Cookery book club - July - Hugh F-W Veg and curries by Madhur Jaffrey and the Hairy Bikers (vroom vroom)

[Curioustiger]

Come join the Mumsnet cookery bookclub! Each month we choose two cookery books - one popular, like Nigella / Jamie / Delia, so you probably already have it / can borrow it and one a bit more unusual. We cook a minimum of two recipes each - you choose the recipe, they just have to be ones you have never cooked before- which works out at four new recipes each month.Then we chat about them!

For June our books were:

• Mexican Food Made Easy by Thomasina Miers
• Thirty Minute Meals by Jamie Oliver

And we posted here

For July our books are:

• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Veg Every Day
• Madhur Jaffrey Ultimate Curry Bible AND / OR madhur Jaffrey's Curry Easy AND / OR Hairy Bikers' Great Curries

For August, our books will be:

• Fuchsia Dunlop Every Grain of Rice (chopsticks at the ready ladies)
• Dan Lepard Short and Sweet

We will always try to pick at least one book with recipes available on the Internet, and local libraries are great for cookbooks if you can order in advance. We pick books three months ahead so will be choosing September's books this month.

Which Tessa kiros is suggested? Twelve looks lovely but expensive, food from many Greek kitchens looks nice too, as does apples for jam.

I like the river cafe cookbook.

Prashad would fit in sept seasonally as you've got the last of the summer veg, the start of the winter veg, plenty of scope for veggie cooking.

As we're baking in August I don't think my waistline will support Paul Hollywood how to bake- that's two months of cakes and pastries!

pregnant I agree re more baking. Much I love smitten kitchen I probably wouldn't be on 5:2 if I hadn't eaten whole pans of lemon bars! So I think we should hold on that for now.

By the same token I think it might be best to save prashad as a few of us have it but we've had a lot of curries this month. Open to persuasion though as the spine is virtually uncracked on my copy which is a shame!

I've got river cafe easy so happy with that or another one, Italian food is nice when the weather starts to cool.

I don't think a specific tessa kiros book was suggested and I don't have any (but think they're all beautiful) so interested in any reccs on that one.

Huevos, I've just seen the curry leaves on ocado! I would love to think that's our influence! But possibly it's seasonal as they definitely didn't stock them earlier in the year.

I am about to get Prashad from the library, but think that with doing HB this month, another curry book in September may be a bit soon.

Think Paul hollywood would be a bit to similar to Dan Lepard (August)?

Would love Greek or Italian - would get them from the library first as probably not many veggie options (that I don't already make). I own some Italian books, but neither of the River cafe ones, and no Greek one, so open to suggestions :)

tiger, I assume you aready know about the Just Hungry and Just Bento websites for Japanese food?n:)

Rick Stein has been singing the praises of curry leaves, maybe that gave Ocado a nudge too.

Keen on doing Tessa Kiros - I have Falling Cloudberries and really haved cooked enough from it - a friend is obsessed with it!

I have Falling Cloudberries as well snow I don't think I've cooked from it all. It's a mix of Swedish, Greek and Italian if I remember correctly.

Greek cookbook wise, I have Tonia Buxtons My Greek Kitchen , Vefas Kitchen (big Silver Spoon type book, have seen it in our library kneedeep) and a couple of Cypriot ones, that I use, that you can only get there.

I think I've got River Cafe Easy and a Carlucchio, Complete Italian Food and Anna del Contes Cooking with Coco - shamefully I don't think I've cooked from any of these. That's why I love this thread, it's making me focus and use the books I have and buy more I haven't

For curry leaves just pop into your local Asian Spice Shop,I thought most towns have them now. Bournemouth isn't big and doesn't have a significant Asian community but we have a few of these shops, they're fabulous. I love hunting through them, we're lucky to have a few Middle Eastern and Polish supermarkets as well, food shopping is ten times better than clothes shopping for me :)

huevos I rarely cook japanese food actually. I should try a bit harder! I do have ten bento boxes sitting in my cupboard though as I thought when I came home I would make bentos for DH and me to take to work... Such naïveté! Never been used once!

Is that a consensus on cloudberries? Is it ok to get recipes online? I am z sucker for a pretty book as you know so happy for the excuse but I don't want to push everyone into extra expense.

some Recipes here

Made HB Rajasthani kesar murg last night with brown rice. Glorious.

I have just ordered Cloudberries and Food from Many Greek Kitchens from my library! :)
They have nothing by Tonia Buxton, so I would selfishly ask that we don't do one of hers, unless there's some online
I have also ordered River Cafe "Easy" and "Italian Kitchen" from the library :)
If I fall in love with any of them I shall ask for them for Christmas, as I feel I have bought a few too many books recently!

Love LOVE LOVE cookbooks!

Pantah I've got that carluccio too. Have to say I only ever use it for

Oops! One recipe which is the spag Bol. But am a devoted to convert to Nigel's spag Bol now thanks to this thread.

huevos I love that feeling of happy anticipation of all that food!

Three votes for cloudberries then, will put that down. Book 2?

Tonia's recipes they're very good and authentic.

I think those of us without the books picked should be able to use the recipes available online and if they love the food they'll buy the books, and if they don't they've saved some money . I love Greek food but that's because it's my family heritage and the food that reminds us of our roots. Strangely my Nanna, married to my Greek Cypriot grandfather, is Welsh yet she doesn't appear to have any Welsh recipes in her repertoire, only Greek ones.

Thinking of book 2 does anyone else have any Ina Garten?

Have never heard of Ina Garten before, but my library has!........ :)

I think we should put Tonia down as book 2 if we can get recipes online. Pantah has suggested her consistently and also there have been requests for a Greek book. What does everyone else think?

We can PM each other recipes as well if that helps?

I do have ina garten - I think I have the barefoot contessa. It's good. A bit lifestyle-y rather than cook-y iyswim but I do like it and have picked up some good tips.

Yes please to a Greek book. I'm
in Greece the first week of September so hopefully I'll be able to recreate something in my kitchen.

Not many recipes available on Tonia's website though. What the availability in libraries like?

few more Tonia recipes here