The confident cook

I have previously revealed on my blog that I am an inveterate collector of cookbooks and I confess that at last count I have close to 400.Most of the recipes I make regularly though come from I guess fewer than 30 of the collection.
I was given another six volumes at Christmas which I have read and now have begun to make recipes from them.
Among them was “the confident cook” by master recipe writer,
long-serving Cuisine magazine food editor Lauraine Jacobs.

In her helpful and encouraging introduction she says, inter alia,

“My aim as a recipe writer is to inspire confidence. Food does not have to be complex or smart to be enjoyed. It does not need to be copied from a master chef, or taken from a complicated book. But food must be cooked with confidence and every cook should develop his or her own repertoire of favourite recipes that are reliable and faithful.”

And then she goes on to provide us with 133 of her own favourite recipes culled from the many hundreds of recipes she has published over the past 20 years in Cuisine.

The book opens with 12 Menu Planners – Celebration of Spring Dinner, Lazy Summer Lunch, Summer Barbecue Dinner, Ultimate Christmas Feast, Late Harvest Autumn Dinner, Warming Winter Dinner, Vegetarian Entertaining, Light and Healthy Dinner, My Favourite Dinner Party and Another Favourite Dinner Party.
This is followed by Quick Midweek Dinner Solutions and then the 133 recipes follow starting with fish, vegetables, chicken, meat and desserts.

Each recipe, and most have their own page, has a headnote which appears above the list of ingredients, where the author suggests why you might cook this particular dish while providing insights as to how to do it.

It is a large, sumptuous publication filled with mouth-watering photographs from specialist food photographer Kieran Scott.
A couple of pictures of dishes we made at our place during January, both of with were greatly acclaimed were a main course of a wonderful oriental lamb dish and for dessert apricot and lemon crepe cake. I wanted to show pics of these two but the colours were so distorted I felt in respect to Kieran Scott's amazing shots they couldn't be reproduced. But have a look at pages 135 and 211 of the confident cook and you'll understand why the dishes were so well received.