Cook book challenge | Raid the larder bean and spelt broth

This week’s recipe challenge comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Veg book (currently a steal at £5 on amazon!) that I got the year before last for Christmas. I loved the TV show that accompanied it, and I’ve made quite a few meals from it over the past year. The recipe appealed to me as I didn’t need to go out and buy loads of ingredients, I genuinely had everything in my cupboard already!

Ingredients: Vegetable stock//spelt or pearl barley//carrot//frozen peas//kale or spinach//tin of white beans//salt and pepper

Taste: Warm, comforting, and healthy.

Good: Very easy to follow, incredibly cheap, and perfect for nights when you don’t really know what to have without much effort, and so comforting for a winter night! I actually subbed out the carrot and frozen peas for a cup of mixed frozen veg which worked just as well, and made it perhaps even easier!

Time taken: As long as it takes the barley to simmer and soften, so maybe 20 mins. Super easy!

Likeness to the book: Pretty good I would say, what do you think?

Improvements: I think I overcooked mine as my beans went a little tough and crunchy. Perhaps I’d add them end nearer the end next time.

Cost: I’m not 100% sure on this one as I had all the ingredients in my cupboard, so don’t know how to calculate quite?!?!

Overall score: 5/5. Loved it and would definitely make it again without a doubt! Another successful cook!

Cook book challenge

I have a confession to make. I have something of an obsession with cook books. I read them in bed at night instead of regular books, which my Mum calls ‘food porn’. I don’t think it’s quite that bad though! As I alluded to in my 2014 resolutions, this year I want to make more of the cook books I have. I love nothing more than going into WHSmith to see the latest deals on their cook books, not to mention the treasure trove that is charity shops, and then there’s the Aladdin’s cave known as TK Maxx. I also firmly believe the cook books a person owns (if at all), says a lot about who they are as a person. I’m not quite sure how many cook books I own, but it’s about two shelves of a bookcase, so I’d say quite a lot! They vary from baking, vegan, diet, student, time saving, nationality specific, and thanks to Bess, preserves.

Whilst I love reading the cook books for ideas and inspiration, it’s rare I often actually follow a recipe from the book, and although I think this has made me a better and more experimental cook, I’ve decided I need to actually see if these people who make a living doing my dream job actually make recipes that the regular person, not professionally trained, can manage (yes, I’d love to be a TV chef and write cook books and travel learning how to cook different techniques and cuisines)! I’m hoping I can learn some different techniques, use new ingredients, and try new to me foods (I’m looking at you, shellfish).

So, throughout 2014 I hope to try at least one new recipe a fortnight, and report back to you. I’m going to be ‘judging’ the recipes and cookbooks on ease of getting ingredients, cost, time taken, ease to follow, and of course, taste! I don’t plan on doing 26 recipes from 26 different books as that could get expensive, so there may be some repetition of cook books, and chefs, but I hope you enjoy, and I think it’ll be great for me to look back on at the end of the year and see how I’ve done.

Do you own many cook books? Where’s your favourite place to look for new recipes? Do you stick to the same set of things to cook, or do you experiment?