Have you ever bought a new cook book and the first recipes you make out of it are really BLEURGH!!??
This happened to me last night, and I must say I'm rather reluctant to try anything else out of said book.
The book I'm talking about is Complete Indian Cooking by Cara Hobday and Louise Steele (anyone else have this??)
The first dish I made was Vegetable Curry (HOW could I have gone so wrong???) it was completely bland with no taste what-so-ever.
Note to self: never NEVER use Turnips in Indian Cooking AGAIN.
The second dish was Lentil and Vegetable Biryani and whilst it was very delicious and tasty (you had to use a LOT of salt however) it was WAY too wet for a Biryani.
Biryani's should be dry shouldn't they??
Lentil and Vegetable Biryani
It does peeve me off because its reasons like this that I am always so reluctant to try new recipes and just stick to the already tried and tested recipes of my youth. BUT I do so want to be a bit more creative than I have been and start trying new dishes and what not.
I probably will make a few more dishes out of this book - the Samosas look darn good and there's a few interesting Aubergine recipes in there as well. And as reluctant as I am to waste any more food making recipes from this book - I am equally reluctant to have wasted the 79p it cost me from the charity shop!!
LOL!
Lentil and Vegetable Biryani
16 comments:
Unlucky Hippy! You can't win 'em all though can you? I have pretty limited success with new recipes.
Maybe you should donate the book back to the charity shop for the next poor mug to buy! Pay it forward...>;oD
Follywood, hehe.
I *hate* trying new recipes and having them turn out bleurgh. It's like some people write recipes without ever having tried them. What's up with that?
Biryani has been dry whenever I've had it, though the "wet" interpretation does look good.
Good thing you only paid 79p for the book :D
I'm sorry! I have a vegan cookbook which I rarely use because everything in there is blergh. That#s pretty annoying.
I hope the next recipes turn out better.
oooh I hope the samosas turn out yummy, I can't imagine bad samosas, I don't want to imagine bad samosas, it would make me sad!
Ugh! I love looking through cookbooks but it seems like whenever I make something from it it never turns out right!!! SO weird , right? I basically just use cookbooks for inspiration and then go do my own thing , haha
There is nothing more annoying! I have a vegan desserts cookbook that is turning out to be exactly the same way.
I would think too, that indian food is pretty hard to mess up, right?????
Good luck!
hehehe cute title.
Thanks for the tip. Never use turnips for Indian food.
Sometimes recipes in my head tastes better than the outcome.Sad but true:(
I'm sorry the book has been such a disappointment. It sucks trying a recipe and then feel like you would rather eat your own foot! Plus all the ingredients that could have been used for something else!
Wow, am I doing a great job cheering you up or WHAT?! :)
I'm sorry you had a negative experience... no, I have never tried that book, but I do have a cookbook that has so many recipes I keep trying new ones in hopes it will be better.... and it never is! I WANT to like it because my daughter bought it for my husband because it had a delicious-looking slice of chocolate cake on the cover and "vegan" in the title. I think she was hoping we'll try making the cake, but I never do. I make cakes on birthdays, and that's about it.
Speaking of cookbooks and new attempts, check out my friend Andrea's blog, http://www.cookeasyvegan.blogspot.com/
her latest post is about something like that. The funny thing is - after I commented, she CALLED ME UP - we don't live that far from each other, but we hardly ever see each other, and she wanted a real conversation, which I agreed was something I've been missing. And we talked about.... cookbooks! :)
wingraclaire.livejournal.com
gah that sucks! I find that a lot of indian food needs a lot of salt - but then I love salt, so maybe I'd add it anyway! :)
Biriani has always been dry when I've had it too!
Grrr! How annoying! I have a cookbook like that - some recipes are good or ok, but the desserts are always a freaking disastre! But hey, your title is great.
Boo hiss! I hate it when that happens. I have a few books like that. And I am pretty sure I know the dessert cookbook that has been mentioned a couple of times here as well. I have it and while some things have been OK, a lot of people have problems with those recipes. It makes you wonder who is testing these recipes!
And I concur, biriyani is definitely dry, not wet.
I hope your next attempt has more success!
oh no, Jeni! that stinks! supersadface! sorry to hear that the recipes aren't that great!
Hmm, 79p in the charity shop, eh? Think you've found out the reason why! And purrlease don't be put off turnips in curry, honestly, with the right recipe they're light, delicious and absorb the flavour of the sauce they're cooked in! Pretty please??!
Oh man, a tasteless curry?? Say it aint so! What a bummer, I hate when that happens. :c/
it happens to me all the time. the secret is to wait for other people to try a book and see what their reviews are. not those professionally written ones, but ones by bloggers or on amazon customers. can you hear the sucking leech sounds?
that said, I do try a lot of new recipes - even reviewless ones. I have a fairly decent success ratio, but when I make a stinker, it is really blecky.
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