Have you seen the viral recipe videos doing the rounds on social media, normally featuring a load of cheese, something deep-fried or a mad combination of flavours that you know is going to taste amazing? If you have then chances are, you’ve come across Twisted.
Described as ‘the Instagram duo on a mission to make comfort food cool’, Tom and Harry, the founders of Twisted, have done exactly that. Their cookbook is packed full of recipes that will make your tastebuds and soul sing.
It’s based around special occasions and has chapters including ‘Picnic’, ‘Christmas Party’, ‘Meat-free Monday’ and even focuses on some single ingredients like the ‘Pasta’ and ‘Potatoes’ chapters. For a start, the photography is stunning which made my mouth water before I’d even started looking at the recipes, very promising.
Once I started to delve into the recipes I turned down about half of the pages to remind myself which ones I wanted to make (does anyone else do this?) and then went through again to figure out which ones would be family-friendly too.
Here are the recipes I ended up making:
Rapid Black Daal
This tastes almost exactly like the famous Dishoom black daal but is ready in a fraction of the time by using tinned beans rather than dried. The spice balance was absolutely delicious and the kids LOVED it!
Lasagne Dauphinoise
So this is a mash-up between a potato dauphinoise and a traditional lasagne where you use flavoursome poached potato slices instead of pasta. The ragu sauce recipe was one of the best I’ve tried but the final dish was a bit of a let down. It was quite a lot of faff and for the same amount of effort I would have preferred a traditional lasagne. The kids didn’t seem to care though and each ate three portions!
Welsh Rarebit Mac ‘n’ Cheese
You can’t go too far wrong with the beer/mustard/cheese flavours of a Welsh Rarebit and when you add pasta to the mix then it’s a guaranteed winner. If you’re bored of your normal mac ‘n’ cheese recipe then this is a great alternative with a kick of mustard and a load of creamy caramelised leeks.
Grilled Nectarine and Burrata Panzanella Salad
Perfect for a summer picnic, this salad is tangy, sweet and creamy. It takes a bit of effort to put together as each element needs prep but it’s worth it and it’s always a bit of a show-stopper when you cut into the burrata.
Banh Mi Sausage Rolls
I mean, who doesn’t love a sausage roll?! This version is spiced with lemongrass and ginger which give it a background hint of the Vietnamese baguette that it’s named for but I would have liked a bit more of a punch with the flavour. Next time I’ll double up on the aromatics! I made these with a turkey thigh mince instead of the pork mince that it called for.
Final thoughts
If you don’t take food too seriously then this is a great cookbook with interesting and innovative flavour combinations. Some recipes are easier than others but most are worth the effort. It’s not particularly veggie-friendly as, even though there is a chapter called ‘Meat-free Mondays’, there aren’t that many other veggie recipes throughout the book. We don’t eat pork and a lot of the recipes called for bacon or pork but with a couple of switches it wasn’t an issue and the food was still delicious
It would make a great gift for that foodie in your life, especially if you get to feast on the results of their cooking!
Find out more
Learn more on the Twisted Food website
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