Cooking recipe books

The Norwegians have been fishing, drying, salting and selling cod to the Portuguese for 500 years and, rumour has it, there are over 1000 ways of cooking it. Pastéis de bacalhau are a much loved delicatessen of the Portuguese cuisine which can be found anywhere in the country (Portugal). It's not a difficult recipe but it has a few steps.  What makes homemade pastéis de bacalhau different from the shop bought or frozen ones is that the content of salted cod is higher.  I had done this recipe once before but forgot whether the weight of cod was with or without bones. I considered the weight with bones which was a mistake and the fish cakes had a bit too much potato.  Keep the ratio of salted cod to potato of 40%-60%. Cook a couple of salted cod steaks, debone it, weight it and then calculate how much potato you will need. You can't go wrong! Serves: 30 fish cakes. Ingredients: 400g salted cod (after cooked and deboned) - about   2 cod st...

My partner found this recipe. It has two strong points in it's favour. It's very tasty and, I kid you not!, takes 10 min to do. Serves: 2 persons. Ingredients: 200g fusilli 1 ripe avocado 100g smoked salmon, sliced into strips 1 garlic clove 1 small bunch of parsley 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil lemon juice: 1 tbsp + squeeze in each plate Salt and pepper to taste Method: Cook the pasta in salted water. Drain the pasta but reserve 50 ml of the cooking water. Put the avocado, half the salmon, garlic, half the parsley, olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt and pepper in a food processor and blitz. Toss the sauce through the pasta and add the reserved water. Place the remaining salmon on top of the pasta on the plate, plus a squeeze of lemon juice and the remaining parsley chopped.

Last year we went to Dublin for a weekend and visited the Guinness Storehouse. By the way, it's worth the visit! I brought a few recipe cards, recipes with Guinness of course. I am a fan of Guinness so had high expectations for this recipe. Unfortunately, it didn't met my expectations. Just a normal beef stew. The Guinness doesn't add anything to it. I'm saddened to say that red wine would have done more for it. Serves: 5 persons. Ingredients: 500mg diced beef 200ml Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (couldn't find this one so used Guinness Original Extra Stout) 1 medium onion, diced 1 large carrot, diced 1 large celery stick, diced 1 large parsnip, diced 1 litre of thick beef stock (I used regular stock and it ended up very watery, so 500ml  of regular stock would do) Springs of fresh thyme & rosemary Salt and pepper to taste For the mashed potato: 1kg potatoes 50g butter 150ml milk salt and nutmeg Method: Stir fry the be...

As expected, the ginger nuts didn't last more than a week. Darina Allen's recipe was so good I decided to try another one of her recipe's in her ' Forgotten skills of cooking ': shortbread biscuits. They were very easy to do and are very tasty. Darina mentioned that depending on the butter used, the biscuits will taste British (salted butter) or French (unsalted butter).  I used my usual unsalted butter and as I tasted the first biscuit, I knew what she meant. Unsalted butter makes the biscuits taste like butter biscuits and less like shortbread biscuits. Must re-do this recipe with salted butter! Serves: 21 biscuits using a 5 cm pastry cutter. Ingredients: 175g plain white flour 50g sugar (Darina mentions caster but I used what I had at home: granulated) 110g butter milk as needed Method: Put the sugar and the sieved flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Gather the mixture together and knead lightly. The mixture was very dr...

I was happily surprise with how tasty this recipe is! The sauce is divine! Cook it... now! The recipe, Waitrose again, said it feeds 4 persons but, actually, I think the meat portions were small so I would say 3 persons. Shredded cabbage eaten raw. It was a first for me. The recipe didn't say to cook it so I tried it raw and it actually works. It's like a salad. The sauce is intense so you have a creamy texture in your mouth and that brings all the ingredients together. Serves: 3 persons. Ingredients: For the meat: 450g pork fillet 1 garlic clove, crushed 1 tbsp mustard 1 tbsp muscovado sugar 1 tbsp vegetable oil 9 prunes 200ml dry cider 1 tbsp thyme leaves, chopped 4 tbsp crème fraîche salt and pepper to taste For the mashed potato: 600g potatoes 30g butter 90ml milk salt and nutmeg For the cabbage: 150g white cabbage Method: Mix together the garlic, mustard, muscovado sugar, salt and pepper and spread over the pork fillet....

Another Waitrose recipe. Very easy and quick to do. Very tasty. Good for a Summer's day. Serves: 2 persons. Ingredients: 2 chicken breasts ½ tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground ginger 1 tsp olive oil 6 tbsp lemon juice (1 lemon) Salt and pepper to taste 120g couscous ½ ripe mango, peeled, stoned and cubed 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds 3 tbsp natural yogurt 50g watercress Method: Mix together the cinnamon, ginger, olive oil, half the lemon juice, salt and pepper and pour over the chicken. Coat well and leave it to stand for 10 min. Here I decided to let it stand for 2 hours, turning the breasts half way through. The longer you leave meat in seasoning, the tastier it gets. If time is an issue, than 10 min will have to do. Pour boiling water over the couscous, just enough to cover it, and leave it to stand for 5 min. Grill the chicken breasts for 6-8 min on both sides, turning once, until cooked through with no pink meat. Meanwhile, fork through the coucous to...

Heston Blumenthal is a genius. I saw all his cooking tv shows. I also kept a few of his recipes for Waitrose. I decided to try his cream of mushroom soup. He commands cup mushrooms. I don't particularly like them. I prefer to cook with portobello or brown mushrooms. They are more meaty and have more flavour. So the first time I made this recipe I used portobello mushrooms. The soup was tasty but because the flavour was so intense, the mushroom powder lost it's punch. Again I made the recipe this time using cup mushrooms. Heston was right! Flavour is more subtle so the mushroom powder is more intense and completes the dish beautifully. However, there is something I will not agree with Heston. Passing the soup through a sieve to end up with only mushroom broth and wasting all the mushroom meat is more than I can handle. I do not run a Michelin starred restaurant, I run a home. I will not through away good food! Serves:   10 persons. Ingredients: For the ...