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(Penguin) is a collection of recipes from Amanda Laird's columns in the New Zealand Herald's "Viva" magazine. The Auckland writer and owner of Ruby Red cafe includes Polynesian, Asian, Indian and American influences in her many enticing recipes, such as Jewish egg salad with anchovies, dill and mayo, served with pumpernickel; warm roasted parsnip salad with blue cheese; caramelised pork belly with rice and Asian greens; a gluten-free orange and passionfruit cake flavoured with Drambuie; or old fashioned honey ginger snaps.
Rosie Lovell, owner of a cafe in Brixton, London, loves to tweak and twist the flavours of dishes, as is evident in her latest book, Supper with Rosie: Recipes gathered from family, friends and far-flung places (Kyle Books). She spices up a classic chocolate cake with
Mexican flavours of cinnamon and chilli, jazzes up a tzatziki with radishes and chilli, and loves Asian aromatics. Her recipes range from comforting soups like French onion with a dollop of soy sauce, and practical recipes for midweek dinners like cinnamon vegetable moussaka or Puy lentils with goat's cheese, to weekend cooking and feasts for friends.
There are also a few recipes for preserves - the sign of a grown-up cook is a person who not only cooks every day but someone who also makes preserves for the store cupboard, she writes.
Gifts of food, whether a jar of chutney or some beautifully wrapped biscuits or truffles, are always welcome, so Jane Lyster's Edible
(New Holland) will be too for those who like to cook. The UK writer includes instructions for packaging and making boxes, knitting lace to edge jam covers and even edible labels, but the recipes range from shortbread, macaroons, fudge and toffee apples through home-made pasta, marinated olives, pates and chutneys, to elderflower cordial and tea infusions to mulled wine bags, Christmas tree biscuits and gingerbread men. A delightful book.
At Home on the Range, by Margaret Yardley Potter (Bloomsbury), is a republication of a book first published in 1947 with an introduction by Potter's great-granddaughter Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling memoir, Eat Pray Love. Potter, a food
columnist for the Wilmington Star in North Carolina, was an intrepid food writer, exploring the cuisines of her part of the world, going to Pennsylvania to eat Dutch pickled pork, or Maryland to learn to catch and prepare eels. Her topics range from feeding unexpected guests (or hungry teenage boys), making bread, salad dressings of various types, to effortless entertaining with a buffet, or setting up a kitchen on a budget.
Some of the recipes would take some effort today, requiring calves' or pigs' feet, but the book gives a fascinating insight into cooking in the eastern US in the mid-20th century.
For those concerned about what's happening to the climate and environment or who would just like to grow their own food, Outside the Magic Square: A handbook for food security (Wakefield Press), by Australian Lolo Houbein, will be of interest.
It's a sequel to One Magic Square that offered lots of advice on growing your own vegetables in one or more square metre.
Influenced by Michael Polan (In defence of food and The omnivore's dilemma), and Felicity Lawrence's shocking Not on the Label, Houbein's book can make for worrying reading as she writes about topics such as dwindling supplies and rising prices of oil, fresh water, and farmland.
However, it contains advice about how to lessen your carbon footprint, grow your own food, develop community gardens, and suggestions for cooking, using up leftovers and eating healthily.