Book Binge Recipe Edition

Last week my mum came home from work with the promise of a pile of cooking books, she said something about a book dealer coming into work and her planning to buy some. Well, yesterday was the day, and i went through them, stole my favourites and went ahead and planned my next few meals...

Paul Hollywood's BREAD: How to make great breads into even greater meals by (obviously) Paul Hollywood and published by Bloomsbury.

As we know from my last bake-off post i became impressed by Paul's bread meals when i had some Irish bacon soda bread. I've made it twice since. Having a whole book of filling breads at my disposal i was really excited to go through the recipes, and when i read Paul's note 'this is more than a baking book: it's about the whole meal' i settled into paradise.

To start us off there's a great explanation of baking techniques that is really useful for us amateurs. Maybe it's just me but without a scientific mind no matter how often i bake i never really understand what's going on with the yeast and the flour and the bicarbonate of soda. I really love the basic breads and the exotic ones like wraps, tortillas and pittas, but it's really the ones packed with more substance that i'm really interested in.

The 'Pain de Savoie' looking AMAZING. Not only is it full of lardons like the bacon bread i made before but its also got CHEESE- lots of oozing cheese! Personally i don't think there's enough so i'll probably double the quantity, hopefully that doesn't mess with the science. Plus, the 'Savoury Brioche Couronne' looks like a swirly lunchtime wonder- parmesan, parma ham and buffalo mozzarella distributed throughout the rich dough. I will be making this first. Much more impressive than the official bake-off recipe book, so i'm thinking of getting a Mary Berry to satisfy my sweet tooth as well.





Save with James: Shop Smart Cook Clever Waste Less by Jamie Oliver, published by Penguin

Targeted towards the financially conscious populace (surely that's everyone?) like his money saving 15 and 30 minute meals, Jamie's new recipe book has soo many recipes. With the amount of best-selling cookery books by this guy it's a real wonder he's got any left inside his head.

My favourite thing about the book is the way it's organized. I'm always faced with finding something to eat for dinner working around whatever piece of meat i have available. Chicken recipes, pork, beef, lamb and fish i can just skip to the relevant category when i've got my meat in mind. Even better is the veg section, which helps me out with the main problem i have - forgetting to buy or get out of the freezer any meat at all. In particular the 4 fantastic ways of making a simple tomato pasta really help with this. I know that Italian restaurants just use store cupboard ingredients for most of their pasta dishes and now i can whip up the Arrabbiata or Puttanesca with the contents of mine.

The sweet potato and spinach frittata looks really nice, chicken and spinach cannelloni and the bbq ribs and pork belly are just up my street. The only negative observation is probably the timings, it seems that Jamie used all his quicker recipes for his previous books and most of these are 1-2 hour jobs. Bit much after work. And his wife Jules' recipe at the end- feeling neglected much? I thought Jamie was the chef.

All in all a pretty good haul. I love books, but when they are great reads and also provide inventive snacks the world always seems like a better place. I've had a bit of a disaster week so i'm taking Mr Hollywood and Mr Oliver and heading to the bedroom, erm i mean... the kitchen.