Looking for a good cookbook

Thorbar

Hey everyone, my girlfriend and I have recently moved in together and we're looking for some cooking advice. We want to move on from the college days of spag ball and try out a few new dishes. We've tried a few recipe websites and although we had some success would still prefer a good cookbook. We're not looking for anything too fancy and we'd like if all the ingridients could be easily got in the local supermarket. Any suggestions would be really appreciated.

The Sweeper

Hmmm... if you're carniverous go for Hugh Fearnsley Whittingstall's River Cottage Meat Book. The recipes are interesting, but the educational information about all things meat-related is vast. It'll teach you about your basic ingredient, which may do more for your cooking than just instructing you to follow recipes...

BuffyBot

Don't underestimate the online resources. bbc.co.uk/food has a brilliant recipie database which has saved me on many occasions.

Alun

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

Hmmm... if you're carniverous go for Hugh Fearnsley Whittingstall's River Cottage Meat Book. The recipes are interesting, but the educational information about all things meat-related is vast. It'll teach you about your basic ingredient, which may do more for your cooking than just instructing you to follow recipes...

I quite like Nigel Slater's books in that regard too, "Real Food" and "Appetite". In "Appetite" he talks a lot about ingredeints, and rather than give detailed recipes, he starts with something really simple, say like a grilled fish, going into quite a bit of detail on how to do it properly, and then spends the next 5 pages going into dozens of variations and additions. So it's more a book teaching you how to cook and use ingredients, encouraging you to experiment than just "1 tbsp of this, 500g of that". Then, of course, there's always Deliah

The Sweeper

Yeah, to be fair to her, Delia's How To Cook is a staple for the learner. Her books also have very useful timing guides e.g. x minutes per 100g at blah temperature.

She's online too actually, can't remember the URL off the top, deliaonline.com or somesuch - google it!

The only issue I have with the online resources is that my printer's broken so cooking anything from an online recipe either involves jotting, or running back and forth.

bonkey

Firstly, let me heartily recommend www.dspsrv.com/cookbook (which I've linked to on occasion from here) as a badly-structured recipe-book with a bunch of great recipes from ppl who went through exactly what you're talking about (that being myself and some mates). Twas compiled by my sis from our donations. Sis is now talking about doing a "real" cookbook which I'm looking forward to.

After that, I've generally found any of the Australian Women's Weekly stuff that I've picked up to be outstanding. They're generally themed (Vegetarian, Nearly Vegetarian, BBQ, Chocolate, Chicken...that type of thing), which is both a good and bad thing I guess.

Jamie Oliver's first two (or three?) books I also really like. I thought his third (or was it his fourth?) was a bit too "restauranty", but he got back to it with his School Dinners book which is also not bad.

What else do I have in my collection...hmmm...let me think.

Food Aid, if you can find a copy (try abebooks.com) is a staple of my family, but only because there's a handful of recipes in there that every one of us raves about.

M&S have some books too - I have their one on Chicken which I find excellent (although its more poultry in general with a focus on chicken).

Thats about it for now...should be some ideas to get you started.

noby

Delia Smith gets my vote. When the first chapter is about boiling an egg you know she's gonna cover all the basics.

Jamie Oliver is only ok, but there aren't as many 'basic' recipes.

Try the Avoca cookbook for good simple recipes on things like breads soups scones etc.

Doodah7

Just to add that I find Rachel Allen's first book a first class recipe book. There are many simple recipes with a good learning curve for more advanced ones.

dalk

I would highly recommend this book:

Tom Norrington-Davies's: Cupboard Love

Its as much a way to stock your kitchen, as it is a cookbook with recipes... Details the kind of things you should keep stocked, and what can be done with various ingredients.

And there are lots of good quality "cheats" recipes. Ways to cut corners (time) without losing flavour and without resorting to overly packaged or processed food.

MiCr0

the real food real fast from Domini Kemp (of itsbagel fame) is very good
it makes making homemade pasta sauces simple etc

ditto the avoca cook books

ArthurG

I've gone full circle on cookery books. Delia (and still use her for the basics!), Jamie Oliver, Nigella for ages, Nigel Slater, Gary Rhodes etc etc. Tried em all. Have now came back to (of all people) Darina Allen. Her Ballymaloe Cookery Course is the best cookery book I have, it covers everything, and thankfully has lost most of her snobbery ("I only use free range ostriches which i raised myself in my back garden" type of sh**e). Highly recommended.

Delia's How To Cook books are also excellent, i still use some of the recipes from there.

Big thing is just get one your comfortable with and try something new once a week. Works for me!

djmike

Jamie Oliver's New Itlalian book is really great.

catspring

I have a great book called "The Classic 1000 Beginners' Recipes" (it's published by Foulsham). I know you said you were looking to move away from the basics, but this book just has so many tasty, easy and pretty cheap recipes in it. They also have about 15 other titles in the series like Indian, vegetarian, student, low-fat etc. And it's not quite as dear as the likes of Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson books.

deisemum

Just a suggestion, but a very good way of trying out cookbooks before you buy, borrow books from your local library. There's usually a good selection to choose from and you get to try a book and get a feel for it. Once you've tried a couple you'll be better informed on what to go for.

Delia is very good, so is Nigella. the Hamlyn All colour cookbooks (each recipe has a photo of the end dish, also has tips). Good Housekeeping Cookbook. Jenny Bristow's books are good.
I've been asked to compile a recipe book aimed at children but it will depend on sponsorship.

cuckoo

Nigella Lawson's 'how to eat' is a good bet. It's huge, and divided into useful sections like 'cooking for 1 or 2', 'low fat', 'cooking for kids' (has the best comfort food recipes ever).

I find her style of writing easy to read, her instructions are clear and if you want to try out advanced stuff there's recipes for some really fancy sounding stuff (at the moment i've only ever read them and thought 'one day i too shall have the 10 people for casual supper lifestyle'.

Nigel Slater is also a joy to read and follow, his recipes have gems in them like 'add butter, you know how much you like yourself'.