Cookbooks

Wellington food blogger Lara Vincent, of hungryandfrozen.com, has moved into print with her first book, Hungry & Frozen (Penguin).

Those familiar with her blog will find the same chatty style and quirky recipes: pavlova topped with smarties, halloumi cheesecake, tapenade pikelets.

There are sections devoted to toasted sandwiches and ice creams, as well as to weekend projects, fast dinners and feasts.

 

 



Michael Van De Eelzen, of The Food Truck television series, has his second cookbook out, called, unsurprisingly, The Food Truck Cookbook No.2 (Random House).

He takes the truck to festivals and events and sells fresh, flavoursome and healthy food, and his cookbooks aim to encourage people to cook like this at home.

This book is divided by cuisine, with recipes inspired by Spanish and Argentinian, Mexican, Asian, European, Middle Eastern and Kiwi cuisines.

Some are innovative and unusual, like sweet stem broccoli crunch (stalks of broccoli with the tops covered in blue cheese emulsion and hazelnuts), and there are a handful of brief profiles of food producers and tips for making your cooking healthier.

 



British chef James Tanner's new book, Old Favourites, New Twists: 100 classic recipes with a difference (Kyle) aims to liven up some old favourites with new slants such as watermelon in a Greek salad, cottage pie made with rabbit and cider, a summer pudding made with summer vegetables, or a pear tarte Tatin flavoured with Szechuan pepper.

 

 

 

 



If you like pasta, especially with Italian-inspired sauces, you may enjoy Gino's Pasta (Kyle) by British television chef Gino D'Acampo.

You could eat a different pasta dish every day for months from this book, there's such a variety of recipes (including some sweet dishes) using many different shapes and types of pasta, and a variety of sauces and fillings.

 

 

 

 



So many television shows offer inspirational recipes, but many require techniques that many would-be cooks are unfamiliar with.

These tips and tricks that would have been handed down from one generation to another are often unknown.

Australian food writer Jo Richardson's The Kitchen Therapist: Mastering the basics (New Holland) has lots of advice about ingredients and equipment, plus detailed instructions for each recipe, from boiling an egg to savoury dishes and baking.

But most informative is the side panel by each recipe, ''What went wrong'' which lists some of the things that can go wrong and why, and also has a small photograph of an overcooked, burnt, dry, tough, collapsed or otherwise unsuccessful version that can be compared with a larger photograph of how it should turn out.

A useful book for people inexperienced in cooking but who would like to learn to cook well.

 



Lovers of Vietnamese food will relish Vietnamese Home Cooking (Jacqui Small) by Charles Phan, chef and owner of the San Francisco restaurant, The Slanted Door, noted for its use of fine, locally sourced ingredients.

It is lavishly illustrated with recipes that include street food, steamed, braised, fried and stir-fried dishes as well as Vietnamese versions of Chinese dishes.

There are things you don't find in many other Vietnamese cookbooks, like how to make rice paper pancakes and lots of information about equipment, techniques and detailed instructions for cooking and preparation. A book for enthusiasts and adventurous cooks.

 


 






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