POPULAR POTATOES
100 Easy & Delicious recipes
Simon & Alison Holst
Hyndman Publishing $24.99
Who would have thought that even the humble spud would have a year of its own? Yes, 2008 is the year of the potato.
Formidable mother & son cooking/writing duo Alison & Simon Holst have done it again and come up with another winning idea for a cookbook. This must be at least a dozen they have now collaborated on (?), and then there are all their solo titles as well. Amazing really and I take my hat off to them.
I recall during my Napier bookselling days, way back in the mid- ‘70’s Alison coming up from Wellington to our shop to promote whatever her latest title was at the time. She was a TV chef back in those days and what a draw card she proved to be; Beattie & Forbes Bookshop was bulging at the seams as she cooked in an electric frypan, (the latest electrical gadget at the time), on a table that had been cleared of books. Her artist sister Clare Ferguson illustrated that particular title, (wish I could remember the name). Clare later moved to the UK and became very famous in her own right as a food designer for books, magazines and television, as well as cookery author and magazine food columnist.
I’m straying off the subject. Back to those spuds!
100 Easy & Delicious recipes
Simon & Alison Holst
Hyndman Publishing $24.99
Who would have thought that even the humble spud would have a year of its own? Yes, 2008 is the year of the potato.
Formidable mother & son cooking/writing duo Alison & Simon Holst have done it again and come up with another winning idea for a cookbook. This must be at least a dozen they have now collaborated on (?), and then there are all their solo titles as well. Amazing really and I take my hat off to them.
I recall during my Napier bookselling days, way back in the mid- ‘70’s Alison coming up from Wellington to our shop to promote whatever her latest title was at the time. She was a TV chef back in those days and what a draw card she proved to be; Beattie & Forbes Bookshop was bulging at the seams as she cooked in an electric frypan, (the latest electrical gadget at the time), on a table that had been cleared of books. Her artist sister Clare Ferguson illustrated that particular title, (wish I could remember the name). Clare later moved to the UK and became very famous in her own right as a food designer for books, magazines and television, as well as cookery author and magazine food columnist.
I’m straying off the subject. Back to those spuds!
This new Holst title is as you would expect – well designed, easy-to-follow recipes, beautiful photographs of many of the dishes.
And my two attempts from the book have both been successful! Hot-smoked Salmon with Potato salad, and from the four potato curry recipes I chose the Thai Green Chicken & Potato Curry.
Both very simple to prepare and both went down a treat.
My thanks to the Holsts, and their publisher, for another excellent, practical addition to the kitchen bookshelf.
I should just add that included in the book are excellent illustrations of the various types of potato, and their particular uses, as well as three very useful pages on how to cook potatoes – oven baked, micowaved mashed or baked, slow-cooked, roasted etc.
This book is an excellent one to give young people as they leave the nest.
Long live the spud!
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