#cookbook review

[roadtoichor]

Test Kitchen: 'Ottolenghi Flavor: The Cookbook' by Yotam Ottolenghi

Review of Ottolenghi's third cookbook: Ottolenghi Flavor

[strongbookthoughts]

Notes on The Yearlong Pantry by Erin Alderson

I checked out this book because it was a new arrival I hadn't noticed before. I literally only looked at the front cover. So I was a bit surprised when I realized that it's a vegetarian cook book once I got home and started looking at it.

Honestly, when I grabbed the book, I was expecting something that focused more on seasonal foods. Instead, our three main categories are grains, legumes, and nuts & seeds.

The author does get a little into the weeds with grain prep, but also gives fairly good advice about where to buy some of the obscure grains. (Random fact: I had einkorn a few days ago, and it was quite tasty. I was completely surprised to realize it's mentioned in this book. In a waffle recipe, which is probably amazing.)

Also, you can pickle grains. My mind is blown.

The legumes section has a nice assortment of bean-types. There are directions for starting with dried beans (the point is pantry staples, after all!), but there are notes on how to make canned beans work with most recipes.

The seeds and nuts section feels the thinnest to me. Maybe it's because none of the recipes feature cashews, and those are my faves. On the other hand, the intro to the section talks about making nut milk. So it's not really lacking in culinary adventure. The very first recipe, Whipped Goat Cheese Dip with Black Pepper Hazelnuts, looks particularly yummy.

The flavor profiles are casually global. I noticed Italian, Indian and Korean back to back to back.

The book is vegetarian, not vegan, but there's a pretty good amount of wiggle room to go fully vegan in some recipes. And others are vegan anyway.

Some recipes do have seasonal notes for if ingredients are not easy to find year-round.

Overall, a solid reference book! I do think the most attention was given to the grain section. And if I was going to start exploring my options there, this would be a spectacular book to have on hand. And as a happy meat-eater, yes I did see a few ways I might tweak a recipe or two to include meat. But I honestly think that most of these recipes are more than flavorful enough without doing that.

[andreai04]

All my life, l'd felt alone. And now, at the edge of the apocalypse, I finally realized how much I needed other people.

They will not break me. But I will break them. This is my promise to myself, to my friends, and to you, anyone who reads these words. I will break them all.

[aaajaxolotl]

Feast Your Eyes: Fandom Cookbook Recipe Review #2

You Won’t Have Mush-room For Seconds - Minecraft: Gather, Cook, Eat! Official Cookbook

Tonight’s menu: sourced from the Official Minecraft Cookbook

Main Course: Mooshroom Burger, pg 55

Side Dish: Roasted Crops, pg 26

Full review under the cut!

Aurum Leuci’s Log:

[Begin recording.] Uh, hi. It’s Chef Aurum Leuci again, late… still. Are you sure you fixed the portal coordinates? Because this is NOT the culinary facility. Everything is cubes. I think I might actually be in a computer, because, uh.. when I say everything is cubes, I mean everything is cubes. I’m fine, and my gear is fine, and everything I make is fine, but I’m on an island full of giant pixelated-looking mushrooms, and pixelated… cow… things? With mushrooms growing on them.

…those could probably make a delicious meal, actually. Don’t worry about me, I’m going to see what I can cook up for some quick dinner. This weird new dimension might be a place worth exploring. As always, no need to worry. If I get into a sticky situation, I’ll jump dimensions again— but hopefully I’ll at least have time to eat.

If it’s good, I’ll be sure to bring some back to the lab for you. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]

Please see this post for my full review scale!

Main Dish: Mooshroom Burger

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 4/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 4/5

TOTAL RATING: 23/25

I love this recipe, and so does my entire family. It’s a delicious swiss-and-mushroom burger that’s easily made completely plant-based using Impossible Beef and Daiya cheese- and it always turns out SO good! The reason this recipe isn’t quite perfect is twofold, so let me start with the somewhat sillier reason first: I WANT THIS BURGER IN MY GAME!!! Please!! We have the technology (bread, mushrooms, cooked beef). Give me the mooshroom burger, Mojang. Or at least a sandwich of some kind. The second point off is a matter of personal preference; the original recipe makes four absolutely MASSIVE burgers. Like, big enough that my family (all four of us) could barely finish them the first time I made this. I highly recommend cutting the recipe (and the resulting two, still massive, burgers) in half. Aside from that, this recipe was perfect (and delicious!) and very satisfying.

Side Dish: Roasted Crops

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 4/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 24/25

This recipe is another one I wish I could rate absolutely perfect. It’s easy, the ingredients are easy to get but relatively uncommon in most dishes, and the end result tastes incredible! This recipe made me love carrots, and it resulted in me even agreeing to TRY beets, which is a huge feat. The only point it loses is that the cookbook drastically underestimates prep time for cutting and peeling the vegetables. Especially if you’re not used to handling beets, they’re messy and will definitely freak you out at least once when the juice gets on your hands. Honestly, though, this cookbook was worth buying JUST for this recipe. It’s a consistent hit with my family.

Tune in next Wednesday (6/12/24) for another fandom cookbook review!

[airfryerburrito]

Review of "You Gotta Eat"

I recently read Margaret Eby's "You Gotta Eat." As the blurb says:

A trained chef teaches you how to keep yourself fed--and maybe even enjoy it!--in the face of stress, burnout, and exhaustion.

Eby makes a great point about cooking: "the best food is the food that you'll eat." I forget that a lot when planning what to cook for the week. I want to make fancy, gourmet, health-conscious meals that feel special. But when it's actually time to make lunch or dinner, I have the energy to...microwave something. Or boil water. Maybe even stick something in the toaster oven / air fryer.

The book is organized by that kind of energy level, with chapters like "Open something" and "Microwave something." You can open a can of soup and maybe add a few things to level it up. Or make microwave eggs, rice, cakes, etc.

There are some things in the book I already make, although my versions are even lazier, like nachos, ramen, and boxed mac 'n' cheese. But it's interesting to see and learn from Eby's variations and additions. Since reading it I topped a microwaved potato with leftover chicken, butter chicken sauce from a jar, and microwaved peas, and called it dinner. It was low effort delicious.

For dinner this week I tried Eby's sheet pan formula: cut up a bunch of veggies (or buy them pre-cut!), add a protein, add oil and salt and pepper and spices, and bake until cooked and browned. That last part made me nervous -- what if the protein isn't cooked through? So I decided to stick to my usual 35 minutes at 425 F for boneless skinless chicken thighs, then 1-2 minutes under the broiler. I also used parchment paper, whereas Eby recommends placing everything directly on the pan. It's just a pain to scrub off.

I also made Eby's "sheet pan sauce": 2 tablespoons tahini, 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, and 2 tablespoons water. It sounds weird but it's sweet and nutty. I put some on the chicken before baking and drizzled it on afterwards.

Overall, the book is more of a mindset than a set of recipes. I'm looking forward to trying out more of the concepts and combinations.

[catilinas]

Dear friend can you post your mom's tiramisu recipe please if she doesn't mind you sharing it.. I love tiramisu and I think I have a great recipe but I am always interested in a potentially better one!! Ty - fellow pro tiramisu lover

i am so sorry i asked her if i could share it and she said no it is a closely guarded secret :((( like there are secret ingredients involved. however i do think a lot of why it is so good is practice (she made it like. weekly. for a while) so just make more tiramisu? i feel like there are no downsides to just making more tiramisu

[niseag-reads]

"Oh god no" - a review.

this is a review, or more of a rant, about the Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide to the Gluten-Free, Casein-Free Diet by Pamela Compart and Dana Laake. I was not going to post about this book, expecially not as the first post on my shiny new blog. but I need to talk about this. God. I am disgusted to my core and I need to talk about it. Screenshots from the books I read will not be a common occurance on this blog but I will use some here to get across what I have stumbled into.

Book TWs: Ableism (anti-autism sentiment), calorie counting I may have been naive when I judged this book by it's cover, i'm going to be honest with you. I saw this and though "oh! a book with recipes that cover for people with a variety of different needs! how nice!".You can imagine, then, that I was quite thrown off by the contents of the book. The first impression shook that believe a little. Recipes don't start until chapter 10. I skipped the preamble, because honestly I was just here for the food, and it seemed to be about raising autistic children and I am an autistic adult without any children so I figured I didn't need that. I just wanted to know what kind of delicious, sensory friendly foodstuffs the author has in store for us! this excitement was soon crushed as I got to the first recipe, and I am just goint to show you the whole page so you can get a sense of what i stumbled into.

So, some good things: page layout is great, the little icons that indicate dietary needs are lovely! in later recipes they also tell you how much the recipe makes and the estimated nutritional information which is great if you have to monitor that for one reason or another. but let's get to the rant. to begin, I am autistic and have adhd. I have many autistic friends. none of us enjoy drinking straight water. That is not to say no autistic people like drinking water, but it does make me put questionmarks on a supposedly autism-friendly cookbook to lead with it. Second of all: I don't need a fucking recipe to figure out how to put a glass under the tap right? am I the only one who thinks this is a weird thing to add as a recipe? I suppose it's probably done tongue in cheek but, really... is this the tone we're going for here? I felt somewhat belittled by this book reading this. anyway, i pressed on. a lot of recipes were just standard and seemingly random recipes none of which really stood out to me as particularly kid or neurodivergent friendly. A lot of recipes required a lot of different ingredients and different steps and kitchen appliances to use which definitely rules them out for my flavour of neurodivergence (the adhd task avoidance would never let me go through that many steps to make a meal, eat it, and then also do the dishes) but fine, I suppose, different people can handle different things, expecially if you're a parent cooking for a child this might not be an issue at all, and I also understand that to eat gluten free more work is sometimes, sadly, needed. Anyway, my various questionmarks about the recipes compiled with the inclusion of not one, but two recipes for communion wafers. what? no shade on anyone that needs gluten free communion wafers and decides to make them themselves, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. What confuses me is why they are here, in this book. It seems unrelated to anything? At this point, in between the water and the communion wafers and the whole first chunk of the book being about bringing up children, I was starting to realise this was a book written by a stereotypical "autism mom" I proceeded with caution, because I hadn't given up on finding nice recipes in here, though at this point I had told myself that I was definitely not reading the first 10 chapters. I should have stopped reading. because on page 215 I wa greeted with this sentence

recovered from fucking autism??? if I had any hope left that this book was trying to promote acceptance and inclusivity, it shattered right there. i went back to the first 10 chapters and scanned them. there's bits in there about how to make your child eat things they might be averse to, how to force them to comply. I then, finally, read a summary. appearently some people think that you can cure autism with a low gluten diet? I'm just so tired of this stuff, man. 0 stars. technically DNF. I feel gross after having read this.

[portiaonmercury]

First thoughts?

The cookbook is really nice and it has a cute little short story involving Tess and Knox. It really just shows them both at Fablehaven which is something we really didn’t get in Dragonwatch…

I will say though, Seth and Kendra are not featured but are mentioned once if you were interested in those two! They are both busy at Wyrmroost apparently.

The recipes seem pretty easy but I’d have to test them myself to see, which probably won’t be for a week or two due to my recovery.

I will say, some of these look AMAZING, and almost every single character besides some endgame ones get their own little recipes. It’s really adorable.. I don’t think I can share the recipes, but I think I can share photos of what they are in the cookbook.

Safe to say, the fairy bread and Brackens milkshake/smoothie might kill me. They’re both really cute looking but I might die if I consume them which I’m a bit scared to try them in the future but we ball..

Seth’s food also looks absolutely amazing? And it’s a really easy recipe because let’s be honest, he probably can’t cook for the life of him. It’s just a peanut butter sandwich with banana and Nutella, and I’ve had that in the past and I can say from like a standard view, it’s pretty good and I recommend trying it (Apparently you can put potato chips and cereal with it, which,,, is unique to say the least!)

Kendra’s treat looks also amazing, it’s just Chocolate-covered krispies but it’s still pretty good looking, I’m definitely gonna try this one. This one also just has such a cozy feeling to it because of the little description they added which involves Kendra just letting the brownies make them late at night as it storms.. which, Seth doesn’t have that, it’s just a very short description on how he thinks peanut butter goes with everything.

Besides that, Kendra’s is very sweet and silly and I feel it goes with her character amazingly.

Hugo also has a recipe, it’s mudslide ice cream cake which seems so good? I’m definitely gonna try it when I’m able to as well.

Grandma Larsen also has cute little unicorn cookies and they’re genuinely so adorable looking, I would in fact, take a chunk out!

Aside from the recipes, the cookbook is really nice and it has a cute design on the inside upon opening it and I stared at it for a bit because the neurons in my brain were processing every little design there…The cookbook has such a silly design and feel to it and if you’re into baking as well as the series, it’s a cool thing to collect and also use if you ever wanna make a cool and unique looking treat for you or your family or friends! It’s your average cookbook but to me at the least it’s very sweet.

(PS: the hotdogs have little eyes on them and I couldn’t resist sharing a photo because they’re so cute)

[annabelmuse]

Been trying to read more just for fun and found this great cookbook at the library. Has great vegan recipes and they look delicious def want to try some of them. This book was great for inspiration also I need more cookbooks tbh.

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 5/5

Book Blurb:

Immerse yourself in your favorite anime worlds and café culture, in its myriad forms, through 50 different anime movies and series--from the beloved films of Studio Ghibli to popular series such as One Piece. Food plays an important role in anime, whether it is briefly shown in a slice-of-life scene or the entire plotline of an episode or even a series, and popular anime food creator Nadine Estero (@issagrill) has perfectly captured these favorite food and drink moments once again, in this follow-up to her best-selling cookbook, The Anime Chef Cookbook.   In The Anime Café, Nadine takes on lighter fare, focusing on 50 drinks, snacks, and sweet treats—traditional Japanese favorites and inventive re-creations—and bringing them from the screen to your table.​ In this cookbook, you’ll find:​ ​

Foods and drinks from a variety of popular anime series and movies​

50 easy-to-make, fun, and delicious recipes​

A stunning anime-style food illustration accompanying every recipe ​

Information about the exact episodes that feature the items​

How to stock your anime kitchen​

A celebration of Japanese food and culture​

Review:

A delightful collection of foods that have been in popular anime. Have you ever wanted to recreate the foods from your favorite animes? Well now you can with this cook book compiled with sweets, savory dishes, and drinks all inspired by some of your favorite animes! I had so much fun reading this and all the recipes were super easy to make and follow. There are 50 recipes and info on the exact episode and anime that the recipe is from! Snatch this book up immediately!!

Release Date: September 3,2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Rock Point | Rock Point for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[thelastspeecher]

I made these absolutely banger cookies recently (the recipe will be going up on my instagram at some point soon; look for a "white cookies" recipe) and made enough to share with my across the hall neighbors

and last week I made slightly less banger cookies (that recipe will also be going up; look for "powdered sugar cookies") and there were a LOT bc the full batch called for a single egg and I didn't want to halve an egg I hate doing that

anyways I just gave our neighbors some from that recipe and the guy was so excited when he thought it was the other kind that I made and I feel kinda bad, like, he's gonna be disappointed bc these aren't as good

[strongbookthoughts]

Notes on Preservation Pantry by Sarah Marshall

So I'm gonna admit this book wasn't what I expected, but that's because I was rushing to pick something so I could check out before the library closed. That made it a little hard to accept on it's own terms, but I've come around to finding it charming.

Okay, so a lot of people I know are pretty worried about grocery prices. Doing your own food preservation is a way to stretch your pennies or at least raise the quality of what your pennies can do. I was hoping for something that would be a little more in depth about more techniques, but.. yeah, anyway. That's on me for being in so much hurry that I didn't even read the subtitle.

So the biggest downside to the book is that the recipes really highlight what's available at North Pacific farmer's markets. If you live in a different area, you might never see some of this stuff, or it might be horrifyingly expensive. Or maybe you'll just take a road trip so you can go on a canning spree vacation. That's a thing normal people do, right?

The book is sectioned by fruit or veggie. For each main ingredient, there are two canning recipes, one other recipe that can be stored, and then a recipe that uses on of the 3 previous recipes to make a dish. I LOVE that. One of the biggest problems with canning recipes is figuring out what to do with the results beyond eating out of the jar with a spoon. I'm definitely interested in the onion jam that can be turned into french onion soup.

I also really liked the idea of creating a canning club with my friends. There's a whole section on what the idea is and how to run one. I know a lot of food nerds, so... yeah. Sharing is caring and all that.

[ophexis]

I've returned from my supply run earlier and I'm happy to say I shall be making not one, but TWO whole recipes from the neopets cookbook! Mostly it's just that the one I really wanted to make was very simple, and would have left me over with ingredients that the second recipe uses, so it works out perfectly lmao.

Anyway I shall now speak of the Neopets Cookbook and what I think of it in between two rounds of Sakhmet Solitaire.

The Neopets Cookbook came out last year and it was one of those things I: 1) never expected to happen 2) didnt even consider being a possibility 3) makes so much sense

They only tell you how to make like 3-4 omelettes but it's really just omelette+toppings so you can be creative.

Neopets has a gajillion food items, and while a good chunk of it is questionnable, theres a lot I wanted to eat irl as a kid lmao. I'm happy that all recipes in the book are actual neopets food items rather than just like, neopets-shaped cookies or whatever. I do kinda wish the book was bigger to have more recipes in it. The recipes for main meals are a bit sparse and you will mostly find snacks and desserts.

This cookbook does expect that kids will be picking it up, so the recipes are on the simpler side, and there are several warnings throughout the book about being careful with knives and to not burn yourself. If you're an experienced cook, you're not gonna learn much or discover anything new in this book, but if you've just started cooking on your own (or have kids) this could be a really good starter book! The recipes mostly count on the presentation to be fun rather than the use of unique ingredients and techniques and stuff.

You go you funky little gay neopets

There are many many recipes that include tips on how to make meaty recipes vegetarian or vegan, on how to make vegetarian recipes vegan, or how to make a lot of the recipes gluten-free.

It's super colorful, has a TON of photos of the foods, and specifically at least one photo for EVERY recipe! Which you may discover through my journey with these books is, for some gods forsaken reason, not always a given! So the Neopets cookbook gets a gold star for the beautiful giant photos of the food on every page, and the cute neopets art spread throughout. There's also some templates you can photocopy at the end to decorate with.

The two recipes I'm gonna make this week are the Hot Dog Burrito, which I might do tomorrow and the Space Quesadilla, which I will do……either wednesday or thursday depending on my mood lmao.

tl;dr:

GOOD: Great for beginners! Photos on every recipe! SUPER colorful! Really fun presentation! Fun for the whole family! Great party food ideas!

LESS GOOD: Recipes on the simpler side! Tends to depend on store-bought items! (which is fine but less stuff is made from scratch) The food might not be mindblowing but it'll be fun as heck!

"Let's get cooking!"

If you want to have another look at this book I suggest watching Misohungrie's review of it where he cooks 3 meals from the book and shares his thoughts!

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

The problem with my family is that we agree that we're going to get each other one (1) surprise gift for Christmas.

And then my mom's like, "by the way, I got you both two."

So me and my brother are like okay, we're gonna get each other and mom two (2) surprise gifts for Christmas.

And then my brother asks me if I can wrap some of his gifts for my mom for him and he brings me three (3) surprise gifts for my mom.

So now I need to buy three (3) surprise gifts for my mom and brother for Christmas.

And then my brother brings me another gift to wrap for my mom so now he's at the four (4) surprise gift level.

Plus however many he's wrapped himself.

So now, me having originally stuck to the one (1) gift agreement has to suddenly buy another gift and then another gift and then another gift so I don't feel bad for not getting them that much.

And my mom's like "well, it's the thought that counts" and I'm like well yeah obviously, but you also told my brother wanted to originally buy me a goddamn mini fridge for my surprise gift so I can't imagine he didn't spend a lot on these gifts, and I did not plan to spend this much on gifts because I planned to buy a bunch of board games for us to play as an extra surprise.

Anyway, I've now gotten them both five (5) gifts plus one (1) novelty gift and also on top they have a board game wrapped as a present also because ahhhhhhhh why can't we stick to the rule we all agreed to earlier?

[aaajaxolotl]

Feast Your Eyes: Fandom Cookbook Recipe Review #1

Are These Smuggled Goods? - Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook

Suddenly finding themself employed on a high-class spaceship, our intrepid multiverse-traveling chef Aurum Leuci prepares a traditional dish from the fungal forest planet of Narqui— along with some questionably-sourced side dishes.

Tonight’s menu: sourced from the Star Wars Ultimate Cookbook

Appetizer: Cantonican Cactus Bites, pg 163

Main Course: Narquois Rolls, pg 45

Dessert: Kullgroon Drops, pg 95

Full review under the cut!

Aurum Leuci’s Log:

[Begin recording.] Hey, uh, Chef Aurum here. Sorry I’m late. I think I must have miscalibrated my dimensional portal generator, because I absolutely did NOT intend to wind up on a Neimoidian ship orbiting some random colony world— Narq, I think?— much less in a kitchen full of apparently-smuggled Kullgroon fruit and Cantonican vegetation. Luckily, I can handle myself in a kitchen— so let’s hope for my sake the politicians on this ship don’t know their kitchen staff by name. I can at least make some kind of fancy dinner for them before I find a safe place to reactivate the portal. And besides— I want to try that smuggled produce.

I’ll check in with you after the next jump, once it’s safe. Aurum Leuci out. [End log.]

The Feast Your Eyes Recipe Rating Scale

In this series, I’ll be rating each recipe based on five factors, each of which can receive up to five points. These reviews will be written out-of-character, detailing my (AJ) opinions and experiences with the recipes detailed in the post. I eat almost entirely plant-based, so any substitutions related to animal products will be denoted in the descriptions of dishes. The rating scale is as follows:

Difficulty: How easy or hard was this recipe to follow? Harder recipes will score lower in this category, while easier recipes will score higher.

Ingredients: How easy or hard were ingredients to source? This category will be scored similarly to Difficulty, and any substitutions made will be denoted in the recipe’s section.

Immersion: How well does this recipe fit the universe or world that it’s from? High scores in this category mean high immersion, while low scores mean that it’s not particularly immersive.

Time: How much time did this take? Recipes that take less time will score higher in this category.

End Result: With the recipe followed as closely as possible (according to my dietary restrictions/ingredient sourcing capability), how did the final dish turn out? Higher scores in this category denote a better final dish.

Side Dish: Cantonican Cactus Bites

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 3/5

Time: 3/5

End Result: 3/5

TOTAL RATING: 19/25

I came into this recipe REALLY wanting to give it a perfect rating. I love roasted brussels sprouts, and really, really wanted to like this recipe. It was straightforward to prepare, you could buy the ingredients at any grocery store, and it seemed like it would turn out really tasty. I was willing to put aside the fact that it’s just roasted brussels sprouts (not a terribly Star Wars-y dish) and was really hoping the taste would blow me away. Unfortunately, these turned out somewhat underwhelming. Despite following the recipe exactly, as you can see in the photo, these sprouts (and all of the tasty vegetables cooked with them, including fresh shallots and garlic) burned a little in the oven. This recipe definitely has potential- but as written in the cookbook, it’s somewhat middling.

Main Course: Narquois Rolls

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 3/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: 23/25

This recipe was AWESOME, and a hit with my family. It only loses points on the sad fact that I wasn’t able to source enoki mushrooms (the main ingredient of the dish) and had to substitute in a mix of other mushrooms. Having done some research on the planet of Narq (also known as Narqui?), I don’t think this was terribly immersion breaking, since it’s a foresty, swampy planet with… large fungal forests! I would love to make it again with actual enoki mushrooms to see how those would have affected the taste and texture— these were delicious.

Dessert: Kullgroon Drops

RATING:

Difficulty: 5/5

Ingredients: 5/5

Immersion: 5/5

Time: 5/5

End Result: 5/5

TOTAL RATING: A perfect 25/25!

I was really skeptical about this recipe— it’s literally just frozen grapes and Jell-O dust. Surprisingly, this is my highest-rated dish from this review! Super easy, super quick (the only time sink is letting them freeze) and they come out delicious, chilly, and beautifully alien! They’d be a believable find in a snow-covered environment like Kullgroon, and they were absolutely delicious.

Tune in this Friday (6/7/24) for another fandom cookbook review!

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

🧑‍🍳 TWO FOR TUESDAY 🧑‍🍳

I loooove cooking so I am so grateful to Hardie Grant for sending along these two cook books for me to check out!

I’m a bit of an “alter as I go” kind of cook and…it shows, especially with this salad and my troubles with certain ingredients 😂

[instagram]

I loved the look of so many of the recipes in Sofra by Karima Hazim Chatila and Sivine Tabbouch. There’s so much love and warmth between these pages and I’m excited to try more recipes. I made the spiced rice with lamb mince and nuts and the deluxe salad for this post.

Pomegranates are not in season here so the salad was definitely missing that sweet hit. I swapped cos lettuce for baby spinach because I just prefer it. I ALSO forgot to add the cabbage before taking the photos and I’m genuinely sad about it because it would have added that extra pop of colour. The dressing that goes with this salad is DIVINE and I will be making a very large batch in summer. I genuinely loved this salad and I can’t wait to be able to make it again with pomegranate!

The mince and rice was fairly straightforward and easy, no missing ingredients, though I did have to use a different kind of rice and therefore alter the way I cooked it a little. It still turned out absolutely delicious.

Happy Hour Snacks by Bec Vrana Dickinson was…not what I was expecting. Majority of these recipes are jazzing up things you buy at the store. Which is a neat idea and there are some really cool snacks in here, but if I paid good money for a recipe book I’d want to be learning how to make some simple entertaining snacks from scratch, not just adding some extra sauce or seasoning to a store bought item.

So yeah, I found this one fairly disappointing on the whole, but I did make the chicky nuggies. Very very easy, and incredibly delicious. I’ll definitely make nuggets this way again. (They also paired perfectly with the salad from Sofra which was great).

Both of these are available to buy now!