friederike's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
121 books reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Rating | Title 
Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cook Book
By Yan-Kit So
Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd - 1987
This book was given to me by an old family friend who had spent years in China, and she insisted that I receive the 1984 edition (or a later reprint), but not the 2006 revised edition.
It's an excellent cookbook that will not only provide you with many authentical recipes but also with a longish section about the the more exotic ingredients, equipment and techniques of chinese cooking, including explanations of why these techniques are used. Highly recommended!
Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cook Book
By Yan-Kit So
Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd - 1987
This book was given to me by an old family friend who had spent years in China, and she insisted that I receive the 1984 edition (or a later reprint), but not the 2006 revised edition.
It's an excellent cookbook that will not only provide you with many authentical recipes but also with a longish section about the the more exotic ingredients, equipment and techniques of chinese cooking, including explanations of why these techniques are used. Highly recommended!
World Food Spain (World Food Series)
By Beverly Leblanc
Thunder Bay Press (CA) - 2003
None of the recipes in this book have impressed me yet. The photos of Spanish landmarks are okayish, the food photography hasn't impressed me. Not recommended, there are better books out there!
Werken met vis
By Bart van Olphen
Amsterdam Carrera - 2012
This is a brilliant book, the amount of information that is amassed in it, and the beauty with which it is presented is truly impressive. It'll tell you all about fishing regions, -techniques, seasons (did you know that fish and seafood have seasons, too?), and how to tell if the fish is still fresh. This is followed by an extensive overview of kinds of fish (and seafood) you'll be able to get in Europe, then a section over how to prepare the fish, including cleaning and netting, then cooking techniques with basic recipes, a section on sauces, and finally a few elaborate recipes. It's very similar to the books on seafood written by Alan Davidson, but possibly just more beautiful.
That said, I've noticed that I find it hard to choose a recipe from it - probably because may recipes feature several kinds of fish and seafood in one dish, and aren't really easy or quick dishes. So if you were considering this book because you'd like to incorporate more fish into your everyday menu, then move on.
The Wagamama Cookbook (Cookery)
By Hugo Arnold
Kyle Cathie - 2004
I rather like the Wagamama restaurants, at least the one I've been to (there seem to be huge differences internationally, or so I have been told). The more I was surprised to find that the recipes in this book haven't been as convincing at all.
An extra problem is that I had always thought that Wagamama served Fusion cuisine - most of the recipes in this book however call for mainly Japanese ingredients which I can't get as easily as eg. Chinese ingredients. Not really dramatic, just makes it more of an effort.
vegetarian
By alice hart
- 2000
This seems to be a bit of a hit-and-miss book - either the dishes were really nice, or they weren't enjoyable at all. Or I've just had bad luck; a colleague of mine owns this book as well and hasn't had a single failure to date. If only I could bring her to join cookbooker! :)
Vegetables from an Italian Garden: Season-by-Season Recipes
By Editors of Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press - 2011
This is quickly becoming one of my better resources for vegetable side dishes, and vegetarian mains. It contains a lot of not too complicated, interesting and diverse dishes. I also bought it because I enjoy cookbooks that sort vegetables seasonally, but unfortunately, what is in season in Italy is not necessarily in season in the Netherlands at the same time. Still, it's a very useful resource once you've checked your own local vegetable calendar (I've stuck a printed copy of mine in the few pages of the book).
Tender: v. 1: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch
By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate Ltd - 2009
I only bought it today, but I already love it! It's a brick of a book, with a beautiful layout, beautiful photos and lots of text. Well written text, in true Nigel Slater fashion. Informative text, even if you don't grow you own vegetables.
The book is sorted by vegetable. You'll get a general section with Slater's thoughts, then information on growing the vegetable, often including Slater's 'garden diary', then a text on cooking with that vegetable, useful ingredient combinations, trivia, and of course lots of recipes. And knowing Nigel Slater they are usually good.
Tender: Volume II, A cook's guide to the fruit garden
By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate - 2010
The first volume covered the growing and cooking of vegetables; Vol. II does the same for fruit. Of course you can expect quite a range of desserts, cakes, you name it. But it also includes quite a number of meat or fish dishes. As the first volume, it is written and illustrated beautifully, and I'd even be happy to have it if I couldn't cook any of the recipes. It's probably a very useful book for gardening too, but having an interest in gardening is by no means necessary to enjoy it.
Just as the first, each chapter in this book is about a different kind of fruit, mostly (?) fruit that Nigel Slater grows in his own small urban garden in London. There are some musings, some general information on the fruit, his 'garden diary', useful tips for cooking, ingredient combinations, trivia, photos, and several recipes per chapter.
The Technique of Chinese Cooking
By Qiang Mai
Tang's Publishing Company - 1974
This is a very funny book. Publsihed in the 1970's as a bilingual edition (Chinese and English), it features more recipe than you will usually find in a Chinese cookbook nowadays, although I probably wouldn't prepare some of them for a number of reasons (Shark's Fin as Peacock, Seacucumber with Pork or Stewed Turtle with Chrysanthemum, anyone?). And it's typical for the time it was published in - it's full of monosodiumglutamate (also known as MSG) which, although thought a typical ingredient in Chinese restaurant food, is actually a quite modern addition. But I suppose you could get by with just omitting the MSG, and try one of the easier recipes to begin with...
Taste: A New Way to Cook
By Sybil Kapoor, David Loftus
Mitchell Beazley - 2003
I absolutely love the concept of this book, going by flavours as opposed to course, and explaining how we actually perceive flavours, how they work and how we should built up flavour in a dish. Very unfortunate, then, that the first dish I tried from this book (Curried Caribbean-style Fish, not yet reviewed) completely failed on the account of being too sour! Nevertheless, the second dish turned out very well, and I've learned a lot about flavours and cooking.
Tarte Tatin
By Jasmin Schults, Anaisa Bruchner
Uitgeverij J.H. Becht - 2007
Basically, a very nice book. I love the idea of a cookbook focusing on Tarte Tatins, and all the things they could come up with, not only sweet but also savoury. There were some problems with the second tarte I made, though, like missing ingredients and serving information.
Tapas. A Culinary Journey of Discovery
By Susanna Tee
Parragon - 2007
This book is not identical to the other book called Tapas, written by the same author and published by the same publisher - more than slightly confusing, I know. Other than that, these might have been meant as a complement to one another - different, complementing choice of dishes, same - low - level of recipe reliability. I'm sure there are better books.
Tapas
By Susanna Tee
Parragon Publishing - 2005
This book is not identical to the other book called Tapas. A Culinary Journey of Discovery, written by the same author and published by the same publisher - more than slightly confusing, I know. Other than that, these might have been meant as a complement to one another - different, complementing choice of dishes, same - low - level of recipe reliability. I'm sure there are better books.
Supersalades
By Jane Lawson
Uitgeverij Terra Lannoo - 2011
I bought this book specifically to have a good source for lunch box meals. Most of the recipes listed sound very good, so there is enough to choose from. So far, most of the salads made turned out fairly well. I think it's great that the book contains a section of salads specifically for lunch boxes, although many of the other salads can be used as well (with some tweaks, occadionally).
This is a translation of Tossed, though not all recipes are included.
Spanish Food and Cooking (Food & Drink)
By Pepita Aris
Lorenz Books - 2003
I'm on the fence with this one. The recipes with the better ratings we prepared several years ago, and I'll admit that we probably have become quite spoiled with great dishes and great books in the meantime. It might be an okay cookbook, it might not be brilliant, but in anycase I believe there must be a better book than this one.
Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen: 120 Seasonal Recipes
By Sophie Grigson
Headline Book Publishing - 2003
I'm not really enthousiastic about this book. Recipes until now have worked but weren't particularly special. I like that the book is sorted by season, but that the titles are set in multi-colored, handwritten-style fonts just kills me. Maybe this would be different if I had kids (haha, ask me in ten years again).
Soepkalender
By Anya van der Wetering
Uitgeverij Snor - 2011
Just a short note, not a review: As this is a calendar, it doesn't have page numbers. Instead, I'm using the format mmdd as a substitute.
Snowflakes and Schnapps
By Jane Lawson
Murdoch Books - 2010
I haven't cooked from this book yet, so I can't review it properly, but a few things have definitely caught my attention:
1. For most of the recipes, you will need lots and lots of time; for many recipes, you will need a big budget as well. Veal and lamb are all over the place; there are a lot of recipes for game; also truffles and foie gras have been featured.
2. It's a very impersonal book. I don't think the author directs a single word to the reader. Not a word where a recipes comes from or why she chose them. Basically, it's just a more or less random collection of recipes.
3. It's great as a coffee table book - the photos are beautiful!
4. The layout is less great for cooking, especially if you have difficulties reading under less than perfect circumstances - the text is light grey on a white background. Whoever came up with this idea must have forgotten that a cookbook needs to be used.
Edited 26 January 2014:
I've made four recipes since; nearly all of them were quite nice. But it has been very difficult to choose a recipe that is actually doable in both effort and budget.
In set-up, it's very comparable to Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Both books are very nice, but if I had to choose, I'd choose Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, just because it has so many more useable recipes, it's more personal, and it's a lot easier to read! Unless you are actually looking for something fancy (ie. for Christmas dinner), then Snowflakes and Schnapps might be more what you're looking for - but expect to spend a lot of time in the kitchen!
Slow Cooker Cookbook: Over 220 No-fuss Delicious One-pot Recipes for Relaxed Preparation
By Catherine Atkinson
Lorenz Books - 2008
The recipes sound delicious and look absolutely beautiful – but I am experiencing major problems in prerparing them. The problem is that they are written exclusively for electrical slow cookers, and the book features no tempreature conversion tables for using other equipment at all. All you get are instruction such as "Cook on Low for 5-7 hours." This makes the book quite useless for me and my clay pot. At the moment I am trying to figure a system of temperature conversion, and am hoping for a better book for christmas.
Simple Chinese Cooking
By Kylie Kwong
Michael Joseph Ltd - 2006
This book is quickly becoming one of my favourite cookbooks, mainly because most of what I have cooked until now tastes like the food we had at home when I was young - or even better. Additionally, most recipes are prepared very quickly, although you'll need some concentration to get it right. What I also like is that most ingredients are fairly easy to get (where I live) - that in contrast to several of my other Chinese cookbooks.
Seafood of South-East Asia: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes
By Alan Davidson
Ten Speed Press - 2004
What a great informative book! About two thirds of this nearly 400 page book is more or less an excyclopedia of fish and seafood of Southe-East Asia. For each fish/seafood some basic information (family, latin name, etc.) is given, as well as it's name in most of the Asian languages (as well as, obviously, the English one). this is followed by a few remarks on appearance, habits and the like, an illustration (black and white drawing), and information on how the seafood tastes and how it is used in Asian cuisine, as well as, if applicable, in which recipes the seafood is used.
Given that eating habits differ somewhat from what we in the West are used, Davidson also included descriptions of several animals we would find exotic as food, such as several kinds of shark (hammerhead shark, sawfish), sea urchins, sea cucumbers and sea cow, without including recipes.
About the last third of the book is filled with recipes, sorted by country, along with some details on the respective cuisine and some useful information on seafood in general (how to recognize if fish is fresh etc.). Until now, recipes have been quite reliable, though they tend to be on the complicated side of cooking, and not everything might be explicitly mentioned. Also, there are no pictures of the dishes in this last part of the book.
Schnelle Gerichte
July 20th, 2011This was one of those cheap books for five Euros I picked up years ago. I made one dish that went horribly wrong, blamed the book, and moved on, burying the book deep down in some boxes. Now, on second sight, it might just not be soo bad after all. It still looks like a cheap book, and the recipes might not be flawless, but so far they were better than I had expected.
Schnell - Rezepte mit Tempo
By Sebastian Dickhaut
GU - 2000
Small book aiming at young people and trying really hard to be hip. Unfortunately, the recipes are everything but hip.
The Scandinavian Cookbook
By Trina Hahnemann
Andrews McMeel Publishing - 2009
A really nice book, both visually and culinary, on a cuisine that isn't much in the spotlights. It's ordered by month, which makes chosing a recipe so much easier and also takes us on a trip through the Scandinavian year. The recipes I've tested so far were reliable and very delicious. Really recommmended.
Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul
By Diana Henry
Mitchell Beazley - 2008
Cold-weather recipes - a very interesting concept. This book collects a number of recipes you would eat when snow falls outside - so that means seasonal dishes, and dishes from mainly northern countries. Additionally, these are sorted by main ingredient - there's a chapter on cheese, on nuts, on pumkins, squashes, beans and lentils, on smoked food, etc. Most of the recipes I've tried until now were very nice, and there are certainly a lot more recipes I'm eager to try next winter. Definitely recommended!
River Cottage Everyday
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC - 2009
I might have had bad luck with the recipes I chose, but they definitely weren't a success, and the instructions weren't that good either...
Ripailles
By Stephane Reynaud
Murdoch Books - 2008
It's a beautiful book with a lot of very witty illustrations about anything French - but unfortunately, to date most recipes have been disappointing.
Real Fast Food
By Nigel Slater
Penguin UK - 1993
I agree with the others that many of these recipes are rather ideas than true recipes, but sometimes, especially when in a rush, that's all I need anyway. It definitely serves it's purpose. Most of the recipes are successes, a few less so.
Quiches and Pastries: Le Cordon Bleu : Home Collection
December 27th, 2011Most recipes look like a lot of work, and the results of those I've tested so far weren't necessarily worth it. Not recommended.
Pure Vegetarian: Modern and Stylish Vegetarian Cooking
By Gayler
National Book Network - 2008
Quite sophisticated cooking and quite a few flavour combinations that I would not have expected; however, most of it too sophisticated to really be of use for daily cooking.
Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day
By Diana Henry
Ten Speed Press - 2009
Mostly good recipes, though not all of them. Nearly all are, indeed, very simple, in that aspect the book lives up to its promise. As sturlington mentioned, there are a few gems in here, you just need to find them.
Preserve: Over 100 Delicious Recipes (Cookery)
October 15th, 2013A small but good, reliable book over preserving, with many good ideas.
Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi
By Yotam Ottolenghi, Jonathan Lovekin
Chronicle Books - 2011
As usual a new great book by Yotam Ottolenghi. This one contains excludingly vegetarian dishes, a few of which have already appeared in his column in the New Observer. I have the idea that in general, they are slightly more complicated than the dishes in his first cookbook.
Pie
By Angela Boggiano
Cassell Illustrated - 2006
A really nice book based on a topic that most cookbooks will only touch upon in passing. Most recipes were really good, specifically the Smoked Fish and Cider Pie and the Beef and Ale Pie, and I'm sure we'll keep on exploring. Definitely a book I will keep and use a lot.
The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accessories
By David Lebovitz
Ten Speed Press,U.S. - 2007
As the others said, this is a brilliant book for ice cream, and I would always recommend it!
The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd Ed
By Alan Davidson, Tom Jaine, Jane Davidson, Helen Saberi
Oxford University Press, USA - 2006
Not a cookbook but a food encyclopedia that I referred to in one of my reviews and that I consult once in a while. It usually answers my questions, although not always.
Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
By Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi
Ebury Press - 2010
This is definitely my go-to-cookbook. Lot's of vegetarian dishes you can either serve as a side or a main dish, always with an interesting take on common or rarely-used ingredients. Some of them use slightly more exotic ingredients or are slightly complicated, but it's never more than 'slightly' complicated - some you can even whizz up in a few minutes! Brilliant book!
Ottolenghi
February 27th, 2011 (edited 27th February 2011)I've already raved about Ottolenghi's recipes elsewhere - if you like unexpected or middle-eastern cuisine, most of the recipes are just brilliant and well-worh the effort.
Blog-frequency isn't too high, though. You can also have a look at Ottolenghi's weekly column in the Guardian if you're looking for online recipes.
Olive: 101 Quick-fix Dishes (Olive Magazine)
By Janine Ratcliffe
BBC Books - 2007
These series of BBC cookbooks contain normally good, reliable recipes that have previously been published in the Olive Magazine (BBC Good Food Magazine for most of the other books) and often on the BBC Good Food website, too. What makes them extremely practical is that you can easily put them in your bag (even your handbag!) on a busy day, and then just choose a recipe when you're actually in the supermarket, or perhaps during lunch break, or whenever.
This specific book has proven to be especially useful - quick fix dishes just perfectly fits what I like about the cookbook series...
The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking
By Susanna Hoffman
Workman Publishing Company - 2004
I only bought this book after the challenge (ie. after reading all those enthusiast recipe reviews!), and I'm glad I bought it. Most recipes are really good, and very, very similar to the food we had in Greece, and some of them are already a fixed part of my repertoire. A great addition to my already overflowing shelf!
Noshe Djan: Afghan Food and Cookery
By Helen Saberi, Abdullah Breshna
Prospect Books - 2000
The book is intriguiging. It seems to be quite authentic. The dishes appear to be a mix of influenced of Indian and Persian cooking, which sounds quite reasonable if you look at the geographic situation of Afghanistan and the influences it has probably experienced throughout history.
Lamb and chicken features a lot, as does rice and yoghurt. Most dishes are just variations of one another, though I don't find this particularly irritating. There are quite a few pasta dishes which make me wonder if this is were Marco Polo picked up the later Italianized pasta. Simple stews abound with again both Persian as well as Indian influences showing. Some of the dishes I made looked not only simple but even primitive, as if the recipes weren't too far removed yet from simple fire place cooking. But maybe my fantasy is being carried away now.
It has a longish section on Afghan food, cooking etc., though unfortunately it does not have a reasonable glossary - what is chapati flour? I found chapati bread, but no mention of chapati flour anywhere...
I'm not yet quite sure what to make of it in terms of quality of dishes and reliability, though I have noticed that I want to like it. It contains no photos, only few drawings.
North Atlantic Seafood: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes
By Alan Davidson
Ten Speed Press - 2003
What a great informative book! About half of this 500 page book is more or less an excyclopedia of fish and seafood of the North Atlantic. For each fish/seafood some basic information (family, latin name, etc.) is given, as well as it's name in most of the languages of countries bordering on the North Atlantic (think Portugal up to Finland, Poland and 'the Soviet Union', as well as the US, Canada and Iceland). This is followed by a few remarks on appearance, habits and the like, an illustration (black and white drawing), and information on how the fish tastes and how it is used in North Atlantic cuisine, as well as, if applicable, in which recipes the fish is used.
The second half of the book is filled with recipes, sorted by country, along with some details on the respective cuisine and some useful information on seafood in general (how to recognize if fish is fresh etc.). Until now, recipes have been quite reliable, though they tend to be on the complicated side of cooking, and not everything might be explicitly mentioned. Also, there are no pictures in this last part of the book.
Nordljus
February 27th, 2011 (edited 27th February 2011)Beautiful blog layout, gorgeous photos, surprising and challenging recipes - a pure joy to look at. Unfortunately, many of her recipes just look out of my league. I really should bookmark the easier ones...
No Time to Cook
By Donna Hay
Harpercollins Canada - 2009
Some recipes are very nice, others need some tweaking before they really work.
The New Vegetarian - Ottolenghi (Guardian)
February 27th, 2011I've already raved about Ottolenghi's recipes elsewhere - if you like unexpected or middle-eastern cuisine, most of the recipes are just brilliant and well-worh the effort.
The New Vegetarian is Ottolenghi's weekly blog at the Guardian. Additionally, he (or should I say: they?) also have a blog on the restaurant website. However, blog-frequency isn't very high.
New Entertaining
By Donna Hay
Murdoch Books - 1998
This book has always scared me (why would I ever make so refined finger food for my student self?), and at the same time fascinated me (same reason). Now that I'm older and have some help in the kitchen, it's actually quite a good book for birthday parties. So far, most recipes have been interesting, reliable, not too difficult or work intensive (or not more than you'd expect them to be). There are a lot of recipes and styles to choose from, both food and drink, ranging from tea/coffee parties and up towards cocktails. Also includes menu suggestions for various different occasions.
Very similar to Marie Claire's Snacks + Drinks - so similar, actually, that I always mix up the two.
The New English Table: Over 200 Recipes That Will Not Cost The Earth
By Rose Prince
Fourth Estate Ltd - 2008
Rose Prince's approach in this book is to present recipes for local foods, thereby rediscovering local ingredients and decreasing the ecological foot print. The book is organised by ingredient, each with a short introductory text and a section on how and where to buy. However, as seasonal eating is very important in this approach, I feel she should have included a table of when which ingredient is in season - it would have made looking up recipes so much easier!
Muffins
March 27th, 2010 (edited 5th May 2011)I bought this book (and actually all books of this series I own) because the recipes looked attractive and innovative, the dishes are beautifully presented and they just looked like a good deal (5 Euro a piece, 128 pages, ca. 70 recipes) - and they won the World Cookbook Award for best series, right?
Turns out the dishes look good, but taste bland and just don't work well, and are usually a lot of work. And there are at least ten series a year that win the World Cookbook Award for best series. Seriously.
I guess I'll continue to try a few recipes, there must be some good ideas in there. If not...
On this book specifically:
Nice little book with many varied recipes and (simple, not cupcake-style) decoration ideas. Unfortunately, the recipes aren't as impressive nor as reliable I had hoped they would be.
Moroccan: A Culinary Journey of Discovery (Food Lovers Collection)
By Ghillie Basan
Parragon Inc - 2007
This was one of those cheap 5 Euro books you will find at magazine kiosks and the like; it contains quite e few very nice recipes, but it seems like its just a selection of recipes taken from other, previous published books, one of which is Modern Moroccan. It's a nice book if you don't think you'll cook a lot of Moroccan dishes; otherwise I would recommend that you rather get the real thing and buy Modern Moroccan, which provides more recipes than this one.