Week 33 of the Cookbook Challenge with the theme of Seafood. I decided to try my first oven baked fish, which I have been wanting to try for a while now, foil wrapped and all. I recently gave into new cookbook temptation and bought my second Nigella Lawson cookbook, Nigella Express – this recipe is from this book. Ingredients: 2 sea bass, approx 900g each, gutted and prepared (I couldn’t find sea...

In an effort to catch up on late posts, I’m combining my recipe for weeks 30, 31 and 32 of the Cookbook Challenge, with themes Baked, French and Potatoes. So I’ve made a Baked French Potatoes recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Peel and finely slice 800g of potatoes. Peel, halve and finely slice 400g of medium onions and 3 cloves of garlic. Pick the...

Week 29 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Blue. I went with a blueberry recipe, the only other “blue” food I could find recipes for were fish recipes (blue cod, etc) and I will always choose a dessert over a main! My recipe from week 25, Lemon and Vanilla Panna Cotta in Blueberry Soup would have been perfect for this week’s challenge too! I used one of my favourite dessert books, Donna...

Week 28 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is Breakfast. I recently bought my second Nigella cookbook so picked a breakfast from it – Spanish Omlette. I actually had this for dinner not breakfast – I often have omlettes for dinner when I need to whip up something and don’t have a lot of ingredients. My most common ‘dire straights’ omlette dinner when I am scraping what is left...

Week 27 of the Cookbook Challenge, gosh I’m so behind in posting all my recipes! For this challenge the theme was Insect. Now I’m not really keen on using actual insects in my cooking, I’m not that adventurous, so decided to go with the “insects of the sea” – prawns. I used my good old reliable curry cookbook, the aptly named “Best Ever Curry Cookbook”. Ingredients: 675g...

I have a new love – pesto. I’ve always liked pesto but I’m re-discovering it and have never had it in a soup before. For Week 26 of the Cookbook Challenge, theme of Green, I did a Pistou Soup from cookbook “5 Nights a Week” Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 leek (white part only) finely chopped 1 carrot, cut into 1cm cubes 1 large potato, peeled, cut into 1cm cubes 2 cups...

Week 25 of the Cookbook Challenge, the theme is “silky”. The first thing that came to mind was a nice dessert. I’ve never made a panna cotta before so decided to give one a go. I found a beautiful looking recipe from a cookbook called “Two’s Cooking” by Jane and Jeremy Strode Ingredients (to serve 2): 140ml milk 1/2 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped and reversed rind of 1/2...

Week 24 of the Cookbook Challenge and the theme is my favourite so far – Chocolate! I got my first Nigella cookbook for Christmas last year and have been flicking through it a lot…salivating…so decided to make something. I chose an Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake. Ingredients for the cake: 200g plain flour (substitute with gluten free flour) 200g caster sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon...

Week 23 of the Cookbook Challenge – a bit late as I’ve been on holidays so this week have had a week of Cookbook Challenge recipes to cook! For this challenge the theme is Leaf – one of my new favourite leaves is Kaffir Lime leaves. I usually pick a few off my lime tree, throw them in a cup with some honey and make a quick tea – very refreshing and great if you have a cold. Kaffir leaves...

Cookbook Challenge week 22, the theme is Red. When I think of red I think of beetroot, strawberries, tomato and paprika. Fortunately I couldn’t find a recipe that combined all of those ingredients (!) so I decided to have my main ingredient as paprika. I have a beautiful Hungarian cookbook, Culinaria Hungary. My mum bought me this book when it became apparent that I wasn’t very good at learning...