Cookery bookclub - who is with me?

[Curioustiger]

I love cookbooks and have picked up a ton of recommendations since joining mumsnet. I am keen to set up a cookery book club - anyone else interested? I propose:

• we select one book each month
• we go away, try out the recipes and generally revel in the deliciousness
• we chat about it

We could alternate between books people are likely to have eg Nigella, Jamie, Delia and something a bit more unusual. If we have a rolling three month list, that gives people time to borrow / buy books they don't have (from the library for example).

What to you think?

Wow, a breakfast buffet would be completely beyond me. Porridge is absolutely my limit early in the morning, I'm impressed.

Has anyone made the sweetcorn fritters from the kids' section in Feast? My attempt has just ended up a complete disaster. I think there was way too much sweetcorn (because my weighing scales are broken) - so there wasn't enough batter to stick all the bits together. Either that or I was wrong to assume that frozen sweetcorn would be fine instead of a tin. Can I claim the prize for first attempt on the thread to end up in the bin?

poppy I think a breakfast buffet is beyond me too really but we can all dream! That's a shame about the sweet corn fritters. I made them years ago and added blueberries (I was copying a recipe I saw in a restaurant, I love fruit in savoury food). They were yummy so think perhaps the frozenness might have been your downfall...? Or could be the sweetcorn quantity. I have to say I can't cook without my weighing scales; I have no eye for it whatsoever.

Wow everyone is doing so well and I haven't even started

I was meant to make the Guinness cake today but have been called into work so I will attempt it tomorrow instead.

Can anyone recommend a Smitten Kitchen cookie recipe please?

kneedeep once you start you won't be able to stop! I am worried for my waistline but otherwise very happy and replete! The cookie recipes in sk are:

• buttered popcorn cookies
• choc peanut butter cookies which are sandwiched together
• brownie cookies

They all look quite tempting...

Thanks all. I'll give it a go with what I've got.

weakatthecheese your nn sums up my entire life. Best of luck!

Everyone else, as a reminder we're doing Jerusalem by ottolenghi and the first kitchen diaries by Nigel slater next month. I've got Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian down as book one for May (thank you Remus). I am having problems ordering it from the library though (as in, they don't have it at all), has anyone else tried? I would buy it but as I've recently bought prashad and veggiestan, and am not actually veggie, I think I'm quite well stocked for veg curry cookbooks. However I will do it for the good of the group if I'm the only one who can't get it easily!

Then, can you let me have a suggestion for book 2 for may? Rose Elliott was proposed but a. I got confused and thought she was rose prince and b. two veggie books in the same month might limit those of us with DCs who will tolerate No. Veg. At All.

Oh yes, just wanted to add I do think it's good if the second book is a fairly popular choice eg Delia, Jamie, Hugh etc... Someone we're all likely to have or find easy to get.

What about Jamies 30 min meals? Loads of people have it, and it's a complete meal, plus sides. We could also find out who comes closest to the 30min mark, I'm always closer to 60, surely I can't be alone in that?

Oooh can I join? I have just been given the first Kitchen Diaries book and so far I haven't cooked anything out of it so that's a perfect slection for me

tiger, thanks, I'm not too worried about the cakes, we don't have much of a sweet tooth in this house tbh, but the index tells me which I have missed out on. I have made her guinness cake from the website in the past though, and it went down well amongst family if I remember correctly.

How about one of the River Cottage books for May? e.g. the easy book, meat and fish also good but not ideal for the veggies)

Have loads of Hugh F-W but not Easy. Jamie's 30 a good idea or one of the naked chef ones?

I have May Good Food mags, Mac'n'Hock-a-Roni Cheese on the go at the moment, it looks delicious, just waiting for DH to come home so I can finish it off under the grill :)

Pantah- do tell us how it is- I have the mag and was considering it for this week, although I will have to find a way to.include more veg for the DC, a side salad would be treated with naught but disdain.

tiger just checked our local library for World Vegetarian and they don't have it either. Although I'd love to do both a curry book and a vegetarian choice, I probably wouldn't be rushing out to buy WV as I'm not generally that fussed about MJ's books. Btw, what do you think of Prashad and Veggiestan? Had my eye on both of them for a while!

On the popular choice, I'd be happy with any of the books suggested but can I put in a special word for Delia. Her website has pretty much every recipe she's ever published on it so would be great for people who don't have lots of cookbooks to join in.

pregnantpause I was going to suggest Jamie's 30-minute meals (and spookily nearly posted my suggestion about the same time you did, before getting distracted).

I can totally do the meals in 30 minutes - but the prep/clear-up probably adds another hour on top of that. I am sad enough to enjoy timing myself though.

Oh nearly forgot to mention, I made the cauliflower pesto fro sk tonight. Quick, easy and reasonably tasty but probably not one I'd rush to do again in a hurry. We found that the pesto didn't coat the pasta as well as normal pesto does so didn't feel like it really worked. I'll probably have the leftovers on crostini for lunch tomorrow and think that may well work better.

Oh by the way all, the chat about breakfast buffets has reminded me what a good thing a proper brunch is. I was thinking about making some homemade granola and so far the recipe in Feast is by far the best I've tried. Was wondering on whether anyone has tried the sk one or do I need to make both at the weekend to compare and contrast?

Hi everyone. Unfortunately real life has been getting in the way of both mumsnet and cooking so I've only really got started today. I made the plum and poppy seed muffins from sk today. Dh and I like them but the dds are not at all impressed. I think they might have been more popular if I'd just used white flour and maybe a bit more sugar. I found the plums deliciously gooey though. Won't be rushing to make them again but would consider them if we get a glut of plums from my parents' tree this summer.

I actually used the feast recipe for cauliflower cheese yesterday but as I wouldn't usually use a recipe for cauliflower cheese I'm not counting it as one of my choices. It was really nice though, her method of hardly cooking the cauliflower first worked very nicely, the cauliflower came out with a nice bite to it.

I'm planning to make the Ritzy chicken nuggets for the dc (and me!) this week from Feast and then will try the Guinness cake I think. Then I just need to choose a second Sk recipe. I was planing to choose a savoury recipe but am very tempted by the sound of the lemon bar so will probably do that too.

Shall we go with Jamie's 30 minute meals then? Will be easy for everyone to get. Definitely let's try timing ourselves because I've got an iPhone and like commanding Siri to time me. I read that he said it was possible if you have a well organised kitchen - ha!

So for book 2 in may what do you think then? As Jamie is our easy choice we can be a bit more adventurous but ideally something we can still get in libraries. I don't want to discard remus' suggestion entirely as it's good to try new things so I thought about a more recent madhur jaffrey book - curry nation or ultimate curry bible?

How about Lorraine Pascale?

xbenedict welcome to our growing group ( in every sense!)

karma both prashad and veggiestan are really sumptuous gorgeous books but they're both on the back burner at the moment! Both of them have quite obscure ingredients and need a bit of planning (not like the sk book where you can just knock up a few of the recipes from store cupboard ingredients). I was going to suggest themthough for future months as the pictures look fabulous and I think it would be a nice challenge. Totally agree re Delia and will put her on the list for future months.

greensnail the ritzy chicken nuggets are totally delicious and the caper salad she recommends to go alongside is the perfect accompaniment. I made my feast recipe no 1 today and it was the crispy pork chops with garlic salad which is similar. It was sooooo tasty and a great example of how this thread has pushed me to try something new... I am a bit scared of deep frying normally and so have never tried it before, despite liking the sound of the end result. It was a bit fiddly but easy! And my lamb shank with fig and honey is cooling on the job for tomorrow as I type.

Cooling on the HOB

Did the sake steak tonight. It was nice, but I deviated from the recipe by using cheapskate frying steak instead of fillet Nd deglazing the pan to make the sauce rather than using a separate saucepan. I think it would have been nicer with wasabi instead of mustard.

Happy with 30 minute meals for may. Can I suggest one of the Thomasina miers books for the second if madhur Jaffrey is proving tricky? I substitute normal chillies for the millions of different varieties she talks about, and still get good results.