What's your favourite cookery book? One you swear by.

[BustyDusty]

Just that.

I've got quite a few cook books, but want something new. There's too much choice so I could do with some suggestions.

One of my long-time favourites is Home Cook by Alastair Hendy. Also Roast Chicken And Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson. My friend gave me Indian by Shehzad Husain and Rafi Fernandex which is brilliant.

I enjoy cooking and make everything from scratch but I'm no 'chef'.

(eg I have never been able to master Thai curries - they're always too thin and watery, not rich and creamy..and end up with the wrong balance of spices.)

Any ideas?

Diana Henry's A Bird in the Hand - so many good recipes. Also Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.

The takeaway secret. It’s really good.

Madhur Jaffrey 's Illustrated Indian Cookery. I
The first 3 Hairy Dieters cookbooks.
The Bosh Cookbook.

Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet. It’s a collection of all his baking recipes from The Guardian and it’s the baking book I turn to most often. It’s a really good mix of basics (breads, pastry etc), simple cakes and a few that are more fancy. Between that and Nigella’s Domestic Goddess I think they’re the only baking books I regularly refer to.

Current favourite is the Dishoom cookbook. Have made curries before from scratch but they've never quite hit restaurant levels of flavour - this one nails it.

My o'level cookery exercise book. All handwritten by 15-16 year old me.

Anything by Delia, especially her complete cookery course and Christmas collection. I also love Nigella and Madhur Jaffrey curry easy. I’ve been watching Nigel Slater on Food Network recently and bulk bought his kitchen diaries which are so wonderful to curl up with and read.

Honestly these Marshall Cavendish Supercook magazines complete with binders. My mum's friend have them to me years ago. They look so old fashioned but every cooking technique and classical dish is included. They're amazing.

Jamie's Dinners
Fay's Family Food
Pinch of Nom

I agree with Nigella Lawson's How to Eat; great for basics, some interesting stuff and it's a pleasure to just read.
Persiana has some beautiful Middle Eastern recipes. Some are complicated and/or time-consuming though; I'd recommend reading the whole method carefully before committing!
Meera Sodha is good too; I like East.

Shamelessly place marking!

I collect cookery books but the ones I use the most are
Nigella how to cook & bites
Floyd on India
Busaba for Thai
Korea town for Korean
Mary Berry ultimate cakes

If you want to cook good Thai curry you need to start with a good paste, and creamy thick coconut milk
Fry off the paste add a little coconut milk and let it bubble until you can see the oil float to the top
Add rest of coconut cream
Chicken, whatever veg your putting in a little water if required....
fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice and lime leaves
As soon as the chicken is cooked it's ready!

First stop is Delia, usually her Complete Cookery Course. I may also check Mary Berry and Nigella, then I’ll Google!

Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking - so good! Never fails

Diana henry - love her crazy water pickled lemons!

I love 'How to Eat'.

I’m a big Nigella fan. I’ve never cocked up any of her recipes, which is saying something! My favourites are How To Eat, At My Table and Feast.

Delia’s Complete Cookery is an excellent reference book and ideal for looking up timings, basic recipes, etc but I’ve never used it for meals.

I like Claudia Roden of Middle Eastern cooking but I find I have to increase spices to my taste. I’m not sure if I’m going a bit John Torode and unable to taste anything less than 30 chillis or if it because my books are quite old and tastes have changed.

The Hairy Bikers diet books are good for lower calorie stuff that still tastes good. I’m not the biggest fan of their other books, but I do like these.

And finally I like Bill Granger for Aussie/Asian flavours. Really lovely fresh zingy dishes that don’t require too much faff.

@Tangledtresses

I collect cookery books but the ones I use the most are Nigella how to cook & bites Floyd on India Busaba for Thai Korea town for Korean Mary Berry ultimate cakes

If you want to cook good Thai curry you need to start with a good paste, and creamy thick coconut milk
Fry off the paste add a little coconut milk and let it bubble until you can see the oil float to the top
Add rest of coconut cream
Chicken, whatever veg your putting in a little water if required....
fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice and lime leaves
As soon as the chicken is cooked it's ready!

There’s a Busaba Cookbook?!?!

Does it have the recipe for their Thai calamari? Cos if it does I’m buying it today.

Agree with two of above - Madhur Jaffrey Vegetarian, and Veg Every Day by Hugh F-W

Delia - How to Cook
Nigella - How to Eat

Very different styles, but most commonly used books in our house for looking up instructions.

I have several hundred cookbooks and rarely open any of them as I tend to throw stuff together intuitively, but can't bear to get rid of them as I love them all.

My most used one that actually does get used all the time is Be-Ro. It's amazing. Also really like Nigella Express.

I was going to say Home Cook by Alastair Hendy, OP

Such a useful book.

Bero for baking.
A really old Good Housekeeping for meals.
Hugh F-W for veggie meals.

Meera Sodha, Fresh India!

Tom Kerridge Lose Weight for Good is great. Very straightforward, tasty recipes with easy to find and cheapist ingredients, particularly the curries