Cooking recipe books

Cutting the carrots into sticks is what takes the longer in this recipe. The remaining is quick and the end result yummy. ' CookSmart Vegetarian ', a Octopus Publishing Group publication.  Serves: 4 persons. Ingredients: 3 medium onions, sliced (350g) 5cm fresh ginger, grated (12g) 1 cinnamon stick 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground coriander  1 tbsp chilli powder (the recipe called for paste) 500ml vegetable stock 4 tbsp lemon juice 2 tbsp honey 750g carrots, peeled and cut in 5cm sticks (600g once peeled) 125g pitted dates 125g dried apricots 250g couscous 4 tbsp fresh mint, chopped fresh coriander to taste, chopped salt & pepper to taste vegetable oil Method: Sweat the onions with vegetable oil in a frying pan. Add the ginger, cinnamon stick, ground cumin, ground coriander and chili. Fry for a minute. I made a mistake and used fresh coriander instead of dried. Add the vegetable stock, lemon juice, honey, carrots, dates and apricots and cook for 10 min. Add salt & peppe...

This tart really looks good in the picture of Paul Hollywood's ' How to bake ' book. If I knew how long it took to make and what the end result was, I wouldn't have started it. Don't get me wrong, taste wise it's great! However, the fresh apricots in the crème pâtissière don't really work. It is difficult to cut the apricots, even if they are ripe, and although the  crème pâtissière  was thick, it still made quite a mess when the tart was cut as it just came pouring out. I don't know... I either didn't get the  crème pâtissière 's thickness right or there is something that needs changing in this recipe. Serves: 8 portions. Ingredients: For the sweet pastry : 215g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 25g ground almonds 120g chilled unsalted butter, cubed 55g caster sugar 2 eggs:  1 for making the pastry 1 for egg wash (beaten with a splash of water) For the crème pâtissière : 100g sugar 4 egg yolks 40g cornflour...