Notes about Recipes in this book

• Eggplant & mozzarella bake

  • e_ballad on February 12, 2018

    Very good but not amazing.

• Green beans with sweet red capsicums & tomato sauce

  • e_ballad on March 09, 2017

    Nothing to write home about. Also, the cooking times were way off - 2 mins to cook beans in a scant 'sauce' should have been a tipoff. Not a great recipe.

• Asian mushrooms & lotus root stir-fried with ginger

  • e_ballad on April 17, 2018

    Yum. How have I never encountered the wonders of lotus root??? Combined with mixed Asian mushrooms, this was a very easy & very tasty dish. For the carnivores, adding stir-fried beef strips would work really well.

• Chinese cabbage, fried noodle & peanut salad

  • e_ballad on August 22, 2016

    There's a recipe on the packet of fried noodles that are available in Australia & it tends to be made quite commonly at gatherings, as it is incredibly simple & tasty. This seems to be a variation on that recipe, using slightly more exotic ingredients like perilla, Vietnamese mint & tamari. I'm not sure if it's because of familiarity, but I think I prefer the fried noodle recipe, as I think the dressing is more balanced & I prefer the slivered almonds to the peanuts. I'm sure this recipe would be otherwise great for the uninitiated that have no idea what the hell I'm going on about!

• Kipfler potatoes with garlic, lemon thyme & chilli

  • e_ballad on February 14, 2017

    Against the fairly mild chilli, the lemon thyme was completely muted. Expected a bit more flavour than what this dish delivered.

• Winter vegetable soup

  • e_ballad on August 31, 2020

    I’m guessing this is what gruel tastes like. An abomination of a dish with no redeeming features. Needed a slab of bacon & a hefty amount of instant stock to get this to ‘edible’.

• Sugar-&-spiced kale

  • e_ballad on August 07, 2017

    Ick. Cloyingly sweet.

• Jerusalem artichoke pan-roasted with butter & sage

  • e_ballad on August 25, 2016

    Very basic recipe, but turned out beautifully. Loved the crispy buttered sage against the meltingly tender Jerusalem artichokes. Yum.

• Grilled whiting fillets with green olive tapenade

  • fairyduff on February 13, 2020

    I use this tapenade for topping fillets of Tommy Ruff; a more affordable fish. I believe the flavours complement the tommies better than they would whiting, which I prefer done as simply as possible.

• My mum's roast chicken

  • fairyduff on March 05, 2020

    Easy, Delicious.

• Roasted pork shoulder served with lemon, salt & pepper

  • e_ballad on August 06, 2017

    Horrendous. Burnt & raw using the cooking times provided, made even worse by using a smaller pork shoulder. Such a waste of a pig.

• Vietnamese-style five-spice roasted pork

  • e_ballad on October 20, 2016

    This was tasty, but for the preparation that was required, it is unlikely to make a regular appearance, what with the overnight marinating, drying, spice rub, marinating, reducing, basting...

• Pauline's pan-fried lamb loin chops with lemongrass, chilli & garlic

  • e_ballad on January 15, 2017

    An unlikely marinade for lamb, but geez it was tasty!

• Spiced sticky lamb mince

  • e_ballad on June 24, 2019

    I followed the recipe instructions by boiling the mince in water, retrieved the fat on the surface, then cooking the meat in this fat. I really have no idea what this was supposed to achieve, as it tasted just like normal mince! The whole dish became monotonous after a few bites, with no textural contrast. Very easy, but unlikely to be repeated.