Recipes NOT to be repeated!!

competitionscafe

thriftlady wrote: »

I find this again and again with TV cookbooks -they insist on undercooking meat. I like my beef and lamb rare but not pork and chicken. Nigel Slater is another one who reckons you only need 40 mins to cook a chicken.

Not sure where he said that but I use his Appetite recipe timing for roast chicken all the time though and it works fine: [20 mins per 500g plus half an hour] so an hour and a half for a 1.5kg chicken, at 200C (180 fan)

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pigpen wrote: »

Can I add Pumpkin soup to my inedible list??? Any superb ideas how to make it edible.. other than slice off my taste buds!!!

Try and get the small pumpkins, not the big 'Halloween' ones which tend to be watery and tasteless, or use butternut squash instead which I think is nicer. Also roast it in the oven first with some herbs and/or spices (dried chilli flakes are good) salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil - this enhances the flavour nicely - then just add it to the soup base (onions or shallots slowly cooked in olive oil and then hot chicken/veg stock added), puree and season. Some crumbled feta and pumpkin seeds or munchy seeds on top is nice too for a texture contrast and the contrast between the sweet pumpkin/squash and the salty feta. (Got that idea from a Peter Gordon recipe which you can find here: http://books.google.com/books?id=6x73e22NZQsC&pg=PT64&lpg=PT64&dq=peter+gordon+pumpkin+feta+soup&source=web&ots=-2EBkVmGR6&sig=scFhLMZdBJQUOb417TZHQwOiHms

thriftlady_2

competitionscafe wrote: »

Nigel Slater's oxtail from Appetite - was going to make this next week (already ordered the Oxtail), so thanks for that - how much longer does it need and apart from that is it good? Or if not do you know a good alternative recipe for oxtail? o
.

Give it at least another hour -3 and a half hours or so, so that the meat is falling off the bone. Apart form the timing, it is good. I love Nigel Slater's writing and his recipes are usually fantastic, but I have had some trouble with timing.

I can't find the recipe for roast chicken where he only gives it 40 mins, so I must be wrong about that Sorry Nigel.,

Olliebeak

A couple of days ago, I had yet another go at that most simple of dishes - Leek and Potato Soup. Still can't get it 'right'.

First time I tried this, I used far too many potatoes and it turned out tooooo starchy!

The next time I used beef stock cube, instead of a chicken one, and it was too meaty.

This time, I used a recipe from our complete recipe collection, and it was so over-poweringly garlicky! I did wonder at the time about the crushed clove of garlic, but thought 'what th heck' - maybe it was jmust a very large clove! All the same I don't think I'll bother with garlic in any future attempts.

purpleivy

Likewise! I don't throw much away but................eeuuuwwww:eek:

Robothell wrote: »

I made Nigella's "ham in coke" and it was lovely......like she suggested I saved the stock to make her black bean soup. This on the other hand was vile.....there's so much coriander in it it's completely unpalatable and the coke/black beans give it an unappetising purple colour.

Never again.

phizzimum

competitionscafe wrote: »

Here's a pic I took of a dish I made from Jamie Oliver's Italy book comapring mine with the photo in the book

I think your one looks nicer!

when we were teenagers my sister made brown bread ice-cream. It was in the freezer for a long time as I was the only person who ever ate it (and only when I was REALLY hungry!)

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Olliebeak wrote: »

A couple of days ago, I had yet another go at that most simple of dishes - Leek and Potato Soup. Still can't get it 'right'.

Try Delia's recipe - I don't use many of her recipes but found this one when I wanted to make Leek & Potato soup one night and it worked great, so I have used it as my standard Leek & Potato soup recipe ever since:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/leek-onion-and-potato-soup,1717,RC.html

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thriftlady wrote: »

Give it at least another hour -3 and a half hours or so, so that the meat is falling off the bone. Apart form the timing, it is good. I love Nigel Slater's writing and his recipes are usually fantastic, but I have had some trouble with timing.

Thanks, that makes more sense, really looking forward to my Oxtail braise now.
I know one of Nigel Slaters cake recipes does not work at all - I think it's an ingredients error rather than timing and I think it's in one of the earlier books (before Appetite) but he has written in the Observer Food Monthly that he has loads of complaints about that recipe and he apologises profusely!

Is the rice one the one with cardamon and cinnamon with basmati rice? I see it's says add 2 or 3 times the amount of water to rice (!!) I read somewhere that for perfect basmati always add just slightly less water/stock than rice, so 110g rice and 100ml water say, then cover, bring to the boil and simmer very gently (lid on tightly) for 12 minutes and then turn off the heat and leave it with the lid on for another 5 to 10 minutes before fluffing up with a fork - always works perfectly!

However I put some oil in the pan first, add some chopped garlic and black mustard seeds, fry this for a few minutes, add the rice (soaked in cold water for 20 to 30 mins then drained), fry this for a minute or two and then add the stock/water and cook as above, so this method may have an effect on the quantity of liquid needed. 2 or 3 times sounds way too much though!

JoeyEmma

Delia's Low Fat Oven Baked Mushroom risotto
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/slimmers-wild-mushroom-risotto,1465,RC.html
- Didn't thicken at all, after an hour and a half in the oven it was still rice and slop. Ended up chucking it all in a pan and trying to cook it the normal way. Once I'd got it to a reasonable consistency (and the rice cooked) and tasted it- it was disgusting!

Nikki

Another vote for Fruit bread from the river cottage cook book - all doughy in the middle. Also the turkish delight was horrible, but the fudge and chocolate brownie are regularly made in our house, even tried the brownie with white chocolate -went down a storm. Maryland chicken from Jamie Oliver was awful. The best celebrity chef recipe I've tried so far was shepherds pie from Gordon Ramsey, got it from the F Word website.