I was shopping this weekend and discovered a local discount book store was shutting down and was selling most of its books off at £1 each, so after spending a while browsing, amongst other things I came out with 4 new recipe books – perfect for giving me some extra ideas for this challenge.
One of the books I discovered was by a chef called Sophie Mitchell, who I had seen before on Channel 4’s Cook Yourself Thin a few years ago. After a quick flick through, the first recipe that caught my eye was Beef Stifado – something I’d tried years ago whilst I was on holiday in Zakynthos. I’d never thought about making it myself before, but seeing the recipe reminded me how much I’d enjoyed it, and if I left out all the oil it was actually a very healthy recipe.
Overall I was pleased with the results. There was a really nice combination of flavours, and it was simple to put everything together. However, next time I make this I would probably try cooking it in my slow cooker, as I do with other stews, to give the flavours more time to come together, and also to make sure the beef goes nice and tender.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Week Four - Pot Roast Meatloaf
I’m a bit late in getting around to updating this, but my week 4 recipe was made on Sunday. It was back to one of my Jamie Oliver recipe books this week, and a pot roast meatloaf with a tomato sauce. Again, it was something I’d been meaning to try for a while, but just hadn’t got round to.
It was a simple recipe to make, with very little effort required – perfect for a lazy Sunday! The results were ok. I really liked the sauce surrounding the meatloaf – simple but very tasty and full of flavour, and something I definitely want to use again with other meals. However, the meatloaf itself didn’t really hold together well, and I felt it tasted quite bland. I had the leftovers for dinner again on Monday night, and it had improved slightly after sitting in the fridge overnight, but it was still lacking something.
This is a recipe I’d like to try again, but add some extras to the meatloaf mixture this time – definitely some garlic, and possibly some fresh rosemary through it too.
It was a simple recipe to make, with very little effort required – perfect for a lazy Sunday! The results were ok. I really liked the sauce surrounding the meatloaf – simple but very tasty and full of flavour, and something I definitely want to use again with other meals. However, the meatloaf itself didn’t really hold together well, and I felt it tasted quite bland. I had the leftovers for dinner again on Monday night, and it had improved slightly after sitting in the fridge overnight, but it was still lacking something.
This is a recipe I’d like to try again, but add some extras to the meatloaf mixture this time – definitely some garlic, and possibly some fresh rosemary through it too.
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Week Three - Potato Ravioli
One of the presents I received for Christmas was a small recipe book for using potatoes in lots of different ways. It looks a good book with quite a few nice sounding recipes in it, and given that potatoes are one of the free foods on my diet I looked to the book this week for my latest recipe.
The first thing that caught my eye was a potato ravioli, something I'd never considered making before, but looked nice in the pictures, sounded simple enough to make and wouldn't break my newly started diet. I tried to make it last night, and it turned into a bit of a disaster. The ravioli filling mixture was easy to make and tasted fine, however the potato dough to make the ravioli just didn't work. The dough was far too sticky, and when I tried to parcel everything together, it all just broke apart.
I had hoped that presentation may not matter, and that the end product would still taste ok, but that wasn't to be. It just tasted bland, and not at all like I imagined. In the end I gave up, cooked some penne and stirred that through the remaining ravioli mixture, which was at least edible! Definitely not a recipe I will be trying again!
The first thing that caught my eye was a potato ravioli, something I'd never considered making before, but looked nice in the pictures, sounded simple enough to make and wouldn't break my newly started diet. I tried to make it last night, and it turned into a bit of a disaster. The ravioli filling mixture was easy to make and tasted fine, however the potato dough to make the ravioli just didn't work. The dough was far too sticky, and when I tried to parcel everything together, it all just broke apart.
I had hoped that presentation may not matter, and that the end product would still taste ok, but that wasn't to be. It just tasted bland, and not at all like I imagined. In the end I gave up, cooked some penne and stirred that through the remaining ravioli mixture, which was at least edible! Definitely not a recipe I will be trying again!
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Week Two – Hazel’s Chocolate Chip Birthday Cake
My second new recipe of the year was made yesterday and was a birthday cake for a friend. I’m more of a cook than a baker, so haven’t really made too many cakes before. I wasn’t entirely sure what sort of cake I wanted to do, and after flicking through a birthday cake book I still hadn’t been inspired. I had an idea in my head that a chocolate chip style cake might be nice, and managed to find a recipe I liked the sound of through Google to use as a starting point.
I made two chocolate sponges, with white chocolate button chips, following the recipe, and then decided to add some vanilla butter cream icing in between the sponges. On the top I melted some more chocolate and decorated it with some smarties.
The cake was eaten at Hazel’s birthday night out last night, and seemed to go down well.
I made two chocolate sponges, with white chocolate button chips, following the recipe, and then decided to add some vanilla butter cream icing in between the sponges. On the top I melted some more chocolate and decorated it with some smarties.
The cake was eaten at Hazel’s birthday night out last night, and seemed to go down well.
Week One – Minced Beef Wellington
I’m a few days late posting this as I’ve been ill, but week one’s recipe was completed earlier this week! A minced beef wellington was my first choice, mainly so that I could enjoy the puff pastry before the diet starts tomorrow!
I’d used a Jamie Oliver recipe from one of the books I have, only modifying it slightly to avoid the nasty mushrooms, and overall I was pretty pleased with the results. Although it took a while to prepare and cook, it was very simple to make. The only downside was cutting it when it came out of the oven – some of it sliced up nicely and held together, but most of it crumbled into bits. However, I served it up with some mashed potato and gravy and thoroughly enjoyed it.
It’s definitely a recipe I want to try again, though next time I think I’ll make some smaller individual wellingtons so they can be served whole on the plate, rather than having to go through the difficult slicing again.
I’d used a Jamie Oliver recipe from one of the books I have, only modifying it slightly to avoid the nasty mushrooms, and overall I was pretty pleased with the results. Although it took a while to prepare and cook, it was very simple to make. The only downside was cutting it when it came out of the oven – some of it sliced up nicely and held together, but most of it crumbled into bits. However, I served it up with some mashed potato and gravy and thoroughly enjoyed it.
It’s definitely a recipe I want to try again, though next time I think I’ll make some smaller individual wellingtons so they can be served whole on the plate, rather than having to go through the difficult slicing again.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
My Resolution
I've always loved cooking, and whenever I get a new recipe book I devour it, marking up all the recipes I want to try. However, many of these I never get around to trying out because I'm too busy. By the end of last year I was feeling in a bit of rut, continually making the same old food every week, and wanted this to change. Then came the brainwave - my new year's resolution for 2010 would be to cook a new recipe every week for the year - the recipe can be anything at all such as a main course, a soup, a cake, even a side dish, just so long as it is new!
The first couple of recipes are just about decided - week 1 will be a beef wellington, a recipe I've been wanting to try out for a while, and then in week 2 I've promised to bake a birthday cake for a friend so I'm going to find a completely new cake recipe and give it a go.
The other part of the challenge is to do this in a healthy way. My 30th birthday is only a few months away and I want to lose a bit of weight beforehand, so the diet starts on January 11th. From then on, until I get to target I want my new recipes to be ones that I can eat without worrying about piling on the pounds.
This blog is going to be my record of the recipes of my challenge, and report the successes and failures, as well as making sure I keep on track and get to the 52 new recipes!
The first couple of recipes are just about decided - week 1 will be a beef wellington, a recipe I've been wanting to try out for a while, and then in week 2 I've promised to bake a birthday cake for a friend so I'm going to find a completely new cake recipe and give it a go.
The other part of the challenge is to do this in a healthy way. My 30th birthday is only a few months away and I want to lose a bit of weight beforehand, so the diet starts on January 11th. From then on, until I get to target I want my new recipes to be ones that I can eat without worrying about piling on the pounds.
This blog is going to be my record of the recipes of my challenge, and report the successes and failures, as well as making sure I keep on track and get to the 52 new recipes!
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