A new cook book

Glenn bought me one of Nigella Lawson's cook books. Since her banana bread recipe is the only one I've found that works for me, hopes were high for these recipes. I've tried three so far.

Chicken and Cashew Nut Curry

Little green chillies are too hot (euw - horrible!) for us so I used only a tiny amount. I left out the cilantro and garlic because we don't like them and the cardamom pods because the store didn't have any. Otherwise I followed the recipe. Into the frying pan went the onions, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, coconut milk, etc. It looked like an omelette (inset photo).

Lessons: Green beans and cashews always seem to work well together. I hate cumin. We liked this dish except for the spices.

Ricotta Hotcakes

They just sound good. And what fortune - here is another chance to use peanut oil, which we'd bought for the last recipe. More than a cup of ricotta cheese to 3/4 of a cup of flour seems like a lot of ricotta but I guess that's normal. Even though the electric pan was on the highest setting, these took ages to cook and then they were doughy inside. Yuck.

Lesson: I still can't make pancakes. I obviously didn't spend much time on the photo - these went into the garbage can in short order.

Lemon Cupcakes

Simple recipe using self-rising flour. The cupcakes were more dense than usual types. Perhaps they could have used a little less time in the oven. I know the mint leaves don't really go but jellied lemon halves were supposed to decorate the tops. If only I could have found some in a grocery store.

Lesson: My favourite part is the icing, which was just icing sugar and lemon juice.

Like many cook books, some of the recipes have unusual ingredients. Where on earth can I find sumac and za'atar?