Top Five Recipe Books?

[Juliehafrancis]

Just wondered what everybody's favourite recipe books are?

My top five at the mo are:

1. Nigel Slater Appetite
2. Real Cooking
3. Real Food by Nigel Slater
4. Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson 5 Cooking for Coco by Sian Blunos

Have just ordered Ainsley Harriots, Jamie Oliver's and Nigella Lawsons new ones. Does anyone have them and are they any good?

Can I only have five???

These are in no particular order because it depends on the mood.

Moro - Sam and Sam Clark
Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson
Leith's Cookery Bible
Happy Days with the Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver
Nigella Bites - Nigella Lawson

and in reserve Ainsley Harriots Meals in Minutes and Muffins Fast and Fantastic.

I've got Jamie and Nigella's latest books and cooked a few things from Nigella's over the last week, haven't tried any of Jamie's yet. Funnily enough I have all of Jamie Oliver's cook books and apart from Happy Days with the Naked Chef I barely use them.

How to Eat, Nigella
30 minute suppers/Real fast food, Nigel
Real Food, Nigel
Fat girl slim, Ruth someone or other (Watson?)
French Provincial Cooking, Elizabeth David

Don't think much of Feast tbh. Haven't got Jamie's latest and have never read any Ainsley so can't help with those.

Nigella Bites - never tried anything in that that I haven't LOVED, even if she does prattle on a bit IMO.

Nigel Slater Real Cooking - nice but not really cooking, though, is it? Ditto River Cafe Easy.

Sorry, but still swear by the old Cooking with Cranks book, not the trendy new one with lemon grass and nasturtiums chucked in.

oh, sorry julie - i've just started something similar and then spotted this thread

my all time fave is Ainsley's Meals in minutes; fave dishes out of there are
chicken korma
the paella
tortilla cheesecake
speckled eye squash stew

Love my Nigella books in this order:

1. How To Eat
2. Domestic Goddess
3. Nigella Bites

Also use Nigel Slater's Real Food a lot. Very good.

I want to try Jamie Oliver - which one book would you recommend as his best?
What do people think of Delia?

Oh, oh, oh - and Gary Rhodes Food With Friends!

Has anybody cooked anything out of "Feast" yet? I'd like to try a cake but her recipes have always been a bit hit and miss for me and I want to know that it's worked for someone else b4 I try it! Quite fancy trying the chocolate guinness cake - anybody experienced it yet?

I would probably think Happy Days is the best one but it depends on what you are looking for!

I think the happy day's one is more laid back with home comfort food such as toad in the hole, chilli etc although all three are brill. Why don't you try and borrow them from the library and have a look and then decide or alternately just go into a bookshop and have a flick through. I hardly ever buy a cook book without looking at it first so I am a bit aprehensive about my choices!

Good idea about the library.
We do like quite traditional food - the Happy Days sounds like it might be worth a go!
Are any of them more child orientated? I'm guessing that any of his publications since having children might be. Can anyone let me know?

Ooh, Happy Days in hardback is very cheap on Amazon at the moment (cheaper than the paperback). Might be purchasing...

I've got a real selection I dip into from time to time - Nigella, Delia, Gary Rhodes...

But the recipe book I use more than any is "Home Recipes with Be-Ro Flour"
It's dated 1982, the 37th edition, and I won it as part of a competion I was in via school (the Emgas young cook of the Year 1983 - I came 2nd in the regional final!)
Anyway back to the book. It contains an absolute multitude of foolproof recipes and I always turn there first when baking cakes etc.

Auntyquated I've got the Ainsley and make the tortilla chesecake regularly, albeit a slightly modified version that suits us better. Keep thinking I should invest in some other books though.

My most used cook-books are:

1. Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking
2. Weight Watchers Take-Out Tonight
3. Muffins by Susan Reimer
4. Indian Every Day by Anjum Anad
5. Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step

I also have Delia's Complete Cookery Course for when I want to do basic things, and lots of others (like Nigella etc) that are really just food porn, I like reading them but don't actually make the recipies very often.