Not sure I like the sound of Delia's new book, it seems to be going against the trend

[Overrun]

I am bit amazed at all her recommendations, they are so specific, does any one else think she might not be totally unbiased? Most supermarkets are covered.
I admit I haven't read it, but there have been so many articles out about it, I feel as if I had.
Does any one else have any pithy thoughts on this?

look at the frugal food

one

I agree with zog, its a half way house by the looks of things. If you are happy making your jelly from scratch (don't know why I picked jelly as an example, but hey ho )then good for you.

If you do not mind unscrewing a jar of pasta sauce and dumping it on your shop bought pasta, good for you too. I still fail to see how Delia is intending to take over the world with this book.

hunker , nothing exotic , honest, homemade hummus (dds fave) ashamed to say dont have time for homemade bread, chucked out bmaker 2 yrs ago then dd arrived,,, regrets - i have a few.
simple stuff,chicken rissotto tonight,fish soup tommorrow, honest nothing that anyone else couldn't do, but i genuinely enjoy cooking - it relaxes me

But it's such a silly list. Yes, I buy Maldon salt - I'm a ponce - but it's really low down the list of essentials if you're short of time and money. And how long does it really take to mash your own potatoes, ffs.

But it's not easier.

It's a bugger to go and buy all the stuff in the first place.

It's more expensive to buy all this pre-done stuff.

It's not as nutritious to use pre-chopped fruit and veg (some of it has been done some time ago, then flown in - they prepare it abroad to save importing stalks, skin, etc) because it loses vitamins when it's chopped.

I really believe you might as well buy a better-quality ready meal (the Simply Naturals ones are pretty good from Sainsbos) than muck about doing all this shit.

It's not about taking over the world, but about cynically using the Delia "brand" to influence people to buy certain products from certain supermarkets. It just leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, and smacks of patronising nonsense.

But you honestly don't need a book to tell you how to make jelly, do you?

That's what the packet instructions are for, no?

Hotbot, I have a breadmaker I am not currently using at all much - you've shamed me into it!

Is it because its Delia that it has bothered everyone? Because as I recall, Nigella used a lot of pre prepared stuff in her cooking. Did she get a lambasting too? Even flippin Jamie Oliver used frozen puff pastry!!!!

Habb, exactly!

Maidamess, it's because it's a whole book. It's cynical.

actually hm theres a lot to be said for venting on a bit of dough
am consoling myself thats it nearly homemade icecream weather, so my icecream make will get no use at all (did strike out work?)

Show me a book with a TV /newspaper tie in that isn't cynical. What other people may be eating certainly seems to provoke a lot of discussion.

Nigella and Jamie didn't have the use of these products as the main premise of their books, and they do promote good fresh ingredients. Puff pastry is an obvious thing to buy pre-prepared, as that is an enormous faff to make. But mashed potatoes and chopped veg are not. Delia has done good, if a little dull, books in the past - I've never loved her, but thought she was in favour of good fresh food. Now it appears she isn't.

no they didnt ho humm

Well bless her, she isn't a spring chicken anymore. Plus she's got all those important games at Norwich FC to commentate on. She obviously doesn't have the time to roast her own potatoes anymore!

Maybe that's it. She's eaten one too many dodgy pies...

most chefs use frozen puff pastry

it is not worth making your own domestically

I still have the original.

God I'm old.

Delia has never been a fan of the microwave, something that cooks without much time tend to use - for example you could make mashed potatoes quickly by microwaving them rather than buying "ready made" Aunt Bessies which always has a strange taste. I bought her first Cheats book back in the 1980s and never really used it (put it out for Oxfam in the end) whereas I did use her Frugal Food book. As I work full time, I don't have a great deal of time to shop or cook and wouldn't have the time to assemble the ingredients for her cheats cooking recipes. It is much easier to cook simple food from good quality basic ingredients than spend a load of money on expensive jars/ready made mash etc in order to make a cheats version of a more complicated meal.

What a strange list, as the blog says, soy sauce can hardly be called a "cheat" its just a product. But it is product endorsement when you say get this brand or that, no one can persuade me that this isn't cynical on her part.
I can't stand the way she does the "I'm just simple cook" line, when she must realise that she wields huge power.

Oh well, I must make sure that this book doesn't get bought for me for my birthday, as people have a habbit of buying me cookery books as I am a tad addicted to them.

well in asda yesterday they were selling the book for £2. shouting it over the tannoy, obviously cant shift it. not much of a best seller then

asda chesser if anyones interested!

i have never reall liked delia tbh. her nails are too long for making crumbles.

The Sunday Times certainly gives it a pasting. It sounds absolutely terrible - canned meat & frozen mashed pots? Yuck.

I've always wished for a "light" Delia, myself. One without the lbs of butter & pints of full cream dolloped here, there & everywhere.

I think the consensus is, that we wont be buying it

I don't understand why she (as a self-confessed 'cook' rather than a political one a la Jamie) is avocating using cheap, blotting-paper chicken fo poor people. She should be trying to educate people into using cheaper ingredients like pulses and unusual veg.

So does this book actually have lists of which brand to get? Because surely that's going to be out of date in a year or two?

One of my pet hates is recipes that insist on some specific brand of something and it turns out you can't get it any more.... sounds like her book is full of that