cook book for someone leaving home?

phizzimum

a friend of ours (male) is leaving home soon and getting his first place. He'll be fending for himself for the first time and doesn't want to just live on take aways and ready meals, so I thought a cook book might be a useful present.

which book would you recommend? also which websites (apart from this one!)

he says he's going to get a slow cooker, so maybe he's discovered us already!

JoeyEmma

A Nigel Slater one is good as it has instructions for things you actually eat and are easy to cook for one person. I like Appetite. Delia has lots of flour based sauces and baking, things that he won't ever actually make.

thriftlady_2

I agree, Appetite is an excellent choice, particularly for a single person. It teaches you how to cook without recipes but with recipes IYSWIM. It's a bit pricy though. Another good Nigel Slater one is Real Fast Food (cheaper) this has loads of quick recipes for 1-2 people.

phizzimum

oh yes, I like Nigel Slater, great idea...keep em coming though!

janb5

How about printing off some favourite recipes for him and putting them in a folder. Then other friends could add to it too. It is always nice to have recipes that other people have already used. HTH

recovering_spendaholic

Another vote for Nige's Real Fast Food - it's great. Also good are Good Housekeeping illustrated cookbook and Delia's complete Cookery course - I use all of them. I also love Rose Elliot's Not Just a load of old lentils - it is a veggie cookbook but has loads of things which are cheap and nice for non-veggies too and you can pick it up really cheaply.

earthmother

For baking, the Be-Ro book is indispensable - you can get it from their website, or it's often on the tills at the Co-op. Anything involving flour is in there, although it is admittedly more sweet than savoury.

For other recipes, I'm not sure - I usually come here, lol, although I did get Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food (free with a magazine a couple of months ago), and it is getting more use as the weeks go on.

ivyleaf

I saw one in Waterstone's recently called "The Bloke's Cookbook". I didn't look at it though, because it was so tightly jammed into the shelf that I couldn't get it out! It was a normal-sized paperback, so wouldn't be too dear. The title made me think of our own lovely mrbadexample!

Oh and if he's going to get a slow cooker, there's a very good little book I use called "Slow Cooking Properly Explained" with loads of recipes.

lynzpower

what about jamie oliver ones? For someone whos never cooked really, I think it would be really good I find jamies approach( although his use of the work pukka maks me cringe!) really fun and that "wack it in a pan" much easier to get the fun going, than delia style of measuring half a tespoon of arrowroot!

or you could print off mrbadexamples cookery threads ?

D&DD

When my FIL was recently widowed I searched everywhere for a decent cookbook for him.I finally got a copy of How to boil an egg from ebay for the princely sum of 50p :rotfl: It's a great little book with so many nice and easy recipes,I had to copy a load before I gave it to him!! He's now doing me proud and has just bought his first slow cooker at the grand age of 70

oakdale_minx

Delia Smith One is Fun.

Bit dated now (lots of recipes with cream in them if I remember!), but everything is geared towards one portion. It was my first cook book when I left home to go to Uni at 18. Probably pick one up for pennies on ebay.