Weekend Cooking: Best of 2025

A couple of years ago,  I decided it was a good idea to start doing an annual post at the end of the year where I would announce what my cookbook of the year was as well as the recipe of the year. 

The first year that was easy for both categories. There was one clear winner when it came to the book that we had cooked the most out of. Last year it was a little trickier, and this year might well be the hardest yet. There are a couple of reasons for that. We still continue.to mainly cook out of Nagi Maehashi's cookbooks Dinner and Tonight most weeks. There however was no new Nagi cookbook this year so I can't pick her again.

The other factor is that after going a bit crazy for the last couple of years buying many new cookbooks, this year I just stopped! In fact, as far as I can remember I have only bought one new cookbook ths year! It is no coincidence that this corresponds with the fact that the Jamie Oliver Cookbook Club died a death this year.

Update - I got given a cookbook for Christmas so now I have acquired two cookbooks this year. I do have another one on order but that probably won't come until the end of January.

Cookbook of the Year

Now you might think I am cheating a bit by naming the only cookbook I bought as my book of the year. However, even if I had of bought more cookbooks this book would have been right up there as we have really enjoyed cooking out out of this book. It is probably the book we have cooked out of the most this year, aside from Nagi's cookbooks.

I originally posted about this book back in June and since then we have tried another couple of recipes. 

So far the things we have made include

    Curry Roast chicken with marsala roast potato and raita

    Prawn Curry

    Curried Sausage rolls

    Egg Curry

and I have all the ingredients here to make Caramel Slice. I am not sure if we will start with the traditional version or if I might make the spiced version. Or maybe both!

I have made the roast potatoes several times and the curried sausage rolls are a big hit whenever I make them.

When it comes to choosing the recipe of the year do you go with recipes that had the biggest impact when you made them, or do you choose a recipe that you made over and over again. Last year it was the former, and this year it is the latter. In fact, we had it for dinner tonight!

I originally shared this recipe back in February and we have made it countless times since then! The recipe comes from Australian Masterchef winner Adam Liaw. I did have a couple of photos of it but lost them all when my phone had to be revived from the dead!

Recipe of the Year

Baked Tuscan Chicken

6 chicken thigh cutlets
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

200 g sundried tomato strips

300 ml thickened cream

2 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme)

60 g baby spinach leaves

½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan-forced). Season the chicken cutlets generously on both sides with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, then add the chicken, skin-side down in the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and cream, then return the chicken to the pan, skin-side up. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, then bake for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.

Divide chicken cutlets between serving plates, then add the baby spinach and parmesan to the pan sauce, stirring to wilt the spinach. Spoon the spinach, sundried tomatoes and creamy sauce over the Tuscan chicken and serve.

So there we have my cookbook and recipe of the year for 2025. Do you have a favourite?

Weekly meals

Saturday - Chicken schnitzel, mash and mushroom sauce
Sunday - Butter chicken pizza
Monday -
Tuesday - Pork Chop, baked potatoes, broccoli, mushroom saue
Wednesday - Prawns
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Coconut Curry Prawns

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Best of 2024

Last year, I decided it was a good idea to start doing an annual post at the end of the year where I would announce what my cookbook of the year was, and the recipe of the year. 

Last year, that was easy for both catgories. There was one clear winner when it came to the book that we had cooked the most out of. The big issue for me this year is that if you asked me the question again of what was the cook book you used the most during 2024, then the answer is...the same book, which is Dinner by Nagi Maehashi.

There was a new cookbook from Nagi (yes, we call her just her first name in our house) during 2024, and we have cooked quite a bit from that one since we got it, so I thought for my Best of 2024, that would be the book that I chose, but as you can see from the picture, it really is about both of the books

I haven't shared any thoughts about Tonight yet, so I thought I would take this opportunity to do so! We were very excited when news broke off a new Nagi cookbook, and I was very interested to see what she would come up with. Interestingly, all the recipes in this book are new, with the exception of one which was the very first recipe she ever put up at the Recipetineats website, which is the Sticky Pantry Chicken. We liked that recipe. Her first cookbooks was a mixture of website and new recipes

The idea behind this book is that when you get the question What's for dinner tonight then you should be able to use this book to find something that you have the ingredients for in your pantry and that will be easy and delicious. What you do get in this book are options. For example, there is a recipe for Veitnamese Coconut Lemongrass Pulled Pork where there are four different ways to serve it.

The book is broken up in to the follow chapters

What I Crave

The Fastest Recipes

My Favourites Made Easier

What You've Got on Hand

Charlie

One 

Salads I Love

I love Roasted Veg

Sunday Suppers

Sweets 

Sides.

The chapter I was most interested in when we first started hearing about the book was the Charlie chapter. Charlie is what Nagi calls her base stir fry sauce and now, if we are making her stir fry, we always make a batch and have some in the fridge for using next time. I was therefore interested to see what the other recipes were that she used it for. Our favourite recipe in this chapter is Honey Pepper Chicken. It's so good!

I think that the recipe that we have cooked most out Dinner is an Indian Coconut Prawn Curry. Think butter chicken but with prawns. It's pretty quick and easy and delicious. We do have to wait for my son not to be home as he won't eat prawns.

Other recipes we have tried including Normandy Pork Chops, One Pan Chorizo Couscous, Every Day Stir Fry, Chicken and Tomato Pasta and an Orange and Poppy Seed Loaf. There is still plenty left for us to explore!

Oh, and the other thing to mention is that they fixed the index so that it is much easier to use than the one in Dinner!

What about the best recipe for 2024? Again, not as clear cut as last year. The recipes that we cooked the most this year were from Nagi with the one that we made over and over again being this one for Spicy Pork Noodles.

I have, however, chosen the single recipe that I got the best reaction for and that I spoke to people about most. If the subject of cheesecake comes up, I can't help myself. I have to talk about the recipe for Baklava Cheesecake from Georgina Hayden's book, Greek-ish. I even talked about it to an American lady who was on our Scotland tour about it. She was very keen to go home and make it! The full title of the recipe is actually Baklava Cheesecake, I Love You! and I have to say I love it too! I loved the idea of using filo pastry for the base, and the baklava flavours with the white chocolate cheesecake are so delicious!

Baklava Cheesecake, I Love You - Georgina Hayden

225g caster sugar
1 lemon
1Tbspn rose water
60g unsalted butter
100g walnuts
1 tspn ground cinnamon
250g filo
200g white chocolate
200g feta
280g full-fat cream cheese
200ml double cream
3 Tbspn honey
Chopped pistachios, to serve




First, make a syrup.Place 100g of the caster sugar in a small saucepan with 125ml of water and two strips of lemon zest (use a peeler for this). Bring to the boil on a medium heat, swirl to dissolve the sugar, then reduce the heat a little. Simmer for 5–8 minutes, until you have a thick, but not coloured syrup. Stir in the rose water and leave to cool completely.

Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin with a little of the butter. Place the walnuts in a dry frying pan and toast for a few minutes on a medium heat. Once they start to smell nutty, stir in the ground cinnamon and 25g of the caster sugar. Let the sugar caramelise slightly, then tip the nuts out onto a chopping board. When they’re cool enough to handle, finely chop.

Melt the rest of the butter in a small pan. Lay two sheets of filo over the cake tin, overlapping slightly, so they completely cover the base and sides, then brush all over with the melted butter. Sprinkle a quarter of the chopped walnuts over the bottom, and repeat the process twice more with filo then butter and walnuts (keep the remaining walnuts aside). Top with a final layer of filo, really push it in to the bottom and sides, then brush with butter. Trim off any excess pastry around the top with scissors and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until crisp and golden.

When the filo shell is ready, remove from the oven and drizzle the cold syrup over the hot pastry, particularly down the sides. Leave to cool.

For the cheesecake filling, break the white chocolate into small, even pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Either melt in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water — be careful that the bowl doesn’t touch the water in the pan or the chocolate will seize up. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is just melted.

Meanwhile, break the feta into pieces into a large bowl. Add the remaining 100g of caster sugar and blitz with a stick blender till smooth. Add the cream cheese and finely grate in the remaining lemon zest. Beat with a whisk, not a stick blender, until smooth (electric beaters would be best if you can handle more washing up). Add the double cream, whisk until light and then finally stir in the melted white chocolate.

Spoon the filling into the baked and cooled filo case, loosely cover and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, overnight if possible. Just before serving, drizzle with a little honey and scatter over the reserved walnuts, and some chopped pistachios for a pop of colour.

And finally, for this year these are the cookbooks that I accumulate throughout the year! Do you own any of these?

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Best of 2023

And so we come to the end of 2023! It's been a good cooking year in our house. We have tried lots of new recipes, made some delicious desserts, had some memorable meals and so much more!

As I mentioned last week I want to use this week's Weekend Cooking post to highlight the best cookbook for the year, and the best recipe. I am thinking that I might do this at the end of the next year and beyond. We'll see!

I do have quite a few cookbooks to choose from! Earlier this year I was determined to mainly read cookbooks from the library, but I did have a change of heart a bit later in the year because I decided that I would buy some because I love looking at them!  Here are the books I bought this year.

So what makes just one of these books stand out enough to become my best of 2023. In this case, it is a book that we have cooked out of time and time and time again! You join the authors Facebook appreciation group, and I have recommended it to anyone who will listen. I know at least 5 people who have bought this book after we talked about it! So what is this book!

Drum roll please......

I think you can probably tell that I love this cookbook which I reviewed back in June. And we have enjoyed most of the recipes that we have cooked out of it. Here's just some of the recipes that we have made out of this book so far.

One-Pot Baked Greek Chicken & Lemon Rice

Beef Biryani

Chicken Shawarma (many, many times)

Butter Chicken

Asian Glazed Salmon

Teriyaki Beef Bowls

3 Minute Double Smash Burgers (several times)

Chorizo Potato Stew-Soup

Pad See Ew

Smoky Pork Chops

French Sausage & Bean Casserole (one of the few recipes we didn't like)

Baked Ratatouille with Beans

Chilli Con Carne

Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake (A definite favourite)

Chicken Fricasee (this is the cover recipe)

Juiciest, Easiest Roast Chicken Ever

Forever Chocolate Cake

Perfect Vanilla Cake

Garlic Roast Potatoes

That seems like a lot of recipes to have tried but there are still so many more that we have marked to try one day!! And plenty that we will eat over and over! And this doesn't even include the recipes that we made from the website.

 There are still many recipes that I have marked to try, but have not yet done so. We will though! 

Now, I could quite easily have chosen a Nagi recipe for my recipe of the year. After all, several of the recipes have become part of our regular meal rotations. Instead I am going to return to one of the earliest cookbooks I bought this year, The Italian Pantry by Theo Randall which I reviewed here. We have made several recipes from this book, but the one that we came back to time and time again.I originally shared this recipe in February but I am more than happy to share it again. We tend to use baby bocconcini rather than burrata because it is easier to get at the supermarket.

Maybe the next time we make it we can remember to take a picture.

Meatballs in Tomato Sauce with Burrata

For the meatballs

400g/14oz pork mince
400g/14oz beef mince
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a little sea salt
3 tbsp full-fat milk
100g/3½oz dried breadcrumbs
75g/2½oz parmesan, finely grated
3 free-range eggs
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, for greasing, frying and drizzling

For the tomato sauce

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely sliced
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped
600g/1lb 5oz tomato passata
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the burrata and crostini

extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
1 ciabatta or sourdough loaf, cut into thin slices
1 garlic clove, peeled and left whole, to rub
150g/5½oz burrata



For the meatballs, put all the ingredients for the meatballs (except the oil) into a large bowl and combine to form a firm, evenly distributed mixture.


Cover your hands in olive oil, take a generous tablespoon of the mixture and roll it between your palms to form a meatball the size of a golf ball. Repeat until you have used all the mixture - you should have 16 meatballs. Place them on a tray, wash your hands and then place the tray in the fridge to firm up for 30 minutes.


Place a large, non-stick, ovenproof frying pan over a high heat and add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. When the oil is hot, begin browning the meatballs (in batches if necessary), ensuring that you don't cook them completely - a little colour on the outside is perfect. Once they are all browned off, remove them from the pan and leave them to one side while you make the tomato sauce.


Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.


To make the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in an ovenproof pan and set it back over a medium heat. When hot, add the garlic, thyme, and chilli. Simmer for 1 minute, then add the tomato passata. Cook gently for 15 minutes, or until the volume of the sauce has reduced by half.


Season the sauce with salt and freshly ground black pepper and take the pan off the heat.


Place the meatballs in the pan on top of the sauce, evenly spaced, then transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through. Leave to one side for 5 minutes to cool slightly (leave the oven on).


For the burrata and crostini, drizzle a little oil over the ciabatta slices and sprinkle them with some sea salt. Place on a baking tray and bake in the hot oven for 4 minutes, or until crisp, then rub them all over with the garlic clove.


Meanwhile, finely chop the burrata, then use a spoon to drop dollops all over the baked meatballs.

Weekly meals

Saturday -  

Sunday -  Nasi Goreng

Monday - Nothing

Tuesday - Kebabs, mashed potato and broccoli

Wednesday - Mexican Chicken and Rice

Thursday - Zucchini risotto

Friday - Takeaway

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page