Customer Reviews (1)

Breaking Bread Together
This very useful little book has the full range of traditional Welsh bread recipes, updated for presently available ingredients.The recipes cover all sorts of breads and have a wonderful heartiness and taste.Highly recommended for anybody who loves baking bread! ... Read more

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If you think you know Indian cooking, think again. This book from a fresh, young talent reveals a little-known cuisine with roots both in the Indian sub-continent and in Britain. 'I have often thought it such a shame that the Western world is not let in on the secret of real Indian home cooking, as though it is a sort of long-standing trick, our last remaining jewel,' says Vicky Bhogal in the introduction to Cooking like Mummyji. 'Our home food is much simpler than what you find in Indian restaurants. We use very little spices. The same ingredients are generally used for everything, but, like musical notes, can be combined in many different ways to create beautiful melodies.' Vicky Bhogal is passionate about British Asian food. In over 100 recipes she reveals its secrets. Many of the names of her dishes will be familiar to afficionados of high-street Indian restaurants, but they will find Vicky's versions surprisingly fresher, healthier and more delicious, with simpler, more vivid flavours. Her cooking is also a good deal friendlier and less complicated than the recipes of most Indian cookbooks.Along the way Vicky makes some sharp, fun observations on British Asian culture and we encounter some of her family members and learn their favourite recipe. And since Vicky's family and friends have lived in the UK for two generations now, Indian cooking techniques have been applied to their favourite British ingredients with some surprising results, for example an Indian version of Fried Eggy Bread, Baked Beans with Spring Onion Sabji, Pasta with Yoghurt and Chilli Drizzle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Without a doubt, the best Indian cookbook I have ever bought
I've bought a lot of Indian cookbooks, since I was born and raised in the west and never really learned how to cook Indian food (more like I learned how to make tacos and lasagna!!).My cousin in England also owns this and recommended I buy a copy.I cannot tell you how glad I am that I did!!!!

I am Punjabi so my mom makes a lot of these dishes at home, but its hard to learn from her because she never has exact measurements.This book spells out the measurements needed.It also gives the real names to ingredients, making it easy to follow!Don't worry if you're not Indian, it tells you what everything is.There is even a section (Godsend) that tells you how to store and freeze certain herbs that are used often in loads of different Indian dishes.

So far I have made the pakorey, methi paronthey, and jacket potatoes and all came out fantastic with rave reviews from the husband and even my parents!And I found out as I was making it that the recipe is extremely close to what my mom does at home anyway, which is great, this is really authentic! :)

Even though it has a few British slang words, I still was able to follow everything as an American.

I am a vegetarian and this book had loads of options for me.

I love how every recipe comes with a little story to it! :) Visually, I also love the colours and layout of the book.It's actually a great read, my mom and I both read the whole book cover to cover for fun! :)

I cannot wait for the followup book to this, I heard a rumor the author is starting a cooking show with the BBC and I hope thats true and I hope I get it on BBC America!!!!

The only sad part was they didn't have recipes for stuff like aloo gobi (potatoes and cauliflower) so I guess I will have to resort to another book for that (sadly).Or hopefully await the next edition!

I cannot say enough, I love this book!!!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
The dishes presented in Elegant Irish Cooking are served in Ireland's best restaurants and homes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Class Act for novice and professional alike.
This book suprised me.It had beautiful pictures of the food you were going to attempt, and Irish scenery.Some of the recipes were well above my level of expertise and ability to aquire ingredients, but a suprising number were very do-able and ended up really pretty good! There is background on the food and lots of photos of the chefs whose recipes are listed. It could make a nice coffee table book except it is too valuable in the kitchen. There are things that I will try to make once a year, some deserts that I will never attempt, and some chicken and lamb recipes that I have made at least once a month if not more. Some friends that have come over for dinner, have commented on on how good Irish cuisine really is. Elegant Irish Cooking is'nt the only cook book that I have used to convince guests that Irish cooking is good, but it is one of my favorites to use when I am trying to impress them with the fact that Irish cooking is more than potatoes, corned beef and cabage.

Excellent Irish 'haute cuisine'. Buy It'.
`Elegant Irish Cooking' by culinary scholar, teacher and professional chef, Noel C. Cullen Ed.D, CMC, AAC is a great foodie book; however it may not be the first Irish cookbook you want to get if all you want is a good cookbook with traditional Irish recipes. If that is what you need, go for `Irish Traditional Cooking' by leading Irish cooking school owner, Darina Allen or the much more ethnographic `Celtic Folklore Cooking' by culinary writer and folklorist, JoAnne Asala.

If Irish culinary traditions and cooking are major interests for you, this is an excellent second or third Irish cookbook, depending on whether you are more interested in cooking technique, fine dining and entertaining, or culinary lore. If your primary interest is in technique, get `ballymaloe cooking school cookbook' by school co-owner and Irish TV cooking show host, Darina Allen. Otherwise, go with this one.

Due to the author's dual life as both a chef and an academic, the book offers rewards for both interests. While Cullen is currently a professor in culinary and hospitality skills at Boston College, he trained and worked as a serious high end chef in many Irish and French restaurant kitchens and learned first hand the lessons of cooking to local products, at the same time unlearning his French cooking doctrines while he reached the upper levels of Irish `haute cuisine'.

The book begins with an excellent essay on the history of Irish food, including its high point during the Middle Ages monasteries and its low points during the potato famine. My only disappointment with this chapter is that it does not explain the mystery of why agronomists did not import one or more of the hundreds of other New World potatoes into Ireland when the potato blight affected only that one strain on which Irish livelyhood depended. On the other hand, this essay is very revealing about the curious fact that while Ireland is an Island, like the Greek Islands, there is a lot less seafood eaten than one may expect. Most fishing yields are sold to foreign markets or the Irish simply do not have a great taste for the fruits of the ocean, other than salmon and trout.

The title of the book and the author's background are excellent indicators of what we are given with the recipes in thisbook. We do not get standard recipes for traditional Irish dishes, although all the most traditional Irish produce such as milk, cream, cheese, apples, pears, potatoes, berries, lamb, pork, and game are well represented. Also represented is the one type of ingredient Ireland shares with another major Island nation Japan. This ingredient is seaweed. In fact, seaweed is historically important in that those who lived near the sea escaped the worst of the potato famine, not because they had fish, but because they had seaweed to eat.

While the book is primarily dedicated to Irish `haute cuisine', there is much here for the average cook. Opening the book at random shows me an excellent opening section in the chapter on `Salads, Dressings, & Cold Sauces' which details many variations on the classic French Vinaigrette. This may not be earthshaking for someone with 20 French cookbooks on their shelves, but for someone who only has room for a few good Irish cookbooks, this is great stuff.

I also find Cullen's plan for presenting a recipe very appealing, where each step is numbered, making it very easy to keep one's place in the procedure. It also means that each step is clearly identified, instead of being buried in a dense paragraph of text. This is especially rewarding in that the same gool schema is applied to all recipes, even those many which were contributed by `guest chefs', major chefs at restaurants and schools in Ireland. This also means that the many recipes which do not have a `guest chef' author are the creations of the book's author.

If by some chance, you have only room for a single Irish cookbook and this one appeals to you, I must say that many traditional dishes do find their way into the book; however, I cannot guarantee that the procedure is the same you would find at home in a private house in Dublin.

I especially recommend this book over `The New Irish Table' by Irish-American culinary journalist, Margaret M. Johnson, which also deals with recipes from Irish cooks, but more from the local pub than from the larger restaurants.

Last but not least, I find this an exceptionally well designed book for the average list price of $35. An excellent addition to any cookbook collection, and most especially to an Irish cookbook collection.

Beautiful book with authentic, delicious recipes
The book is beautiful and full of history and depth.The recipes are authentic and delicious.Highly recommended for a beautiful St. Patrick's Day dinner or night of Irish food.

An impressive compendium of 166 classic and recipes
Elegant Irish Cooking is an impressive compendium of 166 classic and progressive recipes in celebration of Irish cuisine and culinary traditions. Relying heavily on indigenous ingredients, these fabulous recipes showcase the techniques, excellence, and variety of Irish dining. From Pan Roasted Quail with Kildare Boxty; Cream of Watercress Soup with Warm Herbal Drop Scones; and Poached Sole Fillets in a Clonmel Cider Sauce; to Warm Salad of Emyvale Duck with Orange and Balsamic Dressing; Roasted Rack of Wicklow Lamb with an Herb Crust and Mint-Butter Sauce; and Moore Street Vegetable Tart, (and enhanced throughout with color photography by Ron Manville), Elegant Irish Cooking will grace any cookbook collection and enhance any family meal or celebratory occasion.

Not Your Grandmother's Cookbook!
The recipes in this book are terrific! Anyone looking for an escape from "traditional" Irish cookery books will love these unique and tasty recipes. Well worth the price! Clear, consise directions. Even the beginner cook will be able to make these dishes tonight! (All that being said, some related books I'd like to recommend on generations-old Irish recipes are Irish Heritage Cooking, Irish Traditional Cooking, and Celtic Folklore Cooking.) ... Read more

Product Description
A cookery book containing recipes for starters, main dishes and desserts using a range of Welsh cheeses. ... Read more

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A book of simple, traditional English recipes and the stories that surround them. They incorporate seasonal dishes, aromatic spices, sweet garden herbs, fresh vegetables and succulent fruits, and liberal dashes of spirits, wine and cider. ... Read more

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Learn how to cook scrumptious scones for tea or get-togethers. ... Read more

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A short study describing the change in tastes that the Roman brought, Roman banquets, the evidence for foods eaten in Roman Britain, techniques for food preparation, cooking equipment, serving the food and some recipes, adapted for the modern kitchen. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pleasant little book
This is hardley more than a pamphlet.Good information on food and food production in Roman Britain.There is a very small section containing recipes.These are all from Apicius so if you are looking for specifically British-Roman recipes you will not find them here.Pleasant and informative but very tiny. ... Read more

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Interest in British cooking is reviving, and British cooks are attracting attention. This book amalgamates the old and the new by including traditional recipes, recipes from British chefs, and many of the author's own recipes, all using ingredients indigenous or typical to Britain. ... Read more

Product Description
Colin Pressdee, presenter of Radio Wales's "Streetlife" cookery programmes, conducts a tour of the Welsh coastline in search of the best-quality food served up by chefs, farmers, marketers and customers of local restaurants, pubs and hotels. The book's collection of 100 recipes reflects the variety of regional specialities around Wales, and focuses on seafoods, game and local meats. Each recipe is accompanied by information on what to eat with the dish, its origins, where the ingredients can be found, and what can be substituted. The tour of the coastline incorporates the Wye and Severn estuary, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Gower Peninsula, Carmarthen Bay, Tenby, St Brides Bay and the islands, Cardigan Bay, Dolgellau, Porthmadog Bay, the Lleyn Peninsula, Anglesey, Conwy Valley and Bay, and the Dee estuary. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of simple and traditional British dishes with a strong carnivorous bent. It aims to enable adventurous cooks to recreate unusual dishes such as Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad, Pea and Pigs Ear Soup, and Ham in Hay as well as the more familiar Tripe and Onions and Fish Pie. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Offal Bible
Fergus Henderson is a Master! A must have for any fan of nose to tail cookery!

Best British Food Writer Since Elizabeth David
Architecture's loss was the UK food scene's greatest win in nearly 60 years when Fergus Henderson became a cook. Now chef at St Johns restaurant in London, Nose To Tail Eating is a truly ground breaking work of exquisite simplicity, just as every dish in the book is in itself.
Having lived and worked in the UK, I, as a former cook, was of the opinion that modern British cooking left much to be desired. How wrong I was. Fergus takes the now rare simplicities of basic English cooking to amazing heights. His roasted quail dish couldn't be simpler: quail, salt, pepper, good oil and a hot oven for around 20 minutes. If you begin with good quail you will, I PROMISE YOU, have one of the best dining experiences of your life. I've cooked this dish for other chefs who refused to believe me when I said it was his recipe and that it only contained those four ingredients. His roasted marrow bone, in-bone, is exceptional and astounding in its simplicity and quality. He cares naught for precise measurements or detailed recipes. How can any cook book writer KNOW what YOUR oven is like, or what your skill levels are... a great and ignored flaw in all cook books. Fergus sweeps all this trivia aside and presents basic elements and instructions and leaves the rest to you... if you love food as much as he, obviously does, then the rest is up to you. How else can it be. This is what makes this cook book (guide) so special. There are some recipes that may be daunting or downright off-putting, like pig's head or cheek. But so well was this book written that, even after 25 years of commercial cooking, I was so inspired that I went out and got myself a whole pig's head and gave it a go. It was scary, but in the end result... heavenly!
Fergus Henderson, along with Tony Bourdain is one of my 'cooking gods'. I'm in Tasmania and probably will never, sadly, get to his St Johns but I've got the next best thing; his book and the inspriation Nose To Tail gave me.
I urge you to buy this book. (No, I'm not Fergus Henderson) I just wish I was.
William Kenneth Halliwell
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia ... Read more