Notes about Recipes in this book

• Chicken breast wrapped in Parma ham with salsa Romesco

  • debkellie on September 03, 2019

    I has some leftover Romesco sauce so did a search in my recipes.. this one came up .. very impressive. Easy as... Would make a great dinner party main (as opposed to a simple week night dish!).

• Duck breast, pumpkin purée, balsamic braised red cabbage & candied walnuts

  • debkellie on April 25, 2015

    An interesting combo - very sweet on the palate, the balsamic braised cabbage was better as leftovers, reheated on day 2. I used sous vided (new toy) confit duck breasts..

• Pork loin with prunes, sage, sautéed apples & hazelnuts

  • e_ballad on July 08, 2017

    This dish simply had too much going on - it would have been fantastic with just the prune stuffing or just the apple/hazelnuts, but not both. Will happily make this again with either component. Not exactly sure how the bed of vegetables that the pork was roasted on was supposed to impart any flavour (we couldn't detect any), so will likely forego those in future outings.

• Escalope of veal with Marsala, beans & pancetta

  • debkellie on November 09, 2020

    Nice twist on Veal Marsala: the walnuts and pancetta add great texture ..

• Duck breast, Brussels sprouts, baby onions, bacon lardons & sauce diable

  • debkellie on June 15, 2022

    Made as written. The sauce is more a thin jus than a sauce: it would benefit from thickening (even reducing it more than suggested didn't deliver the consistency I would have preferred). The flavour hit from the sauce is initially incredibly peppery, but it grows on you, and is a nice foil for the duck.

• Baby carrots with cumin, orange & thyme

  • e_ballad on January 06, 2017

    Our go-to carrot side dish, though not much different to every other carrot/orange/thyme combo out there.

• Roast pumpkin, wild rocket, pine nuts, honey & cumin dressing

  • e_ballad on November 14, 2017

    Found the dressing to be cloyingly sweet, which distracted from all the other components of the dish. Also made a bonkers quantity of dressing for the amount of salad.

• Braised fennel, pine nuts, raisins, wild rocket, Persian feta & vincotto

  • debkellie on September 03, 2019

    A wonderful side.. really flavourful!

• Coconut cake with mango mousse & milk gelato

  • debkellie on April 25, 2015

    The mango mousse (served alone) made a refreshing, light dessert

• Green apple, raisin & polenta crumble pie

  • debkellie on April 24, 2022

    The pastry is a delight to work with. The apple/raisin filling: I added some dried apple, soaked in Calvados to the mix (around 1 cup of dried apple) which gave it a nice colour mix, and texture. I forgot the lemon zest in the crumble mix.. not sure I'm a fan of polenta in a crumble.. bit "sandy/gritty". Overall, I'd say a nice dessert; but if I made again I'd reduce the sugar by half in every component (pastry/apple mix/crumble topping).

• Saffron & almond cake with milk gelato & saffron syrup

  • debkellie on April 25, 2015

    I soaked my saffron threads overnight in a little of the milk to enhance colour & flavour. Reduced my syrup way too far, as I didn't allow for the thickening that happens on cooling. Didn't bother with the sorbet

• White chocolate Bavarois & chocolate chilli soup

  • debkellie on April 25, 2015

    more like a white chocolate panna cotta than a classic bavarois. None the less, a great accompaniment to slow poached quinces from Manfield's Paramount desserts., served of course with her quince syrup!