Food You Can't Say No To [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

This latest offering from Tamasin Day Lewis is certainly packed with yummy offerings you'd be hard pressed to resist. Her style of writing draws you in and this is a cookbook to read and enjoy as much as use as an instruction manual. For those who have not been tempted by any of her previous books then this will make an excellent introduction. Beautifully photographed, as her books always are, this is packed full of tempting dishes. "No" will be notably absent from your vocabulary! I do hope there will be a TV series to accompany this.

I don't know if I wouldn't say "No" to some of the food in this book but honestly that would be pretty limited as the recipes are very, very tempting indeed, especially in the dessert section (irresistible if you have a sweet tooth, in particular the chocolate recipes , OK I'm biased...) but not only...
If you enjoy cooking and trying out new flavours or being surprised by clever twists given to known recipes, this book is well worth buying even if, like me, you already have quite a selection of good cookbooks at home.
Some recipes are more involved than others but the explanations are very clear and I guess the only problem people might have at times is getting hold of some ingredients -depending on what is on offer at their local shops/supermarkets- but that is recurrent with a lot of creative cookbooks and in that respect I really appreciate the fact that Tamasin Day-Lewis does suggest alternatives in a lot of cases -too bad I will never manage get hold of decent large Sicilian lemons for the Passion Fruit Posset in the Mother's Day menu though ;-)

The book is divided into the following sections:

-Simple Special Things (OK, I do find it difficult to give an idea of this section but have a 'Look Inside' ,as Amazon suggests, to read about TDL's concept in that 'special' section).

-Beginnings: Mostly starters and soups, we loved "Pea & Prosciutto Mousse with Parmesan Cream" and "Red Onion, Squash, Tomato & Coconut Soup"

-The Big Dish: Great main courses: we tried "Summer Skirt with Chimichurri & Corn-Utopia Salsa", a very tasty version of the dish even if, in early march, I didn't have access to fresh oregano leaves - so used dried of course but will definitely try with the real McCoy when possible- and "Saffron Chicken, Leek & Prune Pie", quite an interesting combination.

-Sweet Things: A delightful selection, we tried Honey Spice cake with Ginger & Coconut (yum!) and Bitter Chocolate & Salted Brownie Cake, simple and clever.

-Feasts : Mother's Day Lunch for 6, Birthday Menu for 6 (vegetarian), New Year's Eve Dinner for 8 (Indian style menu with an amazing -British style- Decadent Triffle as a dessert), well thought-out menus indeed.

The only thing I missed in the book was an index of the recipes to complete the index of ingredients given at the end of the book, or at least a list of the recipes at the beginning of each section.

Apart from that, it is a very exciting new book by Tamasin Day-Lewis- can't wait to try more recipes...- and a beautiful one too (great pictures by Simon Wheeler), pretty hard to say No to indeed!

I have a number of Tamsin Day-Lewis' books and it would be fair to say that this isn't the best of them but it still has some great recipes, albeit I don't think I'll be using them on a regular basis. Probably the best part is the chapter entitled 'Sweet Things' - fabulous desserts like white peaches in Moscato with zabaglione ice cream; several lovely sorbets - elderflower or passion fruit, coconut and lime; pear & blueberry tatin or lemon & coconut cream tart.

There are a couple of good menus: firstly there is a birthday menu of baby courgette salad, insalata tricolore, egg pappardelle with mushroom & marsala sauce and to follow figs in raspberry sauce with hazelnut ice cream. The other is a New Year's Eve Dinner with an Indian theme which ends with a particularly nice trifle.

Other good recipes are potato gnocchi with asparagus, olives & tomato which looks so fresh on the plate; red salad (based on Camargue red rice with chillis, tomatoes, etc); hot greek filos; maqluba, a sort of tarte tatin made from layers of tomatoes, rice, lentils and aubergine; fillet of venison/lamb with spiced aubergine charlotte (the latter is excellent on its own); primavera & prosciutto pie; a wonderful dish of red romano peppers in a cream sauce, and another dessert in the form of passion fruit posset.

The list of ingredients is sometimes very lengthy but this is not necessarily a sign of complicated recipes: preparation is generally straightforward and most ingredients easy to source.