Recommend Cookery Books

Mimojo

I have always had an interest in cooking, and have recently purchased a couple of Nigella's cookery books, which I really like. I have cooked a lot of receipes of hers, and although I find most of it really nice, it is hard to find some of the ingredients, and I find myself running to health food stores etc.! I always find the ingredients a little experience, and you are constantly buying new stuff that you end up using only once or twice.

Also I first purchased Nigella Express, which is great (I would highly recommend it), and then got Feast and Summer, and I find that there is a lot of repetition of receipes, and the same stuff seems to come up again and again. I got her Christmas book as a present and although it is beautifully illustrated, I have seem A LOT of the recipes before!

I want to buy a few more cookery books, that have easy to cook recipes that are not overly time consuming, and that have ingredients that are readily available in the supermarket. I would consider that I am a pretty ok cook, so dont want anything really basis, just a cookbook with has a good variety or receipes, mainly dinners etc. - not too bothered about the desserts.

I am had a scout on amazon and there are SO many to choose from - Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater, Delia, Darina... the list goes on and on. I dont really know much about any of these...so I would really appreciate anyone opinion as to the cookbooks that they have tried and tested - and they were impressed with.

I like all sorts of food, and will try anything. As I said I would prefer something that has a variety of receipes

Many thanks in advance

The Hill Billy

Check out this thread for cookery book recommendations & opinions.

jim o doom

Leiths cookery bible is all ya need

Minder

Before you consider buying any of these, look for them in you local bookshop and browse through them - amazon gives you a very limited review...

In no particular order...

Week In Week Out - Simon Hopkinson - a collection of Hoppo's recipe columns from one of the broadsheet newspapers.

Roast Figs and Sugar Snow - Diana Henry - a collection of recipes from around Europe focusing of the colder climes and winter fare.

No Place Like Home - Rowley Leigh - Seasonal meal combinations and brilliantly written, witty prose.

Exploring Taste and Flavour - Tom Kime - The art of combining hot, sweet, sour and salty flavours in 150 diverse recipes.

Ottolenghi : The Cookbook - Yotam Ottolenghi - Middle Eastern/North African inspired recipes from the posh deli in London.

Dean & DeLuca - The cook book of the deli in NY - 700 pages of savory recipes and not a single photo or illustration in sight. It works surprisingly well.

Wild Weed Pie - Janni Kyritsis - from the amazon synopsis This is my Australian dish: Australian beef flavoured with Mediterranean tapenade, wrapped in English bone marrow dumpling, served on spinach wilted in an Asian wok, with classic French Madeira sauce, created by a Greek who used to be an electrician

MJOR

jamie olivers ministry of food is good wholesome food and perfect to after work

TheHairyFairy

+1 on Jamies Ministry of Food. If you are fairly new to cooking then this book is really good at getting your confidence up. The lasagne recipe is first class.

taztastic

The first two Avoca cookbooks.
Can't say enough good things about them and they never let me down for ideas.

mags16

I agree about Avoca. I have the first book and all the recipes are brilliant. In the last while I baked the chocolate orange cake which was amazing and during the week, I made the chicken and broccoli bake which was also very good. I can't recommend Nigel Slater's Apetite high enough - uncomplicated recipes with accessible ingredients. I make his Thai curry regularly and he also has a very good chocolate and hazelnut cake.

Baybay

taztastic wrote: »

The first two Avoca cookbooks.
Can't say enough good things about them and they never let me down for ideas.

These are both good but I find that they sometimes call for equipment I don't have, to do a time consuming process I don't have time for, using store cupboard ingredients that don't seem part of my regular shopping. Not always but sometimes.

Imo, these are great entertaining cookbooks but something like Jamie Oliver is better for day to day stuff.

taztastic

Speaking of curry - the chicken one in the Avoca is fantastic. I now make a vegetarian version that is ultimate cold day comfort food. I'll have to check out the Nigel Slater so I can do a compare and contrast.

Mimojo

Great thanks for all the advice! Great idea to do into Easons, have a scout through the books, then order of Amazon! There is a serious price different between book shops here and Amazon, even included the price of delivery it is about half the price.

Does anyone use Darina Allen - Frugal Food? Someone recommended it to me and just wondered if it was any good?

Also what is Jamie's Italian cookbook like?

And any opinions on Rachel Allen?

CJhaughey

I don't rate Rachel Allen at all, her recipes are not great IMO.
If you want foolproof try Delia.

midgetflynn

for basic recipes, I've found the Smart Cooking book I used for Home Ec is very good!I really want to buy the second book,but can't find it anywhere

bullpost

Darina Allens "Simply Delicious" series of books are inexpensive and contain many excellent recipes.
Her BallyMaloe Cookery course was on sale in Reads on Nassau Street for half price recently.

redelephant

Just had a look at my 2 shelves of cookery books to see which ones have been used and which ones are gathering dust! One of my new year's resolutions was not top buy anymore cookery books

Jamie Oliver/Ministry of Food - I got this for Christmas and have used it lots - baked carrots with orange, salad recipes, chocolate pudding, all yum and easy to make. Have a few of his older books but found the recipes too complicated, this book is great

Neven Maguire/Neven's Real Food - I like the way he adapts recipes to ingredients which are easy to find, love the baked pork chops and the chicken pie

Tasmin Day Lewis/Tasmin's Kitchen Bible - well written, lots of classics, lemon poppyseed yoghurt cake yum

Lindsey Bareham/A Wolf in the Kitchen - a great little book, easy to follow

Rachel Allen/Rachels Favourite Food - the first book in the series and the best IMO - best hummous recipe I have found, 28 day muffins so handy. I think there is a lot of repetition in her other books

Delia Smith/How to Cook - this is the one I pull out for simple things like baked eggs, pizzas.

Gathering dust - early Jamie Oliver books, Nigella Lawson, Gordon Ramsey, various healthy eating and baking books

I have tried some of the recipes from the Operation Transformation show on the RTE website, great if you are trying to be healthy and simple recipes. Carrot and orange soup is lovely. Going to try the meatballs tomorrow.

giftgrub

Bill Granger's Everyday - nice and simple recipes but tasty

Richard Corrigan - The Clatter of Spoons and Forks, just got this, the fish pie is a winner

Jamie At Home - not a fan of his on the telly but lots of diffferent recipes here

Giorgio Locatelli - Made in Italy, a really nice book, havent actually made anything from it but he talks a lot about the culture of italian food and ingredients

Heston Blumenthal - In Search of Perfection, again a good read, but does anyone really have a week and a half just to make some spag-bol?

bullpost

giftgrub wrote: »

Heston Blumenthal - In Search of Perfection, again a good read, but does anyone really have a week and a half just to make some spag-bol?

Given the current economic situation I think lots of people will shortly have plenty spare time to try these recipes - unfortunately they won't be able to afford the ingredients or equipment to cook them

nice1franko

Nigel Slater has three great ones:

Appetite
Real Food
Real Fast Food

Honey-ec

bullpost wrote: »

Given the current economic situation I think lots of people will shortly have plenty spare time to try these recipes - unfortunately they won't be able to afford the ingredients or equipment to cook them

Or the book in the first place - it's a hundred quid!

Kenny_D

Just wanted to add that amazon.co.uk have great prices on a lot of these cookbooks at the moment. Went with the recommendations here and picked up Jamies Ministry, Nigel Slater (Apetite and Real Food) and a chinese cookbook(Ching-He Huang) for £48 delivered. Not bad considering Jamies book alone is €30 in easons

Mr.David

I just bought the Silver Spoon and love it. I can see why people might not like it though - its not packed with pictures and is not like say a Jamie book that you casually flick through for ideas.

But it has recipies for everything - for example there are like 5 different beschamele recipies and loads of sauces etc. Its the type of book that you decide what to cook and then look up the different sauces etc.

Plus it has good descriptions of all the different cuts of meat and what to use each cut for

Got it on amazon for under €20 delivered