New look for the cook book nook

When I started this blog I picked the theme because it made me think of an old-fashioned recipe book, where one would write in favourite recipes.

But I have started to find it a little drab and boring. So spent a little time playing on WordPress, trying out new themes. I was amused to see how many themes have foody titles – White as milk, Fresh banana, Banana smoothie. There could be more, but by this time I was feeling a bit boggled, and more than a little hungry.

It seemed appropriate to have a blog about food and cooking, which included a picture of a banana, and a recipe (for banana smoothies, who would have guessed:)

I hope you like the new look.

Bean there, done that!

It was a dark and windy night. I had meant to go shopping on Saturday morning so that I could try out some new recipes on the weekend. For various reasons I didn’t get to the shops. I had got home at six pm from a quiet afternoon (a sort of mini retreat) feeling refreshed, and wanting to cook.

My first thought was to just make some pasta and cheese sauce – quick and simple. But I was aware of getting behind on my cooking challenge. So I browsed through the Budget Beaters recipe book to see if there was anything I could make with what was already in the cupboard. I came up with a few options and ended up making something called Cheesy Beans.

Now I am not a huge fan of baked beans. It is not that I dislike them as such, I just don’t particularly like them. But I know it is the sort of food that is good for one and should be eaten occasionally.  I have come to realise that I don’t mind beans in something, but ma unlikely to eat them plain. Beans on toast does not appeal.

This recipe called for adding cooked onion, garlic and tomato to the beans, sprinkling grated cheese and parsley on top and serving on rice. I did not have onions, tomatoes, garlic or parsley in the pantry, but figured I could use what I had to adapt the recipe.

In the end it was probably quite different to the original recipe – but it was not bad. And had the advantage of being quick and easy. The longest part was cooking the rice. But I did other things while that was going on, and cooked a large pot so I now have rice for the next recipe I try. I noticed that several of the recipes in this book call for cooked rice. Well, now I am ready for them.

I used one tin of baked beans in tomato sauce, to which I added half a tin of tomato-onion mix. I stirred in a sprinkle of mixed herbs and heated it all on the stove. Once done I scooped half the mixture onto a bowl of rice and topped with grated cheese (something which improves most meals:). This part of the process took less than five minutes.

My reaction was not exactly Oh Yum! Rather a matter of “Ho Hum”. This is not going to become a favourite recipe, but it was a pleasant enough, functional meal. And I was quite happy to heat up the leftovers for supper on Sunday. Quick, inexpensive and nourishing, this is the way I will prepare baked beans in the future. At least until I find another interesting recipe hidden in one of the many books on my shelf.

May Menu: Beating Eggs and Budgets

The recipe book I will be working with this month is You Budget Beaters by Carmen Niehaus. (Human & Roussea, 1995).

You Magazine is a popular weekly magazine in South Africa. It is the English version of Huisgenoot. It is not a magazine I read myself (although if I am visiting friends or family and there is a copy I might flip through it to look at the pictures and catch up on a bit of celebrity gossip). I suspect You  is a bit of a guilty pleasure for many readers. Most people I know who do buy the magazine insist that they only get it for the tv guide, the crosswords and the recipes.

And this is the thing. Whatever one thinks of the actual articles contained in the magazine, they do have good recipes. There are sections of recipes devised by the resident cook and other sections for readers to send in their favourite recipes.  Every now and then a selection of recipes from You  will be published as a recipe book. There was a Winning Recipes series, as well as a Let’s Cook series.

In 1995 Human & Rousseau brought out Budget Beaters compiled and tested by Carmen Niehaus. It is a wonderful collection on inexpensive meals, each recipe accompanied by a colour photograph. When I bought the book years ago I used it quite a lot, and some of my standard dishes were discovered within its pages.  But it has been a while since I have consulted it.

And May is a good month to be cooking cheap suppers. Next month the National Arts Festival will take place in Grahamstown. It is a feast of artistic delights, with dance, drama, music, art exhibitions and more. I will be buying tickets to shows soon, so need to seriously save money. So a recipe book which is strong on eggs, tuna and pasta is probably the way to go.

March – April Update

March and April were busy months for me. I had a couple of weekends away from home in March, and two weeks leave in April. So not a lot of cooking got done. I decided to stick with March’s book in April and treat it as one month.

Not the most successful month, I have to admit. I was using the St Johns Family Cookbook and found many recipes I wanted to try.  Unfortunately I seemed to have picked all the wrong ones – the only flops I have had so far and they all came from one book!

I got off to a good start with a savoury tart. It was rather similar to the one I usually make, and worked well. It was a little salty but that can be fixed the next time I make it.

Next up was a fudge milk tart, which sounded really nice. The only problem was that it refused to set. I ended up with tennis biscuits floating in a sweet custard. It didn’t taste bad, but it was a bit of a mess. I might try it again and see if I can get it right, but am reluctant to waste another tin of condensed milk.

My next attempt was another pudding. It looked really simple. Dip ginger nuts in coffee and layer with cream or instant pudding. What could go wrong? What went wrong was the biscuits absorbed the coffee and turned to sludge. Perhaps I should have just sprinkled them with coffee. This flop didn’t even tast nice. It was bitter and the texture was horrible, stiff vanilla pudding floating on coffee dregs. Not to be recommended.

On the plus side I did make the nuttikrust and cream tart twice while on holiday. It helps to have something simple enough to remember when away from the recipe books. My family certainly appreciated it, and not a scrap was left behind.

My last recipe from the St Johns book was  vegetable soup. Not bad but not great. It somehow managed to be salty yet tasteless. Fortunately I could follow that up a few days later with the lovely potato soup I discovered earlier this year.

So the verdict on St John’s family cookbook is not good. Which is perhaps unfair as there are many recipes in there that I know work, having tried them before, or in some cases given them to the person who contributed to the book. And I did have two successful repeats of recipes found in the other recipe book produced by the same group.

All in all, a mixed result – a bit of sweet and sour. But May is now upon us and it is time to venture back into the kitchen, with a new recipe book, and renewed enthusiasm.