THE new Ottolenghi cookbook seems to be an annual event now, and Comfort does not disappoint: more than 100 recipes, beautifully depicted, and with what looks like something for everyone. “Turkey rags-to-riches” is flattened fillets that then go through a lemon-herby treatment with butter and wine for a stovetop stew. Pasta dishes, vegetable dishes, potatoes — they all get a celebratory twist, and surely win new fans.
Anna Jones once again turns out a compelling collection with Easy Wins. Taking a number of ingredients for chapters (such as lemons, oil, capers, mustard, garlic, peanuts), she riffs on them to give interesting recipes: hot lemon and bay pudding, for example, or smoky mole-spiced confit tomatoes. And she brings in filler articles on planet-friendly cooking, flavour swaps, seasoning, and texture. It is a smashing volume to read, as well as cook from, for cooks of all levels. Matt Russell’s photography is equally enticing.
Sustainability is a theme in Meera Sodha’s Dinner, “120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes for the most important meal of the day”. The idea of a whole-pumpkin biryani is fun and looks straightforward — “a perfect dish for sharing at Christmas time” — as are the tamarind aubergines and the tahini banana bread. Broadly segmented by principal ingredients per chapter, the book also has an index for seasons and types of dish. It is joyful and is bound to get anyone from couch to kitchen.
In Cooking and the Crown by the food writer who is the Queen’s son, Tom Parker Bowles, we have a handsomely produced title with plenty of chat on what kind of food one is likely to get in a palace. Dividing his chapters along mealtime lines — breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, puddings — he offers an insight into how royal palates have changed over the past 150 years. A “Trio of Curries” gives the dishes enjoyed by Queen Victoria, George V, and Elizabeth II. The late Queen Mother’s recipe for eggs Drumkilbo is there (along with her gin and Dubonnet), as is Queen Camilla’s chicken broth and scrambled eggs. It is fascinating to think of HM at the stove. The gossip is benign, and the recipes are perfectly manageable, with elegant photos by John Carey and fun illustrations by Alice Pattillo. No one is likely to object to this as a gift, and it has coffee-table cachet, too.
Among Mediterranean cuisines, Greece is too often overlooked. Georgina Hayden addresses that gap with Greekish. There is plenty here in 120 recipes to make you roll up your sleeves and get stuck in: golden fish soup, or feta, cherry, and white-chocolate cookies. Or perhaps afternoon camomile-and-honey cake. The design is a sunny as an island holiday, and helpful keys on each recipe show if it is vegetarian, gluten-free, or dairy-free (sometimes all three). Shirley Valentine, eat your heart out.
The Revd Simon Walsh is a cookery writer, journalist, and priest.
Comfort
Ottolenghi (Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh, Verena Lochmuller, and Tara Wigley)
Ebury Press £30
(978-1-78503-891-4)
Church Times Bookshop £27
Easy Wins
Anna Jones
Fourth Estate £28
(978-0-00-852665-8)
Church Times Bookshop £25.20
Dinner
Meera Sodhal
Fig Tree £27
(978-0-241-48800-3)
Church Times Bookshop £24.30
Cooking and the Crown: Royal recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III
Tom Parker Bowles
Aster £30
(978-1-78325-606-8)
Church Times Bookshop £27
Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots
Georgina Hayden
Bloomsbury £26
(978-1-5266-3066-7)
Church Times Bookshop £23.40