Notes about Recipes in this book

• Broccoli with almonds and lemon butter

  • e_ballad on January 09, 2018

    A crazy amount of butter. The broccoli was swimming in it.

• Potted prawns

  • Ladyredspecs on December 05, 2015

    Made this as per instructions but had to check elsewhere to get a clear butter clarification routine. My advice is don't brown the butter, the flavour overpowered the prawns. I would also recommend cultured butter for a cleaner flavour, and perhaps adding some lemon zest to the butter infusion.

• Char-grilled lamb

  • treay on November 10, 2024

    Tonight's dinner was very quick and simple. I am having a Pure Protein day, so I only had a bit of meat. I found this recipe and thought it could be very nice. I have changed it a bit because I used a lamb forequarter instead of a butterflied leg, and cooked it on a grill pan instead of the BBQ. The lamb is marinated for an hour with rosemary, thyme, garlic and oil, and after cooking it to your liking, you add some chopped parsley, olive oil, verjuice and Kalamata olives. I didn't have verjuice so I used vincotto instead. I enjoyed the recipe but I was a bit confused at the beginning. It was not as flavoursome as I thought it would be, but as I ate a bit more, I ended up really enjoying it. The flavours developed a bit more and I quite liked the slightly acidic / sweetness of the vincotto and the saltiness of the olives.... it kind of helped to balance the fattiness of the lamb. I imagine that if it was served next to some vegetables, it would've also been a lot more enjoyable.

• Chicken, grape and Champagne pies

  • debkellie on January 21, 2016

    My husband spent a day in the kitchen yesterday: Maggie's sour cream pastry is a beautiful case for a very tasty filling. We had a bubbly that was deemed "too sweet to drink", and of which we'd bought 2 bottles, but it was fine in the sauce. Recommend.

  • debkellie on May 06, 2020

    Returned to this .. winter has arrived. We used smaller tins (10 x 4) .. enough filling as made for 8 single serve pies. Just need double the pastry ! Worth a try if grapes are in season in your neck of the woods ;-) (you can substitute reconstituted sultana grapes - soaked in Champagne of course!).

• Slow-cooked beef fillet with crushed black pepper and balsamic

  • vagrantimp on December 01, 2012

    Very long cooking time (min 4hours + prep). Well worth it.

  • Melanie on April 03, 2015

    Agree with previous reviewer - this is a great dish and well worth making! Great for ensuring perfectly cooked meat for a dinner party. I have made twice now and everybody has enjoyed the dish - I haven't seared the beef which is an optional extra step. I bought the book based on this recipe...

• Pork belly in Shiraz

  • treay on November 10, 2024

    This pork belly recipe is probably the best one I have tried so far. The meat was just so tender and gelatinous.... and the sauce was superb. It was quite easy to prepare, and cooked in a slow oven for almost three hours.

• Beef tagine with dried fruit

  • valbe on February 14, 2023

    Page 147

• Steak sandwiches with skirt steak

  • lou_weez on August 02, 2021

    The rocket mayonnaise and caramelised onion is worth making.

• Kangaroo fillet with beetroot and anchovy butter

  • e_ballad on October 30, 2017

    If you adhered to Maggie’s cooking times, the kangaroo would still be bounding all over the plate. We doubled the cooking time & it was still very rare, verging on ‘blue’. The anchovy butter was fine, though this made an extraordinary amount. The beetroots were a bit meh.

• Meatloaf with tomato sugo

  • e_ballad on June 14, 2020

    I wonder if my sauces were not as thick as those used by Maggie as this was still incredibly ‘wet’ despite cooking for a further 20mins. It tasted great, but it really suffered texturally.

• Macaroni cheese

  • e_ballad on September 03, 2018

    Not for the faint hearted! Extraordinarily rich, this is the epitome of comfort food. We prefer our mac ‘n’ cheese to be a little less heavy for an everyday meal.

• Sultana cake

  • lou_weez on March 05, 2017

    This is the sort of cake you have with a big dollop of cream and a cup of tea. Really homely and delicious.

  • treay on November 02, 2024

    This is a moist and delicious cake. I like it because it is not too sweet and it is suitable for either morning tea or dessert. I changed some of the ingredients but it is basically the same. I used dark brown sugar instead of caster sugar, and brown sugar instead of icing sugar. Also, I used red grapes instead of green grapes.

• Peanut butter pie

  • biptutti on July 11, 2010

    The peanut butter mixture needs more sugar, recomend milk chocolate rather than dark for the topping it was too bitter against the peanuts

• Candied ruby grapefruit

  • KarinaFrancis on October 20, 2013

    These are great dipped in dark chocolate and served with coffee