Notes about Recipes in this book

• Flaky shortcrust pastry - whole rye variation

  • eliza on May 13, 2022

    Made a half recipe to try out his rolling pin method, which was new to me. I found it quite difficult and messy, but it came together eventually; if I did this again, I would cut the butter into smaller pieces to start with. Baked in a galette (filling from a different book) using his galette instructions. Resulted in a very flaky pastry, will def repeat.

• Rye sourdough crackers

  • eliza on December 15, 2021

    My first recipe from this beautiful book, and it’s a winner. Very easy and quick, these crackers use discard (or fresh starter) along with whole grain flours to make a crunchy, tasty cracker. I used rye starter and einkorn flour along with a seed mixture (poppy, sesame, and caraway seeds), and I increased the salt a little. These will go into regular rotation.

• Zucchini, goat’s cheese and rosemary loaf

  • readingtragic on August 06, 2021

    The recipe specifies an onion, tells you to cook it, then no mention of it again. I imagine you mix it with the zucchini and stir into the batter, or mix it in after or at the same time as the zucchini…

• Onion and Gruyère gougères

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    So good. Did not last long.

• Rabbit, bacon and white bean pie

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    Rabbit is not cheap but this was delicious and it made a bunch of pies. They were easy to freeze and were still great reheated. Pastry held up well.

• Root Wellington

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    Bit of a showstopper. I'm looking forward to being able to have guests because this is a dinner party centrepiece.

• Rabbit and wild rice pie

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    Tasty, but turns out that black rice in tomato sauce is a look and texture I find not entirely pleasant. But if you love that combo, this is a winner.

• Celeriac, kale and hazelnut muffins

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    Delicious and easy. Easy to prepare ahead, mix dry and wet for quick breakfast baking.

• Nettle and Gruyère muffins

  • pomona on August 16, 2021

    Delicious and easy. Easy to prepare ahead, mix dry and wet for quick breakfast baking. Replaced nettle with spinach because I couldn't get nettle at the time.

• Tomato and anchovy spelt galettes

  • luluf on August 17, 2021

    These were wonderful. The pastry is delicious and flaky and the filling is great. I’ll be making these again and soon

  • Ganga108 on January 14, 2022

    Galettes are common in our household - they are wonderful vehicles for using up end-of-the-week veggies and even leftovers. We use an excellent frozen spelt pastry as I don't have eggs in the house. Instead of the onion I used the last (almost) of the home made savoury fennel jam, and topped with tomatoes and olives as suggested by the recipe. I might just add some feta next time, or perhaps bocconcini, and omit the parmesan. Overall, very delicious, and very easy.

• Ratatouille and bocconcini pie

  • luluf on August 05, 2021

    Delicious ratatouille filling but my pie bottoms were soggy, maybe I should have made a bigger hole in the pastry lid. I also used frozen shop-bought pastry. I will be making these again and I will make the up the short crust pastry recipe in the book next time.

• Tomato kasundi

  • Ganga108 on November 22, 2021

    Kasundi is a Bengali condiment - sauce, chutney or relish, somewhere in between all of these. First and foremost it is mustardy in flavour, using brown or black mustard seeds, or a mix of these and yellow mustard seeds. Tomato Kasundi is one of the variations on the basic kasundi (the most popular variation uses green mangoes). This recipe by Michael James has the typical kasundi building blocks - garlic, chillies, turmeric. Other recipes may vary in the spices, but Michael keeps it simple with ginger and cumin. The main issue with this recipe is the low level of mustard seeds. A typical Indian/Bengali recipe will contain between 1 and 2.5 Tablespoon per 1 kg tomatoes. Increase the level if you are keen. Use jaggery or palm sugar. Olive oil is not usual - use mustard oil to add to the mustardy flavours, or vegetable oil..... BTW, if it is TOO bitter or mustardy, leave it out of the fridge for a couple of days and the taste will mellow.

• Steak and Stilton pasties

  • Lafro on September 20, 2022

    This was a labour of love and took a good few hours to make - mostly because I don't make pastry too often so had to keep re reading the recipe. The instructions were great and easy to follow. The pastys were delicious. Would make them again.

• Pumpkin scones

  • SKidd on October 17, 2022

    Made a half -sized batch: I liked the flavor of traditionally fall spices (ginger/cinnamon/cloves) mixed with cheese in a savory bake. Seems like maybe a little too much butter compared to similar scone/biscuit recipes, I had some leakage during baking even after freezing them.

• Eat Your Books by Jenny Hartin

  Just as spectacular as their debut title, the James' return with another gorgeous book.

  Full review