Unloved Cookbooks Part 3 - Everyday by Bill Granger

So I'm home again with a fully functional, fabulous kitchen and I'm raring to go. Normal service has not quite resumed mind you - cupboards have to be filled, appliance manuals need to be read - but nevertheless I am VERY happy to be home.

During the recent disruption I have managed to do a little work on my unloved cookbooks project and this time I turned my attention to Everyday by Bill Granger.

This one was a definite success as I had no trouble choosing recipes and have many remaining on my to-do list. Why did I not make more use of this book before??

I suppose it's mainly due to the fact that you could say that this is quite a "healthy" book - lots of fresh ingredients, fish, salads etc whereas alot of my favourites (Nigella et al) have more of a tendency towards the "comfort food" end of the spectrum with lots of receipes for pasta bakes, chocolatey puddings and pies which always appeal to my inner piggy. I was more than happy with the three recipes I chose though and would make all of them again.

All of the recipes below are adapted from Everyday by Bill Granger.

This first recipe was an unexpected success. I didn't expect to have the flavour that it did but it was surprisingly tasty and a big hit with all the family.

Baked Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 small carrot, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 400g tin chopped tomatoes

45g small black olives, pitted (or omit if, like me, you think these are the pinnacle of food evilry)

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

300g cooked short pasta (such as fusilli or penne)

75g fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into pieces

1) Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas 4. Heat the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the onion, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, carrot and celery and cook, stirring for 5 minutes more.

2) Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, the reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in the olives (if you really must), season with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.

3) Stir the tomato sauce through the cooked pasta and spoon into a casserole dish. Dot with mozzarella and bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is bubbling (I cooked mine for a shorter time, maybe 15-20 minutes, as the pasta seemed to be drying out a bit).

Serves 4

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The next recipe was definitely my favourite of the three. This is a wonderfully simple recipe but bursting with flavour. Limes are one of my favourite ingredients and roasting them in the oven filled the kitchen with a mouth-watering aroma.

Lime, paprika and honey glazed chicken

2 tablespoons plain flour

2 teaspoons paprika

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

8 chicken legs (or a mix of legs and thighs)

2 red onions, cut into wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, crushed

2 tablespoons honey

125ml/4 fl oz chicken stock

1 lime, cut into thin wedges

1) Preheat the oven to 220c/425f/gas 7. Mix the flour and paprika and season with salt and pepper. Dust the chicken pieces in the flour and then put in a large roasting tin with the onions. Drizzle with the olive oil and roast for 20 minutes, turning the chicken once during this time.

2) Mix together the ginger, garlic, honey and chicken stock. Pour over the chicken and add the lime wedges to the tin. Roast for another 10 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and glazed.

Serve with steamed rice and green. Serves 4.

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Finally, a fresh and healthy pasta dish but delicious with it. Ideal if you fancy pasta but want to avoid anything too heavy.

Spaghetti with fish, chilli and parsley

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 garlice cloves, thinly sliced

1 long red chilli, thinly sliced (I substituted with a good pinch of chilli flakes)

250ml/9 floz dry white wine

1 tablespoon butter

250g firm white fish fillets cut into small chunks

Sea salt

200g spaghetti

Small handful finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Freshly ground black pepper

1) Heat the olive oil in a large pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic and chilli and cook, stirring for 1 minute, until light golden. Add the wine and butter, increase the heat to high and boil for 5 minutes (it does seem like an awful lot of wine but believe it does reduce down considerably - in fact I think I left mine a bit too long and ended up with very little liquid).

2) Add the fish and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes until just cooked. Season with salt and remove from the heat. Cook the pasta and drain well.

3) Add the pasta to the pan with the fish and return to medium heat. Stir gently to coat the spaghetti with sauce. Stir in the parsley and season with black pepper. Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

A recipe to keep you going....

The redesigning of my kitchen is now well under way which is fabulous but does, however, leave me without a kitchen to call my own at the moment. Fortunately, my parents in-law have very kindly allowed us the use of their house while they are on holiday, which is much appreciated, however I find there is something rather unsettling about trying to cook in someone else's kitchen! Even the simplest of tasks take more time than they should while I search for things that I could find blindfolded in my own kitchen, or suddenly find myself without a particular ingredient that I would usually take for granted. As a result my baking and creative cooking have been somewhat put on hold for the time being.

To keep my little blog ticking over in the meantime I thought I'd post about a recipe I made recently and put aside on the "to blog about" pile. This is a great muffin recipe, one of my favourites in fact. They are pretty healthy, quick to make and, unusually for muffins, they keep for ages. Oh, and, thanks to the energy-giving oats they'll definitely "keep you going" too - I love them for breakfast or as a mid-morning snack.

Feel-good muffins

(from Good Food Magazine February 2003)

175g/6oz self-raising flour

50g/2oz porridge oats

140g/5oz muscovado sugar (regular caster sugar also work just fine)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg, beaten

150ml/1/4 pint buttermilk (a mix of half milk and half natural yoghurt works just as well)

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp sunflower oil

175g/6oz stoned prunes, chopped

85g/3oz pecans

1) Preheat the oven to 200c/gas 6/fan 180c. Line a muffin tray with 6-8 muffin cases.

2) Put the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and mix together.

3) Beat the egg then stir in the buttermilk, vanilla and oil. Lightly stir the egg mixture into the flour.

4) Fold in the prunes and pecans.

5) Divide between the muffin cases then bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. Serve warm or cold.

A Symbolic Gooseberry Tart

It's gooseberry season again and I have finally got around to making a gooseberry creme fraiche tart - something that's been on my to-do list for ages.

And why symbolic? Well, this tart is the result of the last proper baking session I shall have in my kitchen in it's present state. In a couple of days some nice men will be arriving to take the existing kitchen away and replace it with a nice shiny new one. So, goodbye annoying tiled worktops, goodbye horrid brown sink, goodbye "farmhouse style" brown units, it's been nice working with you but now it's time to move on.

But back to the tart. This particular recipe, Gooseberry Creme Fraiche Tart, comes from James Martin's Desserts. This is a lovely light, summery tart with lots of flavour from the gooseberries and any sharpness in the fruit nicely counterbalanced by the sweetness of the filling. It's also very straightforward to put together. The pastry, in particular, is a dream to roll out thanks to the addition of the egg.

Gooseberry Creme Fraiche Tart

(adapted from Desserts by James Martin)

For the pastry case - makes 300g

200g plain flour

pinch of salt

2 tbsp icing sugar

100g cold unsalted butter, cubed

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp iced water

1) Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

2) Mix the egg with the water and slowly add to the flour/butter mix. Mix together until it forms a dough (you may not need all of the liquid). Form into a ball and wrap in cling film for about 30 minutes.

To assemble the tart

200g sweet shortcrust pastry (I put the rest in the freezer)

200ml creme fraiche

4 large egg yolks

1 whole egg

100g caster sugar

450g gooseberries, topped and tailed

1) Roll out the pastry and use to line a 23cm, 2.5cm deep, loose-bottomed, greased tart tin. Prick the base all over with a fork and brush with some of the egg white left over from the eggs for the filling.

2) Heat the oven to 190c/375f/gas 5 and put a baking tray in to heat up. Then place the tart tin on the baking tray and bake for 20 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and reduce the heat to 180c/350f/gas 4.

3) Whisk the creme fraiche, yolks, whole egg and sugar together.

4) Arrange the gooseberries in the pastry case and pour the creme fraiche mixture over the top. Return to the oven for a further 40-50 minutes or until the tart is light golden brown. Allow to cool before serving.

Sweet and Simple Bakes - Carrot Cake

This month's Sweet and Simple Bakes recipe is the classic carrot cake. If there is such a thing as a classic carrot cake recipe that is, as this is one of those cake recipes that seems to have endless variations. This particular recipe is certainly different from the one I usually turn to, which requires less carrot but the addition of a tin of crushed pineapple.

My contribution this month was a bit of a rushed affair as I only got around to making it the day before the deadline. No matter though as carrot cake is one of those cakes that doesn't seem to mind too much if you're in a bit of a hurry. No need to worry about creaming butter and sugar or beating the eggs in thoroughly. Apart from a bit of faffy carrot grating you just need to mix together the wet ingredients, add in the dry and there you have it.

And it takes just as little effort to eat it too. This recipe is definitely a good 'un - moist, full of flavour and great texture thanks to the sultanas and walnuts. The icing is lovely too - I was worried it might be too sweet but that turned not to be the case. Thanks S&SB - I'll be making this one again.

You can find the recipe here.

Unloved Cookbooks - The Best Part 2

The rediscovery of some of my loneliest cookbooks continues with the trial of two further recipes from The Best, the book from the series of the same name by Silvana Franco, Paul Merrett and Ben O'Donoghue.

Following on from last weeks post, where this project began, I selected two sweet recipes from the above book.

The first of these - Coffee and Pecan muffins from the "Best Sweet Breakfast" section - was, I'm afraid to say, not a great success. I'm well aware that some care needs to be taken when making muffins so that you don't overmix the batter and end up with stodgy muffins but I feel pretty sure that I mixed with due care and attention. Nevertheless these demonstrated the most unenthusiastic display of rising I've seen in a cake for some time.

And unenthusiastic pretty much sums up my feelings about the end result. On the first day they tasted OK I suppose - passably edible at any rate. Thereafter they just got progressively stodgier and I'm afraid to say the last few ended up in the bin (almost unheard of in this house). The coffee flavour was not particularly pronounced either. From a cooking perspective there really is nothing worse than a failed recipe is there? The waste of precious time and good ingredients is so infuriating! Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say. I will spare you the recipe - there are far better alternatives out there.

A couple of days later I had a go at the Peach and Raspberry Clafoutis from the "Best Summer Berry Dessert" section. This was definitely more successful, but not without it's problems. This was how is looked after the prescribed 10-12 minutes in the oven.

Pretty good you might think, however an investigative dig into the centre revealed that all bar the outside inch was still runny and most definitely not cooked.

So, I put in back in the oven and, after pacing the kitchen and peering in the oven for a further 10 or 15 minutes, I figured it was probably just about done and even if it wasn't I was jolly well going to eat it anyway.

Luckily it tasted delicious, particularly with a scoop of ice cream on the top. Not what I really expected though - I always thought that clafoutis was just a sweet sort of yorkshire pudding, but this was much lighter than that. A result, no doubt, of the 10 minutes of whisking given to the eggs. The recipe is as follows but be warned - don't turn off the oven until you're sure it's done!

Peach and Raspberry Clafoutis

(adapted from The Best as above)

4 eggs

140g/5oz caster sugar

300ml/10 fl oz double cream

1 tablespoon plain flour

1/2 tablespoon ground almonds

1 vanilla pod

2 peaches (peeled and chopped)

16 raspberries (I though 4 raspberries per person sounded a bit mean so added some more. In hindsight though I don't think this was necessary as the raspberries ended up overpowering the dish somewhat)

1) Whisk the eggs and caster sugar with an electric whisk until thick and the mixture holds its shape (this will take about 10 minutes and the mixture is now called a sabayon)

2) Lightly whip the cream and fold into the sabayon. Fold in the flour and ground almonds and carefully stir in the seeds of the vanilla pod.

3) Divide the peaches and raspberries between four individual oven-proof dishes. Pour over the clafoutis batter and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes (ha ha) at 180c/350f/gas 4 until golden.

I would tentatively call this recipe a success however I would like to try out a different clafoutis recipe at some point as a comparison.

I have been given an award!

Wow, I go away for a few days and I come back to discover that my little blog has been given an award. Not only that but it's my very first award aswell so I'm doubly chuffed! It was given to me by Nora, whose blog Nora the Kitchen 'Splorer, I follow on a regular basis. I particularly love her "Wednesday Round up of Deliciousness" - one of those great "Why didn't I think of that" ideas and a wonderful source of inspiration.

So here are the rules for the Kreativ Blogger award:

1 Thank the person who has given you the award

2 Copy the logo and paste it on your blog

3 Link to the person who nominated you for the award -> Here it is again!

4 Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting

5 Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers

6 Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate

7 Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they've been nominated

So...7 interesting things about me...hmmm...ok...

1 I was born and bred on the lovely island of Jersey and if I ever find enough money to buy a house there I may just go back

2 If I ever get the chance I would love to have a second home in Italy

3 I studied Biology at university but now work in financial services (so my science degree is coming in really handy). In an ideal world though I'd be a professional food blogger : )

4 I am in the process of preparing for the installation of a new kitchen which, as you might expect, is a pretty big deal for someone who loves cooking so much. Needless to say I am VERY excited.

5 My most recent cookbook purchase was In the Mood for Entertaining by Jo Pratt

6 My favourite film is The Shawshank Redemption

7 My least favourite foods are olives and coriander

And now for my nominations:

1 Cooking the Books - this was one the first food blogs I came across. Kelly-Jane's posts always make me want to cook what she's written although I do hold her entirely responsible for my recent book purchase (see above) following her write up about it.

2 A Cracking Good Egg - I love KJ's writing style and I have to keep reading now just to see if she ever gets her KitchenAid!

3 A Spoonful of Sugar - this is another really well written blog with great photographs that make me wish I had a better camera!

4 Culinary (Mis) Adventures! - a great blog with so many appealing recipes

5 Batter Splattered - I love to read blogs from other countries and there's something about this one, which comes from Alaska, that I particularly like

6 The Ginger Gourmand - I love reading about this London-based blogger's restaurant visits and other excursions in and around the capital

7 The Goddess' Kitchen - Sooo many fabulous cake recipes I just don't know where to start!

So, thanks again to Nora for the award - you've made my week : )

My Next Project - Unloved Cookbooks

I have amassed a fair number of cook books over the years. Some of them I return to time and time again, some are reliable reference books, some I take to bed with me now and then to look at the pictures and plan some fantasy dinner party or baking bonanza (I'm not the only person who does this right?!). A few, however, get overlooked entirely for one reason or another - maybe the recipes didn't appeal to me as much as I thought they would or take more time to make than I have available. Some have just been superseded over time by new favourites.

So, in an effort to get a bit more value for money out of some of these poor rejects I have chosen a selection of the most unloved from my shelves and have set myself the challenge of cooking two or three recipes from each one.

The books I have selected are as follows:

The Best - Silvana Franco, Paul Merrett & Ben O'Donoghue

Sunday Lunch - Gordon Ramsey

Indian Food Made Easy - Anjum Anand

Everyday - Bill Granger

Real Fast Food - Nigel Slater

The River Cottage Cookbook - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Jamie's Italy - Jamie Oliver

The first book off the top of the pile is The Best by Silvana Franco, Paul Merrett and Ben O'Donoghue. You may remember the BBC series where the aformentioned each had to create a dish based on a different theme every week, for example Best Sweet Breakfast, Best Summer Soup etc. I really enjoyed the programme and bought the book off the back of it but I can't remember the last time I actually cooked a recipe from it.

So, here are the first two I've tried....

Curried Scrambled Eggs

I nearly didn't make this - I just couldn't get my head round the egg/curry combination. However, I'm really glad I did as it actually tasted great and was a nice change from regular scrambled eggs. A perfect dish for lunch or a light dinner.

1 Naan Bread, warmed as per instructions (I used two small ones)

a large knob of butter

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

a pinch of cumin seeds

3 eggs (this seemed like quite a lot to me so I just used two)

1-2 teaspoons curry paste

a handful of coriander leaves

S & P

1) Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan and cook the spring onions and cumin seeds for a minute or so until beginning to soften.

2) Meanwhile whisk together the eggs and curry paste together with two tablespoons of cold water and some salt and pepper. Pour into the pan and leave for a minute or two.

3) Continue to cook for another couple of minutes, stirring until almost set. Stir in the coriander leaves and spoon on to the warmed naan.

Goat's Cheese & Cranberry Toast

Now this was really good. So easy and SO yummy! I reckon this would make a great dinner party starter if you scaled down the portions a bit. I will be making this again a LOT.

1 thick slice of sourdough bread *

1-2 teaspoons of cranberry or redcurrant jelly

100g/4oz disc of goats cheese

about 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

a handful of wild rocket leaves

balsamic vinegar

S&P

* I couldn't find sourdough bread so just used a slice of plain white bread, which was fine but a bit on the thin side. Next time I'll cut myself a nice thick slice from an unsliced loaf.

1) Toast the bread on one side under a medium grill. Spread the jelly on the uncooked side and sit the cheese on top. Drizzle over some olive oil and season.

2) Return to the grill for 3-4 minutes until the cheese is golden and beginning to melt. Top with a handful of rocket leaves and a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

A good start by all accounts. I also have my eye on a couple of sweet recipes in this book and will report back in a few days.