This is the second pretty book from healthy eating queens, Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley - the pretty sisters that made the spiralizer last year's must-have kitchen gadget.

But it's not just all nice dresses, lipstick and fluff, I cooked a straight three weeks from this book and think it may have even changed the way I eat for good. Although I thought I ate quite well before, this is a different way of cooking for me that I, and thankfully my family, are really enjoying. Hey, I'm not throwing the bread bin and pasta cupboard out anytime soon but what I have learnt brings a greater nutritional balance to my table which can only be a good thing.

There is a section at the front of the book about their principles of eating well which is sensible, sound advice, then some sort of "reboot" eating plan that personally I just skimmed through as it doesn't suit my lifestyle. What I do like is this movement toward a more positive and nutrition based food attitude rather than faddy diets. Even exercise is leaning towards fit over thin. It's all good.


The title, Good and Simple rings true; there is nothing in here that is particularly tasking to make and everything is nutrition focused. Healthy eating in the current fashion can be quite expensive with cult ingredients but the recipe lists in this book are generally sensible with only a handful of health food shop items. You won't find the need to source any obscure Bulgarian grain that is only harvested by moonlight on the last day of October, thankfully.


As we all know, low fat cooking is so old hat. It's all about eating with nutrition and health in mind but I still have a slight calorie conscious hangover from the 90s that was bothering me during making the quinoa kettle porridge. 8 tablespoons of coconut oil as well as energy packed nuts, dried fruits and coconut, I dread to think of the tally at the end. Still, it was easy to prepare and what parent of small children wouldn't want a grab and go breakfast that isn't a slice of toast? This really did keep me powered until lunch, which for someone that gets up at 5.30 these days (darn you baby!) is no mean feat.


For such a simple recipe, I was most surprised by the quick dahl. It was absolutely delicious and packed with flavour. Even the "you're not turning me vegan are you?" husband loved this. Also, I wasn't sure about serving it with a raw white cabbage slaw but the textural contrast and sharp notes was the ideal partner to the dahl. I've made this four times so far and my fondness isn't waning.


The fish curry again was straight forward. Luckily I have quite a decent larder so didn't need to buy anything special for the curry paste and I made enough to freeze for next time. The coconut milk and tomato based sauce was thick, silky and indulgent with good flavour. Cauliflower rice is something I've turned my nose up at before but now trying it I'm totally on board. I didn't miss real rice at all. Who'd have thought it!
Broccoli rice was another new one on me and good with a simple salmon dish. Also heros of the mid-week were a chicken tray bake with watercress salsa verde and a fiery quinoa biryani.


I'm really loving raw and alternative baking so was keen to try the date and tahini "fudge". The texture was melting, really lovely but the flavour was so soapy from the coconut oil. I have a feeling it was the brand I was using though as I've sourced a much milder version now. Still, the teeny tiny squares stored in the freezer satisfied any sweet cravings I had and the bitterness of the dark tahini I used suited my taste.

Some of the recipes are a bit too simple, the sprout salad was dull, liver and bacon quite standard, I have no need for sandwich recipes and a slice of cucumber with cream cheese on or roasted sprout on a stick won't be featuring at any of my dinner parties anytime soon.

However their version of pesto has come in handy with my own cooking for jazzing up some dishes and the sauces and dips section are also worth trying.

Luckily I'm not really one for dessert or sweet things but was surprised by the amount of cakes and desserts included. See you don't have to swear off the treats!


The book was well laid out and attractive but does contain a few issues. I found some inconsistencies like the recipe method not mentioning one of the listed ingredients and I get really irritated by abbreviations in recipes. EVOO, ACV... it makes the content seem unfinished. 


Will eating these recipes make you as pretty as a H+H girl? No. But the book contains sound ideas for sustainable healthy eating which is a welcome break from the kale and chia brigade.

Hemsley + Hemsley Good + Simple is published by Ebury Press and costs £25.



I received a copy for review but all words and opinions are my own.

It's graphic, it's foodie...you could say Taste, The Infographic Book of Food, was positively written for this blog.

I was lucky enough to be included in a blogger's recipe book for House of Fraser published at the end of 2014. I had a hard time choosing from my recipes but finally decided on my beetroot gnocchi with goats cheese, peas, watercress and walnuts. It's pretty photogenic but also everyone who I've tested it out on (including 3 year old Foodie) loves it.



Anyway, I'm really pleased to be part of the book (more so as I'm the first recipe!). Although I have written for quite a lot of online publications and I have featured in print before in places like Olive Magazine and the Times, it's nice to be featured in a real, live, physical cookbook that I hope people will find helpful.


The book also features 14 bloggers and a range of recipes from Rosemary Red Wine Pears to Blueberry and Coconut Crunch Cake so pick up a copy if you can!

House of Fraser Homewear

There are two types of people. Those that pickle and preserve and those that don't. My family fall heavily in the former camp. The garages under the house in Italy are neatly packed, ceiling high with jars of preserved vegetables and fruits like my favourite, zolle, the pickled tops of the garlic plant. Utterly delicious. They also bottle a year's worth of tomato sauce and until recently, the ceilings were adorned with curing meats like salami and ageing cheeses. It is a haven.

I recently returned from a trip to Italy and high on the fumes of vinegar I am as keen as ever to bring that preserving tradition to my own home. Although I don't have the garden to grow enough produce for year round food, I'll be starting off with easy things like pickled Giardiniere and then go on to mushrooms in oil and maybe some aubergines. But it all takes skill and knowing exactly how to handle and treat the produce to avoid spoiling.



I was sent this copy for review.

You know those books that you never want to end? I positively mourned finishing The Hundred Foot Journey. I saved it like a precious Willy Wonka chocolate bar to take to Italy with me, thinking that I'd be able to catch snips of it here and there over a busy fortnight with the family but no. I devoured the lot in just a couple of evenings.

The Hundred Food Journey tells the story of Hassan and his family who, from painfully humble beginnings, manage to build a successful restaurant from the ground up in Mumbai. The family embark on new beginnings after heart-breaking tragedy strikes, moving to a brief, grim stay in England, then ending up surprisingly, in the small French village of Lumiére. There they open another vibrant, loud and joyful Indian restaurant directly opposite a reserved, traditional, two starred Michelin establishment. They are met with a frosty reception from proprietor Madame Mallory, who begins to find any way to get her new Indian neighbours expelled from the village. Yet after recognising a rare talent in Hassan, she eventually becomes his mentor and the key to his future success.

Most people should enjoy this book, although the latter half, which is dominated by French haute cuisine, the questionable Michelin grading system and chef name dropping is probably more suited to those with a strong interest in food. But the wonderful clash of cultures weave a passionate, emotive story throughout the book. Subjects of food, tragedy, politics, family relationships, romance and a man's struggle against his race and culture to make a success of his talents in a foreign place ensures your attention is grabbed from page to page.


An absolute must read.

The Hundred Food Journey is published by Alma Books and costs £7.99



I was sent this copy for review.

Even though I've now reviewed over thirty cookbooks on this blog, it just hasn't crossed my mind to post up any food fiction reviews. A bit daft really, as I'm guessing if you're reading this, you must have some interest in food and erm, reading. I've adored most of the ifood fiction I've read over the years as food really does translate well to stories you can immerse yourself in.

Based in Barcelona, Vanilla Salt is essentially the story of a stormy Catalan chef who's personality and attitude is killing his formerly popular restaurant. He desperately needs help, even if he resist it at every opportunity by forcing staff to leave or refusing advice from everyone around him. Then a mysterious Canadian cook starts work in his ill-fated restaurant who changes everything about his life.

I was grabbed pretty quickly, with food bloggers, food critics, social media and mention of one of my favourite films of all time, Big Night all featuring in the first few chapters. Also, the real draw of this book is that it has actually been written by a chef, admittedly not one I've heard of before, but her description of cooking and food is so detailed and vivid, you can sometimes taste it. Something that anyone short of being a professional chef probably wouldn't have managed so well. You can also extract quite a few tips in there like thickening sauces with fried bread and ground almonds. Bonus.

I did like chef Alex and thought his character was well created. Passionate, disillusioned, stubborn, arrogant and blinded by his own talent yet incredibly vulnerable underneath the tattoos and aggression. I think we all know one of those chefs! His resistance to use any ingredients who have their culinary origins in America - barbarian food as he calls it - made me laugh out loud although the real reason for his hatred turns out to be far deeper than just being a difficult chef.

Annette, the Canadian, was portrayed to swing wildly from being savvy and well-informed to naive and a tad foolish which made it difficult to gel with her and she did irritate me in places, but this could have been her poor grasp of Catalan which made her come across as a little simple.

As for the plot, it made for an easy read and heart-warming in places although I found the story's pace was a little jumpy toward the end and some of what happened just a little too farcical and thin skinned. It was interesting to read a book that has not only traditional food critics, but social media and blogging strongly dictate the success or failure of restaurants as quite a strong theme

All in all I enjoyed it. Vanilla Salt is light-hearted and definitely something to throw in the beach bag this summer.

COMPETITION TIME (UK only)!



Alma Books have very kindly offered me a set of four food fiction books to give away including:
The Hundred Foot Journey
The Restaurant of Love Regained
White Truffles in Winter
Vanilla Salt 

So if you've still got your summer holidays to go on, that will be your pool side reading sorted. The prize is one set of four books. Entries via the Rafflecopter widget below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


I was sent a copy of the book for review

Do you have folders of recipes scrawled on paper scraps, envelopes and post it notes? Can never find the steak sauce recipe you made that one time? You need this in your life then to organise you whit a bit of style thrown in to boot.

The Illustrated Cooking Journal is beautifully illustrated throughout but contains clear recipe writing areas, with a sensible amount of space to write. I like the provision made for servings, cooking and prep time. There are even sections to divide them into starters, mains and baking as well as a handy measurement section at the back including the mystery that is US cup measurements.

Now, where's that steak sauce recipe? Oh right here!

Michel Guérard was a 1970s legend in the cooking world. He promoted healthy eating and cautious use of fat. Imagine, the French must have fallen off their chaises! As one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine (which one could argue is diet food anyway), he took it one step further and created Cuisine Minceur, an even lighter version of the former.

I'm (proudly) from peasant Italian roots where poverty in the not too distant past came with absolutely no hand-outs. Creating dishes to feed an entire family from a piece of pork fat, a tomato and home-made pasta was an everyday reality not a romanticised middle class tosser recipe out of Waitrose magazine. So I've grown up with an education in frugal dining, and luckily whilst the bank account balances are healthier than the 2 Lire my family had to scrape by with, panzanella, polenta and minestrone are dishes that have helped me out in my student years, at end-of-month squeezes or when we were living on next to nothing whilst on maternity leave and forking out for insane Brighton price mortgages (yeah the design industry SUCKS for benefits). I've always eaten like a queen as Italian food can be utterly economical with absolutely no compensation in taste or satisfaction.
 

Despite the PR meltdown the launch of this book created, with all the misinterpretation of what was said about the working classes, televisions and take-aways, I get Jamie Oliver and I thoroughly agree with him that families can be fed on a budget. All those strange orange ready meals and takeaways are a far more expensive (and far unhealthier) way to sustain yourself and the ones you love. But if you have never had any food education (and yes, well done the government for stripping it out of education you absolute muppets) or grown up with good food, this book may as well be written in Martian. And that's just it. We need to get food education back into the cocking classrooms not writing books or TV series about it. At the end of the day the only people that watch and buy this sort of stuff are those already with a keen interest in food and the middle class tossers that probably know how to throw a plate together for a few quid. You're preaching to the converted Jamie.

If I'm honest, I just don't really know who this book is targeted to. The people Sir Jamie of Oliver is trying to save from a life of miserable microwave meals eaten in front of enormous wide-screen televisions are hardly likely to fork £26 out for this book or really talk the food language of Pappa alle Zucchine, Okonomiyaki or Bahn Mi.

Still at least you are trying mate (and despite your wealth, nowhere near as irritating as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall doing it). If you do manage to capture the hearts and stomachs of those you are targeting, even just a few, then God love you for it. I'll even forgive you the tacky rice and yogurt product placement shots. Just.

I've mentioned before that your average Jamie recipe can cost a small fortune. As for the ingredients and the cost of these recipes, they still use decent ingredients and many include cooking a big joint of (expensive) meat, even if you get it from the supermarket, and using the leftovers in subsequent meals. If you really are on the breadline, or even resorting to food banks, then this book will be of little to no use to you. For your average working family already familiar with the kitchen, then this could be a good option.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of the Jamie Oliver style and this book is largely the sort of mid-week food we eat at home. Big pots, lots of love and bags of flavour with a bit of mess thrown in. Pastas, currys, slow cook meats, chowders, chillis and a recipe for, er, Zombie Brain. I could pretty much eat everything in here, and this will probably be as well used as my other books from him.

There is sound advice on cheaper cuts, food storage, equipment and shopping smarter. Nothing groundbreaking on that front but useful.

So on to the testing. These were all mid-week trials so no roasting meat for 5 hours this time.

The first recipe I tried was the meatloaf, a dish which has always intrigued me. It was tasty, filling and pretty much like a polpettone (big meatball). I thought the 30g of feta was hardly worth buying a pack for (seeing as we're playing on a budget). What I did notice was that portion sizes were remarkably smaller than a classic Jamie recipe, which often goes too far the other way. I guess this keeps the serving cost low and on subject. This was supposed to feed 6 but i would say was closer to 4. I served up this with potato wedges and greens as nothing like this is served in Italy with spaghetti, certainly not the salad also suggested. Tasty, easy, cheap-ish and baby foodie loved it too.



Next up the Sicilian squash and chickpea stew. Very much a Graphic Foodie staple, roast veggie stews fuel this household. This one was a little laborious, but tasty, great for lunch leftovers and the toasted squash seeds and skin sprinkles an inspired idea to add texture to a mushy dish. I think you need some premium olives in this dish otherwise it will lack depth. We just had those horrible pitted green ones in and I think the dish suffered. Dirt cheap to make.

The roast trout with squash and potatoes was so good my toddler ate half of my portion of this (he'd eaten dinner already at his nonnas). Who needs Weight Watcher, eh! So easy, so simple and delicious. Cheap is pushing it a bit, but not budget breaking as trout is a mid-priced option. We've since made this dish a further 3 times.



And finally were the fish balls in a sweet and sour sauce. These looked like they were going so wrong. I used frozen fish to keep cost down and the balls were soggy as I was making them. However, the cornflour came to the rescue and were crisp after cooking although Mr GF decided to squash them into patties. Go figure. The sweet and sour sauce was the best Anglo-Chinese version I have tried. Surprising, fun and delicious!

So another success on the plate. I've got so much bookmarked to make in this that the spine of the book is going to burst. Design-wise, it isn't my favourite Jamie book, the type isn't as sophisticated but is on-topic for looking more approachable and fun. The recipe layout and nutritional information is clear and the photography, as always, is wonderful.

As I said, this is ideal for families and couples looking for decent, interesting meals to cook. I liked this book and I'll use it well for sure. I cook from scratch anyway, so doubt I'll be saving any actual money using this book, but if you do use convenience foods at £2.50-£3 a portion you may notice a saving by switching.

Save with Jamie by Jamie Oliver is published by Michael Joseph and costs £26.00.


I received this copy for review.

You may also like my other Jamie Oliver reviews:
15 Minute Meals 
30 Minute Meals

In the world of cookbooks saturated with celebrity chef endorsements, nameless books are often eyed with suspicion. Sometimes a miss-match of collective recipes (often untested page fillers) they can seem uninspiring and unrewarding to cook. But not always and certainly not in this instance.

Bake is big (an impressive 1.5 inches thick). Bake doesn't have anyone's smug "I'm making so much money" face on the cover. It doesn't even have a name credit on the front. Its gold, typographic cover reveals almost nothing yet if you crack it open it contains page after page of interesting baking recipes from cakes to breads. I think as it focuses on global baking from 13 areas of the world, it holds your attention for almost 400 pages. I'm not one of these hardcore passionate bakers, I can take or leave it and often the saccharin colours, twee design and gaudy decoration of most baking books turns my stomach.




This is a really classically laid out book, and whilst not winning any awards for ground-breaking design, is easy to navigate, has a useful index and some nice touches like a photo of all the ingredients laid out as a visual checklist. It also has progress photography where needed. The images overall are actually quite nice and simply styled, illustrating each recipe perfectly. I suppose the only thing I would want to change is adding an equipment list in the recipe sidebar as most call for a specific cake tin shape and size. That way you could see at an easy glance what you can make with your stock of tins and anything else like cutters, forms and piping bags.



Unusually, I wanted to bake quite a lot in this book, mainly from countries I wouldn't have tried baking from; Moon Cakes from China, Sweet Pierogi from Poland or Siphonoptta cheesecake from Greece. Breads feature too like Pitta, Fougasse, Naan...there is even a recipe for fortune cookies and savoury tarts and rolls. The USA, UK and the French of course, have all of their classics represented (as they should) although I'll never eat another croissant now I know how much butter there is in one!



So after a lot of bookmarking, first up were these little German Baumkuchen layer cakes. And for the first time in my life, the result is the spit of the book image. My whole family loved this cake from the baby to the grandparents. A very unusual batter mix, cooked in thin layers under the grill (get a cuppa and stick the telly on), it was fun to create such a different take on a cake. It is quite wasteful in chocolate and offcuts - but these can be eaten too. I will definitely, definitely re-make this, maybe adding a little orange liqueur to the mix and making a template so I get 100% even triangles. For the effort (hardly any), these were impressive little cakes. The recipe was spot on with the timing it takes to make as well (a recipe feature I like as I am time poor).



I was tempted enough to purchase a Madeleine tray as I do like these little cakes and it turns out they are so easy to make. I ended up baking 3 batches of the lemon and poppy seed Madeleine in a week as they are so quick and take a mere 8-10 minutes to bake. A good one to knock up to take on house visits or get the kids involved with. Will really enjoy playing with the base of this recipe and using other flavour combinations with it.



A Victoria sponge is a classic recipe and the one in this book is exactly that. I've always used a similar ingredient spit as this and gave a light sponge with a fine texture. The second time I make it I substituted half the butter with Chobani strained yogurt (and some lemon and poppy seeds) and the cake didn't suffer much at all, maybe being just a tad dryer.



Seeing as I had the biggest pumpkin in the UK to deal with, I just had to make the Pumpkin Pie in here for Halloween. Thankfully calling for shop bought pastry (I HATE making pastry), the filling was easy enough and the result was pleasant. No soggy bottoms here. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of pumpkin pie but I ate quite a few slices of this one. The spices gave warmth without being too over the top.

As I said, there is so much I want to bake from this book, but I will be giving my hips a rest before trying out a few more. If you like baking, or if like me, the latest series of Great British Bake Off has inspired you to get interested in it again, then Bake is an ideal book for you. I've had quite a few cake books that have been relocated to the charity shop for being unreliable but this one I'm keeping. With the range of recipes, it should be the only one you'll ever need too.

Bake by Love Food is published by Parragon Books and costs £xx0.

I received this copy for review.