Cookery books. Favourite, least Favourite and why?

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Oliveciabatta
Oliveciabatta Posts: 294 Member
in Food and Nutrition
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?

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  • eliezalot
    eliezalot Posts: 620 Member
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    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!

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