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Review
Bill s recipes always seem simple, yet deliver a full-on wallop of flavour --delicious, October 2010
Most constant of all is Granger s trademark combination of simple fresh flavours that can be thrown together for instant impact --The Times, 28 August 2010
Try some new ways with chicken and lighten up old favourites with Bill Granger s delicious recipes --Sainsburys, October 2010
Most constant of all is Granger s trademark combination of simple fresh flavours that can be thrown together for instant impact --The Times, 28 August 2010
Try some new ways with chicken and lighten up old favourites with Bill Granger s delicious recipes --Sainsburys, October 2010
Product Description
Bill Granger, hugely popular Australian food writer, television chef and restaurateur has worked his particular magic on over 100 of his favourite classic dishes, bringing them effortlessly into the twenty-first century. Bill's Basics is a cheat's guide to making the recipes that every home cook wants to master. Bill has simplified techniques, minimised fussy ingredient lists and given these core dishes a modern twist that's in tune with our busy lives and passion for fresh and healthy flavours. This is a one-stop manual of favourite dishes for every occasion, from lazy breakfasts to late-night suppers to lunch for a crowd. In choosing them, Bill has drawn on all his fondest food memories, including dishes from a variety of different countries. From lamb tagine to prawn laksa, Thai beef salad to chocolate brownies, chicken burritos to creme caramel, this is the repertoire that every home cook wants to master. Bill's Basics will quickly become the essential book that all home cooks turn to time and again. A modern classic, packed with irresistible photography, written with Bill's trademark friendly yet reassuring authority, it will have readers cooking their way through it from cover to cover.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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First published in September of 2010, popular self-taught Australian chef Bill Granger's beautifully presented cookbook `Bill's Basics' clearly had the `Average Joe' in mind when he began penning this recipe book. The principle that runs behind the entirety of the book is good, honest and simple food - cooked simply. No experience or any advanced understanding of cooking is required; the book is aimed at taking the user through all the stages to create a vast array of quite simplistic culinary delights.
The book begins with a short introduction by Granger, allowing a brief glimpse into how surprisingly personal the book is to him. This alone adds a genuinely nice touch to the following recipes, and allows you to truly believe that he cooks these dishes all of the time; unlike with other cookbooks, whereby you know that half of the recipes are for dishes that the writer/chef would probably never cook up for themselves in everyday life.
Each recipe includes brief notes on the dish, which are often personal to Granger, as well as snippets of the dish's history ("carrot cake reached our shores in the Seventies"), or honest insights into the recipes and his attitude to cooking ("Satay Skewers are one of my favourite street foods, but I can't always be bothered to thread the chicken onto skewers at home").
An entire chapter is dedicated to soup, with a good number of delectable yet healthy recipes included. There are also one or two unusual recipes, such as `Laksa' which is a rich and fragrant noodle soup that is (or so we're told) becoming the `Spag Bol' of Australia. Don't be fooled into thinking that because the book is entitled `Basics' that you will have seen it all before. With Bill's `simplified' take on cooking, a lot of the classic recipes are seemingly transformed into the glorification and utter enjoyment of the ingredients and the honesty of combining and cooking them.
Not only does the cookbook offer up interesting and so-very-slightly unusual dishes such as the likes of the aforementioned `Laksa', along with `Salt & Pepper Squid', `Roasted Butternut Squash, Lentil & Spice Pasties' and `Saffron Risotto With Lobster'; you also have recipes for the justifiably classic dishes such as `The Perfect Steak', `Fish Pie', `Vegetable Soup' and `Tomato Pasta Sauce'.
Each recipe includes a full colour photo alongside it, which brings together a beautifully presented and brilliantly inspiring book. The recipes are simple to locate, put into their own chapters based on the principal ingredient and/or style of dish (as well as an easy to use index). Each of the chapters is exactly 24 pages in length.
The chapters include:
Breakfast
Baking
Soup
Salads
Rice, pasta & bread
Chicken
Meat
Seafood
Vegetables
Desserts
All in all, this is a beautifully presented cookbook, which is ideal for everyday use, for absolutely anyone. Running for a total of 256 pages, this high quality and durable publication covers a vast array of dishes, with simplicity and the sheer enjoyment of cooking always in mind. Very highly recommended (and I don't say that often!).
The book begins with a short introduction by Granger, allowing a brief glimpse into how surprisingly personal the book is to him. This alone adds a genuinely nice touch to the following recipes, and allows you to truly believe that he cooks these dishes all of the time; unlike with other cookbooks, whereby you know that half of the recipes are for dishes that the writer/chef would probably never cook up for themselves in everyday life.
Each recipe includes brief notes on the dish, which are often personal to Granger, as well as snippets of the dish's history ("carrot cake reached our shores in the Seventies"), or honest insights into the recipes and his attitude to cooking ("Satay Skewers are one of my favourite street foods, but I can't always be bothered to thread the chicken onto skewers at home").
An entire chapter is dedicated to soup, with a good number of delectable yet healthy recipes included. There are also one or two unusual recipes, such as `Laksa' which is a rich and fragrant noodle soup that is (or so we're told) becoming the `Spag Bol' of Australia. Don't be fooled into thinking that because the book is entitled `Basics' that you will have seen it all before. With Bill's `simplified' take on cooking, a lot of the classic recipes are seemingly transformed into the glorification and utter enjoyment of the ingredients and the honesty of combining and cooking them.
Not only does the cookbook offer up interesting and so-very-slightly unusual dishes such as the likes of the aforementioned `Laksa', along with `Salt & Pepper Squid', `Roasted Butternut Squash, Lentil & Spice Pasties' and `Saffron Risotto With Lobster'; you also have recipes for the justifiably classic dishes such as `The Perfect Steak', `Fish Pie', `Vegetable Soup' and `Tomato Pasta Sauce'.
Each recipe includes a full colour photo alongside it, which brings together a beautifully presented and brilliantly inspiring book. The recipes are simple to locate, put into their own chapters based on the principal ingredient and/or style of dish (as well as an easy to use index). Each of the chapters is exactly 24 pages in length.
The chapters include:
Breakfast
Baking
Soup
Salads
Rice, pasta & bread
Chicken
Meat
Seafood
Vegetables
Desserts
All in all, this is a beautifully presented cookbook, which is ideal for everyday use, for absolutely anyone. Running for a total of 256 pages, this high quality and durable publication covers a vast array of dishes, with simplicity and the sheer enjoyment of cooking always in mind. Very highly recommended (and I don't say that often!).
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Whilst billed as "basics", namely classic meals from around the world for everyday cooking, Bill's Granger's book often goes beyond that. I was quite pleased for example to see that his recipe for Bolognese sauce includes the "authentic" ingredients and processes which most books leave out (soffrito of onion, carrot & celery, pancetta, pork as well as beef mince, milk and white wine).
His interpretations of the recipes can add that little bit extra beyond the standard. Though I have been doing Indian cooking for many years, I have always struggled to produce a palak paneer which I could call satisfactory to my mind. But trying ideas from Bill's recipe here I've gone a long way towards remedying that.
To be fair there are probably not too many recipes in this book which I would go out of my way to cook, but this is a decent enough book for those less experienced at cooking who want to expand their repertoire and produce relatively simple meals but with that little bit more.
His interpretations of the recipes can add that little bit extra beyond the standard. Though I have been doing Indian cooking for many years, I have always struggled to produce a palak paneer which I could call satisfactory to my mind. But trying ideas from Bill's recipe here I've gone a long way towards remedying that.
To be fair there are probably not too many recipes in this book which I would go out of my way to cook, but this is a decent enough book for those less experienced at cooking who want to expand their repertoire and produce relatively simple meals but with that little bit more.
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I hate flouncy cook books that aren't physically built for a life of spills and spatters in the kitchen. So first of all I must give this one top marks for practicality. It comes with a good, robust, whipeable cover. And instead of a dust jacket there is a glossy slip which folds round the front cover. This can be moved throughout the book to act as a handy placeholder. How often are you using a cook book by the stove and can't keep the thing open where you want it? Not with this one.
Turning to the contents I liked the look of the recipes. Granger is Australian so overall there is an Asian influence sneaking in (coconut milk appears quite a bit)but he also seems big on Italian. I have to say though having made a few things from the book that I wasn't altogether impressed.
I carefully followed his brownie recipe and found the results only fair. Two bars of Green and Blacks went into it and frankly I would have rather just eaten the chocolate. That I think is a telling thing with any cook book. A recipe needs to add value to the ingredients and not leave you wishing you had just done something simpler with the same items.
Sadly the same occurred with Bill's take on Shakshouka - the Israeli breakfast dish. A little better were his chickpea burgers, which he claims to be the result of years of experiment. I thought they were alright but I know of better veggie burgers with a lot less effort.
The most success I had was with the extremely intense tomato soup. This involved oven roasting a lot of tomatoes and blending in coconut milk to create what can only be described as a properly posh version of Heinz Cream of Tommy Soup. The cashew and coconut sambal Bill suggest with it was a waste of time though, and I have substituted a swirl of pesto in subsequent batches.
I didn't know anything about Bill Granger when I got the book but have subsequently seen his TV show. I have to say overall I feel there is a lot more marketing flash than there is culinary genius in him.
Only one out of the first four things I have tried from this book has impressed me. I'll make his soup again but I would have hoped for a better strike rate than this.
Turning to the contents I liked the look of the recipes. Granger is Australian so overall there is an Asian influence sneaking in (coconut milk appears quite a bit)but he also seems big on Italian. I have to say though having made a few things from the book that I wasn't altogether impressed.
I carefully followed his brownie recipe and found the results only fair. Two bars of Green and Blacks went into it and frankly I would have rather just eaten the chocolate. That I think is a telling thing with any cook book. A recipe needs to add value to the ingredients and not leave you wishing you had just done something simpler with the same items.
Sadly the same occurred with Bill's take on Shakshouka - the Israeli breakfast dish. A little better were his chickpea burgers, which he claims to be the result of years of experiment. I thought they were alright but I know of better veggie burgers with a lot less effort.
The most success I had was with the extremely intense tomato soup. This involved oven roasting a lot of tomatoes and blending in coconut milk to create what can only be described as a properly posh version of Heinz Cream of Tommy Soup. The cashew and coconut sambal Bill suggest with it was a waste of time though, and I have substituted a swirl of pesto in subsequent batches.
I didn't know anything about Bill Granger when I got the book but have subsequently seen his TV show. I have to say overall I feel there is a lot more marketing flash than there is culinary genius in him.
Only one out of the first four things I have tried from this book has impressed me. I'll make his soup again but I would have hoped for a better strike rate than this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Easy yet pleasing
This book features a good selection of Bill Grangers easy yet tasty recipes, I like the way in which each recipe is described and the directions are nice and clear. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Price
More than just "how to cook"
The recipes in this book span a range of cuisines and are always clear and easy to follow. Everything I've cooked up from here has turned out exactly as planned - and all have been... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. S. D. Mcginty
A lovely collection
Bill Granger's cookbook is full of simple, laid back tasty recipes, all of which are clearly explained and beautifully photographed. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Andrew Langdon
bill's basics
Fast delivery. Excellent condition. Super looking book with great pictures and easy to follow recipes. It was bought as a gift for my daughters fiance.. Read more
Published 4 months ago by millie
Variety is the spice of life
An eclectic cook book which covers a wide range of dishes. Bill Granger clearly likes his Asian food, as is evidenced in recipes like the Thai 'Pad see ew' and the Malaysian nasi... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Phil Robertshaw
A great cook book
This really is a great cook book which includes 100 of Bill's recipes. Each one is easy to follow and has a beautiful colour photo next to it so you can see what the finished dish... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Harry Parsons
Stimulatingly easy!
It is so good to read recipes that make you want to leap into the kitchen and start cooking. The recipes in this book have Bill's usual style of tasty food brought about by very... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jill R. Taylor
Bill makes you hungry whilst looking through this book!
Bill makes great food, and in this book he shows how simple it is to make it.
The pictures are sumptuous and look appetising, and the overall design is pleasant, but... Read more
The pictures are sumptuous and look appetising, and the overall design is pleasant, but... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Glezza
Another great book by Bill
This is yet another must for any cooks wanting to produce simple yet stunning meals to wow guests and family alike! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Joanna Dando
Good, But Definitely Not Bill's Best...
I already have four of Bill's books and so for me, this one is a bit of a disappointment. His other books are so vibrant, the photography is beautiful, the recipes exciting and so... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Hayley Nichols
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