My Cookbooks and Where They Live.

On the last day of July, Dom is going to do a round up of this month's Random Recipes and it is going to be a nosey-parker's dream!

Randomly enough, he has asked us all to post photographs of our cookbook collections and already I have been able to snoop into lots of lovely houses in the posts already up.  I think there is really something wonderful about seeing how other people arrange their homes, isn't there?

So, here are my photos.

The top photo is in my kitchen.  Those are the books that are out in the kitchen because I have been using them ar plan to in the next week.  My Kenwood Chef used to fill that space under the cupboards but, as you can see, it has now been crowded into a tiny area.

Now actually when I went to take photos of my cookbooks, I found that those from the top photo were actually being used to help with robot manufacture.  Here is the photo with Snappy the robot.

The majority of my cookbooks live in the book shelf in the garage.  Not the most idyllic of places but it is handy for the kitchen.

It is a hugely reduced collection as it was pared down before we moved house just over a year ago. Previously the whole bookshelf would have been filled. I do have loads of food magazines and Guardian Weekend cuttings all over the house and I often get cookbooks from our local library.  I LOVE my library service.  I reserve a book online (and have yet to find a book they don't have), it gets delivered to my local library, they text me when it is ready to collect (usually 2-3 days later) and there is no charge at all for this amazing service.  I am just away to order HFW's Everyday Veg book so I expect I'll get it very soon.  

Thanks Dom for an easy and fun challenge this month. 

My Favourite Cook Book.

My favourite cook book has been a bit neglected since the kids came along as I tend to make a lot of things from books aimed at Mummies cooking for kids or books aimed at little cooks.

However, I still love to drool over the writing and photography in my favourite book and I still make the odd thing from it.  Probably going to be inspired to cook something from it this weekend after writing this post.

It's this one - 

Appetite by Nigel Slater.

I think I got this book when I was still a student.  I was introduced to Nigel Slater when a friend lent me her Real Fast Food book (and which I actually have never returned) which was perfect for student cooking.  It's really chock full of ideas more than recipes for really simple but great cooking.  So, this led me on to seeking out more of Nigel's stuff.  I think I have almost all of his books.  

Appetite was probably one of my first introductions into "food pornography".  I'd love to be original and use a less cliched term but actually "pornography" really hits the nail on the head.  If you haven't seen this book before, I urge you to flick through it next time you're in a book shop (remember book shops where you could actually touch the books?).  I'll put some photos of pages to give you an idea but my camera is a little rubbish and you can't really get the proper experience of flicking through the glossy book on a computer.

Hats off to the food stylists and photographers.  This book makes you VERY hungry.  It makes me drool buckets.

But what good are photographs that make you hungry if you don't have recipes which are achievable and which make delicious, satisfying food?  Not much.  Luckily, though, this book ticks all my boxes.  Nigel Slater's food is generally uncomplicated, unfussy and obviously meant for people who love to eat.

And, in keeping with Real Fast Food, he gives you some basic structures of recipes but expands on them with loads of ideas for mucking about with them and generally adding your own twist.

"I want to tell you about the pleasure, the sheer unbridled joy, of cooking without a recipe."

And surely everyone knows that Nigel Slater is a most amazing food writer?  He really knows how to immerse you in experiencing the cooking and tasting while just sitting reading your Sunday paper.  All his books have been read by me in bed at some point.  I can't get enough. 

So what kind of recipes can you expect in this book?  Well, loads and loads if you were to try all the variations he gives you.  The chapters are divided into - soup, pasta and noodles, rice, vegetables, fish, meat, fruit, pastry, pudding, and cake.  He starts off with really simple things like "Classic, Unmucked-About-With Roast Chicken", "A Really Good, And Very Easy White Loaf", "A Whole Baked Fish For Midweek".  He then builds things up with his additions so you can actually make something very posh and impressive if you wanted to. I guess I have learned a lot of my basic recipes that I cook time and again from him eg. potato dauphinoise, sausages and onion gravy, various ways of roasting or pan-frying chicken.  But I also refer to this book whenever I am cooking for guests.  His ideas are ideal for allowing me to make a meal which is lovely but which is simple enough to not go wrong and means I don't have to spend all day stressing in the kitchen.  He very much points you in the direction of maybe making a bit of effort for one course, dispensing with a third course, and buying in good quality ingredients to make a no-cook starter or dessert, for example.  

He has about the first third of the book just yapping away about food and his thoughts about it.  I know that won't appeal to some people but it is great for me to dip into those pages from time to time and just remind myself about his main message which is that food should be simple and tasty.  He also has sections on getting hold of good quality ingredients, equipment, tastes and seasoning, what goes with what, how to reduce the work, and, of course, a section on seasonal eating.

Ten years later, I still think this is the best cook book by far.  It is hugely inspiring and always relights my enthusiasm for food.  And there is absolutely nothing scary about any of the recipes.  They are all very do-able.  I think it is still very fresh - his ideas about seasonal cooking, sourcing good ingredients, simplifying cooking without resorting to processed stuff are still very topical. 

"Cooking is about giving pleasure to ourselves and others.  So why do we continually beat ourselves up over it, turning the simplest of suppers into a bit of a palaver?"

Little Kitchen.

Some lovely food again this weekend.

Steve has made more wholemeal bread.  Not as good looking this time but just as tasty.  He got up early on Saturday morning to bake it so we had it warm from the oven with melting butter with our morning coffee. Mmmmm.

Rufus and I had been to the library last week and I had managed to pick up a few new cook books to have a look at.  We used the first one today.  It is called Little Kitchen by Sabrina Parrini. It is Australian and looks like it was only published in 2009 so quite new.  It is a lovely book especially for cooking with children.  Laid out very well with photographs of a completed version of every single recipe as well as other fun or stylish photos. 

I see they have a website and sell baking equipment in Australia -  Little Kitchen

So, for lunch today, we decided to go for the Crunchy Chicken Fingers.  We had some Ruskoline in the cupboard so we used that instead of making our own breadcrumbs and we just served them with peas.

Adam did most of this himself and I was impressed at what a neat job he made of it.  He is getting really good at cracking eggs into a bowl and there was no shell in the egg at all.  I think I usually underestimate what a 3 year old can actually achieve.

Because it's the tattie holidays, Adam will not have pre-school for the next two weeks so this will give us more time to do loads of cooking and baking.  There are a few recipes in this book that we have our eye on - can't wait to get cracking!

Nigel and Nigella.

I made Roast Tomato Soup With Basil and Olive Oil Toasts from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries.  It's an August recipe and he serves his chilled.  Given it is a bit colder here just now, we had ours hot but it still tasted very fresh and zingy.

Afterwards we had Nigella's Sweet And Salty Peanut Biscuits.  These were so easy to make and turned out addictively crumbly.

Nigel and Nigella are my Go-Tos.  For meals I almost always turn to one of my Nigel Slater books and for baking I love the Domestic Goddess book.  Both do very well laid out and beautifully presented recipe books and both do food I REALLY want to eat.  Just look at the simple effectiveness of the front of Nigella's book - gorgeous!

Anyway, here are a few pictures from earlier in the Summer when Adam helped me to make a courgette tart and a fruit jelly - just because I think he is such a cute little chef!

BBQ Lamb and flatbreads.

So, sometimes I get frustrated that I make nice food for all the family and the wee boys (Adam, 3, and Rufus, 2) hardly touch any of it.  But they are definitely getting better and sometimes surprise me with what they eat.  They both love to help me with the cooking or baking and we really enjoy spending time together in the kitchen.

This Saturday I decided to try something new from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries - Lamb-filled Flatbread.

My husband, Steve, made the flatbread for me.  He used the recipe from Moro as that's the one he usually uses.  We got the Moro book as an engagement present from my friend, Pam, and we both immediately fell in love with it.  I have made very little from it, to be honest, but I love salivating over the recipes.  Steve has made a few things from it - all lovely!

Back to the lamb - I barbecued it and we ate outside even though it was pretty windy and cold.  I also served it with some marinated mushroom kebabs that I picked up from the butcher when I was getting the lamb.

Actually went down pretty well.  The flatbreads were scoffed by both kids and they both had one or two bites only of the lamb but I was glad they had tried it.  I don't think either of them ate the mushrooms.  Oh well - it wasn't a bad effort overall.  Steve and I loved the meal.