Recipes said to be collected from Indonesian people fill The Real Taste of Indonesia: A Culinary Journey - 100 unique family recipes (Hardie Grant, pbk, $45), but there's also a lot of information about ingredients, rice and noodles, vegetables, seasonings and herbs, kitchen utensils and techniques.
A brief mention of regional cooking also gives some background to the dishes in this Australian book.
No editor is mentioned and the recipes have not been attributed, but they have been photographed in stylish, contemporary style.
Some recipes can be made with everyday ingredients, although for many you'll need to find things like lemongrass, shrimp paste, laos root and various sambals.
An attractive, accessible book.
Slow cooking to the fore
With the colder weather coming on, slow-cookers are coming out of the cupboards back on to the bench, and slow-cooker cookbooks of all types and persuasions are making an appearance.
Dunedin foodwriter Joan Bishop recently launched the fifth edition of her comprehensive New Zealand Crockpot and Slow Cooker Cookbook (Longacre $30).
Robyn Martin has a third slow-cooker book out, Easy Budget Recipes for Crockpots and Slow Cookers (Chanel, $35).
Apart from a handful of soup recipes and a few for pulses, the majority of the recipes are for meat - chicken, mince, sausages, pork, beef and lamb, including curries, meat loaves and pot roasts.
Due next month is Allyson Gofton's Slow (Penguin, $50).
