I've been holding on to this recipe for Raw Cookie Dough Bars from A Modern Way To Cook for a while, mainly because of the end of the school year/birthdays/Father's Day meant that there were plenty of sweet treats to go around.
I love energy balls, so this seemed like a different version of the same healthy-ish indulgences. The ingredients seem simple enough, I haven't worked with Brazil nuts so I'm intrigued to how it might taste.
Yay or Nay: Nay
Thoroughly disappointed in this, I really had high expectations for this recipe. I figured this would be a new version of energy ball/bar that I could put into rotation but it failed massively. Sure, it was simple to make, but the measurements seemed off and I'm sure it affected the taste. It was waaaaay too coconut oily for me, greasy to the touch and taste, and I love anything coconut. I'm just upset I wasted chocolate for this!
I LOVE bimbimbap. There, I said it. It's been one of the 'it' meals for a while and believe me it's worth the hype. BUT, I was eating this waaay before it because the hot thing. After living in Korea, I know what makes a good bimbimbap and so I'm reluctant to try a recipe from somewhere that isn't from Maangchi or learned from someone Korean.
I've been trying to entice The Hubby to try more veggies so I knew he would go for this, such is our love for the ricey, spicy goodness that is bibimbap! I found a recipe for bimbimbap from Alice Hart's book Good Veg. What attracted me to this recipe were the lack of ingredients, nothing more I hate than an endless list of ingredients - all of which I don't have at home!
Yay or Nay: Yay
I must say, I'm impressed. Mostly with the sauce - it is pretty identical to ones used in Korean Kimbap shops. The mushrooms were nice and savoury, the peppers added sweetness and the wilted spinach was subtly gingery! I
did sub some of the veggies for ones I had available or for preference,
but the beauty of this dish is that you can combine a whole bunch of
things and as long as you have the sauce - it's dynamite!
When you have a glut of leeks after making chicken stock for ramen, you know you have to use them up! I don't have a backup recipe so when I saw this recipe for Twice Cooked Leeks from New York Times' and UK Guardian's (from very quick research) foodie Alice Hart. I knew nothing about her, but grabbed a copy of her book Good Veg from the library.
I always need a side side to go with my mains, and naturally I want to increase my veg intake. If this works then I'll be putting it into the rotation.
Yay or Nay: Not sure
I can't make a decision either way as the recipe called for hazelnuts, also, mustard for the dressing. One, I was too lazy to go to the supermarket just to get hazelnuts. Two, I hate mustard, so that was out. It wouldn't be fair to judge it on that, so based on what I made, it was OK - just OK.
TIP: I don't usually cook with leeks so I'm not sure if you're supposed to cook the middle. I would get rid of it as it was a hard, chewy mess!
I can't actually claim that this is the actual recipe word for word from the cookbook Bangkok, although the element of it is there. There are a million (don't quote me on this!) recipes out there for satay but I figured this being a traditional Thai cookbook, it should be the real deal!
I wasn't overly enamoured by the beef tenderloin with Thai basil recipe but I wanted to give another recipe a try. I had left-over chicken from making stock, so I wanted to use the marinade as a salad dressing and combine it all together!
Yay or Nay: Yay
I'm glad I gave another recipe a chance, this was unexpectedly good and it worked really well as a salad. The cumin was a surprise element in Thai cooking, the sweetness of condensed milk with the nuttiness of coconut cream gave a deeper flavour, also, using real peanuts instead of peanut butter converted me!
Despite the long title, I decided I wanted to make this while browsing through Leela Punyaratabandhu's book Bangkok. Thai food reminds me of Vietnamese food and I was looking to be inspired by new dishes or interesting combinations that I hadn't tried before. Saying that though, clearly I chose the safest recipe in the book. I like to try out safer sounding dishes before trying an unusual one, simply because I don't want to spend a fortune on ingredients for a sub-par dish!
I've never heard of Leela Punyaratabandhu before picking up this book, but after a quick google it appears that she is a food blogger of SheSimmers and although I couldn't find a recipe on her site for this, here is a similar one.
Yay or Nay: Nay
First, let me say that it isn't a nay because it didn't taste good, or that it wasn't easy to cook. It was a tasty enough dinner but it was just OK. I wasn't blown away by it and I wasn't wowed by it either. On the plus side, it was good enough to warrant another try with a different recipe.
