The All New Bang on Trend Cookbook Challenge 2018

ScotinLondon

Afternoon all - haven't been on for a long while. RL getting busy and in the way.

However, during the last few weeks - the new to us recipes that we have made have been;
MIL's ratatoullie (sp?)
Spicy carrot & parsnip soup.

Hopefully today or tomorrow, if i get my act together will be courgette fritters plus a salsa of some sort.

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend.

SILx

Lolly_willowes

I just cooked a salmon pasta with a chilli and lemon kick from a girl called Jack. I changed it up slightly by adding garlic and using Creme Fraiche instead of yoghurt and I'm seriously impressed with this. It uses salmon fish paste, the stuff you use for sandwiches that is in aldi for about 25p.
Its not the most gourmet pasta you'll ever have but you can't tell its from such humble beginnings. It's on their website cooking on a bootstrap too. Highly recommended

Lolly_willowes

A chocolate cake from food52 this time.
Margaret foxes chocolate cake is the one to google.
This was vegan and all pantry ingredients, super easy, cheap and really delicious. I made it for a workmate who's mostly vegan and she loved it. It's quite gooey and someone else at work didn't clock it's vegan.
Will go in my regular rotation I think. Only changes was I added coffee to the water and threw in some dark chocolate chips I had kicking about.

caronc

Your doing really well with the new recipes Lolly, I'm afraid at the moment I'm either using up meals made earlier and frozen or making things I've made before. During Spring/Summer cooking to a certain extent takes a back seat as I try and get my garden sorted out!

Lolly_willowes

It's actually a lot to do with using up stuff I already have in the house, a lot of random ingredients means I'm always looking for a interesting way to use them.
Also I live on my own with no other responsibilities and cooking is kind of my hobby.
I'm so jealous of you having a garden! Dyo grow fruit and veg too?

caronc

Yes I'm lucky to have a decent sized garden & a greenhouse so grow a fair bit of summer veg. No fruit apart from a wild blackberry patch that "does it's own thing"!

I'm on my own too and know what you mean about random ingredients (the curse of the keen cook) but I tend to "do my own thing" and make it up as I go along. I'm very guilty of following a recipe once and then adapting it thereafter or using my books for inspiration rather than following the recipe....

Pollycat

Found some spicy chorizo in the fridge, unopened and still in date but a bit discoloured so changed our plan for tuna risotto (which is something we've cooked for over 30 years so not a new recipe :rotfl:) to chorizo risotto which is a new one for us.
Has red/yellow/green peppers, mushrooms and onions.
And rice.

Lolly_willowes

Your speaking my language there, apart from cuisines I'm not very familiar cooking (Thai for example) I'm always going ill just change this and simplify that.
The best cookbooks to me are ones that teach me a new technique or help me refine a old one. The little things I find make a difference, especially when cooking with cheap ingredients.
Salt, fat, acid, heat which I picked up in the kindle deal is really good and teaching me lots of new things.
I'm nosy so really want to know what veg you grow? I'd love to have the space to grow harder to buy stuff like sorrel and tomatillos.

Lolly_willowes

Ohhh, that sounds good pollycat! I love chorizo so much

caronc

Lolly_willowes wrote: »

Your speaking my language there, apart from cuisines I'm not very familiar cooking (Thai for example) I'm always going ill just change this and simplify that.
The best cookbooks to me are ones that teach me a new technique or help me refine a old one. The little things I find make a difference, especially when cooking with cheap ingredients.
Salt, fat, acid, heat which I picked up in the kindle deal is really good and teaching me lots of new things.
I'm nosy so really want to know what veg you grow? I'd love to have the space to grow harder to buy stuff like sorrel and tomatillos.

I got "Salt, fat, acid, heat" for Christmas but have only dipped into it so far.
Veg wise I grow tomatoes (lots), cucumber, courgettes, broad, dwarf, french & runner beans, peas, assorted herbs, various greens like swiss chard, pak choi, mustard leaf and I'm attempting calvo nero and baby turnips this year and salad stuff like baby gems, soft leaves, radishes etc. I'm not growing chillies or fennel this year as I still have lots frozen from last year. Apart from tomatoes which I either peel & freeze or make passatta and the beans whch again I freeze excess of, I try to grow smaller amounts of the others so I don't get over run with stuff ready & needing used up. I love going out and just picking what I need for meals:D