Sarah Raven's Food for Friends and Family [Hardcover]

I pre-ordered Sarah's new book on the strength of her previous titles. I was very excited to get an email from Amazon letting me know that I was going to get it early - and even more excited waiting for it to arrive! I really like Sarah's approach in all her books: simple and unfussy.

The book is comparable in size to Sarah's Garden cookbook. It is arranged by season, and each season is subdivided to provide: snacks and canapes, soups and accompaniments, salads, vegetarian, fish, meat, vegetable sides, puddings,cakes and biscuits, preserves, drinks. Some of the seasons have extra sections: summer: barbecues and picnics, spring: sweets, winter: christmas lunch, christmas leftovers, christmas cakes and puddings. Coloured pages helpfully indicate the start of a new season so they are easy to turn to.

Examples of some of the recipes:

SPRING:
Smoked Salmon Pate
Crayfish and sweetcorn chowder
Roast asparagus salad with orange
Pea and spinach timbale
Moroccan fish tagine
Mixed grill with potato cakes
Beer-can chicken
Ham in hay with parsley sauce
Persian jewelled rice
Coffee mousse
Lemon and passion fruit meringue pie
Elderflower and milk jellies
Orange and lemon cake with marmalade cream
Primose lemon curd cupcakes
Large hollow easter egg
After eight chocolate chip cookies
Quick rhubarb chutney with cardamon
Piccalli
Rhubarb and ginger vodka
Limoncello

I have only included spring here - but it gives you an idea. This section alone contains 96 recipes! I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, and I am also keen to sit down and compare her previous books with this one to see if there is any duplication. Based on my previous experience of her recipes I am sure they will all be delicious. I'll let you know how it goes.

The book is interspersed with beautiful photos and is an absolute joy to read. This is how food should be (or so I think) - simple, unfussy, a joy for the eyes and tasty. Highly recommended.

I'm a keen collector of cook books but I'd not heard of Sarah Raven before. This colourful book caught my eye and I orderd it, so glad I did.

The book is split into 4 sections, one for each season. The recipes are based on what is freshly available/in season for that time of year. Of course there's nothing to stop you from cooking a summer dish in spring if you fancy! Each of the 4 seasonal sections is then split into snacks, soups, salad, vegetarian, fish, meat, vegi sides, puddings, cakes/biscuits, preserves and drinks.

There are plenty of quick weekday dinner type dishes as well as some more fancy stuff for weekends/impressing guests. Most of the recipes are with ingredeients that you'd easily find though there's a few that aren't such as rabbit pie and a couple of venison dishes. Lots of baking recipes along with soups, chutneys, salads, curries, pasta dishes and meat and fish dishes. My husband is a vegetarian and there are plenty of things in here I'll be able to cook him. Infact even if you don't have a carnivore in the house I'd still say this book is worth buying. The photos are great and make all the dishes look very tasty. Most importantly they inspire you to want to cook them. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. Most importantly teh end results taste good. So far I've made a chicken dish, coconut and coriander rice and a chocolate and lime cake. All very tasty.

Here are some of the autumn recipes to give you an idea;

Squash Humus
Rosemary flatbread
smokes mackeral pate
pumpkin and apple soup with chestnuts
crab and red pepper soup
Beetroot and coconut soup
Cheese and fennel scones
Pumpkin cornbread
Pear, pancetta and blue cheese salad
Fennel and apple salad with toasted pumpkin seeds
Pepper caponata
Beetroot tart with horseradish cream
Griddled aubergines with tzatzki
Vegetable pakoras
Wild mushroom lasagne
Curried prawns with lentils
Tarragon fishcakes
Chicken fillets with coriander and lime
Chilli con carne
Moroccan lamb shanks
Thai chicken burgers
Roast cumin carrots
Parsnip balls
Fig mashed potato
Toffee apple pie
Baked figs with yoghurt icecream
Chocolate, beetroot and orange cake
Damson jam
Chilli jelly
Pumpkin and chilli chutney
Sloe gin!

I actually saw an couple of the recipes from Sarah Raven's new book Food for Friends and Family in a magazine and I was so impressed with it. So impressed that my husband immediately cooked the Chicken Stuffed with Garden Herbs the very next night and it was absolutely delicious. Fuelled by a love of good food, I then purchased the book and am in love with it. Even more lovely recipes to try. Ideal for entertaining friends and family.