January 2015's Cookbook Review - Donna Hay The New Classics
So I'm a complete cookbook addict, and this is one of my latest ones. Donna Hay The New Classics. This is a whopper of a cookbook with about 448 pages and I bought it at Costco for only $25.69! The first best thing about a Donna Hay cookbook is the gorgeous, gorgeous photography and food styling. And every picture in this book is GORGEOUS! A gorgeous food photo is one that is modern (meaning up to date, cos vintage is a currently very current look too :-)), beautiful, inspiring, and makes you want to dive into a giant pool of that dish! Every photo here makes me want to cook that dish and hope that it turns out as pretty. So I picked some out and tried them. And here's a sampling of a few. Of course, Donna Hay's photos are much better than mine, so please excuse my amateur portrayal of them :-P For each dish I have put a photo of the dish out of the book, and a photo of mine. This will hopefully also give you an idea of how acheivable the recipes in this cookbook may be.
Tofu and Pumpkin Laksa
I love a good laksa, and this is a surprisingly good vegetarian laksa. Traditionally laksa would have meats like chicken and seafood, this one replaces them with tofu and pumpkin. Of course, the star of the laksa is a good soup base, and this one meets the brief. Lightly spicy and creamy, I reckon you could put anything in it and it will taste good. Yum!
Chilli Crumbed Mac 'n' Cheese
So there must be like a million versions of the mac 'n' cheese recipe, and this is one of them. It's an interesting one with chili in the crumb, but I needed to omit the chili for the kids. so my version of this version is chili-less. It is as yummy. Just add a sprinkling of chili flakes if you fancy some heat. I finished mine off in my brand new Buffalo Air Fryer, which works a lot faster than an conventional oven as it does not need time for preheating. Win!
Summer Bolognese
This is a real yum yum! It's really summery light with herbs like basil and veggies like mixed cherry tomatoes of different colours and salty olives. The dressing is basically olive oil, garlic, thyme, tomato paste, white wine, lemon rind, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. There's hardly any cooking at all except for the mince. Just a lot of tossing, kinda like a pasta salad. Tangy, herby and spicy (if you add chili flakes), very summery but very substantial too. We loved it and so did our dinner guests.
Basic Paella
I've done quite a few paella in my lifetime and I'm very lucky to always pick a right recipe. This recipe is by far the most different of all the paella recipes that I have tried before in that the soffrito (the tomato base mixture or sauce) is not tomatoes and herbs precooked together but rather roasted red capsicum, tomatoes and herbs processed in the blender till it resembles a sauce, a very rich sauce at that too. Again I think the success of the paella is in the soffrito and in the cooking of the rice till there's a crusty bottom but still moist in the middle. I made this for some special friends who were here from Malaysia for the Australian Open 2015 and we had a host of other summery dishes like my husband's BBQ Ribs and my Peanut Butter Bacon Cupcakes (another day on that). Hugely successful dish according to the guests :-)
Sticky Asian Beef Ribs
As you can see, Donna Hay's ribs look a lot better than mine. I have to admit, I did this in the air fryer and it works well, my mistake was that I just needed to give it more cooking time so the meat would be tender and falling off the bone, which would take 2.5 hours! Otherwise the recipe is pretty easy, just a bunch of sauces and spices mixed together into the ribs and stick it in the oven. Worth trying again, this one, and I will get it right the second time around I'm sure. Taste wise, sticky, sweet, salty...perfect with some greens and a bowl of steaming hot white rice in the coming winter!
Sesame Crusted Salmon with Pickled Daikon
Hmm...her photo is so much better than mine, haha! But trust me, it is a very good dish! No my salmon is not overcooked. I just couldn't have it looking raw orange as my kids would not touch it. The inside was still orangey pink and flakey, just the way I like it. This dish actually passed the kids test as my kids usually kick a big fuss over having to eat salmon. My daughter really loved this one and actually said, while still eating, "can you make this again? It's really good". Well of course I'll make it again as I LOVE salmon. The sauce for the noodles was simple but really fit the bill too.
Chicken and Pork Larb
Yes once again my photo looks weak against the glossy magazine one. But hey who cares when the dish is highly approved by my dinner guests! I love a good, light and tasty Thai larb. This is so yum, particularly on a hot day. I started out well julienning my carrots with my veggie spiral gadget, then it broke! So the other veggies end up being sliced with no finess at all, haha! Would fail the Masterchef knife skills test. Which is why I'm happy being a homecook without such pressure. As long as there's plenty of pleasure eating the end product :-) There's a lot of raw goodness in this dish - carrot, cucumber, red onion and coriander. The carrots are pickled though with vinegar and sugar. Mince meats are cooked with spice and sauces then tossed with vegetables, vermicelli and topped with awesome crushed roasted peanuts. What's not to love?
Pork Belly, Calamari and Tomato Paella
And to finish off, a favourite of mine, another paella. This one with PORK BELLY! Need I say more? The base is the same as the earlier basic paella, but with pork belly. Love pork belly. You can imagine there's no way to flaw this dish. Approved by my dinner guest as well.
So overall, my thoughts on this cookbook - best $26 ever! I have so many more great looking and great sounding dishes to try at another month. So if you're interested, get this one! Again, gorgeous photos! :-D
