20210727 Cookbooks

In the kitchen window we have a row of cookbooks we use a lot. We all like to cook and make exquisite meals and the best way to learn is to use excellent cookbooks. Since the pandemic we have only cooked more. Before we only tried difficult recipes on Saturday when we had the time, but since we started working from home and had so much extra time because of not having to commute, we have tried new recipes two or three times a week. The cookbooks we have standing in the windowsill in the kitchen don't look very pretty anymore and some of them are starting to fall apart. I think that's a good sign. Our favourites are the cookbooks from Meerah Sodha and Ottolenghi. Meera Sodha is a British writer of Ugandan and Indian descent and she wrote three cookbooks, Made inn India, Fresh India, and Asia. They are all wonderful. The first one has all these great recipes from her mother and aunts and has the best curries I have ever made. The second book is vegetarian and it was the first time we loved a vegetarian cookbook so much that we have now tried out about 70%off all recipes multiple times and several recipes have become standard recipes that we make at least once a month. The third book is vegan and has recipes that are inspired by the entire asian cuisine. We're not vegan, but we don't mind a vegan recipe if it is delicious and I can say that this third book doesn't disappoint either. And then we have Ottolenghi. He is a master chef from London and his cuisine is based on Middle East and Mediterranean influences. He ahs a reputation for being difficult and also for the fact that many of his ingredients are hard or even impossible to get if you're not living in an international metropolis where you can get everything. And that's all true, but once you dig in to his recipes and find out where to get these ingredients of acceptable equivalents, then his recipes are the most wonderful recipes you can imagine. Your tastebuds will love you for trying out his recipes. We have several of his books and I can recommend Simple, Plenty, Plenty More, Flavor and Sweet. Those are the ones we have and I find it hard to recommend one above the other. His latest, Flavor, has been a hit in my family, so if you want to give it a try, the title says it all. Anyway, cooking grand meals has made the pandemic bearable for us and we have Meera Sodha and Ottolenghi to thank for it.

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