Notes about Recipes in this book

• Sausage and mushroom ragu with pappardelle

  • hillsboroks on January 22, 2019

    The mushrooms and Italian sausage marry wonderfully. With the addition of the red wine and cinnamon the flavor combination works well. I really liked it as an alternative to traditional tomato based ragu sauce.

• Vietnamese meatball soup with watercress (Canh)

  • Cheri on January 13, 2019

    This is a great detox soup - post holidays. Loved it! Made as written, tons of fresh ginger make a big difference. Meatballs are a bit slimy to prep, but great in the soup.

• Frittata with pasta, thyme and Parmesan

  • Cheri on January 13, 2019

    This is really a great pantry dish. Added some creme fraiche to the eggs for additional bump. Loved the thyme. Leftovers are great warm, or cold.

• White beans with sage, garlic and fennel

  • Cheri on January 13, 2019

    This was very good! Used instapot beans instead of canned. It’s a rich, filling and comforting dish. Great with grilled pork chops and wild arugula dressed with lemon and a fruity olive oil.

  • jayg312 on January 22, 2019

    Good dish - cooked as a main initially, but I think it works better as a side. Paired well with buttered crusty bread.

• Taiwanese five-spice pork with rice (Lu rou fan)

  • angrygreycat on February 05, 2019

    Made for dinner tonight with some trepidation, I have not been a fan of five-spice in the past, but I had a pot to use up in the pantry. This was very aromatic and tasty. The five-spice wasn't a problem for me, I believe because of the heavy use of sherry (over a cup) and sauce, along with shallot and garlic. The whole family enjoyed this quick tasty meal.

• Shrimp with feta cheese (Garides saganaki)

  • VineTomato on December 23, 2018

    This dish delivers on the Greek flavours! Although we enjoyed it, I'll probably not make this one again. I much prefer Tessa Kiros' shrimp with lemon, peri-peri, garlic and feta which is one of our favourites.

• Caramel-braised chicken with ginger and lime

  • angrygreycat on January 13, 2019

    Made this for dinner tonight. Need to be patient to get the caramel dark enough. Taste was very good and recipe worked exactly as described. The additions of the jalepeno, cilantro and lime after it is taken off the heat makes for a really nice fresh element to the dish, lightening it up. Will make again.

• Braised chickpeas and spinach with smoked paprika and garlic (Guisat de cigrons)

  • VineTomato on January 22, 2019

    Unfortunately this was not for us. Was looking forward to some bold flavours, but the end result was unpleasantly medicinal. I made a few substitutes, one of which I believe affected the outcome. Dried rosemary in place of fresh - I suspect this contributed to the medicinal taste. Swiss chard in place of mature 'bunch' spinach - supermarkets in UK tend to only stock baby spinach which Christopher warns goes mushy in this recipe. I made my own fire roasted tomatoes - grilled in the oven, this ingredient is not readily available in the UK.

• White balsamic chicken with tarragon

  • angrygreycat on January 09, 2019

    Simple, quick dinner. Chicken has a slight sweet taste due to the white balsamic vinegar and the peppadew peppers don't provide any heat. Next time I might add 1 hot pepper in to give it a sweet-spicy profile. Something I would definitely make again with a slight adjustment.

• Chicken teriyaki donburi

  • uk2nl on December 02, 2018

    Quite sweet. Needs a bit of spice. Nice though.

• Pork chops in chipotle sauce (Chuletas de puerco enchipotladas)

  • angrygreycat on January 07, 2019

    Made this for dinner on a weeknight. My first recipe from this book and it did live up to its name. Easy, fast preparation, even with slightly thicker pork chops. The sauce whipped up quickly in the blender. I cooked it in my cast iron skillet. Very tasty, but spicy hot, my eyes were stinging when I stood over it and stirred as I cooked. I stuck to the 4 chilies even though it said you could add more adobo sauce later from the can. I did enjoy this, but he suggests serving it with a tortilla and I don't really see the point. Tortillas don't really sop up the sauce off the plate and you can't roll a pork chop up in a tortilla. I might make some cornbread next time to go with it.

• Vietnamese meatball lettuce wraps

  • angrygreycat on January 19, 2019

    These were delicious - the fish sauce really adds a lot of flavor to the ground pork. The variety of textures was excellent with the spongy texture of the meatballs and the crisp fresh lettuce and then the dressed shredded carrots. The only negative is that it is not really easy to eat. To wrap three meatballs up in lettuce and then pick up to eat like other lettuce wraps was a little challenging. Perhaps make meatballs smaller next time or my daughter suggested placing the whole thing inside of a tortilla to hold it together.

• Black-eyed pea stew with tomato (Red-red)

  • lizbot2000 on December 01, 2018

    This was great! I did the opposite of what was instructed and used unrefined coconut oil because it was what I had and no one tells me what to do (lol). I couldn't taste any coconut, and it did fine on medium heat instead of medium-hot. I used just one jalapeño because the ones I had were enormous. A really nice and relatively quick vegetarian meal. Also the plantain chips are a must - they are delicious and add awesome texture.

• Macanese meat-and-potato hash (Minchi)

  • angrygreycat on January 15, 2019

    I've been cooking from the Milk Street: Tuesday Nights book quite a bit recently and this is the first miss. The Rice vinegar manages to overwhelm both the Worcestshire and Soy sauce to leave a sweet taste. The sweetness with meat was not what I expected and I didn't really like it. I might make this again simply leaving out the vinegar or perhaps replacing it with another type of vinegar. I like the combination of ginger/scallions/pork and potato.

• Three-cup chicken

  • angrygreycat on January 08, 2019

    Made this for dinner tonight, very tasty. I'll admit I used a sake substitute (rice wine vinegar and water) but the dish had a nice bite to it. The peppers, garlic, and ginger combine to make a really nice sauce. This comes together really quickly and he warned that in the note at the beginning. I put my rice on before I started and everything was ready together. A hit with the family. Will definitely make again.

• Rigatoni with Roman broccoli sauce

  • VineTomato on December 22, 2018

    On the one hand I love that you can easily eat loads of broccoli, but I'm not sure I loved this dish. It tasted a bit soupy, and I might have preferred it as a soup rather than pasta sauce. Might have been my mood, I will give it another go - just because - broccoli! I replaced the capers with green olives and would do that again.

• Turkish scrambled eggs with spicy tomato and capers (Menemen)

  • angrygreycat on January 12, 2019

    Made this for late breakfast this morning. I just left off the feta, I'm not a big fan of it. The eggs were delicious and creamy and the topping was very good. I am trying to think of something else I would put it on because I liked it that much. Served with Sesame Seeded bread. Will make again!

• Spicy garlic soba with greens

  • julesamomof2 on December 07, 2018

    Super easy and delicious--I used regular soy sauce, despite the heed to use low sodium, and it was on the salty side.

• Sopa seca with butternut squash

  • zacharyzachary on December 11, 2018

    This is a delicious recipe that is fairly simple aside from the prep work. Like most recipes in this book, plan for the prep work to at least double the length of the start-to-finish time it lists. Unlike most recipes in this book, this is something my two little kids enjoyed. The queso fresco is a must. Don’t skip or substitute this ingredient.

• Chickpea and cucumber salad (Chana chaat)

  • VineTomato on December 22, 2018

    Great side dish. I served this with the curry leaf popcorn chicken (I made a shrimp version) from Nik Sharma's Season. We skipped the fried wonton strips, given what we were serving it with. I've never seen fried wonton strips in the UK, and would suggest that gathia would be an amazing substitute. You can't forgo the black salt which turns the dish into something extra special with it's sulphur-led flavour (which does not sound appealing - but it works!).

• Fig and blue cheese pizza with prosciutto

  • lizbot2000 on December 09, 2018

    TBH I made this with crappy pre-made dough I got at Target and baked it on a cookie sheet. So don't let all the special equipment the book suggests scare you off making this. It's delicious no matter what.

• Chili chicken tacos

  • Mtetpon on December 03, 2018

    The recipe was simple and came together quickly but too sweet for my tastes.

• Za-atar-roasted chicken

  • angrygreycat on January 16, 2019

    Simple preparation that forms a nice crunchy crust on the outside and keeps the meat moist inside. The sauce has a nice taste with mellow roasted garlic, some of the zahtar seasoning from the tray, lemon juice and peel. I served with just simple green veg. I would make again.

• Turkish red lentil soup

  • Aggie92 on January 17, 2019

    Really good and so easy. Be sure to add plenty of lemon juice to the soup so the flavor is bright and sunny. Don't omit the chile oil, it takes this soup to a whole new level.

• Colombian coconut chicken

  • julesamomof2 on December 01, 2018

    This was really good, and it was fun to make my own coconut milk. However, between pulling out my blender for the coconut milk and the additional dirty pans, I'm not sure it qualifies as a weeknight dish. That said, we loved it and will make it again.

• Food in Jars

  This is the best weeknight cookbook I’ve seen in ages. I’ve made half a dozen recipes from its pages and they’ve all been great.

  Full review