Theme: Rice/Noodles
Recipe: Lamb Biryani
From: Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking
The theme for this fortnight’s Cookbook Challenge is “rice/noodles”. I choose to do something with rice dish and something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time – biryani. Biryani is a layered rice dish made with spices and meat or vegetables. The rice is cooked separately from the curry sauce of meat or vegetables and is then layered together after the separate components have been cooked.
Last year for the citrus theme I made a not entirely successfully rice and lemon rice soufflé. For this fortnight’s Cookbook Challenge, I’ve opted for a simple, no bake, lime chiffon pie. Yes, that’s right – no baking involved! Which makes it a perfect dessert to make on a hot summer’s day when you don’t want to turn the oven on. (more…)
Theme: Stone fruits
Recipe: Apricot and cardamom fool
Book: Ballymaloe Cookery Course
The theme for the first Cookbook Challenge this year is “stone fruits”. And while I love summer and summer fruits, my tastes lean more towards mangoes, lychees and berries rather than stone fruits like peaches, apricots, nectarines and plums. So while I could’ve stretched the theme for this week and used mangoes or lychees – I mean, they do have stones IN THEM – I opted to pick up some apricots and nectarines instead. (more…)
The Cookbook Challenge is back again this year! Last year we did 52 themes over 52 weeks, which was A LOT of work, and I only just managed to scrap my way to the finish. This year, we’ve revamped it so there’s a new theme every fortnight and all blog links will be posted on a forum that Penny is hosting.
Do you own a lot of cookbooks but never use them? Join us! I enjoyed myself last year and it definitely made me use my cookbooks a lot more. I won’t deny that it took a fair amount of thought and effort, but it should be easier this year since it’s only fortnightly!
There are 26 themes, one each fortnight. Every fortnight, you’ll need to interpret the theme and cook a dish (or several if you’re really enthusiastic!) from your cookbooks. An entry should be posted on your blog before the end of the fortnight, and you’ll need to post a link on the forum. You’ll have to sign up for an account first, but when you’ve registered and joined the Cookbook Challenge group, this will be easy!
Cookbook Challenge: Week 52
Theme: Outdoors
Recipe: Asparagus and gruyere tart
From: AWW Kitchen
Recipe 2: Onion Foccacia
From: AWW Bake
It’s the last week of the Cookbook Challenge! I can’t believe that April, Kat, Shellie and I started it a year ago. 52 themes later, one post and at least one recipe each week, this is the LAST ONE. Amazing! It was a big effort, and I’m quite pleased that I made it right through to the end. 🙂 There will be another one next year, but it’ll be fortnightly, which should be easier to keep up with. More details to come, if anyone is interested in joining! (more…)
Wow, it’s the second to last week of the Cookbook Challenge! The theme for this week is “creamy” and guess what? I made something this week!
Long time readers might remember my takoyaki post from last year. I never mentioned it on the blog, but Bro bought me a takoyaki pan for my birthday! Aww!
I invited Kat and April over as an excuse to use my takoyaki pan again and I thought I would tie my Cookbook Challenge theme in and make green tea ice cream. I don’t have an ice cream maker (I don’t have the freezer space for one, otherwise I would BE SO THERE) so when I saw that the recipe in the Ballymaloe Cookery Course doesn’t need further whisking during the freezing period, I figured it was worth a shot. Instead of making a custard like other ice creams, this ice cream is made with an Italian egg mousse base that’s folded into whipped cream. Then it goes into the freezer – and that’s it! (more…)
Disclosure: I was sent samples of Bonne Maman jam from 360° Focus.
Oh dear, oh my. I’ve been a bad Cookbook Challenger again. This is the second week in a row that I haven’t prepared anything!
I fully intended to make something today, but we went out to lunch, and it turned out to be the biggest lunch the world has ever seen. No exaggeration. After we rolled out of the restaurant and rolled home, there was no way I could even consider cooking. Cooking = food, and I had eaten far too much to even think about it.
Fortunately, I’m going to do my TV Chef trick again:
A very quick post for this week’s Cookbook Challenge because I’m still in holiday mode! (But I go back to work tomorrow -boo!). The theme for this week is “bread”. I wanted to do a proper yeast bread, but still being in holiday mode means that we slept in this morning and by the time I got around to looking for a recipe, there wasn’t enough time left in the day for bread to rise. (more…)
Recipe: A really good spaghetti bolognese
From: Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries
The theme for the Cookbook Challenge this week is “Italian”, and after a lot of hunting through my cookbooks, I decided to make bolognese. Normally I don’t follow a recipe for bolognese, but for the purposes of the Cookbook Challenge, I decided I would for once.
Unsurprisingly, I had a few recipes to choose from, and I decided on a Nigel Slater version from The Kitchen Diaries. I’ve posted before about my love for Nigel Slater before, so I had very high hopes for this recipe. (more…)
