The Ducks Guts' Profile

From: Melbourne, Vic Australia

Joined: March 26th, 2010

About me: Just in case my mother finds this website, I don't buy all my cookbooks new. A lot are second hand from garage sales and op shops. One of my favorites is a 1960's high school cookbook from Malaysia bought from a garage sale. I use to love the Time-Life Good Cook series and the Food of the World series, but I haven't had a lot of success cooking out of them. They are wonderful to read tho', so they are still in the bookshelves, and not relegated to storage.

Favorite cookbook: Thai Food by David Thompson

Lentil Soup from A Month in Marrakesh

A good plain soup which made a large potful. I made it with water, not stock, and it still worked, which is always a good sign. read more >

recipe reviews (154)
book reviews (14)
useful review votes (56)

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The Ducks Guts' Reviews

3 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 3Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

The Complete Middle East Cookbook

By Tess Mallos
Lansdowne Publishing Pty Ltd - 2005

Not very spicy, but we like spicy food. I browned the meat, adding the baharat spice mix in the last batch, rather then follow the instructions exactly. The last time I didn't fry the spices, the family said the spices tasted "raw" in the finished dish.
Made it with beef, as lamb would have been too expensive.

useful (0)  

Nice, but we both agreed that it was "missing something". Strange, considering the ingredients. We had it on falafels, which were a bit spicy, but not very. Also, the jelly coating never formed, but I've since read in Roden's Jewish Food that the fenugreek needs to be ground first.

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I cheated and cooked the chickpeas in the pressure cooker, after soaking them overnight, for 14 minutes with natural release, then used the cold water shock treatment described at http://www.alwaharestaurant.com/recipes.htm. It worked well at getting the skins off, although I don't know if next time I would worry so much about them. Then, pureed everything in the food processor. Quick and easy, and tastes pretty good.

useful (0)