Mango

Cookbook Challenge Part 8

Sometimes you do just need an easy meal. This book was in my Mum’s kitchen until a few years ago when she passed it on to us. We were still trying to get used to feeding children in the short window of time available between collecting them from nursery and them being so tired they throw a tantrum and then fall asleep in their dinner.

This book promises to help, although I would prefer to enjoy my busy life rather than just “get through” it, but never mind.

I decided to make quesadillas since no-one in my family has ever complained about those. There are three options for fillings in the book and I picked mango with Gruyere, which doesn’t sound particularly Mexican but I thought it would be an interesting combination to try.

I used a bag of ready grated cheese to make it even easier, so the most difficult thing I needed to do was chop and peel the mango. I could have bought that ready chopped too, but those packs are not always as sweet and juicy as I would like.

I know it’s not the best presentation, but hopefully you get the idea of the gooey melted cheese and slightly caramelised mango. It was a really tasty combination, like cheese and chutney, but if I made this again I would use two chilies as my family like a bit of heat.

Dessert was an Easy Lemon cake. This was an all in one recipe that you make in the food processor and then ice with a simple lemon juice and sugar icing.

I think I made the icing a bit too runny! I added the yellow sprinkles just because I had some and otherwise it would have just been a white cake on a white plate. It still doesn’t look that photogenic.

It looked a bit better when it was sliced up. The cake had a good lemon flavour, but was more dense that I would have liked. I think it was overmixed, as I followed the instructions to process for about a minute or until the batter came together. My new processor is so powerful that it was ready in a few seconds, so I should have stopped there. My sons thought it was good though, they are just happy to have cake.

This book was great when our sons were younger and is fine if you are looking for some quick and basic meals. I think stronger flavours are more popular in our house these days.

I haven’t decided which book to cook from next week. I may go back in time again, maybe much further back – we’ll see!

Cook Book Challenge Part 2

This is the book I chose to cook a meal from this week, mainly because I thought I should get it out of the way while it’s still winter (and it has been winter here this weekend, with hail and sleet showers).

The book was published in 1995 and accompanied a BBC TV series. Several of the recipes used fresh cranberries, resulting in a national cranberry shortage!

For the main course this week I chose a salmon coulibiac, which is basically a fancy fish pie stuffed with salmon, egg, basmati rice and mushrooms. It has a lattice top which is cut using a roller like the one in the picture. I have made this before, for a 1999 New Year’s Eve celebration, but that’s long enough ago for me to have forgotten what it tasted like. Also it’s British Pie Week, so it seemed like a good choice.

The recipe was not difficult, but it is long and involves a lot of steps: boil the eggs, skin and cook the salmon, cook the rice, fry the onion and mushrooms. In between all that you need to zest and juice a lemon, chop lots of herbs and then let everything cool before you even start assembling the pie. You can also tell this is quite an old recipe from the amount of butter used and because you are told to add seasoning at just about every step. I used a bit less of both butter and salt.

This week I had a friend to visit, so I made the pie in advance and put it in the fridge ready to bake when she arrived.

Here is the finished pie. The lattice is not as even as I would have liked, but the pastry turned out nice and crisp and at least the filling didn’t burst out.

Here’s a close up of the pie with the filling showing and on the plate. We just had this with salad with a jug of lemon juice and melted butter to pour on. The wine was a Pinot Grigio, which was acidic enough to go with the buttery dish. Everyone enjoyed this and my sons did not even complain about the mushrooms. It was very filling and rich so it definitely needed the lemon and fresh herbs which gave it a much fresher flavour.

Dessert was a lime and mango ice cream. You don’t need an ice cream maker for this, you just take it out of the freezer every couple of hours and beat it with an electric hand whisk. It’s a good thing I remembered to start this in the morning, because it takes at least 8 hours for the freezing part, plus you need to peel and chop 3 mangoes and juice 4 limes before you start.

We ended up eating this quite late while I waited for it to freeze hard, so it would be better to make it the day before you actually wanted to eat it. It was very good, like a cross between a sorbet and an ice cream and the lime juice made it sharp and refreshing after the pie.

The recipes were very clear and easy to follow and my family thought the end results were impressive. It was time consuming, taking up most of the day, so I would only do this again for a special occasion. I’ll be looking for something more simple to do next week.

It’s always rewarding to see people enjoying something you’ve spent time making; that was one of the reasons I started this challenge. As an added bonus, here are the lovely flowers my friend brought me in return for feeding her.