Welcome to Cookbook of the Month (which is now actually Cookbook and Website of the Quarter, but we’re sticking with this name) for Jan-March of 2025. One of our picks for this quarter is Sabrina Ghayour, both from her cookbooks (which often show up for $2 as ebooks) and from her website https://www.sabrinaghayour.com/recipes. The other pick is Smitten Kitchen, which you can find here: Jan-March 2025 COTM: Smitten Kitchen (website and cookbooks)
Please use this thread to report on any recipes you make by Smitten Kitchen. To report on a recipe, please list the title in ALL CAPS. If someone else reported on the recipe before you, please REPLY to that post rather than start a new one (so all posts for a given recipe are linked together and can be followed easily via the helpful linking arrows the site software enables).
Feel free to list ingredients and summarize method in your own words, but please do not copy a recipe verbatim in your post to respect copyright. Add a link if you have one. Pictures are very welcome.
Starting this off with more questions. Sorry all, I will get the hang of this. I am out of practice! Q - do I always reply to the original prompt in order for it to not go under a separate subthread responding to an individual? Second Q - Is there only one master thread for the two different books? Thanks in advance for the tutorial.
If you’re reporting on a recipe where you are the first to report on it, reply to the OP, but if someone else has reported on a recipe, reply to their post. The posts aren’t nested, but replies are all connected, so it helps make posts about the same recipe easy to follow.
These days, we have one thread for each book/website/author, so when COTM covers multiple books by a single author, they’re all on one thread.
Thanks for all the links. I just bought Simple, the Sabrina Ghayour title that was on the kindle special. I am in the process of exploring its contents. I haven’t posted anything yet but am interested in hearing what other’s have enjoyed from her books.
I think many of us have bought her books on kindle sale over the years (courtesy the cookbook deals thread) but not cooked from them, so it’s nice to finally have the impetus to get into them
TOMATO & FETA FRITTERS (from Kindle)
These are fine little things, I knew they would be (because tomato and feta.) Also green onion and oregano and tarragon (I used basil, no tarragon in
tarragon cupboard.) You make small the tomatoes and cheese and mix all with flour/baking powder/ S&P. Fry in little mounds until crisp. I made a half recipe, I ate them all immediately completely forgetting the yogurt sauce meant to accompany. It’s a little tricky to get a “batter” out of the ingredients, but if you keep mixing the little mounds will hold together. I’d make again!
Aaagh why do these pictures have to be so big? I am mortified when I take such a lousy pic, but I guess all fritters look alike – animal vegetable or mineral little goldy-brown fried things.
No rock-bottom kindle pricing at the moment, but Amazon does have reduced prices for some of Ghayour’s books: Sirocco is $4.99, and Bazaar and Simply are $6.99.
I’ve never eaten this dish, but a winter storm was coming, and it sounded like it would be a perfect dinner for a cold night. I made this on Thursday, put it in the fridge for Friday’s dinner. I liked it a lot, and it is incredibly simple to make. The hardest part is getting all your garlic cloves peeled. Cook down chopped onion, then add a head of garlic (peeled and separated) and your boneless skinless chicken. Next add bay leaves, paprika, Aleppo pepper, dried mint and oregano, tomato paste and S&P. Let this cook down for a few minutes, then add chopped red pepper, halved baby potatoes, and halved tomatoes (she calls for 4 large - all I had was 8 campari, so I used those, and would again) and again let cook together for a few minutes. Next add boiling water to cover. Reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours. I did this, let it cool, and put it in the fridge, then rewarmed last night. I was concerned that the chicken thighs would have gotten a bit tough, but they were the equivalent of falling off the bone. Definitely good food for a snowy evening. I liked it but I can’t say I would rave about it - it’s very simple, hearty, good food. I served it over polenta (double starch - LLD very happy) and thought that was a nice match.
Peeling the garlic won’t turn out to be the hard part – the hard part will be remembering the name of the dish! I’ve been looking at what to cook from this book, and (some) of the titles have me struggling!
This looks delicious, and those little tomatoes are the best available this time of year, IMO.
Just checking in. Things in west la are very dicey right now and I am sheltering elsewhere. My DH and largest dog are still at home and my son is sheltering some place different. Our neighborhood is one street over from the most recent evacuation border so we are on standby. Needless to say, I will not be participating unless things change.
I’ve been looking at what to cook from this book, and (some) of the titles have me struggling!
