This week I really wanted to get my hands on the current Australian Gourmet Traveller but unfortunately neither my newsagent nor my supermarket got it in this month :(
I stood in front of the food magazine selection at the newsagent and decided on Delicious because none of the magazines had particularly appealing covers but Delicious came with a free block of Lindt Caramel Chocolate which is divine.
On the basis of cover alone I wouldn't have picked up Delicious. Over the years of publication I have only ever bought it a handful of times. I suspect because it is loaded up with TV cooks and chefs so many of the recipes are a bit same old same old. In this issue I definitely found more inspiration in the magazine features (Tuesday Night Cooking, Kitchen Diary and Wicked) than the TV chef ones.
There are some gorgeous pink berry recipes celebrating Pink Ribbon Day and to my mind the Strawberry and Vanilla Semifreddo with Berry Compote would have made for an infinitely more attractive cover. Remember those Donna Hay covers I spotted and just had to make right now because they looked so awesome...this was definitely not one of those.
If it weren't for the fact I already had some squid tubes in the freezer and that free block of chocolate this magazine would not have come home with me.
Sunday night, Charlotte and Steven had been at cub camp and Lil had had a friend sleepover Saturday night. Hello four extremely tired chidren. I was going to make squid for everyone, I never even contemplated putting it into bread rolls like recipe suggested, I mean hello heavy bloated stomach, no thanks.
The kids ended up having pasta and sauce and all were tucked in bed with lights out by 7.10.
Steven and I enjoyed a couch meal of homemade calamari and chips. I pretty much followed their crumbing method except I added some chilli flakes into the panko crumbs and added some milk to the egg. Mind you the crumbing method isn't unusual, flour + egg + crumb.
It was tasty. I discovered that frying frozen supermarket chips really does make them ever so much better than cooking them in the oven (probably not a good thing). The calamari was good, but honestly good squid is all in the freshness of the product and knowing not to overcook it.
As I said there is a gorgeous section on pink berry desserts. I simplified the strawberry tiramisu and made some up last night. I'll definitely be making either strawberry semi freddo or strawberry and basil icecream which strawberries are still cheap and in season. There are a couple of the Tuesday night dinners that look worth trying...the lamb tart thingo looked good, perhaps served with some honey carrots and a zucchini salad?
So Delicious, you had better be looking a bit more Delicious next month if you want to come home with me because based on this issue I'll take Good Taste at nearly half the price by preference any time.
Is Delicious a food magazine you love, like or loathe? What do you love (or not) about it? Convince me to give it another go ;)
Tatum xx
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