friederike's Reviews
1109 recipes reviewed. Showing 1051 to 1100Sort by: Book Title 
| Date | Rating | Recipe Title
AllerHande
(October, 2013)
I liked this topping a lot, but DH complained that it wasn't enough. I suspect that it was meant for a smaller pizza, so that might have been the real reason. DH also thought it was slightly bitter (perhaps a burnt onion?) and a bit heavy/greasy, and with the latter, I have to agree. Perhaps we could use less oil for pre-cooking next time?. Also, he said he missed some cheese, but that really wouldn't have worked for this pizza.
The recipe didn't say anything about using a tomato sauce; but as it uses an instant pizza dough which usually comes with a jar of tomato sauce, and the pizza in the picture clearly had tomato sauce on it, we used a jar of tomato sauce we still had left over.
You can also find this recipe online here.
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Website: All Recipes
I actually made this recipe around Christmas, when we were on a vacation for a week with the whole family. It worked very well, and was really easy to do even in a minimalistically equipped kitchen, and with very few ingredients (ie no need to buy lots of spices etc).
Works for baby led weaning, if your kid is able to eat from a spoon; if it's a young one, go easy on the rice, though, or use brown rice.
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Well, no, it wasn't (isn't) amazingly good. I actually found it quite sweet and a little bland. And not really boozy, actually. Also, don't follow the recipe without thinking - you'll end up with HUGE quantities (unless you're about to throw a Christmas party, of course). I made a quarter recipe, and ended up having about 600 ml / 2.5 cups eggnog. For the time being, I'l lkeep it in my fridge - eggnog is supposed to improve over time - and see if that helps.
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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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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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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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Used for Pressure Cooker Red Beans and Sausage.
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The All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook: Over 1,250 of Our Best Recipes (Southern Living (Hardcover Oxmoor))
By Editors of Southern Living Magazine
Oxmoor House - 2006
Very nice. We actually left out the salsa and only made the grilled pork, and made tacos with the pork, guacamole and fresh vegetables (tomatoes, corn and cucumber). Very delicious! More specifically, the pork had a great smoky flavour and just the right amount of spicyness. Recommended.
Edited 17 April 2013:
We made this again and kept strictly to the recipe - actually, it was too little, especially too little vegetables. Next time, we'll either make the double amount of salsa, or just add a few extra vegetables.
Edited 26 May 2014:
I must have made the salsa last time as well, without reviewing it here! I really enjoyed the salsa as well, it's nice and fresh, and love the radish in there (though it's a pain to grate or chop).
Served as a vegetarian dish this time with corn, salsa fresca, guacamole and sour cream.
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Very nice! We made a few changes though, some of them quite substantial. For example, we used 3 tbsp (45ml) of mayonnaise instead of 1 1/2 cups (360ml), and 2 tsp (10ml) of honey instead of 1/3 cup (90ml). My estimate is that we used roughly the two thirds of the four cups of cooked chicken meat required - we had raw 800g chicken on the bone, enough to serve four. And last, we didn't have orange blossom honey, so we added about 1 tsp orange blossom essence - enough to notice in the dressing, but not in the salad itself.
I wonder if you could add other ingredients to turn this salad into a full meal. Rice comes to my mind, and one or two extra celery sticks, perhaps even extra dried cranberries and pecans. Would make a great lunch box this way.
Served with beetroots as a side dish this time, but that didn't work as well as expected.
Edited 4 August 2013:
Served with Beetroot and Potato Salad with Smoked Mackerel and a rocket salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette. What is it with me that I always want to combine this salad with beetroot? It combined very well with this salad, though. Served these dishes as a lunch/picnic to four people - I was afraid that it might be too much, but we finished it all!
We followed my notes from last time, greatly reducing the amount of mayonnaise and honey. I felt it was a little sweet this time, but I seem to have been the only one.
Edited 4 November 2013:
I added some rice (150g uncooked, one rice cup) this time, and an extra stalk of celery. I considered making a larger amount of dressing, but that wasn't necessary. It was very nice the way it was, but I could imagine that with a mix of white and wild rice, it would really, really great. My mother loved it.
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Very delicious, moist, nice in flavour. A bit on the fluffy side, while I would have preferred a dense cake, but I won't complain, finally a banana bread recipe that works (somehow I've never been that lucky until now).
Next time I might add in the spices Deb from Smitten Kitchen uses in her recipe.
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Very nice. I'm afraid I didn't shred the cabbage fine enough - next time I'll have to find out if that's something I can use the kitchen machine for. The pepper mill accidentally broke when I was adding pepper, which resulted in a few half-crushed pepper corns slipping through my fingers (fork) - DH actually liked them.
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Quite nice, though in my mind they don't quite compare to the ones I made many years ago. I do realize, though, that memories can be deceiving - I'll have to make that other recipe soon again!
We did the oven variant, and I was curious if it would work - 1/2 hour braised, then 2 hours roasted, covered, and another 1/2 hour roasted and basted? It actually worked very well! The meat really fell of the bone and tasted really nice. Unfortunately, we left our second helping in the turned off oven while eating, and it got just a tad dry during that time.
I was also worried about the amount of soy sauce, which is why I didn't add the salt. I thought the spareribs turned out just fine, while DH probably would have added a tiny bit of salt.
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Really, really nice. We served it with this chocolate sauce, which unfortunately didn't work that - the flavour of the Grand Marnier is very subtle, and didn't hold up against the earthy chocolate sauce. Next time I would probably add some grated orange zest or more Grand Marnier (or most likely: both), and I'd still be tempted to serve it with chocolate sauce again.
Although this really is a showpiece dessert, it's not really made for when you're having guests, as you will have to make virtually everything at the very last moment. They rose beautifully though, and didn't collapse at all! Better yet, we were in the midst of a very heated discussion when they were done, so I just turned off the oven and hoped for the best, and when we retrieved them some... 20-30 (?) minutes later, they were still doing fine, just that the top had turned into something of a crust. They nearly did get burned in the beginning though, so I had to turn down the heat after only 5 min, and then set the timer to another 20 min at the lower temperature.
It's supposed to be for 6 persons, but I'm sure we could have fed 8 with the amount it yielded.
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All in One
By Parragon
Parragon Inc - 2007
I made this one quite a while ago, and I remember that it tasted like a modified version of Beef Stroganoff – and it was very delicious and easy to make.
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BF’s comment: “Mmh, very interes – WHOA, this is HOT!” He continued to compare it to a piece of modern art: it’s easy to shock people, but is there any substance (or taste) below? I couldn’t have expressed it better. That said, I’ll award 3 stars for now, with the option to upgrade to a 4 star rating if it becomes better with less curry.
For the record: I used Vindaloo Curry Paste and 200 ml coconut milk instead of cubed coconut cream and chicken stock.
Serves 6 rather than 4.
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Like my husband said, if he'd spend his life without ever eating this dish again, his life wouldn't be any poorer for it. What this dish does is take a couple of mainly bland ingredients (cauliflower, sweet potato), and add a heap of spices, possibly even too much of them. The result is a dish that tastes hot and spicy, and nothing else, no character at all.
If you really wanted to turn it into something, I would consider replacing the stock/water with coconut milk and perhaps adding some grated coconut (I thought it was too liquid, so the coconut would solve this problem as well), and perhaps replace the sweet potato with something else as well, though I'm not quite so sure, what. Also, reduce the number of spices, but use more of the ones you're using.
I didn't have any panch phoran at hand (would you?), but then I read that it's basically just a mixture of cumin, fennel, fenugreek, nigella and black mustard seeds, all of them left whole, so I decided I'd just raid my spice cupboard and see what I have (=cumin, nigella and black mustard seeds). I also used to small red chillies instead of two green ones.
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All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking
By Molly Stevens
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2004
The chicken breasts were a little dry, but I suspect that was my fault (I possibly fried them for too long and/or the lid didn’t fit properly and/or the pan was too large and I forgot to reduce the space with parchment paper). Otherwise the flavour was nice. I would have preferred it to be a little creamier, and I might replace the yoghurt (I used thick unstrained Greek yoghurt, by the way) with coconut cream next time. Oh, and add some extra spices! We served this with rice and Carrot Salad with Cumin.
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It’s a huge piece of meat, so when she says, ‘rub with coarse salt’, use your own good judgement how much salt you use. I used far too much, and it showed, luckily only in the sauce.
Apart from that, it was extremely delicious – at least tastewise. The meat, unfortunately, ended up being pretty tough, and I have no idea why. As for now, I’m happy to blame the circumstances (tiny microwave oven instead of the proper thing, a clay pot with a mind of its own instead of our Le Creuset Dutch oven), but I do hope this will change once we find a new flat. BF at least was very happy with it, but then again, he’ll be happy with any large piece of meat.
We had this with the Roasted Garlic Mash from BBC Good Food, May 2009.
Amendment 12. Jan. 2010:
Instead of just plain re-heating, we braised some of the meat for dinner for another hour or so; this time in a pan on the stove. What a difference! For all but one small part the meat was much tenderer than it had been the night before. So it is very likely indeed that the braise failed due to the oven and the clay pot. But how could one hour have made such a difference?
useful (1)
Very nice! I found it a little complicated to prepare, but it probably didn’t help that I had time pressure, only two stove tops instead of the four I needed, very little space, and I was babbling on the telephone for quite a while!
We had too much sauce, although I blame myself for adding too much water in a rush. Also, the fish fell apart, but I suppose that would have been due to the fact that it was cod and not monkfish (Alan Davidson describes monkfish as being 'firm, white and lobster-like' in Mediterranean Seafood, and cod as 'falling into large flakes' in The Oxford Companion to Food); nevertheless, cod was the more environmentally-friendly choice so I'm happy with that.
I cannot support Molly Stevens' suggestion to cook the pasta first and then add the pasta water to the sauce, as your pasta will dry out and cool in the meantime, and by the time the fish is done it won't soak up any sauce any more. I would have expected her to know.
You’ll have half a fennel bulb left, which you can slice and then fry/cook with some rosemary and lemon juice to serve it as a very small side dish (add another fennel bulb for a proper 4-6 person side dish).
useful (2)
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.
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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?
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To die for. Really, this was brilliant. It was a lot of work, but it was very rewarding, too. We let the turkey braise just a bit too long, but the squash was just perfect. I'm sure she wrote the recipe with Thanksgiving in mind, as the portion sizes are really much too big.
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Very delicious! I used four large onions (about 600g total), cut into rings, instead of the shallots. After the cooking time given in the recipe, they weren't cooked through yet, so I added a little extra wine and cooked them another half hour or so.
We filled three tartlets made with Ottolenghi's shortcrust pastry with the onions to serve as an appetizer; this was nice but not terribly exciting. The remainder (just enough to fill a fourth tartlet, if we had wanted that) we served with the West Country Pot-roast Chicken with Apples and Cider.
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Website: AH
Excellent, excellent! Of course I've already confessed earlier that I haven't yet come across a mussel recipe that wasn't pleasant, but this was really a keeper - aromatic, yet not overpowering the mussels, a great balance!
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Website: AH
Quite a nice dish. You can eat these as a dessert, preferably with some vanilla ice cream on the side, or as a side dish for a main course - it goes particularly well with strong flavoured meat, braised beef, mutton or game, or something like that.
We used all the spices (lemon zest and cinnamon, as well as cloves and bay leaf - the latter two were optional); for a dessert you could indeed omit the cloves and bay leaf (though it's by no means necessary), but for a side dish I would definitely add them. The recipe also uses 250 ml red wine, and then requires you to add water until the pears are covered. As we're used to recipes that exclusively use red wine, we used 500 ml red wine which we filled up with water (another 250 ml).
One thing I would want to add to the recipe is that they are even nicer if you take them out the sauce after they have cooked, keep them warm, and reduce the sauce to a syrup, about 20 min. You can serve them either warm or cold.
Edited one day later:
I upgraded this dessert to a crumble using this recipe - the idea was good, the execution wasn't. Still, something to keep in mind for the next time.
I also found that I liked how the pears had soaked in the red wine syrup over night; also, the syrup with all it's spices turned out to taste like mulled wine - not really surprisingly, if you think about it. We finished the pears but still have some red wine syrp left over - I wonder if that would still go with something else - chocolate mousse, perhaps?
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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.
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Ad Hoc at Home
By Thomas Keller
Artisan - 2009
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.
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Basically I liked the flavour of these, although it might have been a lot stronger. I didn't have any preserved or cured lemons so I used the zest of a fresh lemon plus a few tiny cubes of flesh. Perhaps I should have used more, as well as all the other ingredients.
Unfortunately, though, the meat turned out quite dry which made the whole idea fall flat. Perhaps they were too small, or in the oven for too long? Perhaps we should fry them instead of baking them?
useful (1)
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.
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Difficult to rate this one - while the quails and the pomegranate molasses combined extremely well, the preparation just didn't work. He instructs you to grill the quails, first 3 minutes on one side, then 2 on the other. However, within 2 minutes on the one side and 2 on the other, the quails were burnt on the outside, but still raw on the inside, and we had to put them in the oven for another 20 minutes (at 180-200ºC).
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I was about to make this recipe, as opposed to my usual recipe at The Joy of Baking, when I noticed they were 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 the other recipe does. Yet, all in all they are surprisingly similar. And I'm still a big fan!
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A really nice chicken soup! At first I thought it was just a bit too fat, but then I realized it was actually really velvety, which is due to the addition of the roux. We didn't cook it that much after adding the roux - it was thick enough as it was, and otherwise would have turned into a sauce rather than a soup.
DH thought that in making the broth, too much celery was used which gave the soup a slightly metallic taste; I didn't even notice. He also thought that the dumplings (which were really delicious, by the way), were too salty, as a result of which he added a lot less salt to the broth. I was actually quite happy with that outcome as I really enjoyed the contrast between the broth and the salty dumplings. I easily could have done without the pieces of chicken - just double the amount of dumplings, and you'll have less work, too!
It is a lot of soup - we made only half of the recipe, and it's enough for a midweek meal for four persons. If you served this as a starter, one whole recipe would serve 16 persons - seems to be restaurant quantity rather than for at home. It was nice enough for guests, though it lacked depth of flavour to make it perfect (or good enough for a 5 star rating in any case), and seems to be something you can comfortably prepare while you are actually busy with a different dish (i.e. a main course).
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101 Store-cupboard Suppers ("Good Food")
By Barney Desmazery
BBC Books - 2008
Just okay. It was quite bland, so the following day we doubled up the amount of ginger and garlic and marinated the tofu a little longer and yet it was somewhat bland. Roasting the sesames probably would have helped, too.
Crosspost. I found out that this recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
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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.
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DB prepared and ate it while I only managed to get hold of the leftovers the next day (and believe me, reheated pasta with a cream sauce suffers enormously), so I'll have rely a bit on his judgement.
He liked it a lot, but he thought that it was just a little too creamy and not really moist enough; it's probably a good idea to save some pasta water next time, just in case. He also regretted that he couldn't do anything with the prawn shells, but then again most frozen prawns come without shells anyway. It definitely wasn't enough for 4 servings, it was rather 3 very light servings, or just a main dish for 2 (either that or he must have had a huge portion yesterday...).
Crosspost. This recipe also appears on the BBC Good Food website.
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Easy, quick, healthy, a nice tasting mid-week dessert.
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Well, it was okay, not really very delicious. I guess pumpkin and coconut just don't make such an exciting mix. It also tasted slightly, uhm, dusty? floury?, which I put down to the pumpkin - I guess I should have used my favourite butternut squash instead.
I must admit that we subsituted/ignored quite a few ingredients, namely one red chilli for the red curry paste, this Peach Chutney, which I guess counts as much as a pickle as a chutney, for both the hot green mango chutney and the hot lime pickle (where do you buy that stuff anyway?).
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A very delicious and quickly prepared fake version of Peking Duck, if you have chicken leftovers from another dish. We tried using Oyster Sauce once because we ran out of Hoisin Sauce - don't, it doesn't work at all.
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It's a really quick and very delicious dessert - but only if you get the proportions right. We didn't have any marsala, so I used cognac. I also used cantuccini, as I thought they would retain some extra crunch, and I served only one scoop of ice cream - I don't know how much coffee I used, it might have been less than required.
This resulted in a dessert that definitely had too much alcohol for too little ice cream, and possibly also just a bit too much coffee. Once I added another scoop of ice cream and a tiny bit extra coffee, it was much better!
I could also see this work if you use orange or tropical fruit juice instead both the coffee and the alcohol to make a non-alcoholic version.
Edited a few days later:
Nope, it's just definitely too much alcohol. The problem is also that because you soak the biscuits in the alcohol and pour the coffee over the ice cream, the alcohol doesn't blend that well. Maybe you need to turn it around, soak the biscuits in coffee and pour (a slightly reduced amount of) alcohol over the ice cream? Or just mix the coffee and alcohol before pouring?
5 minutes later:
I sacrificed myself. I had another one. I just had to try. Soaking the biscuits in coffee and pouring the alcohol has the disadvantage that the ice cream doesn't melt as easily - unless you're in Texas in summer. And the sting of alcohol still is there. Perhaps you need to briefly heat the alcohol, e.g. pour it into your espresso maker while it's still on the stove? Or even flambé as you pour it over the ice cream for a dramatic effect?
They look cute served in Bonne Maman jam jars, especially if you tie a bow around them..
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101 One-pot Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes (Good Food 101)
By B.B.C. "Good Food Magazine"
BBC Books - 2006
I’m not yet really sure whether I should award this recipe a three or four star rating – I guess the problem is mainly that it tastes too much like typical kids’ food. Don’t shy away from this dish because of this comment, the food is tasty, and anyway, it’s ideal for kids…(*)
It will be crucial for this recipe that you end up having nicely boiled potatoes without having flabby overcooked carrots. Try not to chop too fine chunks of carrots but make an effort with the potatoes.
(*) I actually meant kids' food in the sense that if I had to cook for a kid I didn't know, I might choose this dish as it's slightly sweet, and resembles Spaghetti Bolognese. Then again, I once cooked Spaghetti Bolognese for my then 7 year old niece and her friend, and guess what happened...
Smoked paprika sounds like an excellent idea!
useful (1)
Although not one of my favourites, it's interesting for its combination of flavours, though you need to take care not to add too much mustard. Extra credit for it as a one-pot dish and supposedly low-fat (though I would serve it with boiled potatoes, not with rice as suggested).
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This dish was perfectly okay, just not very exciting. It did bother me a little that they cheated: anyone can make a one-pot pasta-dish with pre-cooked penne (especially if you assume, like they did, that the pasta won't need reheating)!
Crosspost. I found out that this recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
useful (1)
Very delicious! In fact, I nearly would have awarded a five star rating if the ingredient proportions had been right. It was too watery to my taste, so I´d add less stock next time, and it could use more peas and possibly also more watercress. I loved the distinct taste of mint. We served this soup with an extra dollop of Greek yoghurt and sprinkled with crunchy bacon cubes. Fairly quick.
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101 Healthy Eats ("Good Food")
By Jane Hornby
BBC Books - 2008
I made this with selfmade gnocchi today, and it was perfect - even BF, who isn't really wild on squash, enjoyed it a lot. The combination of flavours was great, the timing was just right, only the proportions were a little off - I'd suggest more goat's cheese and perhaps more squash. Furthermore, it were rather 3 servings than 4 so remember to add a little more of everything.
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Basically it was pretty nice - if there had not been the lemon. BF and I were sceptic from the start, not because we do not like the taste of lemons, but because the juice of a whole lemon seemed like far too much for that little bit of other ingredients. We started with the juice of only half a lemon - and oh boy, we tasted nothing but lemon in the end! Even worse: the combination of the saltiness and texture of the parmesan invoked some extremely unpleasant associations.
Nevertheless, I believe this recipe has potential and could even reach a 4 star rating - just limit the lemon juice to a few drops only, or even omit it completely. If necessary, you can replace it by oil and/or cooking water, both should be fine. Most of the lemon flavour should come from the zest, which has a stronger lemon taste anyway with the added benefit of not being sour.
Also, we used half the amount of pasta and shared the sauce between the two of us - just about enough. If you want to serve this dish to four persons, remember to double all ingredients except for the amount of pasta.
Crosspost. I found that the exact the same recipe was published online. I crossposted my review here.
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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!
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A really nice, spring-ish salad! It serves 2 as a main meal, or 3-4 along with something else - we had it with a few Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Yoghurt, and it served 3 perfectly. I didn't add the fennel - raw fennel has a strong anise-y taste I don't like, but braising the fennel unfortunately doesn't get rid of the taste, just the crispness. I can imagine that raw fennel would have been a good idea - at least in really fine cut slivers.
useful (1)
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.
useful (1)
A very delicious and quickly prepared fake version of Peking Duck, if you have chicken leftovers from another dish. We tried using Oyster Sauce once because we ran out of Hoisin Sauce - don't, it doesn't work at all.
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Nice but not particularly mind-blowing. It needs a lot more spices than specified (try using the double amount), and I felt that the sauce was too much liquid too - either cut back on the amount of liquid added, or try to make the sauce thicker one way or other.
Edited to add:
It also tastes nice cold, especially on such hot days as these. Definitely double the amount of spices and add some salt.
useful (1)