wester's Profile

From: Soesterberg, Utr Netherlands

Joined: September 24th, 2009

About me: I love cooking, I love eating, I love discovering new recipes. I have so many cookbooks I sometimes lose track of which recipe is where - though this site helps a bit. I have gone low-carb in 2010, so that's different recipes to explore again. This also means I may not agree with my own reviews anymore if they were written in 2009 or before. ------------------ I have a lovely husband and ten-year old twins who also love eating. ----------------- You can also find me on LibraryThing, BookMooch and EatYourBooks, using the same handle.

Favorite cookbook: The Complete Meze Table by Rosamond Man

Favorite recipe: Melissa Clark's Roasted Broccoli with Shrimp


Latest review:

April 4th, 2017

Daond Pasha (Meatballs with Pine Nuts and Tomatoes) from The Complete Meze Table

The meatballs were very tasty, but I did not really like putting all the pine nuts together - it made for fussy cooking and I think I would prefer finding a pine nut here and there instead of finding them... read more >


recipe reviews (741)
book reviews (74)
useful review votes (327)

wester's Reviews


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Cookbook Reviews

74 books reviewed. Showing 51 to 74Sort by: Rating | Title

The Naked Chef

By Jamie Oliver
Kosmos-Z&K Uitgevers Utrecht - 2000

March 9th, 2010

Some great basic recipes that I keep coming back to, some good ideas to vary them. This is the kind of cookbook you use more than you think you do.

New Food Fast

By Donna Hay
Murdoch Books - 1999

November 8th, 2010

There are some lovely ideas here, but the layout is a bit too fancy for my taste.

On Rice: 60 Fast and Easy Toppings That Make the Meal

By Rick Rodgers, Frankie Frankeny
Chronicle Books - 1997

March 29th, 2010

60 fast easy recipes in many different styles, to make your everyday cooking more interesting.

The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories

By David Lebovitz
Ten Speed Press,U.S. - 2007

March 29th, 2010

If you have an ice cream maker and you want to have some good suggestions on what to do with it, this is THE book to get. It's as simple as that. Ice cream, sorbets, mix-ins - it even shows you how to bake your own cones.

Pretend Soup: And Other Real Recipes

By Mollie Katzen, Ann Henderson
Ten Speed Press - 1994

May 22nd, 2010

What makes this book so wonderful is not the recipes themselves, which are good but not that surprising. It is the way it helps you to let your child cook, starting as young an age as three years.

All recipes have four pages. Two adult pages, which tell you as an adult what your task is in this recipe (everything involving sharp knives or heat), the tools you need, handy hints on how to let a really young kid break an egg or pour milk without getting it all over the kitchen, etc... And two kids pages, which tell your kids, in pictograms, what they should do to make the recipe. These pictograms do make it much easier for kids to follow the recipe.

Cooking from this book is fun, and it really can change your frame of mind about what children can do in the kitchen.

Real Fast Puddings: Over 200 Desserts, Savouries and Sweet Snacks in Under 30 Minutes

By Nigel Slater
Penguin Books Ltd - 1994

June 28th, 2010 (edited 28th June 2010)

A good list of suggestions, but only a few in here I would call a recipe. Lots of things that you can think of yourself if you spend any time in the kitchen at all, as well, but enough original ones. And I usually don't feel like really cooking something for dessert, so it's good to have a lot of easy and tasty suggestions.

Real Fast Vegetarian Food

By Ursula Ferrigno
Metro Books,London - 1996

April 19th, 2010 (edited 10th June 2010)

Lovely vegetarian recipes, often Italian. Many of them make good use of cheese.

Real Food

By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate Ltd - 2000

November 8th, 2010

A pretty typical Nigel Slater book: Bold, non-fussy food, packed with flavor. This one is sorted according to the main ingredient (or the result): potato, chicken, bread, ice-cream... Some of it is healthy, all of it is good, some of it is great.

The River Cottage Fish Book

By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nick Fisher
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC - 2007

September 15th, 2011 (edited 15th September 2011)

This is much more than a good fish cookbook. It tells you all about all stages of getting a fish and cooking it. It tells you how to kill a fish, or how to buy it, how to clean it, how to cook it, what to do with the leftovers.

The book is in three parts - Understanding fish (how fish live, sustainability issues, how to buy a fish, basic fish skills), Fish cookery (raw fish, smoked, barbecued, baked, soups, frying, cold fish, and fish thrift and standbys), and British fish (a complete list of all fish that swim around Great Britain).

These guys love fish, and it shows everywhere. They love cooking and eating fish. They are willing to go to great lengths occasionally (not just catching your own fish, but also building your own smoker, etc.) but they are also comfortable with really simple recipes - even a few with canned fish. All the recipes are there to let the fish shine, not to let the cook show off. They also feel they have a large responsibility towards fish, and they will educate you, and you will probably enjoy that too.

If you love fish, you need this book.

Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Ebury Paperback Cookery)

By Simon Hopkinson, Lindsey Bareham
Ebury Press - 1999

June 10th, 2010

I want to like this book - it looks so nice, I usually like stories with my recipes, and I like the thematic organization by ingredient. Even if there are quite a few ingredients that are difficult to get hold of, there should be enough good recipes. But I just can't seem to get into it.

Roasting-A Simple Art

By Barbara Kafka, Maria Robledo
William Morrow & Co. - 1995

September 10th, 2012

Every recipe I've made from this book so far has turned out great. The recipes are quite simple, and all the details that you should pay attention to are worked out. I am very happy with this book.

The Seafood Cookbook: Classic to Contemporary

By Pierre Franey, Bryan Miller, Lauren Jarrett
Times Books, a division of Random House Inc. - 1986

September 9th, 2012

I made two recipes from this cookbook, both disappointing. It's getting one more chance, but three strikes and it's going out.

Simply delicious cookies

By Family Living
Riverwood press - 2008

May 23rd, 2013 (edited 23rd May 2013)

If you have children, it's good to have a good variation of cookie recipes for rainy afternoons. This book is fine for that. There is enough variation and some nice decoration ideas. Some of the recipes are not really recipes but ideas for pimping ready-made cookies, and some others depend on ingredients that I can't easily get in Europe, but that's just a few. The recipes I've made so far have all turned out well.

(The captions of the photos on the cover should be reversed: the cookies in the basket are the springerle, the cookies with the tree design are the white chocolate cookies.)

Smitten Kitchen

By
-

March 23rd, 2010 (edited 29th March 2010)

There is no other website that makes me go "yes! I'll make this tonight!" as often as this one. And when I do just that, I am usually very happy I did.

The recipes are always well-tested and she'll tell you what details to watch especially, or give suggestions for variations. And there is always a personal story with it as well. It's like having your best friend who happens to be a great cook in the kitchen with you.

Sophie Grigson's Feasts for a Fiver

By Sophie Grigson
BBC Books - 1999

March 29th, 2010 (edited 10th June 2010)

There are some wonderful original ideas here, great twists on everyday ingredients. Or would you combine rhubarb and mackerel? She does, and it tastes great.

There are also a couple of recipes that you won't make that easily (anybody want to learn how to skin a pheasant?).

Sophie Grigson's Sunshine Food

By Sophie Grigson
BBC Books - 2000

March 29th, 2010 (edited 14th June 2010)

Lovely original mediterranean recipes. They are easy to make, and do not need very weird ingredients.
I especially love the socca, and the Moroccan fruit salads.

Spices of Life: Piquant Recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western Kitchens

By Troth Wells
New Internationalist Publications Ltd - 1996

March 5th, 2011

The (non)organization of the book makes it almost impossible to find recipes.
The index only lists the main ingredients (such as potatoes) or the sort of dish (such as soup), not the spices, and the original names only behind the main ingredient, not alphabetically. The order of the book is first the course, then within that the country, so Asian starters are in a completely different part of the book than Asian main courses.
So if you are looking for a particular recipe, or if you want to use a particular spice, or even want to try the kitchen of a particular country, it's near impossible to find it.

I'll review the recipes if I find any.

Tassajara Cooking : A vegetarian cooking book

By Edward Espe Brown
Shambhala - 1973

March 29th, 2010

These are usually not really recipes but more like suggestions to help your own imagination. As you'd expect in a Buddhist vegetarian cookbook, it is a bit brown-rice style, and heavily influenced by Japanese and other Asian cuisines.

Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, Recipes

By Sur La Table, Marie Simmons
Andrews McMeel Publishing - 2008

October 23rd, 2010 (edited 13th December 2010)

This book looks great, with full color photos of different kinds of cookware. It also gives good descriptions of all of them, including alternatives if you don't happen to own this particular pan - it does not try to "sell" you more cookware than you need. It also gives a few recipes for every piece of cookware - good ones but not indispensable.

A good book if you are thinking about getting more pans, or less of them - it will help you decide what you really want.

The index is not good - for several recipes neither first word or main ingredient of the recipe gave a result. E.g. Apple-and-ginger-spiced Sweet Potatoes was not found with apple, sweet potato or ginger, only with potato.

Thirst

By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate - 2006

October 5th, 2010 (edited 3rd December 2010)

Smooth and creamy, or fresh and invigorating, or hearty and clean: there's a drink for every mood here, and I find myself using this book almost daily.

Uncomplicated but good suggestions for juices and smoothies. There are a couple of coffee/chocolate type drinks as well, and one alcoholic drink: a Bloody Mary. He will also help you find the right ripeness for juicing as opposed to for eating, from "obscenely ripe" for a mango to "quite a way from perfect ripeness" for a pear.

You will need a juicer and/or a blender for most of the recipes - it actually made me buy a secondhand juicer. It numbers the recipes instead of the pages. Some of the recipes are essentially doubles.

The Vegetable Bible

By Christian Teubner
Chartwell Books - 2009

November 14th, 2010

This more a reference for different vegetables than a cookbook. Of course you can use wikipedia instead, but it is nice to browse in. There are some recipes in here as well, but no indispensable ones.

A Veggie Venture

By
-

June 10th, 2010

Some lovely recipes, but a bit much geared towards 'healthy', esp. low-fat, for my taste.

What We Eat When We Eat Alone: Stories and 100 Recipes

By Deborah Madison, Patrick McFarlin
Gibbs Smith - 2009

March 7th, 2010

This is a book you get for the stories at least as much as for the recipes, good as they may sometimes be.

The elation mixed with fear of moving out and being able to eat what you want - if you first cook it yourself. The relief of an occasional single meal with hardworking family men/women. And of course, the systematic single meals of the single, divorced or widowed. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes awful, sometimes just plain weird. It'll make you remember those weird concoctions you used to consume yourself - I suddenly wanted to make my "penne with purple sauce" again.

And there are recipes in there too. Sometimes little more than ideas, sometimes quite elaborate, always easy, usually tasty. And it will explain some basics as well.

All in all, a lovely book that I keep browsing in.

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant

By Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher
W.W. Norton & Co. - 2002

June 22nd, 2010 (edited 23rd June 2010)

Not really a book for beginners, but if you have been cooking for a few years and want practical and inspirational tips to cook better, this is the one for you.

Lots of advice on the details that matter - such as when to salt your food (early), what salt to use (it depends) and why. She tells you when to taste and what to look for when you do. She will also tell you which things are not that important. It also is unintimidating. She will tell you not to try recipes that are too unfamiliar, she helps you with tasting your food.

And it's fun to just read it, even the recipes themselves.