Cookbook Book Club: Lunch with Ina Garten

Cookbook Book Club  is my once a month most months “cooking from the same cookbook” meal with Jan and  Jenn, and this month we cooked from Ina Garten’s recipes. Jan has all Ina’s books , I have one (of course it’s Barefoot in Paris!) and we all agreed that Ina’s recipes generally don’t let us down. What better way to celebrate Jenn’s new house than with food? A lunch party sounded just perfect for Labour Day weekend!

We started out with lovely strawberry drinks by Jenn (not an Ina recipe but very much a Jenn one!):

Paired beautifully with these Grilled Herb Shrimp with Mango Salsa made by Jan:

Light and fruity and so flavourful – was the perfect starter for our meal. Jan said both recipes are very easy (another reason we love Ina!) and I’ve definitely got these bookmarked for a quick meal (even not in the summer – would be a lovely way to brighten up a chilly autumn day). Get the recipe for the Grilled Herb Shrimp here.

In keeping with our theme (well, not really since we never share what we are making before we see each other!), Jenn made this Linguine with Shrimp Scampi:

Garlic and lemon are the predominant flavours here making for a bright dish that is a perfect summer pasta. Easy to pull together at the last minute too if you are like me and always keep frozen shrimp in your freezer – the rest of the ingredients you probably already have on had. Get the recipe for Ina’s Linguine with Shrimp Scampi here.

For dessert, I wanted to use some of the gorgeous Italian plums I had on hand and was delighted to find a recipe for a Plum Cake Tatin in Ina’s Barefoot in Paris.

Since it’s a cake and not a tart (so actual cake batter as opposed to pastry), you make a proper caramel with sugar and water, not butter and sugar that one traditionally uses for the tarte tatin caramel. There was a LOT of caramel and I was worried that it was too much. The plums were not very ripe so I hoped they wouldn’t produce much juice and that the caramel would not make the cake too soggy. In the end I baked the cake for a little longer than the recipe called for (10 minutes) because I was not entirely sure that the cake was cooked (when you poke a skewer into it you are likely to get some plum and then it’s hard to tell when the skewer is clean). It was and I took it out and let it sit a few minutes before I flipped it over. The top looked VERY soggy and my cake looked very flat but I needn’t have worried:

A beautiful sweet summer bite!

I was very impressed with this recipe and will be experimenting myself with some tatin cakes (a little easier to work with than tarts, I find). This also made a pretty lovely breakfast for a few days afterwards. Because you know, fruit and cake is totally acceptable for breakfast, right?

Get the recipe for Ina’s Plum Cake Tatin here.

 

Purchase Barefoot in Paris for yourselves on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store closest to you) Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.

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Interested in our Cookbook Book Club? So far we’ve enjoyed:

Dinner with Marcella,
Dinner with Nigella,
Dinner with Ottolenghi,
Dinner with Maria Speck,
Dinner with Naomi Duguid,
Lunch with Jamie Oliver,
A dessert party with Butter Baked Goods,
Dinner with Jacques Pépin,
Dinner with Smitten Kitchen,
Recipes from Rachel Khoo, we
Brunch with Donna Hay,
Dinner with Mark Bittman,
A Gatherings-inspired baby shower brunch,
Dinner with Simple Bites,
Lunch from Food 52’s Genius Recipes and
Dinner from The Broad Fork,
A holiday “Food Gift Love” party,
Lunch with Mairlyn Smith,
Dinner with Seven Spoons
Lunch in David Lebovitz’ My Paris Kitchen.