Cookery Calendar Challenge - February

Hello, welcome to my kitchen. I'm joining Penny at The Homemade Heart for February's Cookery Calendar Challenge. The challenge is to pick 2 recipes from one of your cookery books and cook them. Then using photographs of your chosen dishes, talk about how the recipe went and what your family thought about the meal. I'm going to cook 2 recipes from one of the many cookery books that are hidden away in the pantry. The book I chose this time is Simply Good Family Food by Peter Sidwell.

I bought this book after borrowing it from the library. I was instantly attracted to the biscuits section in 'Rainy days' with family favourites such as Bourbon biscuits, Custard creams, Caramel dodgers  described as 'something else' and Sidwell's version of the humble hob nob. These include sultanas, if you should make these, prepare to be amazed and have ready a large storage container or 2 smaller ones, as the recipe makes a lot. Peter Sidwell lives in the Lake District so it's no surprise that he's included a rainy days section.
 

The book itself is split into sections with 'Days out', 'I'm starving', 'Weekends' and 'Fresh from the garden' etc so the sweet thingss are interspersed at the end of each section as opposed to all at the end. Before I tell you the recipes I chose, I want to thank Jo from Three Stories High for sharing her idea about choosing the weekly menu. Her family sit down with a cookery book and each choose a recipe for the week. I like the way she says it builds tolerance to meals you wouldn't normally wish to eat.

Generally speaking in my family, on Sundays after entering work schedule times on the calendar for the week, I usually plan the weeks menu. I choose casseroles, chops and bakes, roasts at the weekend and fish, rice and pasta dishes. Sometimes the teens put in requests, such as sausages or tuna pasta bake. Teen 1 has cooked some meals in the past, when he did catering for GCSE. He cooked lots of sausage rolls, homemade bread and chicken masala, all of which was delicious.

So onto the challenge, this time I asked the family to choose some dishes. The teens chose one dish each which I will show you now. The first one in 'Easy Entertaining' was 'Smoked Salmon Doughnuts' which I initially thought sounded just plain weird! 

Smoked salmon doughnuts

They are described as tasty little nibbles to start a dinner party or for a light supper.

                           

Collecting together the above ingredients - egg yoke in pot, plus lemon, whisked egg whites, self-raising flour and oil for deep frying.

First of all the chopped smoked salmon is folded lightly into the whisked egg whites with the chopped basil, flour, salt and lemon zest. Once the oil has heated to 170*, you can test the heat by adding a tiny bit on a spoon. It should crackle when hot enough.

Once it's hot enough you simply spoon 4 generous tablespoons at a time of the mixture into the hot oil. After 45 seconds, turn them over. They should be golden and crispy. 

Place them on a warmed plate with kitchen towel to absorb some oil. I served ours with a ready prepared stir fry and egg fried rice using the egg yoke only. It was a bit dryer than past egg fried rice dishes but... it used up the yokes.

The family loved them, bliss a great success! I've cut one open so you can peep inside. It just goes to show, it's good to try new things. I definitely wouldn't have attempted this recipe anytime soon. I would've thought it too posh for family meals and thought - one day... maybe.

Sausage and sage meatloaf

The teens also chose another meatloaf, the last one I cooked was from The Hairy Dieters and required some pre-cooking. This meatloaf is from the weekends section. Here's the best bit, it requires no pre-cooking, no sauteing at all. Simply chop the onion, prepare some breadcrumbs and place in a mixing bowl add sage, eggs, milk, salt & pepper, honey and wholegrain mustard. Using your hands mix thoroughly and place in a 2lb loaf tin, covered in oiled baking paper. I lined my tin too as I hate ruining my tins trying to get things out again. Though the liner called have caused the difficulties in slicing the meatloaf to serve. Bake in the oven for about 1hr 20 mins until cooked through. 

We served ours with pasta and a ready made tomato pasta sauce. The family loved it. You could of course serve salad with this meal, or swap the pasta for mashed or jacket potato. Although this meatloaf requires no pre-cooking and it's not that I'm reluctant to cook, I have indeed made many a sauce from scratch, it's just nice sometimes to rustle up a quick meal. The meatloaf could easily be prepared the day before and left in the fridge ready for cooking when needed. 

I saw this book recently in a charity shop for £2. I'm going to pick 2 recipes from it to cook during March. Thank you for joining me today for the Cookery Calendar Challenge. I hope it may have inspired you to try something new.
Cx

NB I found this recipe on-line which has half the ingredients in the book, though the 3oz sultanas are missing. I've made the hob nobs gluten free before.  

There's even a Christmas present idea in the book to make in September. Vanilla and blackberry vodka for the grown ups. You can leave it to mature for 8 weeks or to consume asap, checking the bottle top is screwed on tight, place it in the dishwasher on your usual setting. The heat infuses the flavours. Chill well.