Recent book purchases

[OneMoreCheekyOne Profile Website]

Has anyone bought any new cookbooks recently? Or are there any that you have your eye on?

I had a little shopping frenzy on ebay yesterday and bought the following which had all been on my ‘list’ for ages...

Amaretto, apple cake and artichokes – The Best of Anna Del Conte
Comfort me with apples – Ruth Reichl
A homemade life: Stories and recipes from my kitchen table – Molly Wizenberg
An omelette and a glass of wine – Elizabeth David
The Naked Chef – Jamie Oliver
The art of the tart – Tamasin Day-Lewis

I think I paid about £18 in total for all 6 books. I do love a bargain!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

A friend swears by the Art of the Tart, and I've eaten some nice things from it

An Omlette & a Glass of Wine I love - try the Omelette Moliere (there aren't a lot of recipes, but that's a good one)

I didn't buy, but was given, Casa Moro by Sam & Sam Clarke, right up my street, a mix of Spanish and North African & generally Mediterranean food, yum the explanations are so clearly written

[Sakkarin Profile]

A roundup of some of the books I've bought so far this year, there's probably a few more that didn't make it to my "best books" shelves, they're all either ebay/amazon or charity shop.

The River Cottage Meat Book Hugh F-W
This has had such good writeups that I succumbed. Haven't really read any of it yet though.

The Home-Made Sweetshop Claire Ptak
This really is a bookful of sweetshop, it's how to make all those sweets we used to buy by the quarter pound from the shop on the corner, peare drops, sherbet, pontefract cakes, nougat, rhubarb & custard sweets, marshmallows. Bucketloads of sugar and a sugar thermometer required. And lots of patience for all that stretching and pulling.

British Baking Oliver Peyton
I bought this for two reasons: firstly it has every british cake/biscuit you could possibly imagine all in one volume, and secondly I presumed that with his track record, the recipes would be the best. Some of the piccies look like the cakes have been a little rushed, or maybe they were deliberately going for the homely look.

John Tovey Step By Step Cookbook
My cookery teacher used to rave about John Tovey, so I thought I'd check this out. Very, very dated.

The Wagamama Cookbook
I'm not really sure what Wagamama is. Fusion? Kind of makes me want to visit Wagamama to see what all the fuss is about. Lots of seaweed.

Food & Cooking of Finland Anja Hill
Hmm.

Who Put The Beef in Wellington James Winter
Stolen recipes nuff said.

1001 Foods You Must Try Before You Die Frances Case
Very readable compendium of ingredients.

Siamese Cookery Marie Wilson
I already have a whole shelffull of Thai books, I bought this one because it predates the Jennifer Brennan one by 16 years, which was my earliest previously. It is so westernised as to be useless. Here's a sample, her ingredients for Tom Yum, basically stew them all together for 15 minutes:

450g prawns
1125 ml chicken stock
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 bay leaves
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbs lemon juice
2 slices of lemon
Pinch of cayenne
Salt + MSG to taste
Chopped spring onion for garnish

P.S. MSG in everything.

Best of Masterchef 1990-1993
Spotted in charity shop, I had to get it for this fab recipe

[Joanbunting Profile]

Aw bless Sakkers

The fact that it was in a charity shop must tell you something though!!

[OneMoreCheekyOne Profile Website]

try the Omelette Moliere

Thanks Sue, i'll make sure I try that one. I bought a copy of The art of the tart for a friend a few years ago and almost kept it for myself. I'm glad i've finally got around to getting my own copy.

Sounds like a varied selection of books there Sakkarin. I didn't realise you'd won MC Joan!

Another couple i've bought recently and which look good are Limoncello and Linen Water by Tessa Kiros and Gourmet food for a fiver by Jason Atherton.

Next on my (very long) list are these three...

Crazy water, pickled lemons, by Diana Henry

Pitt Cue Co Cookbook

Pomegranates and roses: My Persian family recipes by Ariana Bundy

[mellymou Profile]

I've just bought Rick Stein's India book which accompanies the TV series. It was a present for my son-in-law, but it nearly didn't make it as the photography is stunning and I could almost taste the food as I looked through it before it was wrapped. Oh well, perhaps he will allow his dear MIL to borrow it!

[Joanbunting Profile]

Hi mellyloo,

Glad you liked it. I ordered it from Amazon earlier in the week and I am looking forward to getting it. I'm thinking though that certain ingredients may have to be ordered on line.

[calabash Profile]

Not only only Master Chef Joan, the but the inaugural one!

My son spent a summer at Wagamama in Amsterdam, he left with excellent knife skills

I ordered Ottolenghi from Amazon UK. I have a scale that has metric measures so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. Until I discovered my scale is in increments of 25 and the recipes called for 20g of this and 40g of that It was a fraught Sunday morning in the kitchen.

I have now pre-ordered the US version on iTunes to download in September.

OMCO I really enjoyed Ruth Reichl and Elizabeth David - have you read MFK Fisher?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I really don't get on with MFK Fisher - i gather this puts me into a minority of one

Wagamama is i think franchised, and franchises vary quite a lot - I loved the first one, in Bloomsbury, when it was a novelty and still think it is the best branch I know

Not so different now to other pan-Asian noodle joints.

The gyozu (sp?) - Japanese dumpling things - are a good bet

Sakkarin - I'm amazed you haven't been, but avoid your nearest one (I'm assuming that's Brent Cross)

[cherrytree Profile]

I was in the Cambridge Waterstones cookery book department on Tuesday and for what must be the first time ever, there was nothing that shouted "buy me!" at me. I was amused that Mary Berry's "At Home" that I remember enthusing about on the old BBC board has been re-issued and that the old favourite writers were there. Then something caught my eye and as Waterstones still have chairs to sit on and I had time, I settled down to read a book by a Leslie Geddes Brown. Now please excuse my ignorance, but I had never come across this person despite my avid reading of book reviews. She has selected her favourite 101 (I think that's right) cookery books. Now of course the usual suspects are there-Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Robert Carrier etc. but just a brief rather dismissive mention of Delia Smith, Mary Berry or Margeurite Patten. Now I can quite understand the difference between importance and personal taste, but for sheer importance in the history of cookery in the last 50 years in the UK I don't think they should be ignored. Is there an element of personal jealousy in the cookery world or is this lady somebody of influence whose importance has passed me by?

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I knew i'd heard the name, not surpsiring as she has worked for the Sunday Times for years

http://www.columbinehall.co.uk/about/leslie-geddes-brown

Don't knwo what her criteria are for teh inclusion of books in the list

[Sakkarin Profile]

Now of course the usual suspects are there-Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Yotam Ottolenghi, Robert Carrier etc. but just a brief rather dismissive mention of Delia Smith, Mary Berry or Margeurite Patten.

Blimey, a book about other books - I would be interested to read it, but surely the selection of candidates must be one of the most subjective processes imaginable!

On your point however, maybe the people you mention her as being dismissive of are more to do with home cooking, rather than pushing boundaries and opening up new channels of foodie thought and endeavour - two of my most-thumbed books are a Marguerite Patten and a Delia one, but there are no recipes in either book that stretch the imagination one iota.

Considering the ones you mention, I have a couple of Carrier books, and whilst to me they are hopelessly outdated, at the time I believe he was regarded as a bit of a star, and his food must have been of a considerable quality, as his restaurant was one of only 14 Michelin starred ones in this country in 1983 (see link). However having not read his most noted book (the International Cookery one I think), I can't really comment on it, maybe he left his own idiosyncratic creations to one side for that book!

http://www.sakkarin.co.uk/michelin1983.htm

[Joanbunting Profile]

Hi Sakkarin

I have a signed first edition of Robert Carrier's Great Dishes of the World. It was a present from my then soon-to-be in-laws for my 21st birthday. I absolutely treasure it and there still several recipes I use regularly. No better coq au vin, sweet and sour sauce or crepes Suzette.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I dined at Carrier's in Camden passage, London N1 circa 1980

My parents dined at his Norfolk branch around the same time

Both had the same experience - we were given a set menu; each dish was perfectly cooked, but the menu as a menu was nearly uneatable, being so overwhelmingly rich

I can't remember the whole menu but I know that following super-rich coquilles St Jacques we were served with a bœuf bourguignon - accompanied by the creamiest gratin dauphinois I've ever eaten plus green beans dressed with butter (lots) and almonds

i felt queasy even the next day!

[Joanbunting Profile]

Sue,

That is why I suspect his books were better than his restaurants. I can't imagine that, even in those days, Burgundian cooking paired gratin dauphinoise with any of their treasured classics, I only remember pommes vapeur nothing else.

I think that brilliant though he was in many ways and very knowledgable on French food (He was half French wasn't he?) he was basically an American who felt he had seen the light and threw everything at his menus.

[OneMoreCheekyOne Profile Website]

have you read MFK Fisher?

I've got The Art of Eating and have had it for quite a few years. I must admit I don't think i've ever opened it though! I'm an avid reader and read all sorts of books but that one always looks like I might lose the will to live halfway through!

Sue, your description of your dinner at Carriers sounds like any dinner we have at a particular friends house. A meal we had last year had the following menu IIRC...

Olives, homemade cheese straws
Baked camembert, crusty bread
French onion soup, gruyere toast
Beef bourgiunon, tartiflette, crusty bread
Fruit/pastry hot dessert (cant recall what it was exactly)
Cheese and biscuits

Portion sizes were huge. Hardly a vegetable in sight and a weeks worth of bread, pastry and cheese in one meal! Gorgeous food but not all at once.

[Dena Profile]

I tried so hard not to read this thread, I need more cook books like I need a hole in the head , but I'm glad I succumbed if only to read your friends menu OMCO - omg, at first I thought it was for a series of meals and liked most of them, but as you say, all together . I don't think I could have eaten it all.

The last cookery book I bought was from the book people, it was "Cooking with Quinoa" - most of the recipes look quite good, especially without the quinoi I'm too much in love with Freekeh I think.

[Dena Profile]

I have been toying with the idea of buying this book for ages http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0340 ... il_1p_3_ti

Has anyone got it and do you think it worth it? I think that knowing how and why is not only interesting but useful. Still hemming and hawing though

[Sakkarin Profile]

Go for it. I have it, and if I lost my entire collection of cookery books, it is one of the first that I would want to replace - not that it is a cookery book, as it has no recipes in it.

[Dena Profile]

Hi Sakkarin thanks for that. I did realise there were no recipes but I just like the idea of expanding my knowledge of the whys and wherefores of cooking.