Book Reviews
Here is a page of my personal book reviews. I have found these books useful/interesting/entertaining and I hope you will too.
the new english kitchen by rose prince (Fourth Estate, London)
(yes, it really is a book title that doesn't use capital letters)
Cookbooks can be categorised as follows:
- Those that contain nice pictures and fancy recipes (often written by famous chefs/restaurants)
- Those that deal with technique
- Those that discuss food - what to look for, how to buy and favourite ways of cooking.
the new english kitchen is a combination of 2) and 3). Rose Prince discusses the complex business of planning and shopping for food. Definitely a foodie, she veers towards making the best choices. If you want to know how to shop for top quality foods and put them together into wholesome meals, this is the book for you. The subtitle is 'changing the way you shop, cook and eat'. Which pretty much sums it up.
We are not looking at the economy section of food shopping here. Rose emphasises the purchase of quality items (e.g. organic chicken). Though with her recipe for chicken stock you can make an organic chicken go a long way. In our household an organic roast chicken is devoured by the family - the carcase is then used to make chicken stock. This is so easy that even I can do it. The stock then becomes chicken soup and this can also form the basis for other homemade soups. Never having made home-made stock before, I followed Rose's recipe and now it's an easy way of providing homemade nutritious food. Truly nutritious and delicious.
Rose tends towards the heartily practical with subheadings such as 'what one hour of cooking gives you', 'which fish?' and 'tomato economics'. She also gives reliable recipes, including a fail-safe one for making meringues. I'd never found a way of getting the meringue consistency right, but Rose's technique works every time.
As I am not a natural cook (preparing salads and peeling bananas is more my line) I have found the recommendations in the new english kitchen very good. If you are a beginner foodie this book is a good place to start your culinary adventures. It will give you a good grounding in shopping, confidence in cooking skills and recipes that you can enjoy straightaway.
You can review or purchase the new english kitchen here.
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