"Probability not possibility"
"Hell, it's only food. Just enjoy it." Jill Dupleix I have a long list of ideas for blog posts in my little notebook, and of late I have been making an effort at getting rid of some of the older ones. This one comes from one that I called 'Confidence/reality - Rachel Cooke' -Rachel Cooke being a most thoughtful contributor to The Guardian, and actually the daughter of Katherine Whitehorn - one of our favourite columnists of the 60s. Alas Rachel died recently - last year I
Sep 27
That postponed 'review'
"There's a quiet confidence in recipes that have so few ingredients, take so little time and yet promise so much." Alison Roman Hello, Again - these are the first words of this book - well the first words from the author - which are sort of relevant to this post because I suppose in a way I have reviewed this book already. I have mentioned it a few times, but today I am in tidy up mode and it's been sitting on my desk, waiting for its official 'review' for a while. When re
Sep 25
Menemen, Ottolenghi and cultural appropriation
"something hot with eggs on it" Itamar Srulovich For Ottolenghi fans the 3rd of this month was a big day - the publication of his next book - this time with long-time colleague in the OTK (Ottolenghi Test Kitchen) Verena Lochmuller - Simple Too. For me the big day was yesterday when the book arrived here. I realise that this is not necessarily a big thing for any of you, but for me it certainly is. And this is the first recipe in the first section Breakfast/Brunch - Meneme
Sep 7
Some Charmaine classics
"I love cooking but I'm bored stiff by the idea of preparing the same kind of food day in, day out. For me, and I hope for you, the excitement of cooking is to be found in creating new dishes, playing variations of old and familiar ones, and in trying recipes from other countries." Which just about sums up my attitude to cooking too. Particularly the boredom of same old, same old, which was a bit of a thing when my sons were teenagers and I was working. Partly because of t
Sep 3
Boring - but it's Neil Perry!
Neil Perry is one of Australia's earlier celebrity chefs I guess. I don't know whether he still cooks in an actual restaurant or just manages his restaurant and business empire. But he is indeed much admired. However, somehow or other I have never really encountered him through books. Maybe he just doesn't put himself out there like Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone and the rest. Maybe he just stuck to being a restaurant chef writing the occasional cookbook - and indeed he has
Sep 2
The price of lamb
This is actually a lucky dip post, and I shall have stuff to say about the chosen book and the chosen recipe - which you have now guessed features lamb - specifically lamb cutlets such as these. Now this photo, found on Google Images, with the caption 'Thanks for the bargain Coles' - it was ironic - is actually old, because the lamb cutlets in this photograph were selling at $45.00 per kg. Now they are selling at $51.00. Ordinary housewives, surely cannot afford that. I h
Jul 14
For the coffee table or the kitchen? Or both?
"it cannot be called merely a cookbook but perhaps more appropriately referred to as a work of art." Gail Cooke/Goodreads It's time to 'review' this book that I acquired some time ago now in a kind of opshop in country Victoria. I 'read' it and put it on my desk to write about some day, and here I am. It is indeed gorgeous as a book. Gail Cooke, who wrote in Goodreads went on to say: "It is among the most beautiful books I've seen with a flower and food bedecked cover so
Jun 17
Rediscovering Valli Little
"our sincere thanks to a woman who changed the landscape of Australian food." Jane de Graaf/Nine On Saturday I'm doing lunch for our lunching friends. We take it in turns to cook lunch every month or so. So I am in early planning mode, and have started looking for inspiration. I decided my starting point would be winter and so I began with Delia and Diana Henry - as I mentioned yesterday. Diana was a bit of a disappointment and Delia did have a couple of things I thought
Jun 3
What am I to do with David Chang?
Today is the day I finish with this book which has been sitting on my desktop for a long time now, with lots of yellow stickers pointing out of it. Only two remain, and so it's decision time after a last post. Do I keep it, pass it on to my daughter-in-law who may find a use for it or put it in the street library? I think I'll eliminate that last option. It's too good for that. Because really my indecision comes down to just two things. First - I confess I am not hugely i
May 16
River Cottage fruit
"If one food was designed, unambiguously, to be eaten, then surely it has to be fruit. We consume it, we spread the seed, more fruit grows, everyone's happy." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Bearing in mind the words above, it's perhaps appropriate that the frontispiece photograph in my next River Cottage Handbook - Fruit - is a perfect photograph of blossom. Potential. From little things big things grow and all that. It's also appropriate because the book is mostly about h
Mar 12
Rick Stein and British food
"It shouldn’t work, but, like most of his work, a bumbling anti-charm somehow wins through." John Merrick/Vittles I've never really been a follower of Rick Stein. I once watched a very short extract of the series in which he was floating down the Canal du Midi in France and I was somewhat underwhelmed. But I did buy this book recently - from Readings bargain table because I thought it was about time I discovered what all the fuss was about. Is he just good at promoting hi
Mar 11
'Yada yada' or indeed blah, blah, blah?
"I found page after page after page celebrating the passion the purveyors of ingredients have for their product … before finally finding a recipe." Lisa Hill/ANZ LitLovers Time to tackle this book which has been sitting around for me to (a) read and then (b) sort of review. I thought it was just me in not recognising how wonderful it is - and it is in a way that I shall come to - but honestly most of the food did not really appeal - but that I think is just me - as I am not
Feb 15
Self-soothing meatballs?
"any shovel-handed buffoon can roll a gob of mince into a rustic ball." Bunny Banyai So I said I would return to the meatball book and here it is - Around the World in 80 Meatballs by a lady called Bunny Banyai. A strange name - well the surname - and hard to pin down an origin, but I think somewhere in the book she mentioned Russia or Ukraine as an ancestral connection. Even stranger, however, is why this particular lady is writing a cookbook, for although she is indeed a
Jan 24
Clear borscht - a first recipe
"the pride of old Polish cooking" Maria Lemnis I'll be up front here and say I'm not inspired by this one. I'm pretty sure I did borscht as most of us know it - a complicated meat and vegetable soup founded on beetroot - long, long, ago, but here I am with a first recipe for a clear borscht, the version of which I have in front of me, with no picture or recipe online and no comments in the book. I chose this picture of The Spruce Eats recipe from Barbara Rolek for Beet so
Jan 17
Nigel's fruit
"And then there was fruit" Nigel Slater And flowers and nuts too. On the cover of this book - a Christmas present that I requested and received from my son and his ex?partner - is - I think - a blurry fig. Inside the cover is a rather beautiful red flower - also in soft romantic focus, but then all of the photographs in this companion volume to Nigel's book on the vegetables in his garden Tender Volume 1 , are taken by his friend and favourite food photographer of the Brit
Jan 8
I'm not quite sure about this book
"No matter what food I make, or where or what I eat, taste is everything." Sabrina Ghayour I was aware of Sabrina Ghayour because of her first book Persiana , references to which I come across now and again. I look out for it every now and then, but it has disappeared from the bookshops - just like NIgel Slater's earlier books. They don't stock old books unless they are huge sellers because there is always something new. So when I saw this one on a Readings bargain table
Dec 18, 2025
Guilt from browsing cookbooks
Don't be fooled by this photograph. This is not another Nigel homage, although he will get a mention or two - well more, but it's not really about him or his recipes. I also don't think I shall have much to say but I did want to say something arising from my attempt to decide what to cook for our friends coming to lunch on Sunday. And yes, I ended up with these three books and some bookmarks, but let me tell you how I came to this, and why I ended up feeling guilty. I wasn
Dec 10, 2025
Nasturtiums - a first recipe ramble
" Besides being delectable, these floral “greens” seem indulgent, whimsical, and oh-so-gourmet." Kitchen Lane The painting is by Monet. He loved them so much that one of the alleys in his garden at Giverny - the main one in fact - was lined with profuse beds of nasturtiums. Everybody says they grow like weeds - are weeds in fact - in the western world anyway - having originated in Central and South America - and then having been brought back by the conquistadores, they spr
Nov 27, 2025
Ixta Belfrage excites again
"Not seasoning food is against my religion" Ixta Belfrage Well it's time I did a kind of overview of this exciting cookbook. It's been sitting on my desk for a while, with a dozen or so yellow post-it stickers poking out of it, saying, cook me, cook me. So today is the day. I just worry that then I will find it a place on my shelves and it will never see the light of day again. Although I see I have already made one thing from it - a passion fruit and white chocolate mou
Nov 12, 2025
Tasty little things that make a difference
"all the added extras that dress up a meal, making an already good dish deliciously better." Tara Wigley?/Extra Good Things After my minor meltdown the other day I have indeed been trying to spend time doing a few other things, one of which is working on that cookbook for the grandchildren. Although I seriously do wonder whether it's worth it. After all they have the internet to help with everything via their phones. Nevertheless I persevere and this brings me to flavour
Nov 9, 2025