21. Lemon tea cake

Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends 
Rating: 4.2/5 
Comment:  Yummy cake and great with a cup of tea or coffee or on its own. Huge amount of sugar goes into it though - as with all cakes but this is particularly heavy on the sugar :-)
Use it again: Yes

Lovely recipes from this book: Chocolate Roulade with raspberries and cream, apple pudding, rhubarb pudding.
Average but still nice: Sweet corn and coriander cakes with tomato salsa, maple roast parsnips, jane's biscuits, cauliflower and cheese soup.
Avoid: Chocolate fudge mousse, chocolate tart.

20. Baked Raspberry and Ricotta Cheesecake

Rachel Allen - Home cooking 
Rating: 4.5/5 
Comment:  Lovely. Subtle taste of raspberry in the cheesecake goes well with the fresh ones on top. Made this for a family lunch - it went down well with adults and children :-)

Use it again: Yes.


Lovely recipes from this book: Millonaire's shortbread (sister-in-law got me hooked on this one) and recommended this one - Fish Pie.
Average recipes: Shepherd's pie
Avoid: Rhubarb muffins, chicken casserole with cheesy herb dumplings.

19. Cauliflower and Cheese Soup

 Rachel's Favourite Food for Friends 
Rating: 3.5/5 

Comment:  Great soup for a cold day. I used 100ml more stock than suggested, although it does say you may need more. 
Use it again: Yes
Lovely recipes from this book: Chocolate Roulade with raspberries and cream, apple pudding, rhubarb pudding.
Average: Sweet corn and coriander cakes with tomato salsa, maple roast parsnips, jane's biscuits
Avoid: Chocolate fudge mousse, chocolate tart.

18. Rhubarb and ginger crumble cake (RA)

 Entertaining at home - Rachel Allen Link to book
Rating: 5/5 
Comment:  Much nicer than I was expecting. Worth the small extra effort of making the crumble topping. The ginger gives a subtle taste. Tested it on extended family who also loved it.
Use it again: Yes

Link to recipe 
Other nice recipes from this book: Spinach soup with rosemary oil

17. Gorganzola and Pear souffle

Lorraine Pascale - Baking Made Easy
Rating: 3/5

Comment:  Gorgonzola is meant to be used for this but you can also use a strong mature cheddar. The shop was out of gorgonzola, but I think it would have worked better with the pear. The pear's cooked in port before adding to the souffle - don't think it was worth it. This the first cheese souffle I've ever tried - and it worked despite me forgetting to use the egg yolk - and still tasted nice! Lorraine does explain things very clearly which helps. I think I'll try a more cheese only souffle next time.

Use it again: Probably, but not for a while. I will try with gorganzola, but I won't be rushing to try.

 ( it sank quite fast!)

16. Rhubarb pudding (Rachel's favourite food for friends)

16. Rhubarb pudding
Rachel's favourite food for friends
Rating: 4/5

Comment:  Easy and very tasty. Best served with vanilla ice cream. Quite a thin layer of sponge, might use 1.3 times next time.

Use it again: Yes.

Lovely recipes from this book: Chocolate Roulade with raspberries and cream, apple pudding.
Average: Sweet corn and coriander cakes with tomato salsa, maple roast parsnips, jane's biscuits
Avoid: Chocolate fudge mousse, chocolate tart.

Chicken marinated in honey and mustard (Avoca book 1) and Sophie's squashed potatoes (Donal Skehan)

Avoca Cafe Cookbook (1)

14. Chicken marinated in honey and mustard
Rating: 4
Comment:  Tasty. The sauce leaves a very sticky mess behind so wash up before it dries!
Use it again: Probably not.
Other nice newly tried recipes: Tuscan Bean soup

 Donal Skehan - Kitchen Hero
15. Sophie's squashed potatoes

Rating: 3.5

Comment:  As to be expected far nicer than plain old boiled baby potatoes with butter but not the healthiest.

Use it again: Probably not.

Weeks 1 - 3 - Various

The ratings are out of 5.

Rachel Allen - entertaining at home
1. Chocolate Creme Brulee
Rating: 2
Comment: Disappointing. Chocolate flavour ruins the classic rich taste of normal vanilla creme brulee. 
Use it again: Not likely to

2.Spinach soup with rosemary oil
Rating: 4

Comment: Nice and refreshing. The amount of spinich I used versus the amount she appeared to use on the tv series seemed quite different. (I seemed to use far more). The potato needs to be in very small chunks or it won't cook properly. It's worth making the rosemary oil (very easy).
Use it again: Yes.

3.Chocolate roulade (cocoa powder rather than chocolate)

Rating: 3

Comment: 

Use it again:  Maybe. I didn't bother making the chocolate mousse - used cream and raspberries instead - it needs the mousse. The version in a different Rachel Allen book with real chocolate in the roulade itself is far tastier.

4. Parsnip, mustard and parsley mash

Rating: 3

Comment:  This has quite a strong flavour - one small scoop as a side dish would be plenty. May be better mixed in with normal potato mash.

Use it again: probably not. Roast parsnips are far superior to this.

Italian (What's cooking)

5.Onion, pepper and mozzarella tarts

Rating: 3.5

Comment:  Tasty. Would be lovely for a starter.

Use it again:  Yes

Rachel's Favourite food for friends

6. Jane's biscuits

Rating: 3.5

Comment: 

Use it again:  Yes. Nice with ginger or cinnamon too.

7. Maple roast parsnips
Rating: 3.5

Comment: 

Use it again:  Yes.The maple syrup is very subtle. Honey would probably be just as good.

Lovely recipes from this book: Chocolate Roulade with raspberries and cream, apple pudding.
Average: Sweet corn and coriander cakes with tomato salsa.
Avoid: Chocolate fudge mousse, chocolate tart.

Recipes from my mother for my daughter (Lisa Faulkner)

8. Creme Brulee
Rating: 5

Comment:  Very easy to make and delicious.

Use it again:  Yes.

Rachel's Favourite food

9. Hot lemon pudding
Rating: 5

Comment:  Yummy. works far better in oval dish rather than individual ramekins. I've tried a few variations on this. The Mrytle Allen one is the very best - but this one also works very well.

Use it again:  Yes.

Lovely recipes from this book: Pea and coriander soup (with chilli), spicy beef noodle soup.

Avoca Cafe Cookbook - 1

10. Tuscan Bean soup

Rating: 4.5

Comment:  Doesn't need the 3 cans of tomatoes - 2 is more than enough .

Use it again:  Yes.

Rachel's Favourite food at home

11. Lemon Biscuits
Rating: 3/5

Comment: Use less flour than suggested or these will be too dry. 

Use it again:  Yes, but not very often.

 Rachel Allen - Home cooking
12. Meringues

Rating: 3

Comment: 

Use it again: Maybe. I'll probably stick with my mother's version.

13. Shepherd's Pie (lamb)

Rating: 3.5

Comment:  I'll probably stick with the recipe I've been using for years, but this still tasted good.

Use it again: Maybe, but unlikely. 

Lovely recipes from this book: Millonaire's shortbread (sister-in-law got me hooked on this one) and recommended this one - Fish Pie.
Avoid: Rhubarb muffins, chicken casserole with cheesy herb dumplings.

Objective.

Recently I decided it was high time I began to experiment more often in the kitchen. Since I began cooking properly, I rarely try out new recipes, sticking to the same reliables. I've begun to go through my cookbook collection and write up lists of any recipes that look worth a try, including different versions of dishes I already cook. My aim is to try at least 2 new recipes per week, and they can be mains, starters, desserts, sides or sweet things. I'm on track since I began 3 weeks ago - with some success and some to never use again! I tend to jump from book to book. The hope is that I'll find a reason to keep the books I have.
Some of the recipes are one's that I know are good from others cooking them, but want to try myself.
I broke my wrist very badly a few weeks ago (29 Jan- displaced distal radius fracture), so some cooking tasks are a bit difficult at the moment. I'm staying clear of pastry until I have full strength back (and I've never been very good at it!)

Each rating is based out of 5.