what book would you recommend

room512 · 5 December 2012 at 7:35PM

I love The Complete Cookbook by Mary Berry (I got it years ago from the Book People!) - has all sorts in it with pictures and is separated into how much time you have to spend on a particular recipe.

zippychick · 5 December 2012 at 10:53PM

There's a mega recipe book recommendation thread - although it hasn't been updated in a year :eek::p

Cook book buying addiction is also great!!!!

My current favourite is Madhur jaffreys curry bible and jamies ministry of food. Although i tend to use different recipes from different ones and have loose ones all thrown in a folder. Silly things like recipes for chilli jam on an envelope on the inside of one of my cupboards

Ill merge this later on

Zip

heavenleigh · 5 December 2012 at 11:10PM

None....... it is money saving to buy NONE! Because once you start buying you end up like me and have hundreds of the things!
On a more serious note i'm another to back Delia/Nigel slater and Jamies Ministry of Food for ease and non complicated recipe lists.
BBC good food is always good but as others have said you have the world at the end of your finger tips with the internet all supermarkets have recipe pages and i use allrecipes.com alot because other half is American and loves Mexican food and it has hundreds of reviews to read to see if it works xx

sonastin · 5 December 2012 at 11:44PM

The Takeaway Secret has revolutionised my cooking. It gave me the confidence to use different flavours and spices and to properly go for completely cooking from scratch. Pretty inexpensive as recipe books go too, and helps by giving recipes for basic building-blocks to prepare in a batch cook session so that you can throw a meal together really quickly. Has all sorts of different foods in it - somethings I would never dream of purchasing from a takeaway!

gremlin · 6 December 2012 at 2:14PM

Fisrt can I thank each and every one of you for your replies and recommendations.

I take it on board about using the net to save money and will get scouring the net for recipies especially the BBC and alltherecipies.

I sort of fancied a book recommendation as a bit of a christmas pressie for myself as I really want to get into cooking again and push myself a bit further that the bog standard.

I'll see if I can get any of the books mentioned from the library . I love JO & Nigel Slaters programmes so will try to hunt them down in particular.

sonastin - thats one of the issues I have. I have a herb garden and like using herbs & spices in my cooking but other than basics I'm not sure what spices go with what in normal day to day cooking (not just currys etc IYSWIM?) I remember curry queen years ago putting up some recipies for great home made currys so I'll have a dig around for them

Apparently what I cook is good and I've been told I make a great Roast which is odd cos I cant taste them lol

again thanks for the recommendations all

xx

Seakay · 6 December 2012 at 3:28PM

If you are looking for reliable recipes then you can't go wrong with Delia - borrow a few from the library to see how you get on but the main benefit for you would be that as long as you follow the recipe to the letter it will come out right, and you don't have to worry about not being able to taste meat dishes to check for flavour etc.

The Winter Collection has some lovely stews etc, but all of her recipes are good and my step-father taught himself to cook everything from Sunday lunch to bread and marmalade using her books after my Mum died, especially the How to Cook trio, and successfully made dishes containing ingredients he'd never used before.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver · 6 December 2012 at 3:36PM

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rose-Elliots-New-Complete-Vegetarian/dp/0007325614/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_1
I have this one, and also quite a few Veggie cookbooks.
This book has a 1000 recipes so pretty comprehensive and is also vegan friendly if that is ever an issue.
I also agree with googling recipes, it is something I do all the time, my personnal favourites are BBC Food, BBC Good Food (just ignore the lazy product placement though product direction can be helpful), Chow, Epicurious. I believe you are only as good as your cookbooks, recipes and ingredients however frugal so long as you manage to lock down the all important flavour/s.

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what book would you recommend

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