Home Cook [Hardcover]

firstly it,s a joy to read, superbly written and funny. i,ve been cooking at home for 25 years and have dozens of cook books but this one ranks as one of the very best- down to earth , practical and doable with easily got ingredients. if you can,t cook a decent meal from this book you might as well eat your hat.

because there are 'more than 150 recipes for the food we love to cook and eat at home'....

'Down-to-earth, practical, witty.......'

The cover statements are bold, but actually quite truthful.

Currently fashionable pastel covers open to 246 high quality pages, split over 21 chapters:-

On toast, eggs and fry-ups
Bowls of salad and mayonnaise
Asparagus and easy firsts
Home soup and big bowls of noodles
Spaghetti Bolognese and more pasta
Bowls of rice and good curries
Sunday lunch beef
Roast chicken dinner
Weekend roast lamb
Crackling pork
Crispy duck
Christmas dinner
Chilli con carne and one-pot suppers
Perfect steak and one-pan suppers
Gravy dinners, pies and mash
Pizza and the best oven bakes
Easy fish, chips and more
Favourite tarts
Pancakes and proper puddings
Meringues and custard
Chocolate, coffee and cake

sandwiched between an introduction and a full index.

'A lot us now cook rarely. And I'm not going to preach that you should. We're way too busy. Anyway, there are now so many routes for us to get instant food. And that's fine. So, in this book I've taken the view that when we do want to cook, we want to do it properly. Why else buy a cookbook? Really - why?........
And when I say cook, I don't mean restaurant food. Go out to have that. I mean cook the everyday stuff you ...........I've devoted this book to proper home cooking......'

Each chapter opens with similar banter and personal experiences.

Each recipe opens with a comment on the dish, a clearly laid out ingredients list and method plus 'the technique', if applicable.
Photography is superb - not of all dishes but..... then it would be hard to do that in a book of this size, with so many recipes.
The only other slight negative is the binding on the paperback edition which doesn't allow the book to easily lie flat and could well split away from the spine, if persuaded!

Featured are 'old favourites' which include:-

omelette, mayonnaise, the perfect roast chicken dinner, apple sauce, barbecue ribs, gravy, bread sauce, steak, sausage and mash and onion gravy, pizza, easy cheese soufflé, shepherd's pie, pan-roast cod, pastry, pancakes, bread and butter pudding, rice pud, lemon meringue pie, ice cream and Victoria sponge.

which mingle with 'twists on a theme', such as 'Mum's Spag Bol', 'Herby Stuffing', 'Honey-roast Drumsticks', 'My Best Friend's Mum's Roast Lamb Lunch', 'Chinatown Crispy Pork', 'Duck Pot Noodle', 'Tangerine Cranberry Relish', 'Turkish Lamb Hotpot', 'Sticky Asian Chicken with Chilli Herb Salad', 'My Favourite Creamy Chicken and Ham Pie', 'Great Aunt Jo's Quick Chicken Pie', '1970s Lasagne', 'Auntie Glad's Cauliflower Cheese', 'Grandma's Fish Cakes', 'A Proper Fish Pie', 'Delicious Tinned Peach Trifle', 'A Glorious Pavlova' and 'Retro Coffee Cake'.

Second to last in this marvellous book is the most delicious 'Deluxe Chocolate Tart', which opens with the typical AH laid-back attitude:-

'It's deep, it's rich, it cuts into big slices. It's downright everything you want from chocolate. Make it for a crowd - and eat it with cream. You'll have some pastry left over - but too much rather than too little makes the rolling and then the lining of the tin easy. You can use shop-bought sweet shortcrust if you prefer, or use the recipe from page 191. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. Cuts into 12 slices.'
Optional ingredient is 3 tablespoons of brandy.....
Sheer indulgence!

I got this book a couple of years ago and I have to say its by far the best cook book I have ever read. Its full to bursting with down to earth and delicious recipes for all occasions.

I've cooked his Xmas Lunch for a group of friends and it went down a storm.

This book is a wonderful addition to a collection, and good enough to be your only cook book.