Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Review and Giveaway: Three Quadrille Cookery Books by James Martin, Anjum Anand, Tom Kitchin

Just in case Father Christmas doesn’t deliver lots of brand new cookery books to you on Christmas Day, the lovely folks at Quadrille Publishing have offered me three of their top Quadrille cookery books as a giveaway prize for one of my readers. These will keep you going well into 2013, and will provide you with plenty of inspiration for your cooking in the New Year.

Quadrille Books

1. James Martin Slow Cooking – Mouthwatering Recipes with Minimum Effort (RRP £20) Quadrille Publishing

James-Martin-Slow-Cooking-Cover

Put your hands up if you love James Martin. He’s the cheeky Northern chappie who presents BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and he has a very loyal army of fans. His food is often inspired by British, comfort cooking, the kind of food your grandmother would cook for you. James’ family were pig and cattle farmers, so they would often eat hearty slow cooked stews, such as beef stew with dumplings. Slow Cooking offers a good mix of easy-to-throw-together soups, slow vegetable bakes, fish, one-pots, slow roasts, stews and braises and my very favourite chapters, slow puddings and slow bakes. I would love to lock myself away in a log cabin somewhere for the winter and I’d be very happy if I only had this book to cook from and a stash of red wine. Recipes I immediately want to cook are the Potato and Turnip Dauphinoise, the Miso-Marinated Monkfish, Ultimate Roast Chicken (a recipe based on one by Thomas Keller where the chicken is soaked in brine), the Treacle-Glazed Ham Hocks. To finish, I want to make the Jam roly poly, which has just five ingredients. You’ll love this one.

2. Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feasts – RRP £19.00 Quadrille Publishing

anjum-cover

I met Anjum Anand at Food Blogger Connect in 2011 and I remember her saying at the time that she was writing a vegetarian cookery book. She demonstrated and served us all her Grilled Courgette Carpaccio, with Chickpea Salsa and Pistachio Dressing, a recipe which features in this book. It was one of those dishes that created an immediate impression and I remember coming straight home to make it. I think this is a really interesting book because it has allowed Anjum to draw upon her Indian heritage and memories of being raised by a vegetarian mother. Anjum’s father ate meat and so Anjum remembers eating both rich, meaty curries as well as vegetable and lentil dishes.  Anjum also then married a vegetarian, who came from a generation of vegetarians and so she inherited recipes and advice from her new family, too. Her own children are vegetarian. I also like the fact that Anjum says that many of the recipes are a reflection of the diversity of India’s regional food, but she also includes recipes that have inspired her during her travels. She also adds in recipes that she just likes and cooks at home often, the ones that are ‘hanging by a home-spun cotton thread to an Indian heritage, but are too delicious not to be included.’ An example of that is the very first recipe in the book, a Coconut French Toast, or Anjum’s Mango, Pomegranate, Berry and Coconut Trifle towards the back.  I’d love to try the Smokey Spiced Aubergines and Anjum’s Easy Everyday Lentil Curry, most of all. Rest assured, I’ll be cooking my way through this colourful book in the New Year!

3. Tom Kitchin – Kitchin Suppers (RRP £20) Quadrille Publishing

Kitchin-Suppers

For a very long time, I have wanted to take a trip up to Edinburgh to visit Tom’s restaurant The Kitchin. Tom is a renowned Scottish chef who was trained by Pierre Koffmann, Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse.  Tom very quickly received a Michelin star, just six months after opening The Kitchin. I am sometimes wary of books by celebrity chefs, just because I think they often can’t help being cheffy and so the recipes don’t translate well for the home cook. But this book, and I have saved the best to talk about till last, has left me completely smitten. Not only are the recipes homely, comforting and easy to follow, the book reads like a great big Scottish tartan blanket-wrapped hug! In his introduction, Tom says that he and his photographer, Laura Edwards, prepared and photographed all of the dishes in the book, just as Tom would cook them and serve them at home, and I believe him. At the back of the book, Tom thanks his ‘wee boys’ for coming along to photo shoots on Sundays and Mondays. Best of all, for anyone, who, like me,  has extreme prop envy (think rustic bowls, a roast saddle of lamb nestled in a big pile of hay and tables graced with thick tartan fabrics) there are some props credits sourced by Polly Webb-Wilson in the back, too. I have already made Tom’s Pears Poached in Chocolate (photo below) and will be off to the pet shop to find some eating hay on which to cook my own saddle of lamb with Boulangere Potatoes laying beneath. A stunning book, well worth adding to your list or buying for the foodie in your life.

Chocolate Poached Pears

Here’s how to enter the Quadrille Publishing Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope Father Christmas does bring you a cookery book to add to your collection!

About Ren

Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to three young children (13, 10 and 5) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications, such as Food52.com, GreatBritishChefs.com, Huff Post Food and JamieOliver.com. She holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine.

Ren’s cookbook, Wild Honey and Rye: Modern Polish Recipes, draws upon her Polish heritage and regular travels to Poland.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Without hesitation, Tom Kitchin. I’ve always loved his food.
    Being a classically trained chef, most of his recipes are complicated for the home cook. This book looks like the one that was missing : High quality, home-cooked supper ideas !

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  8. James Martin – slow cooking, bought a slow cooker and so far only managed cooking a joint of beef! Need ideas.

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  22. The Indian vegetarian feast book would be great as my girlfriend is veggie and I want to cook something nice!!

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  42. I’m most interested in James Martin’s book as I already have a few of his books and I find all his recipes work very well (and he’s lovely!)

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  56. James Martin – Slow Cooking for when i need a rest and what to sit back and let the oven do the work!

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  59. Anjums vegatarian cooking looks great – really need to eat more veg – just get put off if its bland – need something to spice things up – Anjum can do that!!

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  75. Anjums indian vegetarian feast i haven’t got an indian cook book and my boys love anything indian and spicy would love to make from scratch.

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  86. Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feast – I’d love to be able to cook vegetarian dishes like my Indian friends do at home. Veggie dishes in restaurants are never as good.

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  89. Oooh I did get Cookery books for Christmas, but none of these ones! Would be brilliant additions to my collection.

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  99. I’d love Anjum’s indian Vegetarian feasts as I cook a lot of indian food but struggle to find enough variety for my vegetarian daughter,mother and sister x

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  116. Got to be the James Martin book – I love having the smell of food in the house all day and anticipating the evening meal!

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  125. Oh what a good year 2013 would be

    Slow Cooking with James Martin
    Having fun in the “Kitchen” with Tom
    And hoping Anjum is with me eating Coconut French Toast
    A foodie dream 2013, hope it comes true 🙂

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  133. James Martin’s Slow Cooking because I love slow cooking food but really need inspired with some new recipes.

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  140. As much as I like the sound and look of the other two books, I’d love to get a hold of Anjum’s book. I’ve become more interested in Indian cookery over the past few months and, as I don’t actually eat a lot of meat myself, I’m sure there are many vegetarian-type dishes that I could dig into 🙂

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  152. The Indian Vegertarian Cookbook for me! I’m not a vegetraian but there is nothing tastier than a saag aloo!!

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  157. I’d like Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feast best because I’m always looking for new recipes that up my intake of veg

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  159. Like them all, but would really love the Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feasts as would love to cook some more interesting veggie meals

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  160. James Martin as I have just had a Slow cooker as a moving in gift but have no idea what to cook in it!!

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  180. I would love the James Martin book – as a new mum with a busy life I love my slow coooker but could really do with some new ideas!

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  221. James Martin Slow Cooking – I need some fresh ideas for slow cooking, one of my favourite ways to cook. Meat is so tender when cooked slowly and having delicious cooking aromas wafting through the house with increasing intensity really helps build up an appetite!

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  223. It would have to be….Anjum vegetarian…im always trying to think of tasty Vegetarian meals (im not a vegetarian) i love Asian and other cultures food and that’s all my family eats. would be fantastic to give a load of her recipes a try

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  232. Kitchin Suppers by Tom Kitchin as it seems likely to be the most varied … the picture of the poached pear in chocolate had nothing to do with! Honest!

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  235. I would love Tom Kitchin’s book for my brother ( Tom’s ) birthday as he is an avid cook, and always looking for some new recipes !

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  237. What a lovely pre-Christmas competition! I love all cook books but would definitely want the James Martin book most – slow cooking, yum yum, especially in this cold wintery weather! Fingers Crossed!

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  242. I recently discovered your blog and have really enjoyed reading it so far – bring on 2013! All the cook books look fantastic, and I’m sure will provide some much-needed inspiration in the cold, dark winter months after Christmas. Thanks for a great giveaway!

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  243. I am definitely a James Martin fan so I’d love that book. I also admire Tom Kitchen but I’m interested in Anjum too. When last in the UK I purchased a James Martin recommended spice grinder and it’s great as I make a lot of chutneys. So favourite vote has to go to James.

    Cheers!
    Liz

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  249. James Martin – Slow Cooking. Stews, roasts, etc are just perfect for this time of year and the small amount of effort required to cook these tasty meals means more time to do other things.

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  253. Not living in the UK, I rely on online recommendations like yours Ren to see what’s hot in the foodie arena. James Martin’s a fave of mine – his desserts book is well thumbed. And I like him all the more for his northern roots meet mine as he lives in Hampshire, where I come from originally, and is often seen around and about in Winchester. Anjum is someone totally new to me, and as my NY resolution is to veer more to veggies, I am all ears and eyes about her book. Just stumbled across you too in fact Ren – and with my having a Polish sis-in-law, and part of my family in Poland, I shall be scouring your Polish food section to impress them! Thanks for such a resourceful site.

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  255. My favorite way to promote vegetarianism is to feature flavorful and unique recipes on my blog. I’d love to win *Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feast* cookbook in order to share more Indian vegetarian recipes with my readers. Thanks!

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  274. Have James’ book already and am working my way through the different sections. everything so far has been delicious and even a fool like me can cook them. Would love another copy as I would give it to my daughter to encourage her to cook some of the dishhes for me!

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  280. My favourite would have to be James’ book as I love his slow cooking recipes and don’t have this yet. Great prize! Merry Christmas xx

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  281. I’d love the Indian Vegetarian Feast because it’s so hard to come up with interesting meals for my vegetarian friends.

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