Cookery books. Favourite, least Favourite and why?

Oliveciabatta

There are a couple of books I always go back to.
The good;
Deliah Smith complete cookery course. Its just a good basic guide to cooking and the recipes all just work.
Jamie Oliver 5 ingredients. Simple to follow and ideal for weeknight cooking for 1. Good calorie guide to each recipe too.
Nigel slater eat. So simple, quick and tasty. Ideal when cooking for 1 with limited ingredients or budget.

The bad
Anything by Joe wicks . All too complex, too many ingredients often hard to get hold of and give it a rest joe with the Tiny trees. Its broccoli ffs you are writing a cookery book for adults. I'm an adult id appreciate you calling broccoli, Broccoli. Even children don't call it tiny trees.

What books do you rate and why?

eliezalot

Most weekdays when I'm in a hurry, I tend to just make up my meals as I go. But I love cook books. I love reading them, I love their photography, I love learning new ingredients/techniques/recipes.

Current favorites:

• Meera Sodha's "Made in India." I have a number of go-to curries for weeknights now. Flavorful, and a variety of dishes (from fast adn easy to more complex).
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. I've always been a decent cook, but this book has really helped me level up my skills and knowledge in a lot of tangible ways.
• I've been going back to Ottolenghi's "Plenty" lately, as I've been making an effort to include more plant-based meals this winter.
• My most treasured cookbook is one my mom made for me, filled with all of the hand-written recipes I grew up with. She has an identical copy, and every so often, we get together to add new recipes to each other's books

.


I get a lot of my day-to-day ideas and recipes from some favorite blogs:

• https://www.feastingathome.com/ - Great variety, unique flavors, and dishes that were new to me (Fesenjen, for example). Every recipe I've done has been delicious.
• https://cookieandkate.com/ - Lots of easy vegetarian recipes, usually quick to make.
• https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/ - Great variety of different regional Mexican dishes (she just came out with a cookbook that I'm looking forward to getting!) She does a great job of explaining regional differences and variations on the dishes.
• https://thewoksoflife.com/ - Great and approachable Chinese recipes, provides a great intro to ingredients I hadn't used previously. I will forever love them for teaching me to make my first mapo tofu...

I love cookbooks and blogs that give authentic, regional, or unique recipes. That let me dive in and explore a different food culture, that teach me how to use new-to-me ingredients or techniques. I'm not interested in cookbooks that just regurgitate the same old recipes from every other cookbook that's out there. That being said, I don't want my cookbooks to be pretentious or super fancy either...I want to be able to use them more than once a year!