Cookbook junkies - recommend me your favourite recipes in....

[HarrogateMum]

I am a cookbook junkie and have piles and piles of the things on my shelves...some obscure ones but mainly the bog standard celeb chef ones. When I buy them I spend hours poring over them planning what to cook from them and end up probably only doing 1 or 2 recipes from each as I have so bloody many!

I need to use them more so wondered if anyone could recommend me their fave recipes from a particular chef and a particular book so I can try some new stuff. I thought I'd pick Jamie Oliver first and see if anyone replies!

For me my tried and tested ones are:
The Naked Chef - meatball recipe

Return of - the fantastic fish pie, the roast chicken and the proscuitto wrapped fillet of beef.

Happy Days with - magnificient roasted monkfish

Cook with - the roasted white fish wrapped in bacon.

At home - the crispy chicken thighs with squashed new potatoes and tomatoes.

Dinners - chicken and sweet leek pie with flaky pastry.

I've never made anything out of Jamie's Italy and have yet to try anything from America, so recommend me some stuff! (Please)

Don't acutally own a Jamie book - but have snipped some out of newpapers a few years ago:

basic penne carbonara (I never knew it was so easy!)

Basic curry recipe - but I have bastardised it to my own tastes.

Baked onions in pancetta.

Do you want choice recipes from other cooks' books?

Am also a cookbook junkie
Naked chef - puy lentils and bacon, is lush and do it all the time
lots of the puddings, esp the steamed puddings, v easy
pizza receipe, bit of a Saturday tradition
umm, a few other things, still use it lots.

Also have At home - pumpkin soup is lovely, english onion soup also good. Steak pie is v good and done it for lunch parties a few times. Have a plum tree so actually bought it to do the plum receipes in the autumn, there's lots of those!
Have fun!

of course....just would have been here all day if I'd named every book! Although can I just mention Hugh F-W's baked chicken curry in his latest one....its so good DH rates it over his fave takeaway.....

Jamie's Cook With:

crab linguini GORGEOUS I wish crab wasn't so expensive

Jools favourite sat afternoon pasta. Great for when you want filling not fancy. Sooo easy a bit like student food but tastier

He drives me insane but I do have one of his books, Happy Days I think. It has a good veggie curry recipe and a nice stuffed butternut squash recipe in it. There is also a tart with pinenuts which I keep meaning to try.

He is mostly too meaty/fishy/twatty for my liking though.

I like the Jools' root veg casserol that he does - cant remeber which book... green one?

oooh crab linguine sounds good...will try! infact all sound good (thats if you dont mind the twattiness...know what you mean Janeite..just never watch the programmes, only buy the books!)

from Jamie's Italy -- can recommend the pizza recipe. (I make the dough up in the breadmaker so don't even break a sweat.) Also the chicken stew/cacciatore

The party cake recipe from Return of Naked Chef gets wheeled out annually here too

I also make the Jamie's Italy pizza dough recipe in the bread maker, it's fab. I make the cacciatore quite a bit too...

From the American one - the green chilli and the other chilli are both great, we've made them a few times.

I love Jamie's books. I just made the Southern Sausage Stew from the America one (but wouldn't recommend the chicken mole)

From 'America' - DH made the gumbo for New Year's Eve when we had friends round and it was lovely. We also had the chocolate bread pudding which was gorgeous - v rich, and actually tasted better the day after.

I'm with you on the fish pie from 'return' - one of my staple favourites.

We also regularly make the chilli (can't remember which book, sorry) and the leek and chickpea soup from 'Naked'.

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Great idea Christiana.

Nigella's good recipes include -

chocolate Guinness cake;
baked plums (but I don't follow her recipe, am just 'inspired' by it) and Barbados cream; lentil chilli; mattar paneer (again, I have adapted this).

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Hooray, getting loads of ideas, thanks guys! Hugh F-W...just made his curried fish pie from Everyday, a bit weird having pastry and curry flavour but strangely nice! And Hugh's way of doing roasts is the only way to do them - the sizzle followed by a low temp roast, always fab for rare meat (if thats what you like, and I do!)

Now....gordon ramsay, got all his books but rarely made anything...any tips?

Jamie's Italy - the Ricotta Cakes are delicious.
I can't remember which Jamie book it's in but the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe in one of the most delicious things ever.
Nigella's Domestic Goddess - Pistachio macaroons, chocolate babycakes and Granny Boyd's biscuits are all gorgeous.

Well, I am a bit of a Jamie junkie and have most of his books. Here are some of my favourites ....

Happy Days -
Chilli recipe is fab
Favourite curry sauce
Baked cod with avocado, prawns, cream and cheese (gorgeous)
Roasted cod with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella
Sticky toffee cupcakes (DD2 loves these and they are great even without the egg in them)

Dinners -
Slow roast shoulder of lamb
Sausage with onion gravy

At Home -
Slow roast chilli shoulder of pork (doing this again tomorrow for the umpteenth time)

I shall take a look at the others noted above and would love to see everyone elses favourite of Nigels etc -

have made a shopping list so I can cook some of everyones faves, this is fab. Stirling - which book is the shoulder of pork in...I couldnt find it in At Home?

It is page 256 - I got the name wrong, it is Spicy Pork and Chilli Pepper Goulash, but dont be put off by the name - I dont add chillies (to make it dc-friendly) but there is still lots of flavour from the paprika, oregano etc.

Tesco's had Pork Shoulder joints on special offer this weekend so I bought a large joint (2.3kg). There will be lots for dinner today and then tomorrow, I will take the meat out and shred it, then whiz the sauce with a blender, add a tin of whatever beans I have (cannellini probably), put the meat back in and serve with rice and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Am making Chicken cacciatore for the first time as we speak!! Will let you know how it goes.
Also made the Porcetta from Italy book which was great for a crowd.

Another vote for fantastic fish pie here.

Happy Days - marinated mozzerella - just the best ever starter for a barbeque served on slices of fresh baguette.

The two other most used books I own are Nigella Express and Gordon Ramsey makes it easy.

Crab Linguine - try it with tinned crab. I do the Nigella version with loads of chilli and watercress and find that tinned is surprisingly good and much cheaper.

getting loads of ideas! Have just made the Jamie Chilli from his new book, it takes three hours to cook but have tasted it and it has blown my head off which means DH will love it!

Is that the America book Harrogatemum ?
How much chilli is in it?