Cookbooks that changed your life.

[baboon2004]

Okay, with all the talk of pickling (and botulism - apaprently this only happens in alkaline environments, and therefore woul dbe unlikely to happen when pickling in vinegar), tim to re-up this one.

I have much love for the Moro cookbooks (esp Moro East) - great flavour combinations. Who knew that cumin and caraway (if memory serves) went so well together?

 

[mistersloane]

Stelfox was right about Fuschia Dunlop, she's totally opened my eyes to Szechuan and Hunan cooking, I want to marry her.

Those Moro ones look hot.

 

[Grievous Angel]

I got Jamie in Italy for Christmas. It's fantastic!

BTW I particularly recommend the courgettes with lemon and chili and spaghetti, very easy and utterly delicious.

 

[baboon2004]

I got Jamie in Italy for Christmas. It's fantastic!

BTW I particularly recommend the courgettes with lemon and chili and spaghetti, very easy and utterly delicious.

That sounds terrific. Lemon and courgettes are a fantastic combination. That's it - I'm starting a new thread on flavour combinations.

The best pasta I ever had was in Bologna - some pasta similar to linguine but less cylindrical. It seemed to have been bathed in lightly cooked egg, which made it extra-delicious, and serenaded with courgette shavings and fantastic pancetta-ry stuff.

 

[Client Eastwood]

Got this recently and the recipies are simplified even I can follow them. The fish curry is ace.

 

[baboon2004]

Got this recently and the recipies are simplified even I can follow them. The fish curry is ace.

brilliant, brilliant book (though for some reason a friend who has Sri Lankan heritage really hated it....still not quite sure why!). Have you tried the green curry with loads of coriander - absolutely lovely?

 

[craner]

Ha, I forgot all about this thread. When I posted that reply I was living in a flat with a kitchen the size of a cupboard and badly mourning my previous kitchen that had a large wooden table I could feed dozens of friends around. And I still miss that table, though I escaped the flat with the tiny kitchen. Doesn't time fly!

I did actually meet Keith Floyd in a wine bar in Mumbles, down PA's - he'd been making a programme, and cooking up lots of recipes involving lava bread and cockles, and was totally sloshed. I mean, it was inspirational. I love Floyd like a father.

This book is bloody brilliant, it has lavishly detailed sections on crockery and kitchenware, and this is elegant.

 

[UFO over easy]

brilliant, brilliant book (though for some reason a friend who has Sri Lankan heritage really hated it....still not quite sure why!). Have you tried the green curry with loads of coriander - absolutely lovely?

^ she's really awful on TV.. looks constantly patronising and insincere, especially when she's smiling

food does look nice though

i like books by jill dupleix.. simple but often quite unusual recipes. i'd post up the covers but for some reason they've picked pictures for them that look incredibly unappetizing, so it doesn't seem worth it.

 

[DannyL]

I second or third or fourth the Nigel Slater love. He really got me started cooking properly. I don't mind a bit of Jamie either. I actually brought a pasta maker after reading his book but I never found the results amazing enough to keep it up.

I have to say I love Heston Blumenthal as well because he's so mad. I have the book of his first TV series and I made the roast chicken out of it. It took two days but it tasted absolutely fucking amazing.

 

[craner]

Did anyone see that Blumenthal programme when he tried to make the perfect chicken tikka masala? He started off diving down Delhi back streets looking for the best tikka masala chef in the world and ended up digging a big pit in his back garden to cook the chicken in. It was during this programme that I felt Sidney crossed the line between dedication and madness.

Anjum Anand I could watch for hours.

 

[baboon2004]

I did actually meet Keith Floyd in a wine bar in Mumbles, down PA's - he'd been making a programme, and cooking up lots of recipes involving lava bread and cockles, and was totally sloshed. I mean, it was inspirational. I love Floyd like a father.

Which wine bar was that (my family are from Swansea, do next time I'm up there...)?

i love Blumenthal too. Absolute mentalist, but his passion is inspirational. Lots of things to learn from his programme, even if (DannyL, I am seriously impressed) making any of the recipes would be a mission and a half.

 

[DannyL]

I saw that one - another mad moment when he put the chicken in an MRI scanner or whatever) to see how far the marinade had penetrated. Did you see the Xmas dinner special? He made a starter of gold, frankinscene and myrhh and wafted scents of leather and tobacco over the table while serving a sorbet covered in flaming whiskly.

He is a mentalist, no doubt.

 

[craner]

Mumbles, top of Newton Road. Apparently he spends more time down there than people realise. I think he's friends with the owners or something. Or was. I assume the place is still there, haven't been back for years.

 

[DannyL]

Which wine bar was that (my family are from Swansea, do next time I'm up there...)?

i love Blumenthal too. Absolute mentalist, but his passion is inspirational. Lots of things to learn from his programme, even if (DannyL, I am seriously impressed) making any of the recipes would be a mission and a half.

Ta, entering that epic mentalist space was half of the fun. Eating it was the other half! It was gorgeous!

 

[craner]

I didn't see that, but it sounds superb. This was one of the greatest moments in British history, up there with Magna Carta (did she die in vain?).

The only obvious nods to Blumenthal's usual culinary playfulness were sprays handed to those eating fish and chips, labelled "the smell of the chip shop", containing pickled onion vinegar

 

[craner]

Jennifer Paterson was good, wasn't she? A spherical chain-smoking alcoholic Roman Catholic who demanded caviar on her death bed. She was right up my street.

 

[craner]

Mum & Dad.

 

[swears]

I tend to just look up stuff online rather than buy cookbooks. Anyone know any good vegetable soup receipes? I like it thick and chunky, none of this broth nonsense.

 

[baboon2004]

Mumbles, top of Newton Road. Apparently he spends more time down there than people realise. I think he's friends with the owners or something. Or was. I assume the place is still there, haven't been back for years.

Will look out for it. I do love that part of the world - have so many fond memories of Llangland, Caswell etc.

Can't find the name of another book I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, which is all about what flavour combinations go together, based upon the sweet-salt-bitter-sour-umami divisions.

Instead, I offer this:

http://www.thenibble.com/REVIEWS/main/salts/umami-the-new-taste.asp

 

[baboon2004]

I tend to just look up stuff online rather than buy cookbooks. Anyone know any good vegetable soup receipes? I like it thick and chunky, none of this broth nonsense.

No recipe, just my own made-up one (ah, depends if you're veggie or not, as contains bacon...). Fry bacon and potato (btw, try bacon, thyme and potato risotto - amazing dish) in a big Le Creusier-type casserole, with really good olive oil; then add in carrots/courgettes etc, Italian tomato paste to taste, and then add either water or light vegetable stock, along with lots of herbes de provence and a coupla bay leaves. Bring to the boil then simmer til it all breaks down and becomes thick.