cookbook_challenge | Recent Entries

So sorry I took so long to post! I've been attacked with a general sense of malaise and ennui.

The rules are as follows:

1. Pick a commitment that works for you - don't sign up to one new recipe a week if you'll never be able to pull it off. There's no judgment if you overestimate your abilities, but try to be realistic.

2. Use only recipes that are already in your possession, either in a physical copy or bookmarked in your browser. No fair picking out new recipes to try! That's fun too, but that's not the point of the challenge. Physical recipes don't have to literally come from a cookbook - if they're on Grandma's old index card or the back of a mayo jar, that's fine.

3. When you've cooked one of those backlogged recipes, post about it, either here or in your journal. Make sure to copy out the recipe, credit it properly, and note any substitutions or changes you had to make. If the recipe comes from a website or from a book that can be purchased online, then consider posting a link.

4. Once a month I'll post a roundup. If you didn't post in the comm, post a link to your entry in the comments.

5. This is a fun challenge. No judgment. The only goal is to support each other as we make our way through our piles of hoarded recipes, at whatever pace we can manage.

If you want a formal way to mark your own commitment, fill in the poll.

Poll #26591 Cookbook challenge sign-up

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

View Respondents

What commitment are you willing to make?

View Answers

One or more recipe a week
0 (0.0%)

Three or more recipes a month
2 (10.5%)

One or two recipes a month
5 (26.3%)

Six or more recipes over the year
3 (15.8%)

Two to six recipes over the year
3 (15.8%)

At least one recipe over the year
5 (26.3%)

Unsure/rather not say
1 (5.3%)

I'll sit this one out, but cheer from the sidelines
0 (0.0%)

( Banner images )

If you'd like to do this with a bingo card, there are some ready-made ones here. Or, you can go here to generate your own!

January 2021 roundup

spiralicious

Another recipe from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins. I almost didn’t post this one, since it is essentially just steamed broccoli and a simple sauce, but it was a good sauce and should be shared.

Tiny Trees in a Giant’s Bowl
Serves 4 to 6
2 bunches broccoli (about 2 pounds total), trimmed to look like miniature trees
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce

Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the broccoli, lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, or until bright green. The stalks should be soft enough to poke a form through. Drain well.

In the biggest bowl you have, combine the hot broccoli, salt, fish sauce, and butter, tossing the broccoli and shaking the bowl to melt the butter. Serve.

Notes:
I have a steamer, so I used that.

The sauce was very good, but I feel like it could have used less salt.

When I make it again, I will probably melt the butter before mixing it in with the broccoli.

spiralicious

This is another recipe from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

Purple Soup

Serves 6

2 tablespoons butter
½ cup roughly chopped yellow onion
2 medium raw beets (about 8 ounces total), roughly chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
2 medium yellow potatoes (about 12 ounces total), roughly chopped (about 1 ½ cups)
1 large carrot, roughly chopped (about 1 cup)
Sea salt to taste
4 cups water
1 to 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sour cream for garnish

Melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Toss in the onion and cook until softened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Add your chopped veggies, salt, and water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, or until the beets are very soft.

Let the soup cool slightly before pouring it from the pot into a blender. Blend until ultrasmooth and purple.

Return the blended soup to the pot and add the lemon juice. Stir and adjust the seasoning. Serve the soup in mugs or 6-ounce ramekins.

Kid’s job! Swirl in sour cream to create a purple fuchsia cyclone.

Notes:
My onion I had saved for this had gone off and it was storming out, so I subbed in onion powder. I don’t remember how I calculated it, but I came up with 1 ½ tablespoons.

I also used just under a half a cup of extra beets because I had that much left over and I wasn’t going to waste it.

My blender is not big enough to handle this much soup at once, so I had to do it in batches. It makes quite the extra mess. If I do it again, I am going to try using the potato masher and see how that turns out.

The beets I had defied all color logic and were no where near the any color normally associated with beets and were instead blood red. Everyone I sent a picture to with no context asked if I was making soup from the blood of my enemies for dinner, except one who wondered what “hella spicy” sauce I had conjured up. So just know that is a possible visual outcome.

Taste wise, it was quite good. It tasted most like buttered baked beets.

spiralicious

Egg and Cheese Cupcakes from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins (This is technically a cookbook for cooking with children as a family, so I have left the “Kid’s job!” labels in, but you obviously do not need to be or have children to enjoy this.)

Makes 6 cupcakes

Butter for greasing
6 slices bread
1 ¼ cups grated Parmesan, Cheddar, or Jack cheese. Divided
6 eggs
Pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter a 6-cup muffin tin.

Kid’s job! Press the rim of a sturdy drinking glass into a slice of bread to make a round cutout. Using your glass, stamp out six rounds of bread. Grab the crusty bread scraps and rip ‘em up into nickel-sized pieces. Put those ripped bread bits in a pile.

Distribute 1 cup of grated cheese evenly among the muffin cups - the cheese will crisp and form a crust on the bottom while baking. Press one bread round firmly into the bottom of each cup, on top of the layer of cheese.

Kid’s job! Give the eggs and salt a good whisking in a large Pyrex measuring cup (or any large cup or bowl with a pour spout). Pour the eggs into each muffin cup. Go slowly… can you fill each cup almost to the top without spilling over?

Top each cup with the reserved bread scraps, sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup cheese over the top, and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes: Our muffin tins are a bit shallower than average and I had a lot of bread leftover.

I expected this to be very eggy, but the round of bread at the bottom of the muffin tin absorbs the egg and swells to fill up the space, giving the texture of a cupcake when you bite or cut into it.

Even with the cheese, it is very French toast like in flavor to the point I recommend serving it with something sweet.

spiralicious

Japanese Curry (S&B Golden Curry)

I finally tried making the curry recipe on the side of the S&B Golden Curry box.

Ingredients (5 servings)

Beef (or chicken, lamb, shrimp), chopped - 450 g/1 lb (I used beef)
medium onions, minced - 1 3/4 (350 g/13 oz)
medium carrot, chopped - 1/2 (100 g/3.5 oz)
medium potato, chopped - 1 (150 g/5 oz)
Vegetable oil - 1 Tbsp
Water - 540 ml
S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix 92 g - 1 pack

Directions

1. Stir-fry meat and vegetables with oil in a large skillet on medium heat for approx. 5 min.

2. Add water and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until ingredients are tender, approx. 15min.

3. Turn the heat off, break S&B Golden Curry Sauce Mix into pieces and add them to the skillet. Stir until sauce mixes are completely melted. Simmer approx. 5 min., stirring constantly.

4. Serve hot over rice or noodles.

I didn't use the exact vegetable amounts, but close, and we had it over rice. I think it turned out really well. My mother had never had curry before, except at the Thai restaurant, and was hesitant to try it, but ended up really liking it.

spiralicious

Sushi Brain

I made this for Halloween dinner as a sort of "slice and serve" meal, instead of as a dip as the recipe intended. I'm not sure how it would actually work as a dip.

There doesn't seem to be a written version of this recipe anywhere. It was originally part of a show break during an episode of Halloween Baking Championship and has been on the Food Network's YouTube channel since 2014. I've been eyeing it for a while, but the stars finally aligned for me to have all of the ingredients at the same time.

Ingredients:

whole avocado
cream cheese
prepared sushi rice
smoked salmon
roe

1. Halve avocado and peel the avocado. Remove pit.

2. Press cream cheese into pit cavity.

3. Press halves back together.

4. Put avocado on plate. Pack cooked sushi rice around avocado and keep doing so until you have built a brain shape.

5. Make indentations along the center of rice brain.

6. Separate slices of smoked salmon.

7. Roll into irregular pattern and place on rice brain.

8. Repeat until completely covered.

9. Press together with plastic wrap.

10. Spoon red tobiko (roe) into indentation to simulate blood. (I did not do this step.)

This was a big hit. I wish I'd had some nori on hand to have with it.

watersword

From the NYT

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes, substitutions, etc. )

watersword

From the NYT.

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes, substitutions, etc. )

conuly

But I recently remembered I meant to do that.

Very sorry, I've been busy being sad my mother died. As compared to last year when I remembered to post the poll and then spent the year being busy pretending I didn't think my mother was dying.

I'll find my previous year's poll and post it probably in a few days, but I wanted to post now before I forgot, and just say - yup, challenge is still ongoing!

watersword

from Smitten Kitchen Keepers, Deb Perelman.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

( Notes )

watersword

From King Arthur Baking.

( ingredients )

( paraphrased method )

( notes )

watersword

From NYT.

( Ingredients )

( Paraphrased method )

( Notes )

spiralicious

Confetti Frittata
The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

Ingredients:
1 leaf Swiss or rainbow chard
6 eggs
1 cup milk
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup grated mild Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup grated Swiss cheese or Gruyere cheese

Preheat oven to 350° f.

Wash and dry the chard. Hold the stem at the bottom, like a handle, in one hand. Use your other hand to tear the leaf away from the stem in one swoop. Set aside the stem or use it for a duel. Using child scissors, snip off tiny pieces of the leaf to make teeny green confetti. Set aside. (They assume a child is helping you.)

Combine the eggs, milk, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and wisk until well mixed.

Melt the butter in a medium-sized pan (preferably cast iron) over medium heat. Swirl the butter so it coats all sides of the pan. Once the pan is evenly coated, pour the excess melted butter into the whisked eggs and give them a stir. Set aside.

Add the chard confetti to the pan and stir until just wilted. If there's water in the pan after sauteing the greens, press the greens into the pan with a spatula and tip the pan to pour out the excess into the sink.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan. Top one side of the pan with cheddar and the other with Swiss or gruyere. Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the middle: if it comes out mostly clean, it's ready.

Let the frittata cool for a few minutes, then slice into wedges and serve.

Notes:
While my sister turned her nose up at this, my mother and I enjoyed it, and my mother would like this in regular rotation. I did have to sub the chard for okra and the Swiss cheese for a very similar cheese. Even using a cast iron pan, 2 tablespoons of butter was excessive, but it didn't hurt anything.

I had to "talk to type" this to type it and I think I caught all the typos, but if there are any, that's why.

yuuago

This is more of a summer recipe, but it's always a good time for cherries and custard-y things, I think.

( Cherry clafoutis )

Adjustments: It called for fresh cherries, but I used frozen instead. I thawed them out overnight beforehand, and there were no issues with the baking.

Verdict: I enjoyed this a lot; it's like a delicious baked custard. Would make again. Might be nice with whipped cream on top. However, my relatives didn't enjoy it. More for me, then!

Other info: I'd like to emphasize that this really does have to be eaten warm; it's edible cold, but not nearly as nice. So if you're having leftovers, be sure to heat it up before serving.

purplecat

From my mother's cookbook.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I used chicken thighs as advised and substituted rice wine for sherry (since experience tells me that the appearance of sherry in any 1980s-90s asian-style recipe from the UK should probably be replaced by rice wine). I cheated and bought microwave coconut rice.

Verdict

Nice and simple chicken dish. Will make again.

purplecat

I realise that this page of Mum's recipe book contains no less than four chicken recipes, all in the same font and cut from a magazine. I hypothesise some kind of "things to do with chicken" article. The jury is still out on whether I'll attempt the other two - a tagine and a slightly tame looking Thai poached chicken. Anyway, Chicken and Mushroom pie is a classic, so I thought I might as well.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I didn't have any shredded cooked chicken thigh meat to hand so I diced some chicken thighs and fried them first. I was very suspicious of the lack of any seasoning beyond two rosemary sprigs and so added a pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper to the mixture before I put it in the pie dish.

Verdict
The puff pastry didn't really puff, but I suspect that isn't necessarily the recipe's fault but more, perhaps, a comment on the quality of ready-rolled puff pastry - or possibly I took it out of the fridge too soon. Otherwise this was perfectly nice and very decorative. Will make again.

purplecat

The offspring having returned to university, I am going back to cooking my way through my mother's recipe book. This looks like it has been cut out of a magazine.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Verdict: A perfectly nice chicken in a cream sauce recipe, but nothing special.

yuuago

It's getting to be that time of year when I'm remembering all the fancy desserts I bookmarked years ago with the intention of testing them in advance of holiday time. Here's one I tried today.

( Ginger and Date Cake with Toffee Rum Sauce )

Verdict: My parents loved it! I'll be adding it to the list of fancy things that I can make if I need to impress somebody. This cake isn't difficult, but it takes a bit of time due to preparing the dates and making the sauce. Fortunately, the sauce reheats very well, so (as the recipe suggests) this is a nice make-ahead cake.

Other info: This recipe calls for 125 ml whipping cream, but the smallest carton I could find was 237 ml. So, I whipped the extra cream and dolloped it on top of the warm cake and toffee sauce. EXCELLENT idea, will be doing that every time I make this!

purplecat

This is the end of the "Meat" section in Mum's cookbook - though if I'm interpreting the notes correctly Meat actually continues if I go to Fish and start working backwards. It's handwritten with no clue as to provenance. This is one of the few recipes I actual recall eating, even though I think it must have gone into the book after I left home. At the time I didn't like it because of the caraway flavour, but this time I rather appreciated that.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistake and Substitutions
I distinctly remembered this being served with sliced pork, and note that there is no mention of slicing the shallots or mushrooms, so I treated this as an omission because Mum knew everything was to be sliced, and sliced everything before starting. At that point though the 1/2 hour to cook the pork seemed somewhat excessive. Himself insists the pork fillet should have been boiled in the stock and then sliced after the fact. Maybe? Used onions instead of shallots.

Verdict
The pork wasn't terribly tender and felt a little on the dry side, but it was nice enough and different enough with the caraway flavour that we will try again. I may try slicing the pork before serving next time, though I shall still slice the onions and mushrooms before sautéing them.

purplecat

Again this is from my mother's cookbook. It looks like a photocopy from a recipe book.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Subsitutions
I used three halved chicken thighs instead of carving up a whole chicken. As a result I was then playing fairly fast and loose with the other quantities (particularly after I dropped half the chilli/coriander mix on the floor). I still used a whole onion, but used only one tomato. Most of the herbs and spices I halved. Since I had a lot less chicken I cooked for 15 minutes before adding the coconut mix, and then only 10 minutes afterwards. This probably put more time pressure on making the coconut mix that was good for it, and I was very sparing with the coconut milk since I was wary of it getting too runny.

Verdict
It's a kind of baked curry and even with all the random I had introduced it was very nice (if a bit hot). We will make again.

The blurb in the recipe says "Kuku means chicken in Swahili. This is a coastal recipe which was brought inland by traders" which begs a lot of questions really. Is this an African dish? Is it from an African cookbook. What bit of Africa? Wikipedia suggests it is a recipe from the Indian communities on the East African Coast.

Images on the internet suggest I was too sparing with the coconut milk and could have used considerably more of it than I did.

purplecat

From my mother's cookbook. Apparently this is from page 70 of the Sainsbury's Vitality Cookbook. Amazon tells me this was published in 1993 so we can safely assume, I think, that this recipe is from the mid-1990s.

( Ingredients )

( Method )

Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
I made this pretty much as directed - though I steamed the broccoli and I suspect the recipe expected it to be boiled.

Verdict
A simple recipe (albeit one that ends up using quite a few pots and pans). For the effort involved it's probably worth it for a simple everyday dish. I haven't quite decided whether I'd want to make it again though.

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Cookbook Challenge!

February 2024

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Page Summary

conuly - 2022's cookbook challenge
spiralicious - Tiny Trees in a Giant’s Bowl
spiralicious - Purple Soup
spiralicious - Egg and Cheese Cupcakes
spiralicious - Japanese Curry (S&B Golden Curry)
spiralicious - Sushi Brain
watersword - Bok Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce
watersword - Coconut-Poached Fish With Bok Choy
conuly - Four months late for the start-of-the-year post with sign-up poll
watersword - charred salt and vinegar cabbage
watersword - everything bagel biscotti
watersword - Soy-Braised Tofu With Bok Choy
spiralicious - Confetti Frittata
yuuago - Cherry clafoutis
purplecat - Ginger Chicken with Coconut Rice
purplecat - Chicken and Mushroom Pie
purplecat - Chicken with Fennel and Tarragon
yuuago - Ginger and Date Cake with Toffee Rum Sauce
purplecat - Caraway Pork to serve with Pasta
purplecat - Kuku Paka
purplecat - Broccoli and Ham Gratin

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Cookbook challenge

Make new recipes you already own!

Recent Entries

Sticky: 2022's cookbook challenge

Tiny Trees in a Giant’s Bowl

Purple Soup

Egg and Cheese Cupcakes

Japanese Curry (S&B Golden Curry)

Sushi Brain

Bok Choy with Shiitakes and Oyster Sauce

Coconut-Poached Fish With Bok Choy

Four months late for the start-of-the-year post with sign-up poll

charred salt and vinegar cabbage

everything bagel biscotti

Soy-Braised Tofu With Bok Choy

Confetti Frittata

Cherry clafoutis

Ginger Chicken with Coconut Rice

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Chicken with Fennel and Tarragon

Ginger and Date Cake with Toffee Rum Sauce

Caraway Pork to serve with Pasta

Kuku Paka

Broccoli and Ham Gratin

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February 2024

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