Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Miller Howe Cookbook by John Tovey

I have long been fascinated by this book. I can’t quite recall when I first stumbled upon John Tovey and The Miller Howe Cookbook, but it has been a place I have admired for many years. It was well respected and almost shrouded in mystery for some reason. Since opening its doors on the banks of Lake Windermere in 1971, it has always had a name for quality, professionalism, and good things.

I am sure it is now a private home, but mid- to late-1980s onwards, this was on the list of places that I sent my CV and cover letter to work at. It was opulent and elegant, had stunning views across the lake to the hills of the Lake District. And the food, well, this was why folk went. John Tovey was a well-known cook, if self-taught, but knew what he was doing. What came out of the kitchen was revolutionary in a backwater like The Lakes. This was London food served in a country house and was frequented by stars and journalists.

On a visit to the lakes a few years ago, I drove past it, and it felt good to see that the brass plaque was still there. This book is good, with lots of basic recipes to follow, but some more elaborate dishes to try too. It is a blast from my past, and such fun to flick through. No tweezers in sight, no 4-page recipes to try to follow, just simple and elegant cooking. I would devour the baby poussin in dark ale or the Barnsley chop, and the fillet of beef cooked in consommé, a dish I recall making years ago. Some of you may have this book, if you do, get it off the bookshelf and go through it again. I bet something will jump out at you.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Norteña by Karla Zazueta

My first love is the food I cook at Cafe, with its rich heritage, but I have an interest in other cuisines. My book this week is ‘Norteña’ by Karla Zazueta, authentic family recipes from the north of Mexico. This is a great book to dip into, very simple to follow and with all the familiar classics and much more. It is a hotchpotch of flavours, yet simple in many dishes. The classic asada tacos are steak with onion, avocado, pinto beans and coriander, all everyday items but put together well. The fish taco dish looks incredible, and the simple use of ingredients again is wonderful to see. Spicy salsa, cooling iceberg lettuce, crispy cod, all enveloped in a corn tortilla. You will learn so much from this book and read of a different world. This will make you reconsider chile con carne night at home. Give this a chance and remember, this should be fun.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Tried Favourites by Mrs E.W. Kirk

I have a corker for you this week. It is an oldie and a goodie from 1929: 'Tried Favourites Cookery Book with Household Hints and Other Useful Information' by Mrs E.W. Kirk. It is a fabulous book, there are so many different recipes and tips. This is an Edinburgh book so very familiar to me and I love its history. I find the adverts fascinating. All of these will have been there to pay for the publication, with OXO advertised as the mighty atom, and Bovril, Ovaltine and Bisto the big names of the day. The first page of the book is an advert for Lunans Indian Curry Powder, made up for you at the chemist of all places, with a simple recipe recommended by gentlemen resident in India for over 30 years.

I am becoming fascinated with the paper cuttings found in old recipe books. Some are odd, some are for Christmas cake, some cuttings from newspapers and many are frugal recipes like mock this and meatless that, I guess from the wartime era. It is fascinating reading the names of old puddings here. Crystal Palace Pudding, a kind of gloopy milk thickened with cornflour and decorated with cherries, or Swiss Jumble which seems to be an odd mix of flour, lard, sugar, baking powder and sweet milk. I am going to try this. Snowdon Pudding looks like a rice pudding and Rothesay Pudding is like a Queen of Puddings. My top one so far is Hygienic Pudding, made with coconut and chestnut flour, walnuts and hazelnuts, not sure what makes it hygienic. But the one I have just come across which speaks for itself is Half Pay Pudding. Times must have been hard. What a beautiful book, put together so well and a real slice of Edinburgh food history.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Zao Fan: Breakfast of China by Michael Zee

‘Zao Fan: Breakfast of China’ is a fascinating book to flick through and to try something different. I adore this type of food, which is deeply cultural. I like food with stories and tradition. The flavours are wonderful, with some very unusual ingredients peppered through the recipes in this unusual book. Every page I turn shows another dish I want to eat.

It focuses on breakfast, but let’s be honest, most of us skip it. I used to be a red Marlboro and strong coffee kind of guy; now I have a pint of water and a banana before coffee, after a dog walk. The flavours are astonishing, with tastes that make you want to eat again and again. Cooking Chinese breakfast at home is a joy, and this book is authentic and well worth the read.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Easy 10 by Amy Sheppard

This week I bring you something slightly different. It is actually not my book, but Mrs Chef’s. She is feeling rather left out now she is retired from the farmers' market.

'Easy 10: 10 Everyday Ingredients, 100 Fuss-Free Dinner Recipes' is a good book written by Amy Sheppard. As it says on the cover, things are easy to follow and cook. I am surprised by how many great dishes are in here. Yes, it is home cooking, but funky and cool, like me. Really good family food, with some pot dishes made in advance.

Simple dishes like Spanish chicken and rice are very good, the potato, camembert and bacon bake is delicious, as is the sausage, leek and pasta soup. All very straightforward and easy-to-follow methods, with some use of leftovers and tips and swaps.

All together, a good book. Mrs Chef uses it and cooks from it once in a while. I like that, and I promise I do not get in the way or make suggestions. The baked cheesy meatballs recipe is worth buying the book for.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: River Cafe Cook Book Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

'River Cafe Cook Book Easy' is a fun book to flick through and get ideas from. Written by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, it is full of deliciously simple dishes to cook and be inspired by. After the success of their first book, they did well to continue with the same vibe and remain so cool and timeless. If you have never eaten at The River Cafe, I urge you to book a table. Yes, it is expensive, but the quality of food, wine, and service will stay with you forever. It may even change you as a person. It did me.

There are far too many great dishes here to mention, but a few I will. The pea and spring onion pasta is just bloody brilliant and so easy, as are roasted sardines with cherry tomatoes and olives. Another I must mention is the guinea fowl with fennel, I adore the combination. This is fabulous, no-fuss cooking, well laid out, easy, few ingredients. Go and buy this book, and do use it. You will thank me.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Dinner by Meera Sodha

This week I am going veggie and vegan with a fascinating book focusing on some very tasty dishes. I have stocked up my cupboards with lentils, spices, rice and all sorts of things, and various ingredients will be cooked from the book to try to understand more about the flavours of vegetarian food. Many meat eaters are eating veg dishes two to three times a week, and this is no bad thing. We should all be eating less meat, but better quality.

Here in 'Dinner' by Meera Sodha there are 120 dishes. It is a good book, and I am intrigued by it. It is split into categories of ingredients such as vegetable types or pulses. A little jar of kimchi or some juicy tomatoes are no bad thing to have to hand. Flavour can be built using tasty ingredients — sweet potatoes, caramelised onions, cheese, eggs, sesame — all used well and cleverly can turn an average meal into a delicious dinner.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchener

his book is very new to me, having been purchased from an online auction site. It is absolutely fascinating reading. Called ‘The Cook’s Oracle’ by William Kitchener, some of the first few pages are missing and, due to the fact it is 200 years old, it has been rebound at some point and is in quite good condition.

I now have a lot of these old books, which fascinate me not just for the recipes — of which there are hundreds, many of them very simply written — but also for the wording of the introductions and chapter titles, such as Rudiments of Cookery, Friendly Advice to Cooks, or Invitations to Dinner. This is a book for a servant to cook from, working in a big house. Music by Handel would be playing in a room upstairs, and the gentlemen of the day might be wearing wigs, dressed in fine cloth and silk.

Here it says, “Dinner is the only act of the day which cannot be put off with impunity, for even five minutes.” Clocks and timing seem to have been important then, as they are today, so “Cooks can keep an eye on the clock and an eye on the spit.” “She will calculate to the minute the time required to roast a large capon or little lark.”

There are lots of great recipes: how to hash mutton, bottle beer, make cockle and ‘muscle’ catchup, or Sally Lunn tea cakes. Absolutely fascinating stuff. I wonder who owned this book, where they worked or cooked, and what their story was. We will never know...

Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Radiation Cookery Book

‘The Radiation Cookery Book’ is not something you would automatically pick off the shelf and cook from, but it has intrigued me for a while now. The word radiation now has a red flag next to it for obvious reasons, but the term radiation here is about the radiant cooking of food, nothing to do with nuclear cookery. A modern gas-fuelled way of cooking from the early 1930s, when a lot of folk were possibly still cooking on wood fires or an old Victorian suite or range. So, I think this is a book to sell new and fancy cookers to housewives who would love to have the latest gadget in their kitchens, and oh, how modern.

The recipes are actually very good, simple, with some old favourites, and the wording of how to use the cooker in each recipe is great. The more I read this book, the more it fascinates me. It has some wonderful ingredients, lots of herring, eel, John Dory, damsons, greengages, and plenty of menu suggestions to cater for invalids, guests staying, and breakfast dishes. It has it all. It has a feel of being very American, with the wording of an old American film, and the ‘Regulo’ way of controlling the temperature. With a recipe for American breakfast biscuits, I have my suspicions this is a massive advert, or possibly a book that comes with your new cooker.

Nonetheless, there are some wonderful recipes closer to home too, for sheep’s head, calf’s head, brain sauce, calf’s sweetbreads, and mutton cutlets. I love mutton. It is a very fascinating book indeed.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a restaurant, shop & bakery

I have chosen a book that really appeals to me for being timeless. ‘Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a restaurant, shop & bakery’ is a smashing book. I have always admired Sally’s work and, going way back to the 1980s, my dad, when he was studying for his degree, had to interview two chefs and he chose Madhur Jaffrey and Sally Clarke. I always remembered how impressed my father was by her professionalism and how much time she gave to him.

I ate there a few years ago at her wonderful restaurant and had a lovely evening. Good food, wine, and ambience, the quality of produce and the atmosphere was excellent. After dinner, I popped downstairs and thanked her but was too shy to mention my dad. The recipes in this book are quietly understated, ungimmicky, and some say elegantly simple. I like that term. Rowley Leigh describes them as, “the essence of simplicity and balance”, and he is not wrong when you consider grilled turbot, marinated peppers, olives and parsley, potato and chive pancake, or baked vanilla cream with Armagnac prunes and ginger Florentines. And the grilled skewered scallops with gremolata, sprouting broccoli, and sea kale sound divine. I want to eat this proper type of food when I eat out and I dream of going back to Sally’s amazing restaurant.