Notes about Recipes in this book

• Autumn leaf chicken and spinach pie

  • sharifah on April 08, 2014

    This is my go-to 'entertaining' piece - everyone usually goes 'wow'. And yet this recipe is very easy; the flavours do not disappoint either. I've shortcut the recipe process by buying ready-washed spinach in bags, and microwaving them in the bag for a minute or so. When cool, simply squeeze the water out. It's nice for a light Sunday lunch, simply with boiled new potatoes and a green salad.

• Green pasta with mussels and bacon

  • veronicafrance on September 19, 2014

    This is quick to do -- the most time-consuming part is shelling the mussels, but if you cook them first you can do that while the water for the pasta is coming to the boil. It takes just a few minutes after that. It's excellent as it is, but I think you could put a pinch of curry powder in it -- it goes well in creamy mussel dishes.

• Mussels in a bay - and saffron - flavoured gratinee with goat's cheese

  • veronicafrance on January 27, 2013

    The flavour was good, but there were a couple of problems with the recipe. First, ignore the instruction to add salt to a sauce with mussel juice in it. Mussels are always salty! Secondly the result was too soupy -- we had to eat it out of bowls, with spoons. Although the sauce started out quite thick, more juice came out of the mussels while it was in the oven, making it runny. So I think you need to make the sauce really thick initially. And finally there was too much sauce even before it went in the oven -- I only used about half of it. Still, the leftovers will make a good sauce for fish!