cooking the books

whilst the Winne the Pooh cookbook reigns supreme (and has nothing to do with diznee btw).

gotta love the simplicity of Nigel Slater's 'real food', 'Real fast food' and real cooking. 'Apetite' is just a re hash of the others.

The Reader's Digest 'the cookery year' is just so comprehensive

Antonio Carluccio's 'Introduction toItalian Cooking' is great but out of print and now you have to buy 3 expensive volumes which are no way near as simple and just plug his chain of delis. My mum has the only copy in our family and won't let go of it.

My mum has a fantastic, well thumbed, blue hardback from the 1940s called the Radiation Cookery Book. Apart from the fantastic name, it has a recipe for every English dish imaginable (it's surprisingly difficult to find one that has simple stuff like a Victoria Sponge cake or crumble mixture these days, unless you favour Delia Smith, which I do not). My favourite is Malvern Pudding, which is scrummy. Whenever Mum made it, Dad would put his record of Dream of Gerontius (Elgar used to live in Great Malvern). I had put my name down to inherit the Radiation Cookery Book, but have also just realised that I can buy an even earlier copy for £4 here so I may leave it for my sister to grab instead.

Ed's right all of Nigel's "real" cookbooks are superb, especially for the pommes dauphinoise with smoked mackerel, and there's a really good fish curry recipe in one of them as well which is delicious.

Others I like include Elizabeth David's Mediterranean Cookery which reads as well as a travel book as it does a cookery book. The winnie the pooh one is good if a little twee. I had a really good veggie one that came from America that was excellent if a little bit too Hippie bollocks based, unfortunately I can't remember the author or the title :-(

I would like to have a read at Larousse though to see what the fuss is about.

Nigel Slater is a kitchen god. His weekly Observer page is worth the price of the paper alone. No one else's food writing comes closer in the making RickyT drool stakes.

T is on da money, I usually flick through the Observer these days but the slater page gets a thorough investigation, even better, next sunday is the food magazine that he edits.

He writes very good articles in the Sainsburys magazine too!

MAN EATING BUGS!!!

Elizabeth David = grate to read, esp. as she got older, but lousy to cook from.
Obvious faults aside, N.Lawson's "How to Cook" is extremely sensible and tipful (tho she must "purge" vomitoriously, as no one cd keep her figure on that diet).

my supper last nite inc. a recipe i copied off JAMIE OLIVER haha

Mine too. Fat tongue boy is the devil, but his recipes work for me.

I swear by Safeway magazine, but mainly because it is on the rack by the checkout and the dimwitted operator has just dropped a jar of super garlic garlic sauce alll over my trousers. Beeotch.

Agree re: Nigella and J Oliver - annoying media presence, recipes that work (especially his quick pizza base recipe which I got off the BBC food website). Also swear by Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian which quite apart from the gorgeous cover is a genius refernce book and excellent on usable basic techniques. She does come off kind of bossy, though.

It's weird, but I seldom use cookbooks which makes *me* my fave chef. Most of the 'recipes' I use are either improvised, revised from things I've seen made, or are told to me when I go shopping for ingredients at Italian, Thai and Indian groceries. Sometimes they come from instuctions on spice mixes. Or I just ask the person behind the counter how they use whatever it is that I'm buying and manage to do a reasonable job (the Italian clan who run Gazzano's deli in Farringdon Road are brilliant at this; rapport with local shop people is crucial and makes my world a nicer place). The recipes for stuff I post on IL*, eg. Corned Beef Hash, are sometimes family things (my mum can only cook about six signature dishes really well, and they're all Polish/mittel- European). So I guess this is the only part of my life which has a 'folk' tradition in the classic sense.

I also have a reasonable talent for processing whatever I'm served in restaurants, within limits. The next time I have access to a decent oven I'm going to make the chicken Kiev which rules all others.

Here's one I made up last week, just off the cuff when a hung-over friend was staying.

Cream Of Spinach Soup a la Blender (yes, Ed, I bought me a blender...) with Soldiers

One bag washed baby spinach leaves Two cloves garlic One cube vegetable stock Any wilted leftover salad from last night's meal -- in this case, spinach/watercress/rocket Small cup of water One large pot single cream Parmesan scrapings Pepper and salt to taste

Place all leaves in blender. Really pack them in. Crumble the stock cube and lob in the two garlic cloves in the first third of the packing process. Liquefy in the blender, adding the water to help the process along as you go. It may seem like this will not work, but suddenly does. When the leaves are liquidated, add the cream and blend together. Also add a pinch of finely grated Parmesan to aid the thickening-while- cooking process below.

On low to medium heat, melt a hotel-sized butter pat in the bottom of the saucepan you will pour the soup mix into. Do this when the butter is melted. Simmer the soup, stirring while allowing the mix to reduce to the level you find acceptably creamy. Salt and pepper should now be added to taste (I like a lot of pepper and two or three shakes of salt).

While the soup simmers, toast a slice of bread for each person you will be feeding. When these are done, flavour this by rubbing a cut half of garlic clove across the bread before buttering it lightly. Cut the toast slices into sticks ('soldiers' - you'll get six strips), place three in the bottom of each bowl butter side up. Pour soup over theseand add the other three soldiers so they lean against the side of the bowl and emergefrom the soup. Garnish with parmesan shavings and a baby spinach leaf.

Best of all, this takes about 10 minutes to carry out.

All you lot scare me. Alice has a childs cookbook of some sort in our flat but in other cooking manners one must use YORE OWN INITIATIVE! Although my co-workers think I don't eat properly, so one has brought me some recipes that dropped through her door this morning, so for my TEA I shall possibly MUNCH either: a) herby chicken nuggets
b) really cheesey brocolli bake
c) tagliatelle bolognese
But it is more likely that if I bother to cook at all that it will be wholemeal pasta with some pesto - if no other fule haf already eaten it. I admit I get off on the THRILL of not having a clue how a meal will turn out so this will bore me, swiz.

Suzy you make my mouth water, your improvising just rules. Does anyone (British I guess) remember the enormous green Good Housekeeping hardback from the 60s/70s? My Mum taught me from it and it's still the dominant book in their house, even with the Nigellas and Jamies floating around. It's brilliant for cakes and puddings, which is where I excelled aged 8.

My cream of garlic soup rocks. Takes about five days to make it properly though,

I picked up a brand new copy of the Good Housekeeping cookbook from a dumpster a few months ago and it is really ace. It even has stuff like gnocchi and couscous in now. A great basic cookbook. Cookings a bit like jazz I suppose, follow the basics then riff around with your own ideas.

Apart from that I like Sophie Grigson's books

hey apparently people tested out the bestsellers by Nigella, Delia, Oliver et al and they were all crap. this is pretty much my experience with cookbooks, as everyone interprets most recipes in different ways, has slightly different ovens (no Aga, Delia), etc. my fool-proof method is to either make something up on the spot (curry = always good)or, if a recipe goes wrong or looks crap (like i made a carrot cake the other day and the recipe looked boring, but i added spices and extra froot) adapt it. Do Not Be Scared Of The Recipe.

BTW i own about 15 vegan cookbooks and STILL make random curry nearly every night. *sigh* i really must learn...

tv food network website = renders all cookbooks obsolete = absolute CLASSIC.

Charmaine Solomon's vegetarian cookbook is the only one I've got that I've used more than 5 recipes out of.

Mostly I just use the Int'net. Lots of great recipes to be found there.

A gastropornographer's work is never done!

Here are some general rules. All sandwiches are better if you use toast. Never put butter on sandwich bread; use gobs of mayo or for those who loathe mayo, drizzle some olive oil or salad dressing. The sole exception to this rule is the grilled cheese sandwich, which is fried in a pan butter side out.

If you use ground spices, augment these by using whole ones which are roasted in oil at the beginning of your curry eg. coriander, cumin, etc. To stop garlic burning and smoking out your kitchen, throw it in with the onions, not before.

Stale hard bread + your blender = BREADCRUMBS. Do not buy the store ones. That goes double for products like Bisto.

Katie is right about tarting up recipes. If I see someone on telly I have a mission to go one louder. If you watch Rick Stein with a hangover and a Sunday morning Camberwell Carrot you'll know EXACTLY what I mean.

Though I have my limits due to phobia of becoming one of the whingers on the I Have A Big Ass thread.

I use the internet to get recipes, because I'm a cheap bastard.

Surprisingly, there are a lot of good ones out there -- it's just a matter of sifting through them all. On this board alone I've picked up a handful of good ones - Suzy's avacadoe sandwich recipe rocked.

Rick Stein is so lovely.

recipe twiddling: take the recipe eg in some ancient sepia penguin, and double the things you love (or — as i once attempted) OCTUPLE the cheese in the "cheese log": I don't know if there's word for the culinary process that ensued but it sure WASN'T baking!! They were unbelievable (even Homer Simpson wd have declined seconds), but I haf in fact nevah dared go that far again.

Rick stein reads this board! Only he disguises himself as dafmoore. It's true you know.

i take it all back, mark s' cheese log = the vector of the totality.

You are all on crack. Don't you know you can buy peanuts and crisps in the pub? Why do you need to 'cook' 'food' in your 'kitchens' when the peanut food group, the fried potato food group and the alcohol food group are all available in one handy outlet?

I LOATHE peanuts unless they're in satay, and am too picky for Tavern Snacks. All my food groups live in Japanese and Thai restaurants, especially the little-known Hot Saké group.

1956 edition of the Joy of Cooking
You need that and a decent Indian/VEggie one and you are set.

Emma, you seem to have forgotten the most important food group of all, the fried pig back category. Mmmm, scratchings.

Uh-oh - don't start Emma on the proper temperature to server Sake. Me, I can't work out the point of cooking when them hospitals do those handy food in bag things. I'm always working on a line of that shit to stave the hunger off.

"Meals Without Meat" by Alison Holst. NZ vege standard cookbook.

Food in bag things=pork scratchings

My fav. cook book for British dishes is "The Joy of Boiling". (cymbal crash, crowd moans).

I don't get it, I can't think of many 'British' dishes that involve boiling.

The problem with actually cooking is that you have to actually cook as opposed to put a box in a machine and press the go button.

suzy you are a wonder.

A Cookbook for Poor Poets (and Others) by Ann Rogers. I imagine that greenspiun will break that link, but you can search for it at Amazon. It's out of print, though. Miss Rogers' best advice: always have fresh bread, butter, and wine around at a MINIMUM. work from there.

For someone who eats a lot of takeout, I have quite a few cookbooks.
I like the Fanny Farmer cookbook, I have two editions and think if I could only have one, that would be it. The Return of the Naked Chef I like, and The Complete Vegetarian Cuisine by Rose Elliot I bought 'cos my English pagan vegan friend had it and she was a great cook so I trusted her judgement. I have Pies and Pastries, an HP Books paperback with a great Chicken Pot Pie recipe, the pastry has sage in it, yummy, but a lot of work. There's a banana cream pie recipe that's excellent and very fattening. My favorite cookbook to read I don't think I bought myself, a relative bought it and I ended up with it. It's the 8th edition of The Scottish Women's Rural Institutes Cookery Book (1980), and each section or chapter has "mottoes" like

Section II FISH
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery element were made for wise men to contemplate and fools to pass by without consideration, ARRRR!" (OK, I put that in)

Section VII BAKING
"How he would chirp and expand over a muffin!"

and

Section X TRADITIONAL

"The destiny of nations depends on its diet."

I tried the clootie dumpling recipe once, it was a mess. Also, the book has measurements like "a piece of butter the size of a walnut" and instructions like "bake in a hot oven".

My only real problem is getting the gloopy consistency required by Chinese food. I'm guessing that instead of the emulsifiers myself and Mr Blender are going to have to puree seven shades of shit out of some cooked garlic and onions.

See, even when I come back with a legitimate question about not knowing how to do something right with food, I generally manage to work out a plausible solution. If only life were this easy.

As it is nearing dinnertime I am going to have to go and DEAL WITH this. Went to Trash last night to see Peaches (appalling sound, poor cow) and am feeling...delicate. But hungry.

Making clootie dumpling is like Mahler, not to be attempted until you're at least 40.

Suzy, if the urban myth is to be believed I think the Chinese use um, spoodge as a thickener. I don't think Sainsbury's stocks it though.

No Billy, you're confusing that with the Salty Lassi myth which happens to bad people who annoy the waiters in Indian restaurants. Or so they say.

Why would Sainbury's NEED to stock it, Billy?

Seems that I have a lot of books, but I don't use them. If I'm going to cook, I'm also going to have fun, which means doing away with the rules. Down with the recipe! Just make sure you you buy heaps and heaps of fresh food, head into your kitchen, and go totally nuts. I've made some of the best food ever that way - like fresh spinach and lemon chicken fettucine with white wine and cracked pepper cream sauce... mmmm

The only downfall is that the lack of a recipe does make the most wonderful things kind of unrepeatable.

Which is why I write most of them down here.

As most of my friends will attest, I have total recall about things like this. It's a good fallback option when I feel I am Lacking In Other Skills.

there is of course my library of industrial style camp recipes

Why would Sainbury's NEED to stock it, Billy?Hmm, well I suppose not everyone has acess to a spoodge farm. (Ah the benefits of living in the country....)

ellieplanchet@hotmail.com wrote: Also swear by Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian which quite apart from the gorgeous cover is a genius refernce book and excellent on usable basic techniques. She does come off kind of bossy, though.

i got this for my birthday today - i'd been eyeing it up for ages. it looks brilliant. no poncy foodporn photos, just the fucking recipes. i intend to get much use out of this one ... i'm glad to hear that someone on ILE rates it too.

rener

rener: hope you enjoy it. I wish you better luck keeping the pretty purple cover nicer than mine (already covered with oil smears and other disgustingness).

Haha my opinions on food have changed entirely!!!

I blame YOU LOT! More specifically RickyT and Katie for taking me to buy spices'n'urbs'n'stuff HOOORAY ph34r m3!

Nigella Lawson made something that lookZ0r3d nice last night but I couldn't watch her without shivering and getting bad mental places b-b-but I want to make the PUMPKIN CURRY!

http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/N/nigella/bites4.shtml#recipe1

I couldn't watch her without shivering and getting bad mental places
Explain yourself

(And then they lez up...)

SHEESH! No no no! Scary! She's frightening! No she is not my ideal lady but I know who DOES think she is the ideal lady, and had visions of [___] watching avidly, TROUSERS ROUND THE ANKLES urgh urgh urgh...

Even I have bought a cookery book now. Curse you ILE.

Lindsay Bareham's In Praise OF The Potato is my new bible.

Curse you, sinker! I was on the phone when I looked at that, and now the person from the document delivery service probably thinks I'm mad because I started laughing hysterically.