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.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: No Place Like Home by Rowley Leigh

As Dorothy said in 'The Wizard of Oz': there's no place like home. And there isn’t. This week’s book is called exactly that, 'No Place Like Home' by Rowley Leigh. This man is a great chef, and I have admired him for many years. He has cooked some great food for me, and he ran many a fine restaurant. The dishes here are neither technique-driven nor complicated, and they are dishes which you want to savour—a lunch to linger over deep into the afternoon with friends. There are ideas for many social gatherings at home, like Halloween or a Boxing Day lunch, to a mushroom-gatherers' lunch.

It is a brilliant book. His roast chicken with tarragon is simplicity personified. I adore Rowley’s writing; he says it how it is and telling us to forget trying to cook like they do in restaurants—we won’t be able to do it. It is cooking at home, and he is so right.

If I wrote a cookery book, I would use this as a template, along with River Café. His ability to write is refreshing, and he has written for a weekly broadsheet for many years. There is a lot to take in here with this book. I suggest buying it and taking your time with it. Cherish it, keep it at home, get tomato juice splatters on it, and never be too precise at home—just be a good home cook, that’s all we want when we come round for supper.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Workhouse Cookbook by Peter Higginbotham

Someone came up to me at the farmers' market (as many of you do) and had a chat, which I love. She said she did not know where I get the time to do what I do, with a busy restaurant, a newsletter, a farmers’ market stall, a family, a dog, the cheeky Tinto. The truth is that it is the people around me that help make it all come together. Without them, it would not be possible; it is like a well-oiled machine. I was thinking back to a time when many were less fortunate and, after watching A Christmas Carol by Dickens, I thought this book, 'The Workhouse Cookbook' by Peter Higginbotham, would be appropriate.

It is a wonderful read, with sad tales and some recipes, some of which are not far away from what I make now or remember from childhood. The recipe for gruel is a posh version, with treacle and suet included. I used to love my mum’s porridge, made just with water and oats and cooked with a spurtle for ages on the hob. I was lucky to get a splash of milk at lunch time, home from school. On another day it would be semolina with jam or warm rice pudding; times were hard then.

This book contains so much information about what poor folk ate going back in time, which is fascinating to me. A huge amount of what was eaten has a very Scottish theme, lots of oats and kale, peasemeal even in England. An account of what was eaten in a workhouse in 1724 Essex was not too bad at all, with sheep’s head broth, bread and butter or cheese, ox cheek broth and the like. A mention of Hasty Pudding is common, which is a simple set cake made with either breadcrumbs or Scotch oatmeal, butter, sometimes currants and flour added. Sounds rather dry but it would have filled you up. pease pottage and barley broth was eaten and bread was a staple. We all have the image of Oliver in our minds asking for more; I wonder if he did get more. A great book, I encourage you all to get a copy if you can find one.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Open Kitchen

An interesting book this week. 'Open Kitchen' subtitled - a book where top chefs share their recipes to try at home. This is a cool book. A book for chefs and good home cooks. There are some well-known chefs here and a few pals too.

Roberta Hall-McCarron from The Little Chartroom features with some delicious dishes, and Lorna McNee from Cail Bruich is included. The brilliant Simon Rogan is also included with his incredible restaurant L’Enclume, and many more.

The book itself is made very well and the photography is excellent. There is a lot of pretty food here, and there is proper food too. I like Amy Elles’ food, with a delicious-looking fish soup from Fife, and Ben Tish, a bit of a legend, has a few crackers including a Basque cheesecake.

All in all, a great book and a good one to flick through to find a recipe to try, but I wouldn't bother buying tweezers to use in a kitchen...

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Gourmet Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

‘Jamie at Home, Cook Your Way to the Good Life’ by Jamie Oliver is a great book. I know cheeky chappie Jamie gets a bit of a tough time from chefs, but I really admire him for what he has achieved. We all are aware he is not short of a bob or two, but he has worked endlessly to get folk to eat better food. He follows the same values I do: Slow Food, organic, sustainable, grow your own. He has such a wide audience; folk listen to him when he is on a campaign to change the way we eat, and he does a good job.

I enjoy looking at his books and watching his cookery on television. He is a natural communicator and cook and has vast knowledge. He also went to Westminster College in London where my dad taught. I like that. This book is well thumbed; it has something for everyone and has a bit of gardening, cookery and flavour. He covers all the bases here.

Many of us have been influenced by this man in kitchens and never admit it. I am happy to say he does influence me. I think he is great, and I bet most houses in the land have a Jamie cookery book somewhere on a shelf. There are many delicious things to cook here and remember this is food to eat at home without a tyre company judging you. Think steak, Guinness and cheese pie, or orchard Eve’s pudding, venison with creamy baked potato and celeriac, and a delicious partridge with pearl barley, pea and lettuce stew. I really like this book. Do not avoid it; pick it up and flick through it. It is good.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Gourmet Recipes from a Highland Hotel by William Heptinstall

A blast from my past again this week, a book which I had forgotten I had and found in the awful mess which is my office. ‘Gourmet Recipes from a Highland Hotel’ by William Heptinstall is real treasure for me. I thought I didn’t have this book as it came after ‘Hors d’Oeuvre and Cold Table’ by William Heptinstall. This man was a mystery to me; he ran the Fortingall Hotel in rural Glen Lyon, Perthshire in the 1950’s and 60’s. This place has an air of mystery about it. It is said Pontius Pilate was born here and there is a sizeable yew tree dating back over 5,000 years and probably the oldest living thing in Europe. But the book is just great — classic and French, with tournedos, cocotte and Grenobloise everywhere you look. It is a wonderful book and quite rare I believe.

I was put forward for the William Heptinstall Award many years ago but sadly didn’t win the prize. The award was a scholarship to work abroad in a good place, all paid for by the trust he set up before he died in 1971, which was awarded every year to a young chef from the UK to further their career. I shall never forget my interview at the headquarters of the International Food and Wine Society near Harrods. I was still a teenager and all alone in the big city of London and had a delicious lunch at a nearby restaurant where the great Bryan Webb was cooking. I wish I had won that award as it was such a prestigious thing to have under your belt. But back to the book — if you can find a copy, grab it.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Keep it Simple by Alastair Little

Amazingly, it has taken me some time to mention Alastair Little here. This book, ‘Keep It Simple: A Fresh Look at Classic Cooking’, is a firm favourite of mine and many good chefs — and quite rightly. It is a book which doesn’t mess about. It does exactly what you wish: it keeps it simple and classic, and it is the sort of food we all want to eat. There is a list of good ingredients to have at hand and then, with some good equipment, you can really go to town.

He had a Soho restaurant in London in the 80s and 90s, and it was where Mrs Chef and I went on a first or second date. I still remember fondly having lamb with tapenade and thinking this is just absolutely fabulous. He was self-taught and was one of the most interesting, innovative and exciting of the new generation of British chefs. I admired him a lot.

He appeared on television a fair amount and was a good teacher, running a cookery school in Italy. He was a much-admired chef and cook and is sadly no longer with us. But I will always say thank you to him, as he got us two young lovers together, sat us in the window eating good food in his brilliant restaurant.