Cook book recommendations

[Blamenargles]

My New Years resolution is to cook more.
I can only cook if I have a recipe to follow
Can you suggest some good cook books that are family friendly easy to follow and have sensible recipes.

Delia Smith's Complete Cookery course.

I taught myself to cook from that about 30+ years ago. Lots & lots of recipes that are great for familes & she even tells you things like "don't worry if it looks lumpy at this stage".

You can often find a copy in charity shops.

Nigella Lawson's first and best book 'How to Eat'.

I agree with the ones mentioned above also, for family nice/easy meals the first tana Ramsey book is good.

Fay Ripley - What's for dinner
Jamie Oliver - Cook with Jamie
Nigella - Kitchen
Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Italy
Madhur Jaffrey - Curry easy

Good housekeeping step by step

I like Jamie Oliver's 30 and 15 minute meal books. Quick and tasty.

Thank you everyone I'm determined to cook more this year.
We always eat the same 4-5 things on repeat.
The Delia one sounds a good starting point.

Also bbcgoodfood is a great website for recipes. I hardly use cook books any more

Fay Ripley's book is surprisingly good.

true sarahandemily I really like some of the recipes on tesco.com too, so easy to read them and then add ingredients to online shopping bag. You can even add them to a planner. Although I tend to add my recipes to my computer calendar daily or make a list of what recipes I have the ingredients for over the week and decide day by day what we're going to have.

Nigellas how to eat is great- I really enjoy her books, though don't like her as a tv personality. This will be the book I give my DC when they leave home. It'll stand them in good stead.

We are covering Nigel Slaters eat in cookbook club this month- it got hundreds of recipes all of which are easy and delicious and comprise of stuff you have in your cupboards for the most part. I think it's a very good book for starting out.

I also have the good housekeeping step by step which IMO is invaluable for beginners. It covers everything

Jamies 30 mins has some nice recipes but is laid out in a very, unique, way. It's quite hard to follow if you're not making all of the courses he suggests. Though the chicken pie is a firm favourite in this house, I prefer jamies dinners.

The stand out book of cookbook club has been Jerusalem. Not a bad word said about it, over six months later we're still raving about it- every thread since we covered it has it referenced somewhere

Sorry to divert, pregnant I bought Jerusalem as it was voted cookbook of the year last year and love reading it, lovely and glossy but I just can't connect enough to cook one of the recipes if you know what I mean. Could you recommend the best one you've tried?

I know exactly what you mean, as I struggled when we covered it, and did a lot more Nigel Slater recipes than Jerusalem recipes that month, but I was the only one, it is a beautiful book, but not a book I would start my collection with
.

The best one I have tried is the poached chicken with freekah- the grain has a nutty quality, and the meat is so tender with such a delicate sweet spicy taste, it's delicious, a revelation, I considered nominating the first time I made it on the best meals ever eaten thread

In the cookbook club there is much praise for the lamb sharwama, which one poster described as the best thing she'd ever put in her mouth. I liked it but don't think I would cook it again (unless I became rich- if a lamb legs cost wasn't factored in to the overall enjoyment of the dish I would make again as there wouldn't be that pressure for it to be 'wonderful.. because of the cost iykwim.) It was very nice though.

The barley risotto with marinated feta is also a very very nice meal, the feta really makes it special.

Thank you very much. I'm going to try the chicken tomorrow night and the lamb on Sunday night...will report back!

BBC food website is very good. Delia's Complete Cookery Course is excellent for a beginner. The quick and easy a la Slater and Oliver are easy yes but expensive. If you stir fry prawns and asparagus, it will be delicious but can you eat like that all the time? Sometimes, it's more useful to know how to make a curry.

Another vote for the BBC Good Food recipies. I also like Lisa Faulkners Cook book

Hi again Pregnant well we scrapped the Saturday night chicken meal and ended up ordering chinese takeaway but on Sunday I made the Lamb Sharwama.....I see what you mean about it being expensive!!!! It was gorgeous though and I enjoyed the pitta, harissa mixture and cucumber tomato salad with it so much!!

I will try the chicken next! Thank you for the suggestions and I'll have to get that Nigel Slater book, I love his show but oooh the way he eats makes me want to throw things at my TV.

If you haven't got a Nigel book, IMO, don't make you're first one eat. It has really accessible recipes, and they're good, and simple but it's format isn't ideal and the kitchen diaries are much better. He's a wonderful cook, my favourite in fact, but he is not a man made for TV- I avoided his books for years because I didn't like him on telly- loved the recipes, not him.