Coffee and Walnut CakeFirst off, apologies, I didn’t manage to do the Cake Slice baker recipe this month, but I’ll be back again next month for the last recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes.
Kitchen Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson published 2010 by Chatto and Windus. I’m still cooking from this the most recent Nigella Lawson cookbook – and here is my next instalment.
Coffee and Walnut Cake
Moist sponge and creamy icing. Rich, but good.
Spring Chicken
This chicken dish was very light, not a favourite. I did use the leftovers in the pasta sauce suggestion in the book, and it was nicer with the touch of cream we thought. Won’t do this one again though.
Turkey Meatballs
We liked this one – all of us. Maybe not Nigella's most spectacular meatballs, but still a good midweek supper.
Mixed Meat Pilaf
I’ve made this one a number of times, it’s really good. You do need some pine nuts and pomegranate seeds, but it lifts leftover lamb into a wonderful dish worth dreaming about in its own right.
Devil’s Food Cake
A very moist and delicious sponge and a really dark icing. Instead of 300g dark chocolate in the icing I used 200g dark and 100g milk chocolate, but it was still too dark for us. I think sometime in the future I’ll try this sponge and the icing from the chocolate cake in Nigella Bites. Have very high hopes for that =) At its best two days after making we thought.
Chorizo and Chickpea Stew
This is a store cupboard recipe, and quite quick to boot, but it’s good, chorizo sausage, chickpeas, apricots and tomatoes. The couscous with a bit of pasta in it and scented with cinnamon is quite unusual, but also good.
Not Quite Sl@t’s Spaghetti!
Not least because the one in my picture is not of spaghetti!! I bought this square pasta from M&S, cute don’t you think? Also not quite the recipe in the book because I reduce the anchovies to 1 for a half quantity. I like it though, light, quick and full flavoured.
Korean Prawns
The recipe in the book is for calamari, but I’m allergic to it so I used prawns. Spicy and good. Actually it’s on the very edge of my chilli tolerance, but still I like it. Beautiful colour too.
Grasshopper Pie
I’ve saved the best for last here, oh my goodness this is fabulous! It’s not cheap to make the first time as you need two liqueurs, but we really, really loved this! It’s cool, minty, creamy and so light too. Of course now I have the liqueurs - crème de cacao blanc and crème de menthe I can make it anytime. Whether that is a good this or not I don’t know!
Next Book Review Up: The Great British Bake Off How to Bake
11 comments:
I'm really enjoying your Nigella Kitchen reviews Kelly Jane :-) Everything looks so good as usual! I haven't explored this book that much, will have to change that soon :-)
Fantastic review as always Kelly Jane - next time I see pomegranates, I'll make the pilaf (looking forward it that!)
I'll have to go shopping for the grasshopper pie too - sounds amazing.
Can't wait for the "Best British Bake Off" review.
I made a new recipe from this book tonight too - will post soon. Haven't made any of the recipes you have here yet. Good to get your views to guide me a bit.
I love how much use you get of your books.
That grasshopper pie one caught my eye when I was flicking through my MIL's copy of the book. I thought it would be good for the boys at Halloween and got her to give me a photocopy of the recipe. It was only later I realised how much booze was in it. I will be posting a more child friendly version next week but your one looks so much better than mine!!
The Grasshopper Pie is the most requested recipe for me Kelly-Jane - of ALL the things I make:) The family adore it, and with good reason;) The Lovely Man's birthday is on it's way, so this recipe will make another appearance. It's just wonderful isn't it?
The pasta looks SOO cool, never seen anything like it:)
Sorry to hear you weren't quite as keen on the Spring Chicken, I've really enjoyed that one, but hey, personal preferene right?:)
I'm keen to look up the pilaf, as that is one recipe I haven't tried:):) I always have pine nuts and pommegranate seeds in the freezer, so it sounds like one of those 'how could I miss it?' recipes! THANK YOU:)
It's interesting to see your thoughts on recipes KJ.
I'd love to make the grasshopper pie but can't find the required liquers. Oh well.
X
The meatballs in Nigella Bites are just so much nicer than the turkey ones from Kitchen.
Cant wait to try the grasshopper pie, it looks positively divine! Will have to dig up the recipe though. Yum!
Richard,
I liked them both. The turkey ones are nice and light for everyday, but would agree that the Nigella Bites ones are my favourites too.
can't go wrong with a coffee cake. One of my favourites.
I love the coffee cake and would really like to have a go at making the Grasshopper Pie.
I've made a few things from this book including the meatballs. I found that latter was not my favourite meatball recipe of Nigella's - just OK (the lamb meatballs in Feast are my favourite). Nice review though and great that you've actually road tested the recipes.
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