Cook in Boots [Hardcover]

Cook in Boots is just as fun and silly as the cover suggests - it's a good read and would sit happily on any coffee table for occasional browsing. But it certainly stands up to use in the kitchen too, delivering excellent recipes and big flavours.

Good things? Well, the writing style is fun and easy to follow. Unlike many cookbooks, this one doesn't take itself too seriously - making it a pleasure to read or use. The recipes have a 'home made' style that's appealing and easy to relate to. Also, I love the mixture of styles of food - a totally global, urban collection of delicious flavours from Indian to British, Vietnamese, Turkish, Lebanese, French, Italian... all easy to make and really reflects the varied types of food that people in the UK love to eat.

Bad things? I'm not sure about the 'ladies only' ethos of the book, it's a bit off-putting. I don't really warm to gender-specific cookbook publishing as I fail to see the point. My husband would love the recipes in this book but I doubt he would have bought it after flipping through and seeing chapter titles like 'PMT: For the times when only chocolate will do' or 'Hard-up food: For when you've spent all your lolly on Louboutins'. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have bought this book myself if I'd seen that - or the rather condescending blurb on the inside of the front cover ('Whether you're a fashionista, career girl, wife, slob, home bunny, disaster zone, or Queen...')

So, it's four stars from me, because I really did like the big flavours and fun style of Cook in Boots - despite the off-putting 'ladies only' marketing exercise that comes with it. I thought it was a great book, jam-packed with excellent, easy recipes. It sometimes put easiness over inspired cooking, but altogether a wonderful cookbook that I'm sure I'll use a lot.

"Cook in Boots" by Ravinder Bhogal appealed to me straight away as aside from cookery I am also a collector of shoes! Mind you my shoe collection currently stands at maybe 100 pairs approximately (hope my husband doesn't read this) whereas my cook book collection is probably around 5 times that! Overall the book contains a lot of recipes that I would make or use as inspiration. They are relatively easy on the whole and the ingredients are also readily available with maybe a few exceptions on the spices front. However many supermarkets are now stocking the more "exotic" spices and spice mixes and most large towns have ethnic stores or websites such as Seasoned Pioneers will have everything she mentions. There are several Indian recipes, quite a few Oriental themed dishes as well as Mediterranean and Middle Eastern representations. Ravinder's writing style is fun and flirty, easy to read and there are plenty of colour photographs to whet your appetite. This is her first cook book and I shall certainly keep an eye out for any further books by her.

Chapters are divided into:-

Bread, Pasta, Potatoes: and includes some interesting salads too such as Sweet potato salad with lime, coriander and sweet chilli dressing.

Working It 9-5: with a small selection of soups and some salads that are easy to make and transport to work e.g. Couscous and roasted vegetable salad with pomegranate molasses and Peanut butter, noodle and chicken salad.

Comfort Food: for those days when you feel like a "hug on a plate" which includes a recipe for Cauliflower and broccoli cheese with tomato sauce and Parmesan breadcrumbs. The Carrot-spiced pudding also sounded interesting although personally I am not a lover of rice puddings I have family that are and the idea of using carrots and gentle spicing into the mix sounds intriguing enough to maybe give that one a go sometime too.

PMT: a chapter dedicated to things chocolate-y and which includes a recipe for a "Chocolatini" which sounds absolutely divine - chocolate liqueur and vodka based cocktail - mmm. The Raspberry and bitter chocolate lollies also sound like a novel idea.

TV, Remote Control and a Meal for One: this section is all about spoiling yourself when home alone to stop you resorting to a microwave meal.

Social Grazing: finger food chapter for those pre-dinner canapes or maybe evenings when you feel like having a "carpet picnic" as we call them in our household - lots of tasty nibbles washed down with quantities of good red wine whilst lounging on the floor with lots of cushions, candle light and a good film to watch.

Hangover Food: recipes for the morning after the night before ....

Hard-Up Food: budget recipes which don't sacrifice flavour or use up leftovers e.g. Zesty angel hair pasta with garlic, chilli, lemon and olive oil and Nasi Goreng.

Skinny Food: presumably for the week after you carb'ed yourself out testing the recipes in the first chapter?!

Food Rehab: this chapter includes some superfood recipes - the pomegranate glazed pork has caught my eye and would mean that the pomegranate molasses I bought to cook Couscous salad mentioned in the "Working It" section above would have a second outing at least!

Fork me, Spoon me: the double entendres here are perfectly intentional I feel as the author has put recipes into this section which she describes as "the food of love and rude food" - the sexy rack of ras-el-hanout lamb with potato and saffron rice and the scallops with champagne butter sauce sound worth a twirl one evening.

Meet the Parents: this chapter focuses on recipes for entertaining and includes some vegetarian recipes as well e.g. Dill crepes with green vegetables, feta and bechamel sauce and Wild mushroom arancini.

I like this book, it is visually a stunning book and so far the recipes I have tried have been nice (apart from the zesty angel hair spagetti which was inedible in my opinion) but I have a lot of cookery books and I find myself reaching for the same ones time and time again. This is not the one I would keep going back for, I much prefer any Nigella book or one of my most recent purchases, Sophie Dahls 'Miss Dahls voluptuous delights'.