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?

Science- I was about to suggest thomosina, I love wshaca and haven't looked at it for ages. I know that it's in my library too (as that is where I discovered it before buying) so it might be one that's easy to get. Don't know about it's online credentials though, and on phone. Can anybody check?

pregnantpause Mac'n'Hock-a-Roni was very good, will definately make it again. I used less than half a mug of cooking water for the sauce and it looked wet enough but after grilling it seemed drier, next time I would use more fluid. We had side salad with it but I think you could easily add broccoli florets, spinach or frozen mixed veg into the mix. Don't scrimp on the mustard, it adds a lovely flavour.

The River Cottage veg book looks really good but have yet to cook anything from it, can I throw that into the mix for future months :)

BTW most of Jamie's recipes are online so should be easy for those without 30 minute meals. Made the Moroccan lamb the other day, used lamb neck rather than break the bank racks of lamb, absolutely delicious.

Happy with Jamie, I've never cooked anything of his so it'll be an education.

pantah the veg book is great. We love the courgette and tahini salad, the dukka, and several of the raw ones. I'm sure there's more but stuck under a feeding baby and can't check.

Mexican food made easy is one of my favourite books of all time so I am really happy with that. Although it will be similar to feast for me in that I've cooked a lot from it already! I think it's a good complement to 30 minute meals as the better recipes take a lot of time .... But they're so worth it! So let's go with that. I've looked and some recipes are online at the moment as channel 5 are showing the TV show, but not in IMO the best ones (try have quite clearly chosen all the quick ones for filming). However I am more than happy to pm people recipes, very happy to share my love for this book!

Can I give advance warning that I disagree a bit with science - I really think you need to make chipotles in adobo with chipotles chillies as this is a requested ingredient for most of her recipes (plus it is is so so good, I can't recommend it enough). Apart from that though you can swap out the specialist chillies for more accessible ones. So there is potentially a bit of online ordering required. However I will remind everyone of that nearer the time to give a bit of warning.

I use tesco dried chipotle chillis. They're in most tesco and are about 3 quid. They work well

I didn't know you can get them from tesco! Mexgrocer.co.uk will be cursing you pregnantpause as I buy chipotles from them regularly!

Oooh, I've just say down to have one of the plum muffins with a cup of coffee and they are delicious the next day, so much better than yesterday! They've gone really gooey in the middle and the plum flavour has really developed so I'm revising my review of that recipe and saying I'll definitely do them again.

Looking forward to the Ritzy nuggets now, will have to make a shopping list.

Looking forward to trying Jamie's 30 minute meals too. I've only got the 15 minute meals book and have made some lovely things from there. They usually take me closer to 30 minutes to make though but that might be due to having little helpers most of the time. I always time myself and try to get close to the 15 minutes but my kitchen ends up looking like a bomb site when I've finished!

My chocolate Guinness cake is in the oven!

xbenedict will put Lorraine down on the suggestion list for future months (I love her books, will be a pleasure!)

I use chipotle paste when chipotles in adobe are called for, tiger. I am lazy as well as cheap .

Ok what did I do wrong?

The cake has sunk and is falling apart. I did have to cook it for 1hr 20 because it wasn't done but even so.

I'm gutted I can always make a good cake.

kneedeepindaisies oh no - I hate cake fails. Can you rescue it by cutting the good bits into mini cakes? Or crumble it up and make it into cake pops?

I haven't made it but it looks like it has a fair amount of liquid compared to dry ingredients - maybe it needs to be taken out of the oven before it is quite done, like cookies?

science the chipotles in adobo are so so so good... My husband comes home from work and spoons it onto bread sometimes. But it is good to know there's an easier alternative. I was gearing up to explain in may that before you cook anything else you have to make this paste which will take an hour and require some obscure ingredients... I did think that might put some people off! So this is good to know.

kneedeep... Oh no... I think it does come out of the oven fairly damp even when cooked...

I've stuck the big bits back on with the icing and turned the cake upside down to hide the giant sunken bit

I've also put in the fridge to hopefully set a bit. It tastes bloody great though!

Just made white choc and cranberry cookies from feast only made a half recipe though to try to cut back! Am about to make the lemon bars from SK but doing a full recipe as sound so delish.
Tonight I am making the lemon chicken with easy mash from feast but as I make this all the time I'm not counting it.
Also ocado shop done ready to make the paneer curry and the pheasant curry from feast tomorrow.

Happy with books for June both are on my bookshelf and both are very much loved and used. Gonna have to try hard to find something new from both these books as have made so much from them. I would recommend the churros and chocolate, courgette soup, feta and butternut squash salad and summer tacos from TM book.
From 30 mins book I would recommend the steak sandwich, pork loin and celeriac mash, pasta puttanesca and the picnic.

I also could not get Madhur Jaffrey's veggie book from the library, but her Ultimate curry bible is fab. I would recommend river cottage veg everyday as a fab veggie book too.

elr I will put mj ultimate curry bible and river cottage veg everyday down for future months as they're getting a lot of reccs.

Oh also, I made lamb shanks with figs and honey from Feast last night and sampled them at lunchtime today. I have to say I was disappointed - I thought they were stodgy and not 'falling off the bone' enough. Possibly though my downscaling of the recipe from ten to three shanks may have been a bit to blame.

Great tiger will not look at those books until we have them on the list.
Shame about the lamb shanks I have not made them but have been to a dinner party where they were served and was not that impressed I put it down to the cook but maybe it is the recipe!!

I'm just going.through feast with the idea to make more recipes this week, and wondered whether anyone had tried the meatballs and cous cous? I'm also toying with the damp apple and apricot cake. I must say, even for a house with a strictly savoury.tooth, I have.bookmarked.many deserts. I may.even push the boat out with the malteaser cake, as I am lucky enough to have it in my defective copy

Excuse the grammer, fat thumbs and smart phones do not mix.

I'm just back from Cubs, stinking of woodsmoke, we've been doing marshmallows and sausages for their first night back. :)

Have just assembled the stuffed mushrooms, and put in the oven, also from GF May mag and will be rustle up the spring chicken one pot later in the week. Need to pick my feast dishes, have meatballs in the fridge so may do the meatballs and couscous tomorrow night. Will have a look at the recipe.

The malteser cake is really fun but extremely sweet. If you make it dissolve the horlicks in some milk aa you get lumps otherwise.

The sake steak was yum and I also loved the cardamom rice, a nice level of spicing.

Well, I've just had my first slice of Guinness cake and it was good but I'm not sure I'm blown away by it. I think it's just about the only one from the chocolate cake hall of fame I haven't cooked before and I can't say it's my favourite but maybe it will grow on me. I enjoyed making it though and found it simple to put together although I'm slightly concerned how much Guinness my two year old consumed while licking the pan! I found it cooked much quicker than the recipe said, I think next time I would cook it for longer at a lower temperature as it was starting to burn on the outside after 35 minutes but still a bit gooey in the middle.

I have all the bits in for Ritzy nuggets but will have to wait a couple of days as my freezer got left open yesterday so have lots of random defrosted stuff to use up first!

Oh, and do I need to try and find space in the fridge for this cake as the icing has fresh cream and soft cheese in it, or will it be ok in a tin?