Notes from all books

I've made this twice now and both times have been oh so delightful and moreish. The first time I left it to rise in the fridge overnight, but rise it didn't, so it stayed out on the counter for a few more hours.

The second time I tried to rush the kneading and proving process, and you could tell because the flavour was lacking, the texture was slightly dense yet crumbly. Overall not as happy as I was first time round.

A recipe I'm going to keep playing with and tinkering with timings, temp control, a mix of cold and warm proving.

I think, though not certain, that I need to knead for longer and develop more gluten so it's not so crumbly. Maybe a slightly warm proof until nearly doubled then cold proof, to develop a deeper flavour.

I had to stop myself eating too many of these. The bun is based on the Mother of All Milk Bread recipe, yet these rolls came out fluffier and lighter than had I just made plain milk bread.

The only thought that springs to mind is the addition of the butter in the coconut filling seeping into the dough as the buns cooked.

The recipe is straightforward enough - the only ammendment I'd make is to not form the coconut filling into a log. I just spooned it onto the rolled out dough and shaped it that way. It stopped my hands from getting too greasy, whilst making sure I could easily control the length of the filling.

These were an absolute hit and I'll be making them again.

I left the milk bread proving at room temp for around 3 hours (partly from forgetfulness and being busy), and then put it in the fridge overnight to bake the next day.

I used ready-made red bean paste for ease.

The shaping of the buns - making the slits, rolling into a coil was difficult. In part due to a blunt knife, partly due to the dough not rolling out into the full 5x7in size and partly due to my lack of finesse.

Still though, they came out brilliantly - pillowy and light with just enough red bean in every bite - and I'm not even a red bean fan.

Will definitely be making these again. And as a bonus, my milk bread has been getting a lot of practice!

SUBS - Nido instead of normal milk, caramel sugar (caramel that's pulverised into dust), and no egg-wash.

I've made these twice now and in my eyes they are the perfect accompaniment to a hot drink. The sweetness is heavily offset by the richness of the tahini.

I found the dough quite bready and stodgy as apposed to light and fluffy like a cinammon bun, and there was no way I was getting the swirls like in the demo photo.

I'm remaking these with milk-bread as the dough and leaving them un-squished to rise and puff out naturally, and will see how they turn out.

So, I remade the sweet tahini rolls, still with caramel sugar, and still with nido. This time I used the milk bread recipe from 'Mooncakes and Milk Bread'. And, I didn't flatten the rolls, as suggested. I rolled and left them to rest.

The result was a light fluffy bun, where the taste of the filling shined through significantly more.

My big self-criticism with this would be that I wasn't patient enough to let the rolls rise again to a puff, like they normally do. Though I wonder whether that was ever going to happen with shards of caramel inhibiting the expansion and gluten formation required.

Next time I'll try a longer rise and use normal sugar. After that I'll trial a normal cinammon bun recipe.

Spice mellowed out by the richness of the tahini, and the sweetness of the sichuan peppercorns.

Handmade and hand-pulled noodles are a delight, though a smidge arduous to make, and require a level of coordination I just don't have. Each noodle boils for 1 minute, and somewhow in the process you're supposed to prep the next noodle - rinse repeat.

This recipe could be made into a super easy weeknight dinner by using ramen noodles/spaghetti, ready-made chilli crisp (I used homemade from a previous recipe), and just bung it all together. Whack in some mushrooms and you've got some veg in there too!

A spiced, warming porridge contrasting with the crunch of nuts and the tang of the lemon.

With no peanuts available, I just used any nuts I had on hand, sprinkled with salt, and tried not to eat them alone.

This recipe is RAPID - cook to table in sub 20-mins if you're prepared.

My only gripe - dividing this into 4 would yield 4 small-ish portions - double everything and then we're talking.

One to make again and experiment with - I imagine this would make a nice breakfast dish too.

A delicate savoury porridge with limitless possibility. Instead of the spring-onions I opted for charred edamame and sweetcorn, bolstering the oats.

The soy butter reduction is to die for, and these oats would be nothing without it (they are at the end of the day just cooked oats). Maybe next time I'd do the reduction with Maggi seasoning sauce.

The substitutes for this are endless. A pre-prepared jar of crispy shallots and fried garlic would make this recipe a 5 minute quick-meal.

I more than likely burnt the garlic and ginger - they need low and slow love and attention, which I didn't provide. Saying that, I don't think they're what make this dish stand out.

At the end of the day, this is a quick congee-esque recipe that can be riffed on to oblivion - it was always bound to succeed.

Smoke through the roof. In all of Ottolenghi's recipes that involve hacking up a lung to smoke some aubergines, I cheat and use jarred smoked aubergines. It saves heaps on time, effort and the end result is near enough the same.

The recipe is relatively straightforward, it just takes time because of all the moving parts happened separately; though, it could theoretically be done all in the half hour it takes to roast the aubergines. The tomato sauce can be made well ahead of time, and frozen even!

I think this could be bulked with some mince-meat or so - make a smoky aubergine bolognese. The tahini could be swapped out for yoghurt, to make a leaner, more protein rich meal.

Like a broken record, this is another one to make again in the future. Very prep-able, easy to make in a flash and likely freezer friendly.

I'm not sure if I can strictly count this. I made the tomato sauce as described, added tahini, used the jarred burnt aubergine and then went off script.

I didn't make the pine nut dressing. I threw in vegemince, sweet corn and green peas, which bulked it out significantly. I also ate it with pasta.

The strength of this dish comes from the flexibility and extensibility it provides. It would be perfectly adequate on it's own as a dippy meal, but just so easily makes a great twist to a spag-bol-esque dish.

Relatively healthy and being bulkable makes this dish a win in my eyes, and one I can prep easily.

I liked this overall, though found it a bit dense and stodgy at times. Cut into a thin slice and enjoyed for breakfast, it was grand. Cut into thicker slices and then you start chomping for a while.

If I made this again in the future I would probably skip the figs and use something a bit less seedy - maybe dried peaches, maybe even dates. I'd grind the spices much finer too.

I will make this again for the simple fact that it can be extended and riffed on, and proves to be a decent base to work off.

Substitutions - Pandesal instead of sourdough; ghee instead of butter on the toast; English mustard instead of dijon.

This was insanely good - so warming and delicately spiced. The cheesy bread rounded it off so nicely to make it a full meal.

I made a pandesal loaf, which scooped up this soup so well.

The recipe has a long cooking time, but most of it is hands-off and everything can be made whilst the onions are melting down into nothing.

Would definitely be making again.

Substitutions - Ras-el-Hanout instead of berbere.

Didn't make the salsa, or add orange juice or water to the bake as specified. My tin was too small.

Insanely easy and delicious chicken dish that throws together in minutes. The chickpeas melt in your mouth, whilst the carrots add a beautiful al-dente crunch.

Definitely a recipe to make again and again.

Absolutely divine. Having this with salted butter and a cup of tea in the morning is nothing short of heaven.

I made no changes to this. Incredibly straightforward and the result is way more than the sum of its parts.

Would make no changes if I made it again. The only thing I may consider is subbing out the egg - I'm assuming it's there for binding.

Such a simple and straightforward recipe absolutely packed with flavour.

I made the base ahead of time and added the eggs as required. We only ended up using 4 eggs total and splitting the dish over 4 portions, instead of 6 as suggested.

Next time I'd use less stock / less salt - my stock was quite salty and when all was said and done and it was reduced, it was an absolute salt bomb.

Super easy to make, easy to meal-prep, and given that the base is already quite mushy, something that wouldn't do badly in the freezer.

Another winner. I followed the recipe to the tee, no subs.

Easy to prep ahead, and might be worth making a big batch of caramelised onions that can just sit on the side ready for use whenever. Apart from the onions, the rest of the recipe is minimal cooking.

With onions made ahead of time, this can be on the table in 10 minutes, which is good going.

Easy to meal prep, though I wonder how well eggs would freeze?

I feel like I went so wrong with these. I measured them out as described, and they didn't spread in the oven. I ended up with 57 coin-sized biscuits.

I used vegan butter in this recipe, as it's all I had. I home-ground the rice (which I need to do finer next time as it still had chunks). I didn't egg-wash the log, I just wet it and rolled and the pistachios seemed to stick.

Next time I'll cut them to 1cm instead of 5mm, make sure the rice is a fine powder and not lumpy. I think the recipe has potential, I think I changed too much all at once.

A brilliant contrast of textures and flavours, that has endless riff-ability.

I used a box of sprouted seeds that I found.

The recipe makes a massive quantity, and could probably be halved so it doesn't get wasted.

The dressing is elegantly simple, though next time I would up the ante somewhat and maybe add some herbs and garlic.

Substitution - bulgar wheat instead of freekeh.

This was gobbled up in its entirety. I served this alongside the chickpea salad above, and the contrast in textures and saltiness paired perfectly.

I don't think there's anything I would change about this recipe. It is delightly simple, visually impressive and relatively light. A brilliant weeknight dinner.

SUBS - Fennel instead of anniseed.

I made these to try and replicate the bread-fingers I used to have as a child in Egypt. Breadsticks that pair delightfully with cheese, but equally hold their own when dipped into tea.

These were close, but on the slightly sweeter side - they were in the dessert section after all.

Easy to make, mix and forget and roll and bake - nothing onerous.

I baked into sticks as opposed to the round medallions suggested - more dipping potential that way.