My cookbooks

My cookbooks
Originally uploaded by framboise.

I was reading a post about potato soup on delicious days, and getting pretty hungry just reading the recipe, when I came across a meme going around about cookbooks. Being new to this blogging business (previous websites have always just been online CVs), I thought I should at least participate in one meme in my blogging life. Plus, it would keep me occupied and stop me from drooling any further on the keyboard.

The meme was initiated by spiceblog, and I may be breaking blogging protocol here by not having been invited to join in (if so, leave a comment and I'll go quietly... aww... these food bloggers are so nice...).

1. Rationale behind what we're seeing?
   This nook in my very small kitchen is super handy, apart from the fact that I'm short and can't reach the middle and top shelves. So all the most-used cookbooks are conveniently stored on the bottom shelf. Top of the dog-ears are two paperbacks by Nigel Slater: Real Fast Food and Real Fast Pudding. Plus the two New Covent Garden Soup Co.'s books, from which I've posted quite a few recipes on this blog. Most of the "trendy" books on the middle shelf were gifts from friends and relatives; only 2-3 recipes tried from each as it's a real faff to get ingredients together for them. Prue Leith's bible is only on the less-used middle shelf 'cos she won't fit on the bottom. The oldest of the collection dates from 1976: Mrs Lee's Cookbook, first owned by my Mom.
2. Most recommended?
   Without a doubt, Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food, followed very closely by Real Fast Pudding. The recipes are sensible. The ingredients are often in our store cupboard or fridge, and if not, alternative ideas are often provided. The pudding book is arranged by season, which suits us to a T as we get our fruit in a box scheme. And most importantly, most of the dishes can be prepared within 30 min with minimum fuss (risotto is an exception, as we all know).
3. Cookbook that made you what you were?
   Delia's Winter Collection. First book I bought while at Uni, and I've tried almost half the recipes now. Her precision chimes with my need to cook like I'm still in the lab. (Although Nigel Slater makes me a freer cook.)
4. Porniest cookbook?
   While the obvious choice would normally be Nigella Bites, the one that gives me the shakes is Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes. I often succumb, and make something from it.
5. Sophie's Choice cookbook?
   Mrs Lee's Cookbook. You can't escape your heritage.
6. If you were a cookbook, which cookbook would you be?
   That's a toughie. It pretty much boils down to whether I am 'exciting and exotic', 'interesting and innovative', 'prim and precise', or 'tasteful and trendy'. Since I'm some, yet none, of the above, I might as well confess to being Nigel Slater's Appetite. Food pr0n is all well and good, but all we really want is to know that the lamb will be roasted just long enough to be safe to eat yet still be pink.
7. If your cookbook we're extrememly valuable, so valuable you might hide it with other valuables, where would that place be?
   In plain sight.

Hey, this meme stuff is quite fun. It's helped me to gather my thoughts of which books mean the most to me. And instead of fretting that I have to leave most of them in storage, I can go away knowing that I will rediscover them on my return. (Having by then exhausted the ones I'm taking with me...) Thank you, anthony!

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