Newest Cookery Reviews
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Cookery
Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No 2 by Pam Corbin
I was born not long after the end of the Second World War, at a time when some foods were rationed and a banana or an orange was a treat. Preserving was simply one of those things that you did to store one season's bounty to help you through less generous times – and all this without the help of a freezer or even a fridge. Freezers have undoubtedly made it easier to save food but it's not the greenest solution and I have long wanted a book which extended my range of recipes, most of which I inherited from my parents. Full review...
The Kitchen Revolution by Rosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heron
I've been cooking regular family meals for over forty years. For more than 95% of those nights I've prepared a meal from scratch and sometimes it's just plain drudgery. It's not just the cooking either – there's all the thinking, the planning and the buying to take into account too. Rosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heller have come up with a solution. Full review...
A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain by Paul Richardson
Although subtitled discovering the food of Spain, this excellently written, engaging and interesting book is about so much more. Yes, the focus is on food, mouthwateringly described, but it is also about culture, people, travel, tourism, history and geography. Full review...
Easy Indian Cookbook by Manju Malhi
Have you ever thought that you'd like to make good Indian food but you don't really know where to start? Have you ever worried about over-spicing or under-spicing your dishes? Have you ever wondered what foods work well together and which don't? If you have, this third book from Manju Malhi will provide all the answers.
Indian cuisine is perfume for the nose, relish for the lips, nourishment for the body and nectar for the soul. Full review...
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
On her first trip to the orient Fuchsia Dunlop is appalled at the preserved duck eggs served as hors d'oeuvre in Hong Kong. Her description of this first encounter with the Chinese delicacy is rich with words like filthy, revolting, nightmarish, translucent, oozy, mouldy, toxic, slime… Full review...
Delia's How To Cheat At Cooking by Delia Smith
I don't often begin a review by saying who shouldn't read a book, but I think it's important with Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking if there are not to be a lot of disappointed readers. If you've ever sighed because you know that your home-made soup would have tasted so much better if you had gone to the trouble of making a decent stock, if you've ever made a quick soufflé for lunch with a friend then you shouldn't even look at this book as you will end up besmirching the name of St Delia and that would never do. Full review...
Moro East by Sam and Sam Clark
Imagine an area of land bordered on one side by the River Lea and on another by the Grand Union Canal. You'll have approached with care because you had to go through some rather insalubrious areas to get there but once you were over the bridge you were in the Manor Garden Allotments – a tiny part of the Eastern Mediterranean in East London – where the Clarks grew vegetables for seven years, but, perhaps more importantly became part of a community of Turks and Cypriots who showed them how to make use of every part of the plant. You'll notice that I've spoken of this in the past tense. Have the Clarks given up, moved on? No – the Manor Garden Allotments have been bulldozed to make way for a hockey stadium for the 2012 Olympics and this book shows the last year of vegetable growing on the site and the glorious food that has been eaten. Full review...
