Chicken Divan from “Weight Watcher’s Microwave Cookbook”.

(The author’s name is not included anywhere I can find in the book, hence the omission.)

I was curious what the meal containe and how it differed from the Women’s Weekly similar recipe which was not a success. This is normal as whenever I hear, read, watch a person praise a recipe or meal some investigation is warranted. Often there is disappointment; for example when you find out a cookie is a biscuit, a biscuit is a scone, Oreo’s are not as good as Delta Creams, etc. (A Delta Cream is made by Arnott’s and, in my opinion, is better. Oreo’s actual biscuit is gluey and the filling reminds me of the filling of Tootsie Rolls or Twinkies, which were another disappointment.)

Random Recipes: Revithokeftedes (Chickpea Fritters) and Vegetables A La Grecque from Modern Greek by Andy Harris

Happy New Year and let us hope 2018 will bring contentment and good food to us all.  Also Happy Australia Day or Regretful Day of Invasion or Survival Day.  The 26th January may mean different things to different people who currently reside in Australia.

Another year , another random recipe and this time the chance falls to Modern Greek by Andy Harris.  It is a cookbook and not a language primer, in case anyone is concerned.

Random Recipes: “Mediterranean Chicken Casserole” from Quick ‘n’ Easy Casseroles, Soups, Crockpot’s & more by Robyn Martin.

Note: A change has been made to the decision making process for the Random Recipes.  If the recipe made leads to a waste of food (i.e. most of the food is discarded because no one has any desire to eat it) the cook book does not receive a second chance.  Further to this, if the recipe is similar one that is already in my repertoire either created by me or gleaned from another cookbook, but the food is not as good as the other recipes, then the book will also find itself being donated to Lifeline.  This change has been made due to a number of complaints from the taste testers who are reluctant to try another recipe from a book when the meal was not up to our standard of edibility.

Random Recipe: Hummus, Karniyarik (Eggplants Stuffed with Mince Meat) and Sigir Papaz Yahnisi (Beef Ragout) from Turkish Cookery by Inci Kut

This is a different Random Recipe as this time Lindsay and Alexi cooked one of the dishes (Karniyarki) but unfortunately the photos have vanished.  However, the dish was cooked for the blog so it will be included, sans photos as it did help make the decision of the fate of this cook book.   From reading this blog you will probably know we love Turkish food; hence the kebab challenge so this seemed like a good choice.

Irritation note: Some of the measurements in this cook book are given in glasses or tea cups e.g.1/2 glass oil.  There is an explanation of the measurements but it means different things depending on the item being measured.  For this recipe beef mince was used as we did not look for mutton mince.

Original Recipe: Celebration/Lost Recipe Curry

I was asked to make a slow cooked curry that I’d made once before by someone who had many things to celebrate, including graduating and obtaining a job.  Certainly worth a celebratory meal.

After trying to remember the book/site from which I obtained the recipe, I gave up and decided to create a new recipe.  Unfortunately there was no yogurt, coconut milk, coconut cream etc in the house and the vague memories I had of the curry indicated it needed these.  There was also many vegetables which were looking as if they would be inedible in a few days.  In addition passata and stock which had been partially used for another meal that would expire within a day needed to be included in the curry.   So it had to be a curry that included stock, passata and various vegetables.

It was cold and no one volunteered to go to the shop to buy further ingredients.  Only the items in the house were available.

So the challenge was to make a curry without the required ingredients.

Not so simple.

Random Recipes: Stir-fried Soba Noodles and Daikon Radish and Carrot Salad from Japanese Favourites by Angela Nahas

Despite allergies to seafood including: crustaceans, seaweed, fish and nearly anything that comes out of the sea and my preference not to eat pork, I love Japanese food.  There is probably something wrong with me, but when I am cooking I can adapt the recipe to my tastes.  No gently waving bonito flakes on top of the Okonomiyaki, no garnish of seaweed in the bowl of ramen and generally no miso.

Lindsay hates carrot so these two meals were a real test to one of the tasters’ palates, but fortunately bravery was stronger than dislike.

(I have thought of substituting Vegemite for miso but that matches in with a Vegemite series I am considering so it may be a future project.  I am Australian and love Vegemite.)

In Search of: Grandma’s Lemon Birthday Cake. 1st attempt.

My maternal grandmother was a wonderful cook.  She baked regularly and I grew up with melting moments, jam drops, jam tarts, ‘cheese’cakes, and other delights for which I sometimes grow nostalgic.

The lemon pudding cake was my birthday favourite.  Maybe because I like lemon, or because it was large, or the icing was the lovely mix between sweet and tart, or she decorated it with ‘Smarties’ and sometimes ‘Freckles’.  The cake was always moist and not too crumbly.

Recently I found one of my grandmother’s recipe books but it did not contain the recipe for this cake.  After talking with one of my siblings and recalling some conversations some conclusions were drawn.  Unlike most of the cakes my grandmother made, this was made in a ring tin.  It was also a combination of a packet lemon pudding and a packet lemon cake.

I do not, as a rule, like packet cake.  It often has an underlying chemical flavour and not knowing exactly what is in the mix makes me uneasy.  In spite of these reservations, I am determined to try to make the cake and record the recipe so I can make it and share it with others.

None of the baking books which I currently own contain a recipe for the cake I remember.  In this case I turned to ‘Chef’ Google and began searching.

After a while it became clear to me that searching for a ‘ring’ cake has rather strange results including some reference to an obscure trilogy of books about hobbits, rangers, orcs etc. (and I do not believe one cake will rule them all) which didn’t seem to be helpful. Further searches led to something about weddings which did not feature lemon cakes very often, but did have lots of flowers made of royal icing.  Further thinking and searching indicated that looking for a ‘Bundt’ cake might be more helpful. More searching and a few promising recipes were found (the links to these recipes will be included).

The first one selected was one which used lemon jelly (Jell-O in the recipe) instead of lemon pudding.  As my search of the supermarket only revealed vanilla pudding, it was decided that this would be the first attempt to re-create the recipe.

 

Link to recipe:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/glazed-lemon-flute-cake

It was very easy to make.  It took very little effort and there was a slight guilty feeling attached to making this cake due to the ease of simply emptying packets and doing a tiny bit of measuring.

The Bundt pan was a present and this was the first time it was used.  When the cake was turned out it looked similar, if a great deal smaller, than the cake I remembered.

On making the glaze, a problem was encountered.  Instead of remaining on the cake most of it ran down the sides and settled on the bottom of the plate.  This was not the result I wanted.  When making the icing it seemed too thin but the decision had been made to follow the recipe properly.

Cutting the cake, it appeared to have the right crumb and was moist. Slicing it was easy and I eagerly bit into it.

It was not the cake I remembered, but I did not expect it to be.  It is a quick and easy cake, has quite a pleasant taste and is moist with a similar consistency to the memorable birthday cake.

While I enjoyed the cake, I will probably not make it again as the package cake flavour, while subtle, is still present.

Verdict: A quick and easy moist lemon cake but not the one I am in search of.

Onion Bread, Beef with Broccoli and Maggie’s Special Recipe No. 3 Lemon Chicken Fillet from “New Idea’s: Let’s Cook Chinese.” by Maggie Han Hawthorne

In the past I have tried to cook Chinese recipes and failed each time.  It seemed that the skill set and abilities to cook this type of cuisine was beyond my ability.  (Yes, I know there are many different types including Hunan, Cantonese, Sichuan etc.  I don’t wish to detail all the failures.) Any time an attempt was made, the food was edible but failed to taste anything like the food I enjoyed from skilled Chinese cooks.  Eventually I gave up.

Despite this there are at least 5 ‘Chinese’ cook books on the shelf.  This one was chosen randomly and any attempt to replace this book and choose another led to a reminder that we are reviewing all the cook books.  No one stepped forward to volunteer for this cooking adventure so, after lots of sighing and threats of edible but bad food, the agreement was made.

Random Recipes: Ham and Leek Pie and Ice Cream Christmas Pudding from “Family Circle: Tastes of Christmas”

After the complications of the last random recipes, it was a relief that this book was selected by the normal/unplanned method.  While it is not Christmas, in Australia we often celebrate Christmas in July by eating food that are traditionally associated with Christmas such as roasts.  This is mainly because heavy meals are not always welcome in the heat of Summer. (Yes, it is August but July was busy).  This in yet another book which has a place on the book shelf, no matter the result of this trial.  One day the Champagne Jellies will set! (I keep trying but perhaps the amount of gelatine needs to be increased.)

Random Recipes: Hummus, Baba Ghannouj (Turkish Eggplant Dip) Felafel, Kiymali Pide (Turkish Flatbread) and Kibbeh Bil Sanieh (Layered Lamb and burghul) from Tastes of the Mediterranean (Bay Books).

It is a coincidence that this cookbook was randomly chosen at the time we are planning the review kebab restaurants.  (Please do not start a discussion about nothing being a coincidence etc.)

Sometimes the decision is to be ambitious and try many recipes from one cookbook does not work.  To be honest not all the dishes were cooked on the same day and it took nearly two days to eat the food.

Making the decision to use dried chickpeas and broad beans made the experience interesting as we had a variety of bowls dotter around the kitchen containing soaking legumes and burghul.  Shopping for the ingredients meant visits to specialty shops and at planning was essential due to the 48 hours required for soaking the broad beans.

I love a good felafel.  The best felafel I’ve ever tasted was in Jerusalem, Israel.  The second best in Newtown, Sydney but finding a good felafel in Canberra has been difficult.  The same is true of trying to find a good kibbeh.  The few past attempts to make a felafel have ended in disappointment but a new recipe, a new attempt.  Hope and optimism sometimes affects decisions as does despair and despondency, but this is getting a bit too deep for a food blog.