Week 16 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Noodles. Surprisingly not a lot of my cookbooks have any noodle recipes in them. However as often happens, Jamie came to the rescue with the Ministry of Food book. Speaking of Jamie, if you haven’t already make sure you see his speech on educating kids about food at Ted.com Ingredients 1 tablespoon mixed seeds (pumpkin, poopy, sunflower) a small handfull...

Week 15 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Muffins. I decided to try and make muffins with ingredients I already had in the house because I couldn’t be bothered going to the shops. I therefore didn’t have a lot of choice in what recipe to use, so went with carrot and coconut muffins from my Marie Claire Comfort book. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease 12 holes of a standard muffin tin...

Week 14 of the Cookbook Challenge, theme is Japanese. I love eating Japanese food, but I’ve never really tried to cook it properly, like with an actual recipe. I’ve had this Women’s Weekly Japanese cookbook for over 10 years so I think it’s time now to give it a go. I decided on 2 recipes – Beef and Vegetable Rolls and Sushi Rolls. Beef and Vegetable Rolls 2 medium carrots 6 asparagus...

Week 13 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Love. Love for me is a good chocolate cake, I tried out a recipe from a cookbook called Sweet Treats. Ingredients: 250g dark chocolate, chopped 225g unsalted butter 1/2 cup sugar 2 tbsp brandy or orange liqueur 5 eggs 1 tbsp plain flour (I used almond meal) icing sugar for dusting I also added some grated orange zest Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease a...

Week 12 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Eggs. One of my favourite foods, they can be so healthy and can also be so naughty…this recipe is a naughty one. Zabaglione is one of my favourite indulgences – this is however the first time I’ve ever attempted making it properly. In the 1980s there used to be a lot of gelatarias that made Zabaglione gelati and now it’s so hard to find…am...

Week 11 of the Cookbook Challenge with a theme of Mixed. I had a massive cabbage in my fridge on the weekend so went hunting for an interesting coleslaw recipe. As often is the case, Jamie Oliver helped me out with The Best Winter Veg Coleslaw – goes well in summer too, very refreshing. Ingredients 2 carrots, different colours if you can find them, peeled 1 bulb fennel, trimmed use at least 2 of the following:...

Week 10 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is Cool. I happened to be in an Asian grocery when thinking of inspiration and decided on rice paper rolls. I went with a recipe from a Marie Claire cookbook called Cooking, which is actually written by Donna Hay. Ingredients 12 rice paper sheets 1 cup snow pea sprouts (I’m not sure what this is, I just used bean sprouts!) 1/2 cup shredded carrot 1/2 cup...

Week 9 of the Cookbook Challenge with a theme of Berry. I went with a very imaginative Berry Crumble from one of my Christmas presents, a book that I have been eyeing off since it came out – Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion – half cook book half gardening book. Now I just need to get a place with a garden! Ingredients 50g unsalted butter 400g rasberries, blackberries, mulberries...

I think I need to change how I choose my recipes – I tend to choose things that look pretty easy enough but end up being a lot more complicated and as a result, never look anything like what they are supposed to! This was one of those recipes. Week 8 of the Cookbook Challenge had the theme of Sweet so I turned to one of my Christmas presents, Movida Rustica, which is full of beautiful Spanish recipes....

Week 7 of the Cookbook Challenge – the theme is ‘Soft’ and the first thing that came to mind were souffles. I consulted my encyclopedia of French cooking that I have had on my shelf for over 10 years now and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve cooked a recipe from it! Ingredients 175g plain chocolate, chopped 150g (2/3 cup) unsalted butter, cut in small pieces 4 large eggs, seperated 30ml...