what book would you recommend

[gremlin]

Hi all

Im lookig for recommendations for a recipe book.

I can cook and bake a bit but I just tend to stick to the same old same old.
Also Im vegetarian but my OH and kids arent. I do make them meat dishes but I cant taste them so stick to my tried and tested meals that I know they like.

Im not looking for advanced gourmet recipes that cost a fortune in ingredients and take 4 hours to make, just a sort of improvers stage of cooking that gives me more dishes to play with.

What books do you use most often? Who does the best chuck it all in recipies?

Thanks

[Meadows]

Rather than buy books (as this is amoney saving site) source your recipies online and then save them to a file on the PC/Laptop so you have them there for next time.

Many good recipe sites out there including just do a Google search
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourc...w=1920&bih=869

[maman]

I do have an old Mrs Beeton and a Good Housekeeping that I just use to check quantities/times of basics I haven't done for a while but I've had those well before Google was invented!

I'd agree with meadows that you'll find anything you want on the web these days. If you like the idea of having something written down you can make a file of favourites. I've built one up from tried and tested recipes going back to when my children did cooking at school (!!), recipes from friends and family, things I've cut from magazines and things from the net.

[krlyr]

We have a book club that drops a box of books into work and I saw a good book the other week, it was recipe that only have 3 (or was it 4) ingredients in them. OK, it cheated a bit (might list pastry as ready-made, so its just one ingredient) but it had some good recipes in there that weren't too daunting since the ingredients list was so short. Can't remember the name but sure you'd be able to find it on Google (or similar)

I agree with using recipe sites though for free recipes. I find www.allrecipes.co.uk quite a good site as they're user-submitted so generally not too wild/out there like some TV chef published recipes can be!

[kaydn]

I would agree with the internet, I save mine to my channel 4 scrapbook, you can save a link from any site, would also reccomend libraries to borrow books, charity shops and in the summer car boot sales. For shops WHS and supermarkets tend to have good offers on new books.

[*Beki*]

BBC Good Food is brilliant- if you register on their website, then it creates a binder where you can save recipes that you like.

I would also recommend Jamie Oliver's book Ministry of Food - it has some really great tasty but simple recipes, I use it all the time. The soups particularly are great- really easy but make huge quantities!

[dandelionclock30]

The Good Housekeeping vegetarian cookery book is good. Plenty of ideas for all sorts of vege dishes and its straightforward.

[jackyann]

I use BBC food a lot. I also have a huge number of cookbooks - love 'em - and know that the most wonderful recipes turn up in unexpected places. In fact I find when cooking for a mixed bunch, classic vegetarian recipes are not always the best.
I suggest you get cookbooks from the library if you prefer browsing books.
Here are some of my favourites:
Nigella Lawson "How to Eat" her first & best, packed with real recipes
Rick Stein's books on France & Spain: detailed & careful
Leon: lots of veggie friendly recipes
Anything by Delia!

I'll add my favourite veggie friendly recipe:
It's any variation on spanish omelette / piperade / huevos rancheros, all of which use very similar ingredients. Veggies eat as is, and I cook some bits of bacon or sausage, or slice some cold meat for the carnivores.

[trulymadlydeeply_indebt!]

Good old-fashioned Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course was the first book I got when I got married 20-odd years ago and I still refer to it for basics.

In these modern times, I tend to go onto BBC Good Food and key in an ingredient and it tells me what I can do with it. I've used it loads recently for ideas for my new catering business, with great success.

[Callie22]

I quite like the 'Saving Dinner' books. They are American so you can't get hold of everything, but the recipes are all fairly simple and most are really tasty. Not too 'weird' for families either.

[Mands]

Originally Posted by gremlin

Im not looking for advanced gourmet recipes that cost a fortune in ingredients and take 4 hours to make, just a sort of improvers stage of cooking that gives me more dishes to play with.

One of the Nigel Slater books.

He spends a lot of time talking/writing about why things cook the way they do and what goes well together and how you can tell when things are just at the perfect point of doneness. But, what might be useful for you and your meat dishes, in some of his books he finishes up each recipe with suggestions along the lines of "if you enjoyed this then think about using the same recipe but swapping this for that."

I'm decorating so my cookery books are stashed away but Appetite is are worth considering.

Mands

[room512]

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]

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

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rose-Elliots...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.