Friday Favourites - Cookbooks

With a weekend of dinner parties ahead of us, what better way to spend an early evening than flicking through a plethora of new cookbooks for some heavenly inspiration. Here at The Amazing Blog, we want to share with you some of the most mouth watering  new cookbooks that have just launched.

Honey & Co  is a tiny restaurant hidden in the backstreets of Central London. It lures you in with their talent of baked goodies. Bringing food from the Middle East, husband and wife team Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich founded Honey & Co. which specialises in the most yummy selection cakes and desserts.

However, now you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your home to get these delicious desserts, as Sarit and Itamar have launched Honey & Co cookbook. With recipes such a spiced carrot and walnut cake, raspberry and rose kadaif nests and apricot and elderflower jam just to name a few. Our favourite has to be cranberry, orange and almond caramel cookies. A simple and easy recipe and which had everyones taste buds going as soon as we opened the oven. Honey & Co: The Baking Book by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich is published by Saltyard Books in £25 hardback. Alternatively you can buy online here from The Book People. Also available as an eBook. 

As fruit goes with seasons so does cheese and reading through the pages of A Year in Cheese cookbook by Alex and Leo Guarneri we discovered so many things we didn’t know about this amazing source of calcium, we were left amazed! Alex and Leo take us on a journey through the seasons, explaining little gems like why you can’t have a proper goat’s curd in the Winter.

Their eye catching pictures will help you to spring from this damp February into a lustrous Summer with the freshness of their mozzarella and ricotta recipes.  And when it gets colder and all you want is to stay at home having dinner with your closest friends, the gruyere and reblochon menu suggestions will be the perfect choice. The recipes are so easy to follow that once you finished you just can't wait to start cooking again! If you want to explore the world of cheese then look no further. The book is available on White Stuff here for £20.

The finalist contestant Luis Troyano from The Great British Bake Off in 2014, decided to share his culinary knowledge publishing his very own book; Bake it Great. It is not a random collection of recipes but a proper baking course that guided us from the fundamentals. Starting from fillings like jam and custard, Luis teaches us how to cook the perfect bases for our little gastronomic accomplishments.

Here there is a recipe for every palate, we only had to open the book and whatever creation came up, we were only too happy to wear our aprons and start baking. We particularly liked the Butterscotch meringue tart and the traditional Empanadas. What we really liked was that at the very end of the book Luis listed few of the best shops where to find some of the harder to find ingredients. Buy your copy here a £13.60 for the hardcover and £10.79 for the Kindle edition.

Hosting a party and need a little inspiration for canapes? Look no further as the Clink Canape Cookbook has got it covered. Behind this cookbook is a heart-warming story, as it is created by Alberto Crisci founder of Clink Charity. This charity aims to reduce re-offending of prisoners through training and rehabilitation giving them new found culinary skills. These are then put into use at the Clink Restaurants in London, Wales, Cheshire and Surrey.

Alberto has compiled a collection of over 100 different canapé recipes from the friends, ambassadors and also from the prisoners at the Clink. With delicious recipes like mushroom and stilton tartlets, peach with cured ham bruschetta and smoked eel and beef terrine with horseradish; this cookbook is sure to get your taste buds tingling with delight. Grab the Clink Canapé Cookbook here for £14.99

Sally Clarke founded her legendary Notting Hill restaurant in 1984, pioneering seasonal fine dining and British cuisine. Now she celebrates it's thirty year anniversary by writing her own cookbook, 30 Ingredients. This book captures Sally’s love and passion for simple cooking.

The recipes are surrounded by Sally’s favourite thirty ingredients that she loves to cook with. There are so many delicious recipes with salad of duck breast with balsamic-roasted peaches and shallots to baked tomatoes with garlic and herb crumbs, you honestly wont know where to start! For more cooking inspiration, click here to get your copy at only £19.99.

Friday Favourites - Cookbooks

Here at The Amazing Blog we love to cook. Experimenting in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and creating delicious meals is one of our favourite pastimes. Although the internet is awash with recipes aplenty nowadays, there’s something quite special about discovering your favourite cookbook, dipping into it again and again. With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of our favourites, which will hopefully inspire a few stints in your own kitchen.

First on our list is the work of national treasure and Great British Bake Off veteran, Mary Berry. To coincide with Mary’s latest TV series, her new book, ‘Absolute Favourites’, is packed full of delicious meal ideas for any occasion.  With over 100 recipes, there’s bound to be something that tickles your fancy, and the recipes are so simple, that even a cooking novice could follow them. We tried out the Fish Pie with Souffle Crouton Topping and found it delicious and super simple to prepare. An interesting twist on the classic fish pie recipe, it’s perfect for a family dinner. Pick up the new book from our ‘absolute favourite’ homecook here for £8.99.

If you’re looking to venture into the daunting world of Superfoods, we think that Julie Montagu’s ‘Superfoods’ cookbook is a wonderful place to start. Full of healthy, nutritious yet delectable meal ideas, you’ll have no excuse for raiding the biscuit tin. Julie understands that, when it comes to eating healthily, food is certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ deal. Nutritional needs and lifestyle effect what and how people eat, so we were happy to see that this tome suits everyone! With a range of amazing plant-based recipes to pick from, you’ll be feeling like a superhero in no time!  Naturally, we had to check out the ‘Sweet Treats’ section, and stumbled across her ‘Black Bean Brownies with Chia Seeds’ recipe. Perfectly gooey and wonderfully chocolatey, they’re the perfect guilt-free alternative to our favourite baked good. Grab your own ‘Superfoods’ book here for £12.91

If you’re stuck in a teatime rut then the ‘The Five O’Clock Apron’ is here to help you to cook with creativity and ease. Written by chef and mum of three, Claire Thomson, the book is full of nutritionally inspired, relatively easy recipes that your little ones will love! Full of fresh, exciting and versatile meals, the recipes are also flavourful enough to please everyone around the table including the Lamb & Quince tagine and the delicious Arancini. Our favourite recipe has to be the wonderful ‘Snail Bread’ - an interpretation of the delicious Chelsea Bun – which will have everyone coming back for more! Get stuck into Claire’s inspiring book here for £20.

For those who love rich, exotic flavours, we can’t think of anything more suitable than the delicious recipes in Vanessa Bolosier’s ‘Creole Kitchen’. Inspired by Vanessa’s French Caribbean roots and drawing inspiration from her very own childhood kitchen, the pages are filled with 100 mouthwatering Caribbean Creole recipes that just scream sunshine to us! We cooked up the Sweet Potato and Ginger Cream Soup, and loved the creamy concoction that also packed a really good punch – a hearty, warming dish perfect for a rainy day. Treat yourself to a little taste of sunshine and buy the book here for £25.

For those hardcore foodies out there, we can’t quite get enough of the ‘Scook: Complete Cookery Course’ by Anne-Sophie Pic. Overflowing with exquisite French dishes, Anne-Sophie’s main aim is to teach and share her love of cooking. We’re certainly eager to learn, and found that her book is filled with 40 step-by-step guides to overcome even the trickiest of techniques, all fully photographed so that you can see how each method is performed - perfect for impressing people at dinner parties. One recipe that really caught our eye was the White Chocolate Fondant with Passionfruit and Chocolate Coulis. Easier than we expected, these are great for preparing ahead of time, as they need to freeze for 4 hours before baking, making then an ideal finishing touch when entertaining. Teach yourself how to cook the French way, and pick up a copy here for £40.

My Relationship With Food by Lisa Roukin

Here at The Amazing Blog we are always down to test out and discover new and delicious recipes, which is why we were ecstatic when Lisa Roukin invited us to her launch party for her newly released cookbook, My Relationship with Food.

On November 25, we sat at work watching the clock slowly tick away as we thought about the launch party (and the food) that evening.

We arrived at Opso Restaurant for the launch party, and as soon as we entered, Lisa was right there and ready to give us her cookbook and a goody bag for each of us.

This goody bag might just the best one I have ever received. It had products from The Groovy Food Company, Chi London, The Foods of Athenry and Revolution Tea. I use the gluten-free honey in my tea every evening and the coconut oil on my face at night. Definitely check out these companies and their products if you have the time!

We made our way to the food table with delicious crackers, spreads and salads. While we cleaned our plates, Lisa sat down with us to explain the process of her cookbook. She made this entire cookbook in 3 months, working about 17 hours a day. Can you imagine? She even had to hire a food stylist. Just sitting there and listening to Lisa talk about her book, I could sense her passion for food and her hope that people will buy her book and develop a healthy relationship with food like she has.

My Relationship with Food features 100 recipes, each mirrored by beautiful photography. All of the dishes featured in the cookbook are virtually gluten-free and see minimal use of dairy and refined sugars. Plus, the recipes are organized by season. It also features the personal story of Lisa and her own journey to developing a better relationship with food, discussing her bad food habits and the ways in which she overcame them.

With recipes like Chicken Satay Skewers with Spicy Peanut Sauce, Raw Blueberry Cheesecake and Sweet Potato Hummus, you can find something both you and your entire family will enjoy. I tried the Sweet Potato Hummus at the launch party and I couldn’t get enough of it! This would be the perfect thing to serve at a family or friend gathering.

After getting the chance to sit down with Lisa and hear her story, we wish her the very best as she officially becomes a cookbook author. She has so much passion and she knows how to make healthy food delicious. We can’t wait to try the recipes in the cookbook and we hope all of our lovely readers try it too.

In the words of Lisa, “Eat what nourishes your body, do what nourishes your soul, think what nourishes your mind.” Now go online and purchase the cookbook here for £22.00 and you can start your healthy relationship with food today!

Cook Like A Man

Movember has officially passed its halfway point so if you were wondering why lots of men have considerably large amounts of facial hair at the moment, it’s all to raise awareness for men’s health.  In fact, I am growing my own moustache and beard this month, much to the delight of the girls in the office. As a tribute to this creative, money-raising month, The Amazing Blog has a very male orientated book to introduce you to, the Cook Like a Man recipe book published by Boxtree for £9.99.

This book is inspired by everything traditional, i.e by a time when microwaves didn’t exist. Yes, believe it or not we loved cooking our meals from scratch using real hearty ingredients, none of that preservative malarkey. Entirely natural produce, you grow it you cook it. Cook Like a Man emphasises the importance of what’s in your diet and all the meals are specifically tailored to make sure you are getting everything you need from you meal to better your health. Something that sets this book ahead from your average cookbook is the list of essential tools as you start the book. Seeing as it includes a Blow Torch and Meat Thermometer, it’s pretty telling that a group of very serious, food loving men wrote this book.

If you are looking to become more adventurous with your cooking then this book will be perfect for you, it’s also a great Christmas present if you're stuck for ideas. With recipes like Rabbit with Snails and Chocolate, or Pigeon Terrine, you have to be quite brave but if you’re up for getting stuck in then you will definitely expose your taste buds to a whole new flavour filled experience. For those of you who really want to go back to basics and cook from scratch then a slight advantage would be living in the countryside. The photography throughout the book is done brilliantly and incorporates some subtle male humour, giving it a bit of personality. Everything in this book is done well, from the layout to the serving suggestions. We are excited to try the variety of recipes, especially at Christmas when big family meals become a regular occurrence and we want to impress with beautiful cuisine.

To support Movember and get your imagination flaring in the kitchen, then you can purchase this book on Amazon.

Everyday Lebanese Cooking By: Mona Hamadeh

 

Are you tired of making the same old thing for dinner every night? I know we here at The Amazing Blog are always trying to find something new and different to excite our taste buds. That’s why we are thrilled to share the Everyday Lebanese Cooking cookbook by Mona Hamadeh with you. This book contains a very large variety of incredible Lebanese recipes, breathing life to your regualr and tired looking ingredients.  So you can now have no excuses and can wave goodbye to your usual burnt meat and overcooked veg.

The author, Mona Hamadeh, grew up in the Shouf Mountains in Lebanon and was taught by her grandmother and her mother how to create delicious and traditional Lebanese dishes that are full of history. These recipes have been passed on from generation to generation and now, with he help of Mona, they have been passed down to us.  These recipes are full of love and infused with history.  With the help of this cookbook I was able to create an incredible Hummous and Baba Ghanouj as appetisers for a friend’s dinner party. The recipes were easy to follow and turned out unbelieveably well (much to my surprise) and easily stood out 'head and shoulders' above the rest of the dishes at the party (I was very chuffed!) So, if you're looking to be the talk of your next dinner party or simply just create a meal that won't have your family groaning ; I would recommend this book for anyone is tired of 'the same old, same old...'  and  who are looking for something a little different to spice up their meals a bit more.

You can purchase this essential guide to traditional Lebanese cooking at Amazon for £8.84 a copy. Get ready to impress your family and friends with some great food and gain some new favourite recipes that you can help pass down as well.