Notes about Recipes in this book

• Baked jacket potatoes with pumpkin and coconut curry

  • SpatulaCity on October 18, 2023

    Nice recipe. Thought it could have used a bit of acid. Used russet potatoes and should have scraped out more of the baked potato so there would be a higher curry to potato skin ratio. Added a few dashes of fish sauce. While really tasty, it’s not my favorite coconut curry recipe.

• Welsh rarebit toasties

  • SpatulaCity on October 23, 2023

    Wow! So rich and delicious! Much of the filling seeped out during toasting, but it still tasted incredible. I may try it as a more traditional (?) open faced sandwich next time. Can’t wait to try the other rarebit recipe in this book! Used sourdough wheat bread. Buttered the interior slices and mayo on the outside for toasting.

• Boozy Christmas cake

  • SaraLena on January 03, 2026

    The overnight plumping of the dried fruit in the brandy creates the deepest and warmest flavour! This year I used shallow muffin top cupcake trays to bake little minis to gift because these cakes can be rather dense. It also spreads out the recipe nicely so you can double it if you want to make lots of gifts to giveaway. I’m finding it harder and harder to find candied fruits so buying them online in advance next year will probably be the way that I go sadly, local grocery stores just don’t carry them as much in the states. I usually top with apricot preserves and a marzipan fondant. This also keeps the cake very moist and fresh and can stay for several weeks around the holidays and the longer these cakes sit…the more of the flavour develops. Just make sure not to over or underbake!

• Marmalade and almond tart

  • SpatulaCity on December 29, 2023

    The pears melting into the top of the tart are divine. There may be a touch too much butter in the almond batter recipe because it’s a tad greasy. I used homemade marmalade and enjoyed the sweet - nutty - bitter combo.

• Grilled aubergine with crushed chickpeas

  • SpatulaCity on October 19, 2023

    Many different components and all together they work beautifully! The chickpeas were very chunky, raita cooling and fresh, eggplant soft and smoky, and the pomegranates were a perfect bursts of sweetness and acidity. The puffed rice was so fun and easy to make! When you got a bite of all the bits it was wonderful. Oddly I thought the sliced scallions really pulled everything together, so don’t scrimp on those. Loved this very healthy dish!

• Roasted sweet potato and red onion salad

  • SpatulaCity on October 08, 2023

    Loved being able to have so many toasty fall and winter flavors in a salad. Next time I would increase the dressing because there was barely enough to coat the salad. It was easy to prep the parts ahead and assemble last minute (outside of slicing the pear). A sweet Apple would work here as well.