Cookery Book: What's for Dinner?

I bought this book a while ago, on a whim, for £10 in The Works. I follow the author, Sarah Rossi, on Instagram (she goes by Taming Twins) and always liked how easy, how achievable, how practical her recipes are. There is nothing glossy or aspirational about this book; it is full of shopping lists, meal plans, nutritional information and, most importantly, really good recipes. I missed the story-telling aspect of the creation of the recipes, but very much appreciated this new weapon in my cookery book armour. I realised what a good book it is when I lent it to a friend recently and constantly went to the shelf to look up a recipe, then remembered it wasn't there. 

There are a few recipes for breakfast and baking but, as the title suggests, it's a book full of ideas for dinner and i am always looking for something different to eat. Chapters are divided into themes like Vegetarian, Pasta, Family Favourites, Burgers and Bread etc. From the pasta section we tried (and have made many, many times since) 15 Minute Florentine Chicken Pasta. You fry some chicken then add sun dried tomatoes, spinach and a whole tub of garlic and herb cream cheese, before mixing with the cooked pasta. 

Very easy, very delicious and definitely a favourite in this house now. The kids especially loved it. They will eat any variation on pasta in a creamy or cheesy sauce.

One pot lamb orzo was also lovely and a thrifty way to use lamb which I love but it is of course expensive. This made a 500g pack of mince go a long way. You fry off the lamb with lots of spices and garlic and peppers before adding tomato puree, stock and orzo, then let it all cook in the one pan. 

At the end you stir in some spinach before topping with crumbled feta. The feta really works - it gives it a lovely salty bite which contrasts with the spicy lamb.

We have made no-stir chorizo risotto many times. It reminds me a bit of other dishes I have made with prawns too, but this is simply chorizo, peppers, peas and tomato. After frying off the chorizo and peppers you let the rice cook in the stock in the same pan, stirring every now and then. It doesn't have the oozy creaminess of a stirred risotto, but it is really good. 

Next we have Sticky Ginger Pork. So easy. You make a quick sauce of cornflour, soy sauce, honey, oyster sauce and white wine vinegar. 

You fry the pork mince quickly over a high heat with some Chinese Five Spice seasoning and lots of ginger. Chuck in some sugar snap peas. Then you pour over the sauce and let it cook until it goes really sticky, almost catching on the bottom, and serve over rice.

The next recipe was Angus's choice, Sloppy Joes, or essentially beef chilli in a roll with cheese on top. I would personally rather have a burger or chilli with rice but it was quite nice. Angus loves the combination of meat, cheese and bread so he was in heaven.

For me, by far the best thing about the recipe was the cheesy corn on the cob that we had with it. You grill the corn (I usually boil it but it is so much nicer grilled) for about ten minutes until a little charred. Then you coat the cobs in a mixture of mayonnaise and chilli before rolling in grated cheese and spritzing with lime. So, so good.

Equally popular with the kids were these Chicken Tikka Naan "burgers".

You hammer some chicken breasts until thin, coat with tikka paste then bake in the oven.

You serve in on a naan bread with salad, mango chutney, yogurt and pickled red onions.

Again, the side was the winner for me. Cauliflower, chopped into small florets, and mixed with cumin, garam masala and a little oil, is baked for about 25 minutes until it's a bit charred.

It doesn't look pretty, I know, but it is insanely delicious.

This next recipe is a winner and I have made it often - Sticky Turkey Tacos. I never buy turkey mince because I don't think it has much flavour, but this is such a good way to cook it. Once it has browned, you add cumin, paprika, white wine vinegar, sugar, tomato puree and a tin of black beans, and let it all simmer and thicken. You could have this with rice as a type of chilli, but we had it as the recipe suggested with corn tacos, salad, avocado, sour cream, grated cheese and lots of lime.

It never occurred to me to put minced turkey into a taco (I would be boring and do chicken strips or something) but this is really good. 

Finally, we have a baking recipe that Angus wanted to try and I was pretty intrigued by these. They are Peanut Butter and Jelly cookies but the cookie dough is simply peanut butter (almost a whole jar), sugar and an egg. No flour, no butter. 

You dollop the jelly (judging by the photo we used strawberry or raspberry jam) into the middle then bake. They are really good - short, rich, crumbly and moist. Dangerously moreish.

I am still enjoying cooking my way through my cookery books - new ones keep sneaking in which always gives me an excuse.

It is finally the summer holidays here and I am just starting to relax into slightly slower days. It always takes me a while to move from that frantic end of term pace to holiday mode, and I find doing a lot of domestic jobs like cleaning and sorting cupboards helps, but I am getting there. 

Cookery Book: A Table Full of Love

Throughout the months of March and April I cooked a lot from the book A Table full of Love by Skye McAlpine. The author is British but grew up in Venice and so her cooking is heavily influenced by her time in Italy. The book is more at the aspirational end of cookery books: beautifully shot recipes arranged with abundant flowers in a beautiful home containing sometimes expensive ingredients. However, it's a really good recipe book. She knows her food, she writes very well and the recipes are gorgeous. I had a thoroughly lovely time both reading it in bed at night, and cooking from it in the kitchen.

The book is divided into the following sections: comfort, seduce, nourish, spoil, cocoon. The idea is that feeding people is rooted in love, but we want to cook and eat different sorts of food for different occasions and needs. 

From the comfort chapter, I first of all made saffron and lemon risotto and took a terrible photo of it.

I wasn't sure if a risotto without vegetable or meat wouldn't be a bit boring, but it was so good and we made it quite a few times. The saffron gave a subtle earthiness to the recipe while the lemon made it really sing. It was gorgeous, and risotto is the ideal meal that you can eat on your lap with a spoon. Heaven.

Equally comforting was macaroni cheese. Now, I know how to make macaroni cheese, it is one of the children's favourite meals, but I always like to try a different recipe. It gives me an excuse to cook what is quite an indulgent meal. This just had evaporated milk as well as regular milk in the sauce, which did make it more creamy, and a LOT of cheese, which is kind of the point. 

From the same section was this chocolate, coconut and cherry cake. The batter contains both desiccated coconut and coconut yogurt, as well as cocoa and lots of tinned cherries. 

The cake itself is quite heavy, very dense and moist, so you do need the cream cheese frosting to add sweetness and lightness. 

The cake is HUGE. I loved this cake but the kids did not enjoy the coconut. John quite liked it, but not enough to want to eat it over and over again. I ended up giving slabs of it away to people to eat it up. A cake to serve to a big group of people or a family who like coconut.

Other things from this chapter I wanted to cook: cheese Tiropita, a kind of cheese pie with filo pastry, but I could never get filo pastry from the supermarket when In wanted too cook it; creamy saffron chicken pie; coffee and ricotta cream roulade, but my children would not eat this so John and I would end up eating the whole lot; s'more pie; salted chocolate chip cookies. So many good recipes!

The next section in the book was "Seduce", which is very decadent and impressive first date food. Cocktails, souffles, and desserts full of chocolate. All delicious looking. I would like to try the nutella tiramisu. 

The "Nourish" chapter is very much about family meals - lots of pasta, store cupboard ingredients and cakes for the cake tin. We tried - and very much liked - pollo alla pizzaiola, which is chicken breast cooked in a tomato sauce then sliced mozarella is stirred in at the end. 

With this, and from the same chapter, we had  melanzane alla parmigiana. This could be a meal in itself, but it went well with the chicken, along with some salad and bread. There were lots of leftovers.

You just bake the aubergines, sliced, rather than frying them.

Then you layer them in an oven dish with passata, mozzarella and parmesan before baking.

I realise it looks terrible here. It caught a bit on top, but it really was absolutely delicious.

I also made an orange loaf cake from this chapter and I know I took a photo of it but I cannot find it anywhere. Other things I plan to make from this section of the book: tomato, mozzarella and black olive tart (perfect for picnics or summer lunches); honey roasted chicken thighs with golden potatoes - essentially a tray bake; rhubarb and almond cake.

The next chapter, "Spoil", is so lovely and tempting but I couldn't really justify any of the ingredients or recipes. The idea is food for gifts, to treat someone and make them feel, well, spoiled. Jams, jellies, preserved fruit, truffles, biscuits and some show-stopper-style tiered cakes. I wanted so much to try the pistachio butter (pistachios and white chocolate blended together into a very decadent nut spread) but all the ingredients added up to £10 and, at the end of a food shop, looking at an already full trolley, didn't really feel I could justify adding five bags of pistachios to the bill. Food is so expensive. I also would like to try the mimosa truffles, little yellow treats made from leftover sponge cake and melted white chocolate, then rolled in limoncello and coconut. Someone make these for me. Or maybe I will just make them for myself. I also liked the sound of the lavender tea cake and rose shortbread as I do like anything with a floral flavour. But I think this chapter might have been my favourite as everything in it was so tempting, to make and eat.

The final section, "Cocoon", focuses on the pleasure of cooking for one. Because I have the privilege of eating with my family daily, I do enjoy the very rare opportunity to eat a meal alone, cooking just what I want for me. Not thinking about anyone else's tastes or preferences but my own. I usually make marmite spaghetti as only I like marmite in this house.  I made myself saltata di risotto which is leftover risotto fried like a pancake until crisp on both sides.

I've never tried frying risotto: I would usually just reheat it but the texture is never quite the same. It was, predictably, delicious. How could it not be?

I think this last recipe may have been my favourite in the whole book: sourdough toast with dark chocolate and olive oil. Not even a recipe, just an assembly job, Toast the bread, sprinkle over a little chopped chocolate while the bread is still warm so that it begins to melt, then top with a little salt and a drizzle of olive oil. It was incredible. Like the best chocolate spread on toast you've ever eaten. Not too sweet or claggy, but balanced, with the rich chocolate on the crunchy, chewy bread. 

A treasure of a book. 

Cookery Book: Home Cookery Year

It's been over a year since my last Cookery Book Challenge post but my love of cooking and a good cookery book remains as strong as ever. As I am sure I have said many times before, I have little interest in cooking when I am busy on a weeknight after work (thankfully John does most of our weeknight cooking as he usually gets home first) but I love to potter in the kitchen at the weekends and in the school holidays. While I am always looking for new dinner ideas ("What's for dinner?" - worst question ever), it is the pottering kind of baking, the nice lunches and store cupboard cooking I often take most satisfaction from. The "challenge" part was when I used to try and cook from a different book on my shelf every month. It was a good way to make sure they earned their place and to stop meal ideas getting boring. I have acquired a few new books since then, and wondered about starting this up again. A book a month is impossible for me, so perhaps a book every two months? 

So, with that in mind, I decided throughout January and February to cook from the wonderful book Home Cookery Year by Claire Thomson. This has actually become one of my most used books; I would say it is in my top ten all time favourite recipe books, actually, thinking about it. It is covered in post-it notes, a sure sign it is regularly used. Last time I did a post like this, I cooked from the spring and summer sections of the book. This time, of course, it is autumn and winter. 

This banana and maple granola was a great example of store cupboard cooking: easy to put together but you feel the benefit again and again. This recipe has a mashed very ripe banana mixed in with the wet ingredients before baking, giving the whole thing a banana flavour which is lovely with the maple syrup. 

I follow granola recipes quite loosely, as I like to use up whatever random packets of nuts, seeds and dried fruit I have in the cupboard. Walnuts and dates worked well in this granola. I don't usually eat breakfast on weekdays (too early, too rushed) but would often take some of this to work in a little tub and nibble on it after school or at morning playtime.

More investment cooking came in the form of blackberry and apple hand pies, a delightfully autumnal treat. I like the names "hand pies" - it is evocative of holding a warm pie to warm your cold hands.  For this recipe, you add sour cream to the pastry mix which apparently makes it more crisp and flaky. You cut two discs for each pie, filling them with a spoonful of blackberries and apples mixed with jam, add the lid, crimp with a fork, baste with egg wash then bake. 

They are delicious, especially warm and freshly baked, and I don't know why I didn't manage to take a photo of them cooked. The juice seeps out and they do look quite messy but I think this just adds to their charm. 

I mentioned this cake last time I cooked from the book - caramel apple cake - and loved it. I still love it. It not just for early autumn, but justifies its place in a cake tin all year round.

For lunch one day, we tried these little bacon and egg tarts. The filling is encased in bread, rather than pastry, making it a good use of stale bread. You roll a slice thinly then press it into a muffin tin before filling with the bacon and egg mixture and baking. 

Despite being tricky to get out of the tin and messy to look at, they were good. I don't know if I'd bother to make them again though. 

Another lunch was this Cavolo Nero polenta soup. This is one of those wonderful hearty soups you want when the weather is horrible. You begin my frying diced onions, carrots and celery until soft then adding greens with herbs and garlic. Then you add some stock, and you cook the polenta in the soup. Finally, just before serving, you tip in drained, tinned caneleini beans and warm it all through. The flavours and textures all work so well together and I really liked the polenta as a thickener instead of potato, but it didn't reheat so well. The polenta changed the textures of the soup and seemed to soak up more liquid making it lumpy. But having said all that i would make it again as it was really good, and good for you.

The next lunch is amazing and a favourite now: fried chilli butter sesame eggs with kale on toast. More an assembly job than a recipe, you wilt/fry the kale in sesame oil, soy sauce  and garlic until it is soft. 

Then you melt some butter in a frying pan until it's brown and foamy then add your egg, basting it with the brown butter and sprinkling sesame seeds on top as it cooks. Finally you assemble your wilted kale and fried egg on top of some toast. 

It's not that any of the ingredients are particularly exciting, but there is something about the sesame flavours with the kale and egg on top of the crunchy toast which is lovely. 

Next we have butter beans with spinach, tarragon, bacon and cream. I feel like this is a really fancy beans on toast and I love it. You fry garllc then add tinned, drained butter beans and cream, then some spinach. 

In another pan you fry the bacon until crispy then add it to the beans and spinach, and serve it with crusty bread or toast. It has the consistency of soup or stew and is delicious. Quite a light, week night dinner. 

Leftovers, when reheated, soaked up more of the liquid and it was thicker in consistency so absolute perfect for piling on top of toast. 

Another really good week night dinner recipe was parpadelle with leek and pancetta, although you can use tagliatelle too. You just softly fry a lot of leeks and a bit of bacon for ages until they are really soft, then add creme fraiche and warm it through.

You stir it through the pasta, add a little pasta cooking water to help it all bind together, and serve topped with grated cheese. Probably parmesan but cheddar would also be lovely. The kids prefer cheddar on top of their pasta. 

Our next meal, carbonnade, is more special weekend cooking. Beef and onions are cooked low and slow in black beer, or stout, until the beef is soft. 

It is the best kind of autumn/winter cooking, the kind of hearty food you want in the oven when it is cold. I would normally serve something like this with mashed or baked potatoes but decided to try baked polenta chips. You cook your polenta in the saucepan with stock or water following the packet cooking times  - mine is quick cook so done in five minutes. Then you pour it into a greased baking tray and leave it to cool.

As it cools, it solidifies and becomes rubbery in texture.

You slice the rubbery polenta into chip shapes, or bigger if you like, before putting them back in the oven for ten minutes, dotted with butter to crisp up. You can grate parmesan over them before you serve them, it is really good. Then are slightly crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and delicious. We had these with the carbonade and lots of greens. The kids were not sure about the polenta chips but John and I loved them.

There was a little leftover polenta so, the next day, I made a few more chips for lunch which I had with some greens and poached eggs. I covered the whole thing in Sriracha sauce. Italians would probably be horrified by this way of eating polenta but I loved it. Polenta chips are my new favourite thing. 

There is so much I still want to cook from this book: leftover fruit cake fried in sherry and butter, made-from-scratch Boston baked beans, homemade gnocchi with Cavolo Nero sauce....it's a really good book. An investment cookery book for investment cooking.