The Cookbook Game #3

The Gordon Ramsay recipe - Char-grilled monkfish with confit duck, red and yellow peppers and red wine sauce.

I really do not want to post these photos. I overcooked the fish so it was inedible. I'm not even sure how it happened. I think I made the duck confit coating for the roulade too 'fatty' and it therefore took far too long to fry until crisp and brown, meaning the fish inside overcooked.


The first stage went OK - the chicken mousse was made and the fish encased:


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Then it was chilled.

Next stage was encasing in the duck confit:

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Then it was poached and chilled again.

Then it was unwrapped, grilled (fried) and finally went in the oven for the specified time.

The result:

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wow wow wow 😍
Looks absolutely wonderful to me !
 
Oh how sad, I am soo sorry. What a waste of time and money.
 
Thank you but it was a disaster. :cry: If it had been cooked properly it would have been stunning. I've eaten in Gordon Ramsay's and his food is perfect. Photos can lie...

That's such a shame I'm sorry, must be very frustrating after putting so much effort in!
It really does look amazing though and I still think you've done a great job of a technical dish, I know I wouldn't be able to produce what you have.
 
That's such a shame I'm sorry, must be very frustrating after putting so much effort in!
It really does look amazing though and I still think you've done a great job of a technical dish, I know I wouldn't be able to produce what you have.

Thank you. Making a simple roulade is really not so difficult. A bit of cling film is all you need. Its easier than making and decorating cakes in my opinion - and that is something which I know you can do really well. :D
 
For my first ever cookbook game, my #5 was Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food, which was first published in 2014.

I have a few of Jamie's books and only done a handful of his recipes but they have all been easy to follow and I've had a pleasing result.

The recipe I chose was GYOZA WITH CRISPY WINGS.
Recipe - Gyoza with Crispy Wings


I've never made Gyoza before and actually only ate them for the first time a year or so ago (in a restaurant) and absolutely loved them, so when I looked through Jamie's book again I knew I had to give them a try!

The recipe time states 1hour 30minutes but it took me 2hours to prepare and cook both batches, however I will say I wasn't at all in a hurry and was enjoying listening to a bit of music and drinking a gin along the way.....

It also states the recipe serves 6-10, which is a bit broad, however if you can roll the dough out thin enough, you should easily get 40 Gyoza!

The dough was very simple to make and handle. I didn't quite roll it out evenly enough so unfortunately some of mine were too thick. It was easy to roll out though and just bad judgement on my part. I had some that you could see your hand through when held and they had the best texture to eat. The thicker ones were just a bit tougher where 'crimped' and sealed, but still edible.
I found the pictures in the book very helpful where it shows the folding and crimping the Gyoza, once I'd done a few, it was quite straightforward.

The filling was a mix of pork belly, cabbage (I used savoy as already had one) garlic, ginger, spring onions, miso paste (never used before), sesame oil and a red chill (I used a Birdseye chill as again already had one). All chucked into the food processor and pulsed together, very simple.

Then they had to be cooked in two batches, firstly frying in them in a little groundnut oil (another new product for me) until starting to crisp and golden on the bottom, then adding a floury water mixture and covering for 10 minutes, then removing the lid and frying again to create the 'wings', where the floury water cooks down and crisps up. I didn't get the same result here as Mr Oliver and my 'wings' weren't as obvious, I think maybe I had the heat too high as some of the bottoms were a bit darker than I would have liked but luckily didn't taste burnt.

Overall I am pleased with the result, they were tasty, although needed a bit more seasoning and they looked ok. Maybe a bit of a faff but if you've got the time they are fun to make. My other half really enjoyed them and ate at least 20 of them 😆

I guess you could really play around with the flavours of the filling but I stuck to the recipe exactly, other than using a Savoy cabbage and birds eye
chilli.

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Jo, great job!!!!!. Thanks a lot for playing!!!!. Hope you will stick around for more of the game tomorrow.
 
it took me 2hours to prepare and cook both batches, however I will say I wasn't at all in a hurry and was enjoying listening to a bit of music and drinking a gin along the way.....

Nice to chill out when you are cooking! In any case its bound to take longer if you haven't made them before. Its tricky to make stuffed pasta/dumplings of any sort (and I'm not very good at it).

The filling was a mix of pork belly, cabbage (I used savoy as already had one) garlic, ginger, spring onions, miso paste (never used before), sesame oil and a red chill (I used a Birdseye chill as again already had one). All chucked into the food processor and pulsed together, very simple.

Sounds good to me. Miso paste is a fantastic ingredient. You won't regret purchasing it. I use miso a lot to flavour sauces, stews etc.

My other half really enjoyed them and ate at least 20 of them 😆

That is a great testimony.

I'm very impressed. I'm not good at filled dumplings/pasta and it really looks like you did a great job. A very detailed analysis too.
 
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