A collection of seasonal recipes and stories

Cookbooks I Like A Lot

Find them at your local independent bookseller.

mkt fresh forgotten-skills-of-cooking-14478093 how-to-cook

4 responses

  1. myonepreciouslife

    I don’t suppose you’d be into writing little reviews on these? Particularly, “Plenty,” which I have been considering buying.

    February 18, 2012 at 4:47 pm

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  2. Megan at When Harry Met Salad

    Ha! I was just thinking the other day what a dumb page this is. In addition to being a visual cacophony, it doesn’t offer anyone any useful information. I plan to revamp it to include brief reviews of each book. In the meantime, Plenty. . .

    I borrowed the UK version of Plenty from a friend last winter and refused to return it until the US edition was released in March. The photos are gorgeous and the recipes are innovative yet accessible. Ottolenghi has a way of putting things together that feels familiar and comforting even though his combinations are completely unique. It’s simple, elemental food with interesting, unexpected twists.

    It is not, however, always simple to prepare– the potato tart required hours of preparation, and careful reading of the recipe to be sure I correctly understood the process. Other recipes are more straightforward; I make the stuffed portobellos all the time for weeknight dinners.

    Some Amazon reviewers note that the UK to US conversions of both temps and ingredient amounts seem to be off in some recipes, and I think they’re probably right even though I haven’t run into that problem yet. Other reviewers complain that some of the ingredients are hard to find. I live in an area so rural we don’t even have a Target (!) and haven’t had any trouble finding even some of the more exotic ingredients like za’atar and sumac.

    The book is a compilation of Ottolenghi’s columns from The Guardian, and many of the recipes are available online. If you’re on the fence about Plenty, you might try some of those recipes and see how you like them.

    February 18, 2012 at 7:27 pm

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  3. Margaret @ The Right Recipe

    I love this page. Some of these books are absolute favorites of mine and some I’ll have to keep an eye out for. I don’t collect cookbooks per se but I buy lots at our local used book store and then sell back the ones that I find I don’t use much. I’m enjoying your blog.

    September 28, 2012 at 11:49 am

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