Lemon drizzle traybake

 A sunny Saturday afternoon and in the book I’m reading one of the characters has just referenced making a lemon drizzle cake, so I sprang up to do the same.  This recipe is from the ever reliable Mary Berry’s Baking Bible and did not disappoint- the boyf declared it a triumph.

Braised beef brisket with pickled walnuts

 Simon Hopkinson, you had me at pickled walnuts!  This is from another of those books that I’ve bought but never cooked from and I had promised myself I would return to little cooked from books.  Simon’s ‘The Good Cook’ contains a few of my go to recipes so I knew this would be good when I saw it in Gammon & Spinach.  Anchovy essence (?) and mushroom ketchup were not to be found so I replaced them with some anchovies, a few porcini mushrooms and Worcestershire Sauce.  And this is really good - those pickled walnuts make it amazing.  I’ll definitely make this again and my leftovers may become a pie 🥧

Fried chicken and salad

 From Jamie’s America came forth these beauties and my first time making buttermilk chicken to boot.  I don’t have a deep fryer so fried the chicken until brown in a shallow pan and then put them in the oven for half an hour, and it was delicious anyway.  I had been thinking about getting a takeaway but wanted fried chicken so much and as my boyf is vegetarian I felt it wouldn’t be fair on him to give him something from the feeezer whilst I had takeaway.  Very good and I’ll make again but with smaller pieces.  Salad was also nice - I left out the tomatoes from Jamie’s recipe though.

Mushroom cannelloni

 Another from Jamie’s 7 ways and a recipe he made on the tv series of the book last week.  I had asked the boyf earlier for a request for dinner, as long as it isn’t risotto, which is what he usually says, and unexpectedly he requested cannelloni.  Jamie uses packet dried cannelloni but I wanted to make my own which possibly was a bit foolish, because all told this dish took 3 hours to make.  The flavour was lovely but next time I’ll make it as a lasagne I think.

A very British Bolognese

 This is from my (And his) new book Jamie’s 7 ways.  I’m always looking for new sauces to complement my homemade pasta obsession and love Bolognese, so tried this.  What makes this a British bolognese is the substitution of pale ale for red wine.  It works, that’s for sure, and was very nice, but will not be my go to bolognese - that crown belongs to Nigel and the recipe  from the first kitchen diaries, which I don’t follow slavishly but adapt to my own tastes,

Luigia’s manate with chickpeas

This is from my inspired birthday present from my boyf - the pasta grannies cookbook.  I regularly watch the you tube videos of the pasta grannies and so was delighted when I unwrapped this.  I was also delighted tonight that this recipe used stuff that was in my cupboards already.  The manate in the name of the dish is described as short tagliatelle, so rather than follow the book‘a quite lengthy  instructions on how to achieve the manate, I just cut short tagliatelle by hand once my pasta was rolled.  It was delicioso - much tastier than it looks!