Best new cookbooks

How often do you escape to your cookbooks? I cannot
remember a time that I didn’t go to bed with a stack of food magazines or a new
cookbook. I read recipes like some people read novels. The great food writers
like Nigel Slater, Phillipa Cheifitz, Maggie Beer, Terry Durack and Alice
Waters have been responsible for my food education.

A good cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes that work. I love a
book that also tells a story – of ingredients gathered and of good times shared
around a plate of well-loved food. The books that I truly treasure – and return
to – are those with little hints and tips that only an experienced cook
can impart.

At Food24 we are extremely privileged to have talented people who are just
as passionate as us about food: our food bloggers. Like a living online
cookbook they share their stories and recipes with us daily. This food blogging
community is the heart and soul of Food24.

Since it is holidays and a time of the year when you buy cookbooks as gifts or
to read on the beach – kalahari.net
have asked some of our bloggers to each review a new cookbook for us. These are
ordinary people with a passion for food and the same budgets and time issues as
all of us.

Read what our bloggers said about these new cookbooks and even take a peek
at the recipes they cooked from these books.

Jamie’s
30-minute meals – Jamie Oliver
Pink Polkadot
says: “The book offers fifty varied meals ranging from vegetarian to red meat
and desserts. The meals are easy to make and most of them make use of
ingredients that are easily obtainable.”
Read part 1,
part 2 and part 3 of Pink
Polkadot’s review.
Order
30-minute-meals from kalahari.net.

Easy –
Phillipa Cheifitz
Sardines on
Toast says: “I can just see that these are the types of dishes that I would
love to quickly (and probably quite lazily) whip up on hot summer days.”
Read the rest of
Sardines on Toast’s review.
See 5 more
recipes from Easy.
Win a copy of
Easy.
Order Easy
from kalahari.net.

Kitchen –
Nigella Lawson
Simply Delicious
says: “I know many people don’t like the way she makes cooking sauce
seem like she’s shooting a porno, but I love all that. Even people who burn toast
will be able to rustle up a delicious meal using these recipes.”
Read the rest of Simply
Delicious’s review here and also see this fried gnocchi
recipe from the book.
Order Kitchen
from kalahari.net.

Best menus –
Gordon Ramsey
Scrumptious says: ”These menus … take all the hassle out of planning an
interesting three-course meal using fresh seasonal produce.”
Read the rest of
Scrumptious’ review.
Order Best menus
from kalahari.net.
 
7de Laan
Cookbook
Lavender &
Lime says: “I literally devoured this book. From starters to stir-fries,
cocktails to canapés, dinners to desserts, this recipe book has it all.”
Read the rest of
Lavender & Lime’s review.
Order 7de Laan
Cookbook from kalahari.net.

Bill’s
Basics – Bill Granger
Bits of Carey
says: “I love Bill’s healthy versions of classic family favourites; check out
his fried chicken and lasagne. We can relate to his dishes and flavours because
the Australian seasons are so similar to South Africa’s. Fresh, seasonal and
flavourful food.”
Read Bits of
Carey’s review.
Order Bill’s
Basics from kalahari.net.

Cooked: Out
of the frying pan – Justin Bonello
Fired-up Cooking
says “The recipes range from really difficult to wonderfully easy. There’s
are also lots of tips, like using bicarb to control the acidity of tomatoes and
how to make cous cous properly.”
Read the rest of Fired
Up Cooking’s review and see this cous cous
recipe from the book.
Order Cooked
from kalahari.net.

Easy, simple
and delicious – Sonia Cabano
Leaine’s Kitchen
says: “Sonia’s views on food … are very similar to mine – being that only the
best ingredients should be put into your body in order for you to look and feel
your best.”
Read the rest of
Leaine’s Kitchen review.
See 4 more
recipes from Easy, Simple and Delicious.
Order Easy,
simple and delicious from kalahari.net.

River Cottage: Every day – Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Janice Tripepi says “Cooking a meal should be enjoyable … and this cook book is bursting at the seams with 400 pages of everyday recipes.”
Read the rest of Jan’s review.
Order River Cottage Every Day from kalahari.net

I’m currently busy cooking my way through Marita Van Der Vywer’s
sumptious cookbook Somerkos in
Provence. It has all the ingredients of a great book: Nostalgic
stories, vibrant photographs full of light and wonderful food that real people
long to eat. (Mom you are getting it for Christmas!)

Let me know
which books you will be cooking from this December.