A list of ten most useful cookbooks

Many British newspapers reported today on a list of ten most useful cookbooks, as compiled by Waitrose Food Illustrated. The panel consisted of restaurateurs, chefs and consumers, among them Aldo Zilli, William Sitwell, John Torode, Sophie Grigson.

Here are the ten most useful cookbooks:

1 Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson with Lindsey Bareham

2 Delia's Complete Cookery Course by Delia Smith

3 Real Fast Food by Nigel Slater

4 The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

5 A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

6 Leith's Techniques Bible by Susan Spaull and Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne

7 Elizabeth David Classics by Elizabeth David

8 Rick Stein's Seafood School Cookbook by Rick Stein

9 Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook by Alice Waters

10 The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander

And the most useless cookbook? According to the panel, this title goes to the Larousse Gastronomique. Apparently it's "overrated, esoteric and stuffy" as well as "heavily biased towards all things French."

The list may seem a bit surprising, considering that many best-selling cookbooks (f. ex. by Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver, Mrs Beeton) are absent, but apparently the jury panel was looking for durability, reliability and not celebrity.

Any comments on the above list from well-read foodbloggers?

If you're interested in more detail, check out the Waitrose Food Illustrated, or Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, London Evening Standard for instance.

Lovely Greek(ish) meatballs

This is a very simple recipe for very tasty meatballs. It's adapted from a Finnish journal Herkkutori (10-11/1999), and is called kreikkalaiset lihapyörykät or Greek meatballs. My culinary Greek 'guinea pig' wasn't sure about the Greekness of those (Greek meatballs usually contain lots of bread and herbs), but they were tasty and easy to make and disappeared very quickly. So who cares whether they're Greek or not. I did add some Greek oregano to the mince mixture in order to give at least some element of Greekness to my meatballs..

Greek meatballs with chilli sauce, mustard and oregano
(Kreeka hakklihapallid)



400 grams of lean steak mince
1 onion
0.5 Tbsp olive oli
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbsp mustard
1 tsp dried oregano

Mince the onion and cook in microwave for a minute or two. Mix all ingredients thoroughly for 2-3 minutes. Form into 30 or so small walnut-sized meatballs. Fry gently in oil.

You want them to be nice and golden. Stop eating them before they reach the table!!!

I served them with green beans and some crusty bread, but they would be lovely on a meze table.

Reading about food: Eat Me

I picked up a copy of Alexandra Antonioni's Eat Me at a bookstore last Thursday. The book, bylined 'Love, Sex and the Art of Eating', is a pink girly paperback and I guess I was tempted by the luscious-looking cake on the cover. I fancied some light reading and light it was - I finished it in less than 2 nights. So it's not exactly a brainteaser, but it was entertaining, enjoyable and fun. Here's the synopsis:

Sex and the City meets the culinary goddess within, in this delicious offering on love, sex and the art of eating.

Let Alexandra Antonioni take you on an entertaining journey through the highs and lows of modern-day relationships, set against a backdrop of culinary flirting and romantic probability. From first-date dinners to post-coital snacks and comfort food when it all goes wrong, this book is interspersed with delicious recipes as well as relationship advice, personal anecdotes and the author's own dating distasters.

An ideal read for those who appreciate the mouth-watering marriage of food and love.

The synopsis is pretty accurate. There's also an element of Bridget Jones' like musings, so overall it felt like reading someones romantic love-cum-foodblog:)

I did skip some of her recipes. As I don't eat seafood other than fish (long-long story)*, Antonioni's recipes for oyster and prawn dishes to be eaten in bed wearing close to nothing left me cold. But I did made a mental list of many delicious-sounding dishes that are provided in the book, e.g.

Alex's Love Juice (a Thai soup to be eaten in sickness and in health)
Bellini Cocktails (esp good in moments of thunder and lightning)
Chicken with Goat's Cheese and Roasted Vegetables (Meet Me After Work and Bring Your Toothbrush dinner)
Chicken Liver Parfait (to be served at your first joint housewarming cocktail party)
Chocolate Dacquise (see Bellini cocktails)
Chocolate and Raspberry Log (meeting La Famiglia)
Cigliege Sotto Spirito (Boozy Cherries are good for any time)
Risotto with Taleggio and Pumpkin (see Chicken with Goat's Cheese)
Seared Duck Breast with Sour Cherry Sauce (should re-spark the relationship)
Watermelon Margarita (see Chicken Liver Parfait)

She inserts lots of amusing food and love-related aphorisms and statements from various literary heroes (from Shakespeare to Woody Allen to Homer Simpson), and also suggests what music to listen while eating her recommended dishes (Leonhard Cohen when you're heartbroken for instance).

And I just realised that I must be an advertisers' dream. How the hell did I manage to buy another Nina Simone and Edith Piaf album when shopping for a new suitcase last weekend? Was that because Antonioni recommends them both for romantic dinners or was it just a coincidence???

* Alexandra Antonioni quotes Woody Allen saying I will not eat oysters; I want my food dead, Not sick, not wounded ... dead (page 42). Maybe I should use it next time instead of explaining and justifying my aversion for shrimps, oysters, calamari, octopus, mussels, crayfish etc etc etc...