Cooking the Books

Kicking off today's cooking the books is the new title from Valli Little, Home Cooking. Pretty much anyone who has ever picked up a whisk has cooked (knowingly or not) one of Valli's recipes. She is the head of the food team at the ever beautiful Delicious Magazine and again with this hard cover lustworthy book, her recipes don't disappoint.

The book is broken up into seasons with the added benefit of suggested menus to ensure epic culinary efforts in the kitchen. It has the kind of recipes with enough tricks to excite you but with the convenience of relatively straightforward ingredients that won't have you running about town in a tizz trying to get your hands on.

To be honest I found this pretty difficult and I dare say this book is going to suffer from plenty of food stains. But I fear the pages may stick together forever on this one. Here is hoping I commit it to memory before then. It's the beautiful, lust worthy apricot tart. Doesn't it look like summer on a plate? What I love best, is it's a more highbrow version of those Nanna's apricot pies we used to eat on occasion when we were little kids.

 

Valli Little is no stranger to the kitchen - that is probably the be all and end all of what any of us want from someone writing our cookbooks. But beyond that she is also the food editor of the ubiquitous Delicious magazine. She is the author of multiple cookbooks, a trained chef and an old hat at turning out failsafe recipes worth your time and expenditure on ingredients.

Because the recipes are the kind of eating we love to do best. The Spring and Summer chapters are deserving of space under your tree this Christmas. You want people to be making this stuff, who doesn't want to be invited over for something as simple and delicious as peppered tuna. Or there is a recipe for 8 hour pork belly with a peanut relish. Criminal. I've already made it twice. My butcher is now trying to offer me a leaner cut of meat, I think he smells trouble. The kind created by excessive crackling consumption.

This is going to be on high rotation at your old faithfuls - Dymocks and the like. It's online everywhere and a quick google brings up further options. It retails for $49.99 but I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you might find more competitive online prices.