Our favourite recipe books

I find it hard to go into a bookshop and come out without a cookery book. I therefore have quite a large collection. All are read, and I have made a good amount of recipes from each, although some more than others. My rationale for buying again and again is that I do use cookery books and will frequently sit down with a few and read for an hour or two. ("Anorak" I hear you cry!). I feel confident that I have road tested them enough tell you all about them

What I look for in a cookbook is legible text, delicious looking photography and recipes that use accessible ingredients. When more than one ingredient from the same dish is too exotic and not readily available, it is unlikely I will ever make it. 

There are plenty of books out there for the home cook at the moment. It is such a trendy thing in food right now; homely, comforting, family style food, you will find all the celebrity chefs at it. 

My favourites are pictured above, these are the ones I use all the times. My dependable go-to bibles if you will.

Darina Allen and her mother-in-law Myrtle have been cooking home style food long before it was as trendy as it is now. Darina champions local and high quality ingredients and freshness above all else. You can't argue with that.

I grew up with Darina Allen on TV and in her books you can hear her talking. I have a couple of her older books from the early 90's and you can see some of these recipes pop up in Rachel Allen's books these days. They are absolutely well worth repeating.

The Ballymaloe Cookery Course is quite a large book and is a great general reference book as well as a source of ideas. She has basics like white sauce and mayonnaise and every variation of bread, as well as more advanced  techniques like filleting a fish and  making sushi. It is not laden with pictures, if it was it would need to come on wheels, but it has the important ones and is easy to navigate. 

I have made so many things from this book, I cannot imagine having a kitchen without it. The Carbonnade of Pork is the one that the book falls open on. Delicious and easy.

Ina Garten is an American cook we discovered on TV. She uses the name Barefoot Contessa after her speciality food store in the Hamptons I have a strong feeling that Nigella Lawson gets lots of her ideas from her, I can see it in her style. I doubt it is the other way around! She is a bit of an institution over there and only a little known over here, so it is not easy to find her books. Amazon would be your best bet. I have two of them Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics and Barefoot Contessa Family Style

Her books are a pleasure to read. The pages are sumptuous, the pictures full of colour and texture and the text is clear and direct. More importantly her food is gorgeous. I have not made anything of hers that is not simple and delicious. She almost always favours the 'make-ahead' option and tells you what you can do in advance and how long food can sit in the fridge. I have made Meatballs, Chicken Pot Pie, Beef Bourguignon, Parmesan Chicken, Potato Basil Frittata..... the list is endless. The kids love her too. No pretentious ingredients and manageable methods. 

Her recipes use American cup measures and I find them really convenient. Although I do find the liquid measures take a bit of getting used to, if you have a measuring jug that does pints and litres you are ok. (For the record, a stick of butter is a quarter pound, or 125g) 

A couple of years ago, Robyn got a present of Star Cooks Cookbook for Kids. It is a real little star. Because it is designed for children, it is simple and clear and has not too many ingredients in each dish. The difference between this book and other kids cookbooks is that is not dumbed down. Everything does not end up star shaped and with happy faces on them. (Although there are a few) Most of the recipes are full of flavour and grown-up ingredients. I find kids are not fooled by the distractions, they prefer honesty. This book treats the kids with dignity and assumes they are intelligent and sophisticated.

Our fish cake recipe is from this book. There is also a yummy butternut squash soup in there that I have made a few times. The kids have made the brownies too and there are lots of nice desserts.  I have bought this book a couple of times since for kids birthday presents. It is a little beaut. 

The penultimate choice is Rachel Allen. Really anything by Rachel is a winner. She has taken up where Darina left off, and has made it all very trendy. She has capitalised on the cupcake culture, but really understands the plight of the working mother. Although I really don't believe that she eats all her own food and maintains that figure. That would truly be a metabolic miracle!

Her last three books are excellent. Rachels Favourite Food for Living and Bake and Home Cooking (pictured above). She has some great cook ahead tips and truly everything I have cooked by her is delicious. The only one I have not liked was her pannacotta, but there is a very reasonable chance I messed up somewhere, so don't take my word for it. 

All of these books contain family-friendly recipes. The kids can read them and follow the instructions easily. The ingredients are not too exotic, or expensive. They are really good value books to buy for the kitchen. 

I am adding a little note about the Lunchbox book. It is a lovely little book for the kids to read and to come up with their own suggestions for their lunchboxes. If nothing else, they can see for themselves how important it is to bring healthy food to school. It is also a good one for kids parties. All the food can sit around and is finger food size. 

If the kids are involved in making party food, there is a much greater chance it'll be eaten. They are far better at force feeding their own peers than us!!

Happy Reading!