Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - May

Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. It has been a busy month in our kitchen with lots of baking and new recipes tries!

However, before we talk about this, I shamelessly stole the above pic from Jackie at Junkboat Travel because I feel seen! Often if I am baking I say to my husband that I am creating lots of washing up and the side outcome is something delicious to eat!

Speaking of baking here's what I did make this month

Raspberry Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate - I made this after reading The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer. I reviewed the book and shared the recipe, which is a family recipe,  here.

Chocolate Eclairs - My husband had been asking me to make eclairs for a while but I kept on putting it off as I was a bit intimidated by it! However, once I decided to make it, it is doable. The recipe, which I shared as part of my Cook the Books contribution a couple of weeks ago, makes a lot so I still have some in the freezer. When I first filled the eclairs, I made it with a chocolate glaze and chantilly cream filling. The next time, I refreshed the shells in the oven, and then used the passionfruit and milk chocolate ganache from the macarons as the glaze and chocolate cream

Curry sausage rolls - Yes, this is a rare savoury bake, and it was delicious! The recipe comes from Justin Narayan's Everything in Indian. 

Passionfruit and Milk Chocolate Macarons - My friend and I went and did a class to learn how to make macarons! It was such a great day. I shared about this experience here. 

Chocolate Brownie - It's been an age since I made my favourite chocolate brownie recipe by Bill Granger! It went down a treat!

I haven't bought many cook books this year. When this book, Everything is Indian, was announced as the cook book for Lambs Ear Cook Book Club, I borrowed it from the library. After cooking a few things from it, we agreed that we needed to own it! I am planning to share something about this book in the next couple of weeks. I also got Taverna by Georgina Hayden out from the library. We really liked her book Greekish, so I need to find some time to look through the book before it has to go back to the library!

My most useful purchase this month was two storage containers which are the perfect shape for sheets of premade pastry and things like wraps or rotis. I don't know how I lived without them! I keep on finding new ways to use it, but at this stage, I am resisting the urge to buy any more. 

We did have a very nice French dinner a couple of weeks ago. In fact, we had a very French weekend. I had already made eclairs, then we had the dinner before we went to see the arena version of Les Miserables which was amazing, and then I made macarons the next day. I wasn't sure what to expect of the dinner. It was a fixed price menu in the restaurant at the arena, and to be honest I kind of expected to walk away thinking that it was an okay dinner, potentially overpriced but worth it for the convenience of already being in the stadium. It turned out the dinner was delicious, the portions were generous and it was well worth doing! 

I had crab tart, mushroom pithivier and potato gratin. In theory, the dessert came boxed up so that you could take it into the show with you to eat later, but we ate it in the restaurant. It was a gingernut base with layers of strawberry and rhubarb.

 

52 Recipes Challenge

Here are the new recipes we tried this month.

Raspberry and white chocolate shortbread cookies

Curry Roast Chicken, Masala roast potatoes and Raita - from Everything in Indian

Curry Sausage rolls - Another recipe from Everything in Indian. This one got rave reviews from Robert.

Spicy Prawn Noodles - My son was away for a few days so we had prawns. We don't cook these when he is home. 

Spicy Beef Noodles - This came from Dominique's Kitchen and we tried this because it was a two person recipes

Chocolate eclairs

Potato Gratin - I had a craving for potato bake. This recipe came from RecipeTin Eats

Cottage Pie - Another recipe from the RecipeTin Eats site.

Sausage and veggie gravy traybake  - And yes, another RecipeTin Eats recipe.

Before next month I should check to see what the tally is and how close I am 

Weekend Cooking posts from the last month

In My Kitchen - April 

The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe by Catherine Greer

Afternoon Tea Diaries - Red at Oxitea Rooms

Cook the Books: The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson

Macarons class

Tucci in Italy/Nonnas - Italian Food

Weekly Meals

Saturday - Schnitzel, chips, broccoli, mushroom sauce
Sunday - Sausages and potato gratin
Monday - Beef and broccoli noodles
Tuesday - Cottage Pie
Wednesday - Sausage, vegetable and gravy traybake
Thursday - Chilli Con Carne
Friday - Out for dinner

I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.

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: Greek-ish by Georgina Hayden

I love buying new cookbooks, and I love it even more when you find a cookbook that you just know you are going to come back to time and time again. Greek-ish by Georgina Hayden is one of those books. 

Georgina Hayden has Greek-Cypriot heritage and this is her fourth cookbook. In addition to being a cookbook author she is also a food stylist. First off, I love the cover designs of this book. It is so bright and colourful, and the inside covers are a vibrant blue too. Her aim, as you can probably tell from the titles, is to share recipes that honour her heritage, but also are accessible for weekday family meals.

The opening lines of the introduction probably gives a pretty good feel as to what to expect. 

This book? It's Greek. Ish. And if you are saying "ish" with a scrunched up nose, a squinted eye and a slight wobble of the head or tilt of the hand, then you are on the right track.

The book is broken up into sections which include:

A good start

Small dishes & snacks

Everyday heroes

Things on sticks

Feasts 

Salads, sides & vegetables

Sweet tooth

In addition to these normal kind of chapters that you would expect to see there are a couple of really fun additions and these are my favourites in the book. For example, there is a section called "Say cheese..." where there are five different recipes for using different types of cheese. This chapter even starts with dad mum joke! There is a chapter called SAS which stands for the Spanakopita Appreciation Society which features 3 different recipes that use the flavours of spanakopita but in less traditional ways. There is another section called "Double negative -a mess in two parts" which features Greek inspired Eton Mess recipes. Yum1

The cheesecake I made a couple of weeks ago features in a chapter called "Baklava, a love story and inspiration" which includes four different recipes that are all using the flavours of Baklava. The recipe for the cheesecake is actually called "Baklava cheesecake, I love you". Having made the cheesecake it is fair to say I love it too!

Whilst Hayden doesn't shy away from using authentic recipes, she usually offer other options to allow the dish to be accessible to all of us. I have used more feta recently than I have in the last six months combined! I would never have thought to incorporate feta into sweet recipes. It even features in the cheesecake.

Here are some of the recipes we have tried:

One Pot Pastitsio - see recipe below

Psari Plaki: Baked fish with tomatoes and olives (although we left out the olives)

One-pot Chicken Thighs and Rice

Triple Fennel Pork Belly (we used a pork roast instead. So good though)

Roasted Lemon, Oregano and Feta Potatoes

Feta, Cherry and White Chocolate Cookies- unusual flavour combo but really good!

Baklava Cheesecake, I Love You  - I love you too!

As for recipes I still want to try, well, there are really too many to list, both sweet and savoury.

I did think about sharing the cookie recipe or the cheesecake recipe, but in the end I decided to share the recipe for One Pot Pastitsio. This is a recipe that I would still like to make the more traditional version of at some point, but this is now a regular in our meal rotations. It gives another option instead of spaghetti bolognaise.

One Pot Pastitsio 

2 tbsp olive oil
500g/1lb 2oz beef mince
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp dried oregano, plus a pinch
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp tomato purée
250g/9oz traditional pastitsio pasta, bucatini or penne (gluten-free, if needed)
1 litre/1¾ pint beef stock
300ml/½pt crème fraîche
2 free-range egg yolks
100g/3½oz graviera, kefalotyri or pecorino, finely grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Set a wide, deep frying pan over a high heat and add the olive oil. Add the mince, breaking it up well with a wooden spoon. Season generously and fry for 5–8 minutes, until any liquid evaporates and the mince starts to crisp.

When the mince has started to brown, stir the onions and garlic in with the oregano and cinnamon. Reduce the heat a little and fry for 5 minutes, stirring everything together (add a touch extra olive oil if it looks dry).

Stir in the tomato purée, fry for 1–2 minutes, then add the pasta to the pan. If you’re using traditional pastitsio pasta or bucatini, you may need to snap some of the pieces in half to fit them all in. It will be snug in the pan, but try to fit them all in. Pour over the beef stock, season and bring to the boil. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.

Meanwhile, mix together the crème fraîche and egg yolks in a bowl. Stir in half the cheese with a generous pinch of salt and pepper.

When your pasta is ready, turn your grill to high. Gently toss the pasta and sauce in the pan together. Spoon the crème fraîche mixture over the top and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese, plus an additional pinch of dried oregano.

Place under the grill, not too close to the bars, and grill for 3–5 minutes, until golden and bubbling on top. Keep an eye on it, as how long it takes will depend on the strength of your grill. Remove and leave to stand for at least 5–10 minutes before serving.

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: What I Baked in my Kitchen in June

The first Saturday of the month is when I share all the things that I baked in the previous month. I have cut back on what I am making, and I miss it! There's still a lot of things I want to make but I have also need to be careful on what I make and eat. I will figure out how to get the balance right eventually, so that I can make fun things without feeling too bad about it.

Let's start with what I did make

Lemon cake with streusel topping - This recipe came from Anna Jones' book Easy Wins. I found this recipe a bit confusing. The ingredients list says you need 4 lemons, but for the life of me I couldn't work out where they all went in the recipe. The streusel was a bit overdone but that is my fault - I should have covered it for the last few minutes, but I was running out of time before we went out for lunch.

Maple Butter Date Loaf  - I made this for my Cook the Books post where we read Family Tree by Susan Wiggs.

One exciting thing this month was that Nagi Maehashi has announced that she has a new book coming out in October. I have already pre-ordered. Another book I have pre-ordered is the audio version of Stanley Tucci's What I Ate in One Year, which is also out in October

I did buy a new cookbook this month - Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots by Georgina Hayden. I have already chosen a couple of recipes to try - one of which is a very interesting cookie recipe. That may well be the first thing I make from this book, although I do also have my eye on a Pasticchio recipe too.

Earlier in June, I posted about going to dinner at Alumni. This is a pop up restaurant that features former contestants from Masterchef. We had a lovely dinner, but I was surprised by the fact that we got a tea towel each to bring home!

New recipes

I think that the news that Nagi has a new cookbook coming inspired me to try some of the recipes that we had bookmarked from Dinner - all of these recipes except for the first one are from that book.

Lemon Cake with Streusel topping 

Swedish Meatballs - So good!

Korean Pancakes - I think that my husband would like to have another go at these. Pictured below with a glimpse of Max in the background!

Fried Cabbage, Bacon and Noodles - Pretty simple but delicious.

Vietnamese Shaking Beef - If you don't count the marinading time, this is super quick to make.

Mexican Shredded Beef with Red Rice - The beef was great, but the real revelation was the red rice. Definitely going to make this again!

Weekend Cooking posts over the last month

The Chocolate Factory by Mary-Lou Stephens

Masterchef Alumni

Cook the Books: Family Tree by Susan Wiggs

5 Ingredients Mediterranean by Jamie Oliver

I am sharing this recipe with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings

Weekly meals

Saturday - Pasta bake
Sunday - Beef Rioja
Monday - Chicken Stir Fry with Rice
Tuesday - Beef Broccoli Noodles
Wednesday - Not fried chicken, mash, veggies, gravy
Thursday - Egg on toast
Friday - Pork Chops, pasta, veggies

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