat are covered with liquid while cooking, otherwise you'll end up with small bits of the meat being dry. If this hadn't happened, I might even have given a 5-star rating.
Serve with rice or couscous. You could add extra liquid to prevent the chicken from drying out, and then cook couscous in some of that liquid, just as done in Chicken and Couscous One-pot.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
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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.
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A healthy, delicious, and extremely easy dish - just put everything in a baking tray, bake, add some extra ingredients and you're done!
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BBC Good Food
(May, 2009)
Very delicious, though quite heavy and a slightly standard combination of ingredients. Use Homemade Pesto, if possible.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
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Easy, quick and delicious.
Use for e.g. Creamy Pesto Chicken with Roasted Tomatoes.
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BBC Good Food
(August, 2009)
Err... let’s call it a Risotto, shall we? 1 litre chicken stock was FAR too much for 300g rice. Besides that, the dish was pretty bland, so don’t even bother trying it...
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BBC Good Food
(June, 2009)
Nice dish, works both as a vegetarian main and as a side dish.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
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BBC Good Food
(October, 2009)
This one was nice but tasted less of fish and more of other spices than my usual, very basic fish pie; also, it was definitely more work. I may repeat it, but chances are that I’ll rather hang on to the basic version...
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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…
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BBC Good Food
(May, 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.
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BBC Good Food
(October, 2009)
The good news: it's incredibly easy to prepare (just throw everything into a roasting tin and you're nearly done), it's beautiful and distinctly autumnal (it's the cover dish, for that matter), and BF and my guests last night loved it.
The bad news: I didn't. I was a bit disappointed because the flavours of the ingredients didn’t come together. What the sense of that? I thought cooking was the art of combining ingredients and creating something new. Instead, the chicken tasted like chicken (like a very tender chicken, though), the squash tasted like squash, the walnuts tasted like walnuts, and the sage, well, the sage was burnt and didn’t give off any flavour at all.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
useful (1)
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).
useful (1)
BBC Good Food
(June, 2009)
Very nice, definitely a new dish for my growing repertoire! The chicken was juicy and tender, the couscous creamy and very aromatic. We had carrots sautéed in apple butter (a variation of the Glazed Sautéed Carrots in The Cook’s Book) as a side dish, which was delicious, but any other root vegetable would have worked just as well.
Quite similar to Chicken with Saffron, Raisins and Pine Nuts from the same magazine, same edition
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
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BBC Good Food
(January, 2010)
I passed this recipe on to my sister-in-law and asked her to tell me what she thought about it afterwards. She liked it a lot. She used rum instead of vodka and no water at all (must have been a fun evening). Crushing the cranberries was difficult, though, and you’ll end up with a lot of pulp and pits in the glasses; next time she’ll probably use a mortar to solve this problem (she pondered about using a blending machine and then sieving the juice but then figured that every mojito contains some pulp).
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Very delicious. In fact, the combination of flavours would have been worth a 5-star-rating if there hadn’t been so many smallish things to improve.
We cooked the Thai glutinous rice according to the package instructions, not according to the recipe, and it didn’t really work as it should have; there was too little water, and when the rice was finally cooked, it was more of a porridge with too little texture. Nothing of this is related to the recipe, of course, but if you do decide to make this dessert for guests, make sure that you know how to cook the rice. I might try normal dessert rice next time.
Furthermore, the rice was a little tasteless and watery. I would suggest cooking the rice in the coconut milk, perhaps adding the golden caster sugar half-way through the cooking process to prevent the sugar from becoming too caramelised. All in all, the rice could also have been sweeter; but if you decide to go for a sweet rice, serve only small portions of rice.
The sauce, then again, could easily have been a little more sour. The orange juice is superfluous, in my opinion, as it easily superimposes the taste of the mangoes; instead, liquidise the mango and add orange juice (or mango juice!) or water only when really necessary to reach the consistency of the sauce. Also add more lime juice – I think it’s just that contrast between a sweet, sticky, heavy rice and a fruity, light, and slightly sour sauce are rather desirable.
We left out the passion fruit and mint leaves entirely, but I’m sure they form a perfect addition.
PS: Curious? Check out the recipe here.
useful (0)
BBC Good Food
(May, 2009)
Basically very delicious, but not tasty enough, I thought. Perhaps that’s the way it should be, with no more but a faint taste of garlic – after all, garlic can be very overwhelming, and mash is a side dish that should rather stay in the background. Still, next time I’ll try it with an extra garlic clove next time and also crush the garlic and then see how that goes.
useful (1)
BBC Good Food
(October, 2009)
Nice. I would change a few things, but none of them is dramatic. I would probably add an egg (or perhaps two) to make the fish cakes stick better, and I would add more lime zest to the mayonnaise – I tried lime juice instead, but BF complained that that made the mayonnaise turn too sour (I didn’t even notice). Also, while I quite liked the dominant taste of the peas, I would probably use more fish and fewer peas to make the cakes have a stronger taste of fish.
Neither of us could be bothered with cutting chillies, although they probably would have been a good idea.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
I tried a similar recipe, Salmon Cakes with Lemon Mayo from Olive: 101 Quick-fix Dishes, but I liked this version better.
Edited 8 January 2016:
We made these again last night. I used pangasius instead of trout, and as I had read several reviews on the BBC website saying the fish cakes were bland, I added quite a bit of dried dill. The resulting fish cakes were quite nice in taste - I didn't taste the dill at all, but I guess it helped anyway ( I would expect potentially bland fish cakes to taste even blander with a characterless fish as pangasius).
However, the texture was a complete failure - they already fell apart before they hit the pan! The only thing that helped a little was deep-frying them on high heat in lots of oil, but I only made two of those before I gave up, tossed them all back into a bowl and added an egg, and that really made a difference (I would still recommend deep-frying, though, if only for the crispness). Is there anything I missed that every proper Englishman knows about making fish cakes? Like, should I have chilled the fish cakes before frying them, is that the reason why I failed? I might actually give that a try some day...
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Basically this is a variation on my usual recipe of very basic Leek Tart, except that it features soft cheese with garlic and herbs and foregoes the egg-milk-cream mix. On the one hand I like the addition, on the other this might have been the reason why the crust didn’t become crisp at all (BF suggested a rating of only 3 stars at this point) – then again, an egg-milk-cream mix contains even more liquid, so we probably just didn’t give it enough time. It wasn’t quite enough for four, though.
We made this tart with (defrosted) mussels and shrimps instead of bacon, and the combination worked well, too.
Edited to add:
The recipe is available online here. You can also review it here.
useful (0)
BBC Good Food
(May, 2009)
Very hot. Taste the sauce before adding that one last chili pepper, it might not be necessary. Goes well with, err, lots of plain rice and a cold beer. Otherwise very delicious, and super quick, especially if you have already prepared the Green Seasoning in advance.
useful (0)
Great seasoning, easy to make. We used half for the Trini Prawn Curry, and froze the other half in ice cubes for the next dish.
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BBC Good Food
(July, 2009)
Slight disappointment. I had expected something as good as the Vegetable Pilau I hade made a few months ago, but this dish tasted quite disbalanced. DB compared it to an orchestra that made sufficient noise (read: was tasty/aromatic enough), but that noise wasn't guided properly as to produce a nice harmonic tune.
Granted, we had to use tomato purée instead of real tomatoes because BF had secretly eaten them up (all of them!), and then (whisper) he actually used the whole double-sized tin (140g)!! Consequently, the dish tasted too much of tomato purée, a slightly sour taste, but also the taste of the curry (we used mild madras) or perhaps the tumeric was too strong. Halfway through the meal we had the idea to add some rasped coconut to balance the spices a little more, which worked a little.
Next time we´ll definitely use fresh tomatoes, even if that means going out to the store again, and cut the curry and tumeric by half, and then see how it goes. I do believe that the basic idea is very nice.
Oh, by the way, would you like to try it out for yourself? Get the recipe here and post your recipe here.
useful (1)
Website: BBC Good Food
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).
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
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.
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Nice dish, works both as a vegetarian main and as a side dish.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, June 2009 edition.
useful (0)
Website: BBC Good Food
Very sophisticated ten minute (ehm, okay, 15 minute) pizzas. I absolutely loved the taste, it was fresh, varied, and it definitely showed that you can combine mozzarella with more than tomato and basil.
Our naan-bread was quite soggy, though. I liked it, the same way I I like a Domino's pizza once in a while. But I can also imagine that some might prefer something more crunchy. Baked/grilled baguette might be the solution here, and also makes it possible to serve it as finger food at your next party.
Beware that the quantities of the ingredients aren't completely right – we used only one instead of two courgettes and had some courgette leftovers, while the mozzarella was just enough. So that's a four star rating instead of five...
Crosspost. The online version of the recipe as it appeared in the BBC Olive magazine (but not in the BBC Good Food magazine), August 2009 edition.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Very delicious, though quite heavy and a slightly standard combination of ingredients. Use Homemade Pesto (online recipe also here), if possible.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, May 2009 edition.
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Website: BBC Good Food
A lovely dish from one of my favourite regions, though I replaced the pine nuts with equally suitable almonds.
One caveat: make sure that all pieces of meat are covered with liquid while cooking, otherwise you'll end up with small bits of the meat being dry. If this hadn't happened, I might even have given a 5-star rating.
Serve with rice or couscous. You could add extra liquid to prevent the chicken from drying out, and then cook couscous in some of that liquid, just as done in Chicken and Couscous One-pot.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, June 2009 edition.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Very nice, definitely a new dish for my growing repertoire! The chicken was juicy and tender, the couscous creamy and very aromatic. We had carrots sautéed in apple butter (a variation of the Glazed Sautéed Carrots in The Cook’s Book) as a side dish, which was delicious, but any other root vegetable would have worked just as well.
Quite similar to Chicken with Saffron, Raisins and Pine Nuts, both of which appeared both online and in the BBC Good Food magazine, June 2009 edition (see below).
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, June 2009 edition.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Nice. I would change a few things, but none of them is dramatic. I would probably add an egg (or perhaps two) to make the fish cakes stick better, and I would add more lime zest to the mayonnaise – I tried lime juice instead, but BF complained that that made the mayonnaise turn too sour (I didn’t even notice). Also, while I quite liked the dominant taste of the peas, I would probably use more fish and fewer peas to make the cakes have a stronger taste of fish.
Neither of us could be bothered with cutting chillies, although they probably would have been a good idea.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, Oct. 2009 edition.
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Website: BBC Good Food
Very delicious. In fact, the combination of flavours would have been worth a 5-star-rating if there hadn’t been so many smallish things to improve.
We cooked the Thai glutinous rice according to the package instructions, not according to the recipe, and it didn’t really work as it should have; there was too little water, and when the rice was finally cooked, it was more of a porridge with too little texture. Nothing of this is related to the recipe, of course, but if you do decide to make this dessert for guests, make sure that you know how to cook the rice. I might try normal dessert rice next time.
Furthermore, the rice was a little tasteless and watery. I would suggest cooking the rice in the coconut milk, perhaps adding the golden caster sugar half-way through the cooking process to prevent the sugar from becoming too caramelised. All in all, the rice could also have been sweeter; but if you decide to go for a sweet rice, serve only small portions of rice.
The sauce, then again, could easily have been a little more sour. The orange juice is superfluous, in my opinion, as it easily superimposes the taste of the mangoes; instead, liquidise the mango and add orange juice (or mango juice!) or water only when really necessary to reach the consistency of the sauce. Also add more lime juice – I think it’s just that contrast between a sweet, sticky, heavy rice and a fruity, light, and slightly sour sauce are rather desirable.
We left out the passion fruit and mint leaves entirely, but I’m sure they form a perfect addition.
Crosspost. Exact the same recipe was also published in the BBC Good Food magazine, January 2010 edition.
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