Can anyone recommend a cookery book for ...

[gill89]

my dad?

He has done very little cooking other than prep the veg!
My mum has always done it but they are now in the situation where mum is no longer able to cook anything; they are living off ready-made pizzas and beans on toast.

I would like to buy him a book that produces healthy meals in a short-ish period. They don't like "fancy food" so pretty traditional is the aim.

There are so many books out there it is hard to know which one to go for. Hopefully someone will be able to recommend something.

Thank you.

What about the 'how to cook' ones by Delia Smith? I've never actually read it myself, I'm just assuming they're simple things!

Or a student's cook-book?

In fact, best thing would be for you to go to a bookshop and browse them yourself - I often get given a nice cookbook only to read it and everything's so blimming complicated!

this series is fab

i like the 1000 series books and im no chef!

Or create one yourself with ideas from MN?

My personal favourite easy recipe is good old mince and rice - specially if you chuck a tin of baked beans in the mince.

And if you teach him how to prepare and cook veg, he can make really simple healthy meals just by putting veg with everything ie. chicken drumsticks and veg, bangers and mash and veg, fish and veg etc.

DanJARMouse - that looks just the thing. I hope Waterstones have it in.

what about the Jamie Oliver, minestry of food one?

When my grandad started to cook once my nana was unable, he found Delia Smith cookery course very useful. The first part 3 course is very straightforward, and in some ways seems old fashioned now, but that might suit better. Very good explanations, introductions on shopping for types of food, and I still use it for some things. Her How to Cheat is good too, for quick meals without boiling bones for stock first.
After a while my grandad really got into it, despite hardly cooking anything before that. I wish them all the best.

I was going to suggest Jamie Oliver, Ministry of Food too

CTD - I have that one but I'm not sure about it.

I have now ordered the one Jarm suggested from Amazon, paying for quick delivery as my parents are coming today for a few days.

Thank you.

I have the how to cook series and I wouldn't think it was suitable tbh. IMO it isn't every day food.

There are better ones out there.

Mary Berry is good and M&S sell ones for a £1 each so you could get a few.

I also have the Delia series so I will see if I can get him interested.

I also liked the idea of doing one yourself - is your mum able to go through the things she used to cook and you translate them into recipes?

That's a good idea SD. Most of my recipes are ones my mum made us when we were little.

Mum isn't really capable of much SD. She puts empty pans on the hob, turns them on full then forgets about it but then gets very cross if my dad turns it off.

We sent him 2 recipes this week and he has managed them both. Sausage pasta and sheperds pie - the saus pasta took all of about 5 mins and they liked it.
The shep pie - he said it was a lot of chopping and took a while but was lovely. It was a very easy version. When questioned further he reveals that it only took him half an hour to make! He has just got to get used to it (or get used to pizza and beans) - after all he has all day to do it.

DD is going to help him when they are here. He will take it better from her as he loves spending time with her.

I think sending recipes over slowly, one by one, is perhaps a better idea than a book. You can tailor them to their taste and how easy/tricky he found the previous recipe.

Delia's Complete Cookery Course is also good - it preceeds How to Cook, and is focused on fairly ordinary/conventional (i.e. not overly faddy or 'foreign' (!) food).

Lots of good reviews on here in various posts about Jamie's Ministry of Food too.

i have a fab book...

www.amazon.co.uk/How-Boil-Egg-Cookery-Paperfronts/dp/0716007584/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=12349 49465&sr=8-2

its not just for one, but what it does do is tell you how much a portion is (a handful of peas, a head of cauli etc), how to prepare all friut and veg, and has really easy, tasty basic recipies for tradirtional food...stew, spag bol, roast dinner, apple crumble etc..

really, its fab!

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