Tag: food

My cookbook library and The Hairy Dieter’s Lamb Tagine

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I own quite a few cookbooks and continue to buy more (I can’t resist a good cookbook on sale). However, when you have more than a few cookbooks, it can be difficult remembering where certain recipes you wanted to try are, and therefore get the most out of your books.

So I recently signed up to the website Eat Your Books to give it a try. Eat Your Books is a website that indexes cookbooks and allows you to create a catalogue (your bookshelf) of the books you have and then search them through an on-line database. It doesn’t actually give you the recipe, you need to go to your book for that, but it does give you the ingredients in the recipe.

So far I have added 149 books to my ‘bookshelf’, with a few books that I couldn’t enter (they were quite old ones) and I haven’t finished adding them all yet. I’ve found so far that only half of my books have been indexed, but I do have quite a few older and Australian books, so that may account for it. Most of my newer books were already indexed. The site allows you to “member index” one book at a time, so I have started adding one of my books already. The site also catalogues magazines, blogs and other on-line recipes.

This got me thinking about making better use of (and even rediscovering) my books. As a result, I have decided  to cook at least one recipe from one of my books every one to two weeks, and try to work my way through all my books (this will take a while to get through).  I also am not going to buy a new cookbook until I have cooked something from at least five books that I already own.

When I decided this, I had The Hairy Dieters book in my bag, so I have started with that book. I know I’ve cooked a dish from their book before, but this is a new ‘challenge’ and I have to start somewhere.

The slow cooking makes the lamb lovely and tender, and the chickpeas develop an almost creamy texture. The spices added just the right amount (for me at least) of heat. Definitely a dish I will be cooking again.

Book recipe number: 1

Number of cookbooks owned: 149+ (still counting)

Lamb Tagine

Click here for the recipe

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Filled pasta cooking class and Mushroom and goat’s cheese tortellini

I like filled pastas such as ravioli, tortellini and angolotti but I don’t like buying the pre-made versions of these as I have no control over what has gone into the filling, and I often find they are too salty for me. So I was really looking to going a class at Matters of Taste to learn how to make these types of pastas.

My first attempt at tortellini at home – Mushroom and goat’s cheese tortellini

This was another technical class where we learnt how to make the pasta and the three different filled shapes, and we each got try making each of these shapes. I was a bit nervous about trying the tortellini but found it easier than expected. As a group, we also made three different fillings and sauces (with each group of three responsible for one sauce and filling). I had a lot of fun and left filled with confidence about trying these at home.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli from the class.
Spinach and ricotta ravioli from the class.

The next night, I decided to make the mushroom and goat’s cheese tortellini that I had recently seen on Masterchef – The Professionals. I used the pasta recipe that I learnt at Matters of Taste rather than the one from the Masterchef recipe, as I am now familiar with that recipe. However, as that isn’t my recipe to share (having received it at a class) I have included the Masterchef recipe for pasta below (the only real difference was my recipe used three whole eggs only and slightly more flour).

Another dish from the class - Roasted pumpkin agnolotti
Another dish from the class – Roasted pumpkin agnolotti

Making pasta at home by yourself is quite time consuming and is definitely not for every night. I found this filling a bit difficult to use as it didn’t hold together well, but that may be because I added the goat’s cheese at the end as I’d seen on TV rather than mixing it through as the recipe stated. I was still happy with the results and loved the creamy goat’s cheese with the earthy mushrooms and silky soft pasta. I’m not a huge fan of the brown butter sauce however, so next time I think I’ll try a different sauce.

Chicken prosciutto tortellini from the class.
Chicken prosciutto tortellini from the class, my favourite of the three we made.

Click here for the recipe

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Hot Cross Buns

Although I love cooking and baking, bread making is a skill I have not yet attempted to master. The only bread I have ever made at home is naan bread. And while it worked quite well, I’ve only made it once and that was probably seven years ago.

In an attempt to correct this omission, I have enrolled in a bread making class at Matters of Taste. However this class is still a few months away. So yesterday, given it was Good Friday, I decided it was time to make a start and give hot cross buns a try.

Most people probably think that hot cross buns, with the cross representing the crucifixion, are solely a Christian tradition. However, apparently (thank you google) the ancient Greeks marked buns with a cross. There may also be connections to the goddess Eostre (Easter – get it?), who is the namesake of the festival of Easter and is where the custom of bunnies (hares) and eggs is thought to have come from.

Anyway, I went looking for a recipe to try and really liked the sound of these hot cross buns (recipe by Paul Hollywood from The Great British Bake Off) with the addition of orange zest and apple. I left out the citrus peel (I don’t candied peel) and added some mixed spice. Don’t be put off by how sticky the dough is to start with. A dusting of  flour and a few minutes of kneading and it all comes together. I have to say I was very proud of my first attempt at hot cross buns, although I now know I need to place them closer together next time, and I think baking them at home on Good Friday is an Easter tradition that I will continue.

Hot cross buns

Click here for the recipe

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Salmon & Green Bean Salad with Tahini

Today is Good Friday, which traditionally means fish for dinner. And so that is what we had tonight. Friday, as I understand it (and I am certainly no expert) has historically been a day of fasting/abstinence in Christian faiths. For many though in current times, Good Friday is the only day the tradition is observed.

After making hot cross buns earlier in the day (recipe to come shortly), I was very glad that I had already planned on this quick and easy dish, with the added advantage of being quite a healthy one too. Which, seeing as I had to sample a few of the hot cross buns to make sure they were good, was just as well.

The whole dish took no more than 10-15 minutes to prepare and cook, making it a great week-night meal. The crisp and fresh salad, creamy tahini dressing (without any cream), lovely tartness from the apple cider vinegar and slight sweetness from the honey all complimented the salmon and each other perfectly. Healthy and tasty, yum.

Salmon and Green Bean Salad

Click here for the recipe

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Meat free Monday – Snapper with spiced chickpeas

It’s  Monday again (just), so time for another meat free recipe, this time with seafood. Following on from my Meat Free Mondays post last week, I will try to post a meat free dish on Monday as often as I can.

I think this is a great week night recipe, quick and simply to make but full of great flavour. You can replace the snapper with any white fleshed fish you prefer, and adjust the amount of chilli flakes to suit your preference. I thought this was a nice way of cooking chickpeas, making them quite soft and creamy (though not mushy), with the tomatoes, thyme and chilli adding a nice flavour. The gremolata at the end adds a nice freshness to the dish. Cooking fish is another thing that people can often worry about and its only in the last few years I’ve become more confident and cooked it more regularly. Plus for a few years while I was at university I worked at an aquarium shop looking after and selling tropical and marine fish, and I have to admit that while I worked there I felt bad eating fish!IMG_2678

Click here for the recipe

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Chocolate and raspberry macaroon tarts

It is only recently that I have become confident enough to make my own pastry, rather than using premade bought pastry, and I am really looking forward to going to a pastry making class with Sarah Brigden soon to learn some more techniques, tips and tricks. For a lot of people though, the thought of making pastry from scratch is quite stressful. And I think cooking should be enjoyable, not stressful.

These tarts are a great alternative to a pastry dessert. Instead of a pastry base, they have a macaroon tart base, made from egg whites, coconut and sugar.

The end result is a beautiful macaroon tart base, which is crisp on the outside and chewy in the centre with a rich and creamy chocolate filling. The tartness of the raspberries cuts through the chocolate filling, making it fresher and lighter. I think this is a great alternative to a pastry dessert and a great dinner party dessert as it can be made ahead for stress free entertaining.

raspberry macaroon tarts

Click here for the recipe

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