• CarrieAnne on November 11, 2018

  I'm a big fan of this book. Elegant flavours and I have not yet been disappointed.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Braised pork chops with leek and mustard

  • RosieB on October 12, 2015

    This was a tasty easy recipe but you need to allow 1 hour to cook, most of which is set and forget. I added some sauteed mushrooms.

  • e_ballad on May 28, 2018

    Absolutely delicious. And very easy to boot. Highly recommend.

• Roasted sausages with peppers and onions

  • Astrid5555 on March 13, 2013

    Husband and younger son declared them to be best sausages ever. I did not care for the sausages, but loved the roasted peppers and red onions. Substituted Aleppo pepper flakes for reglar chilli flakes for some extra smokiness. Worked really well. Served with mashed potatoes to make it more child-friendly.

  • e_ballad on March 25, 2019

    Excellent midweek dish. Its success is predicated on the quality of your sausages, so choose wisely!

• Potato, courgette and mozzarella fritters

  • Astrid5555 on August 18, 2014

    Two thumbs up! Even my veggie hating 9-year old loves them! Will repeat.

• Apple and vanilla turnovers

  • Astrid5555 on January 06, 2017

    These are delicious and incredibly quick to make, 1 hour from start to having the finished turnovers out of the oven and they are perfect for using up that puff pastry lurking in the fridge. I cut out slightly smaller puff pastry rounds than stated in the recipe (7cm instead of 10 cm) which resulted in lovely little turnovers just the right size for a delicious apple bite. Even though I had issues sealing them properly cutting steam vents into the top did the trick and prevented the filling from leaking out on the baking sheet. Definitely a keeper!

• Classic lamb stew

  • Astrid5555 on February 01, 2013

    Delicious! Have made twice already, only 10 minutes total prep time needed.

  • e_ballad on August 23, 2020

    Thanks @Astrid5555 for the review, as I possibly would have bypassed this one. Though it needs almost 3hrs cooking time, the time-to-oven is mere minutes. Excellent flavour for minimal effort.

• Paprika and coriander roasted chicken

  • Astrid5555 on February 01, 2013

    O.k., but nothing special. Did not produce crispy skin as pictured.

• Light butter chicken

  • FJT on June 01, 2017

    This was a quick and easy curry to make, but it lacks the richness of butter chicken (obviously because there isn't any butter in it). Nice enough, but not memorable.

• Baked fish with capers, potatoes and lemon

  • FJT on May 30, 2017

    Even though I managed to get my pathetic rental oven up to temperature eventually, the fish was still raw after 15 minutes .. took nearer half an hour. I added some fennel to the parcels for some added flavour. This was nice enough.

• Orange and oregano marinated pork

  • FJT on June 03, 2017

    This was tasty. I marinated my chops for longer and increased the volume of marinade. The overwhelming flavour was orange and it didn't particularly remind me of Cuba (a typical Cuban marinade is sour orange and to get the same effect you would need much more lime juice), but we enjoyed it.

• Goulash with gnocchi and soured cream

  • DeirdreM on February 25, 2015

    This is a really easy and delicious dish.

  • e_ballad on March 30, 2019

    Whilst this was tasty, we weren’t blown away, though the ease in putting this together was a positive draw card. The addition of the lemon peel was excellent in cutting through the ‘heaviness’ of this dish.

• Chocolate and cherry tart

  • saarwouters on July 09, 2018

    Gorgeous and delicious tart! We ate it warm out of the oven and everybody loved it! Next time I will make a bit more of the dough, because it only just filled my baking-tin. I used hazelnuts instead of almonds.

• Chocolate chunk meringue cake

  • saarwouters on April 09, 2018

    Oh my god this was delicious! At first I was a bit worried that the meringue-mixture still looked so white when it went into the oven (because on the photograph in the book the meringue looks light brown). But after one hour in the oven, the meringue looked a very nice light chocolate-brown. Served it with the whipped cream and nuts. We used half the amounts of ingredients and it made a meringue for about 6 people.

• Vegetable and spelt soup + pistou

  • e_ballad on March 24, 2019

    Just as the book says, a very easy vegetable soup, with enough flavour & substance to make this a main dish. An added Parmesan rind wouldn’t go amiss if you want to up the umami.

• Lamb tagine with tomatoes

  • e_ballad on May 28, 2019

    A perfectly serviceable tagine, but it lacked the flavour punch of other preferred recipes.

• Ginger pork fried rice with egg pancake

  • e_ballad on March 18, 2020

    Even with the garlicky gingery pork, this is quite bland. Maybe a slosh of soy sauce would add a bit of umami to lift this dish.

• Spanish fish stew

  • e_ballad on November 05, 2017

    This certainly lives up to the book’s title: insanely quick mid-week meal. Unfortunately, its speed isn’t matched by its flavour - it was fairly one-dimensional, needing a hit of something to break through the ‘sameness’.

• Chicken paillard with spring onions and prosciutto

  • e_ballad on April 15, 2019

    From go to whoa, this took less than 10 minutes to be on the table... including the time to collect the ingredients from the fridge! A lot of flavour for something so ridiculously quick.

• Beef, mushroom and mangetout stir-fry

  • e_ballad on June 04, 2020

    I’d dial back on the sauce as this was a very ‘wet’ stirfry, which would have been more suited to rice than noodles. Very tasty.

• Yellow fish curry + coconut rice

  • lou_weez on November 19, 2018

    Used store-bought curry paste for ease and made the rice in the rice cooker. An altogether quick, simple and tasty meal that was inhaled by the family.

• Pea and fennel risotto

  • MarionBear on June 24, 2022

    Page 139

  • MarionBear on June 24, 2022

    Lovely and delicious

  • MarionBear on June 24, 2022

    Very tasty, added prawns at the end …

• Herb rolled leg of lamb + mint mashed peas

  • MarionBear on July 14, 2022

    Page 68