FOOD FILE:The pick of the new crop of bright and summery cookery books
A PLATTER OF FIGS AND OTHER RECIPES
David Tanis (Artisan, $35)
For six months of every year, David Tanis is head chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, and for the remaining six months he runs a supper club in Paris, cooking for groups of 12 guests from a galley kitchen in his 17th-century Left Bank apartment. His handsome, US-published cookbook is not exactly new; it was released last year, but I had to wait a couple of months for Amazon to deliver it. And it was worth the wait. (I recently saw it on the shelves of Waterstones.)
This isn’t a cheffy, technical book – the irony implicit in the title is a clue in this regard. Tanis describes it as both “a book about eating as much as it is about cooking”, and “a collection of menus: meals of simple food, simply served”. This, from the cook who caught the attention of the legendary Alice Waters by serving her “a piece of salmon on a cutting board, with a bowl of salt alongside and a lightly dressed pile of tiny greens”, which she later described as “both intriguing and satisfying”, is something of an understatement. Restraint is a feature of Tanis’s cooking as well as his writing, but his creations are also elegant, thoughtful and inspiring. You can book a place at his supper club, called Aux Chiens Lunatiques, at www./monsite.wanadoo.fr/chienlunatique. Must cook: Cherry almond clafoutis.
IN THE MOOD FOR ENTERTAINING
Jo Pratt (Michael Joseph, £20)
Now that we’ve had to take stock of the cost of eating out, the dinner party – or more often the kitchen supper – is cool again. Jo Pratt’s new book, a sequel to In the Mood for Food, will provide inspiration for all sorts of gatherings, from “midweek masterpieces” to “ready, steady, dinner party”, and most useful of all, a chapter on “feeding a crowd”. There are wine pairing suggestions, too. Pratt, a glamorous, blonde yummy mummy, has style in spades, and a light, engaging writing style. Her recipes are modern, clever, and sprinkled with great tips such as making instant banoffee ice-cream, with frozen banana chunks, ready-made custard, double cream and toffee sauce blitzed in a food processor. Simple, but inspired.
Must cook: Seared scallops with smoky leeks and orange butter.
MINCE! 100 FABULOUSLY FRUGAL RECIPES
Mitzie Wilson (Absolute Press, £12.99)
Who hasn’t stared at a bag of mince and felt bereft of inspiration? There’s life beyond spag bol, as Mitzie Wilson’s timely collection illustrates. It’s a cosmopolitan affair, with recipes from all over the world with only one thing in common – minced particles of beef, lamb, turkey, venison or pork. Wilson, a former editor of BBC Good Food and Delicious, is a veteran recipe writer, and she has also coaxed favourite mince recipes from a host of celebrity chefs including Marcus Wareing, Tana Ramsay, Angela Hartnett, Phil Vickery, and the ubiquitous AWT. Must cook: Crispy stir-fried pork with lemongrass and chillies.
FRESH FROM THE SEA
Clodagh McKenna (Gill Macmillan, €19.99)
I’ve been critical of Gill Macmillan’s “textbook-style” approach to cookery book publishing in the past, but this TV series tie-in is a vast improvement, with great use of colour, a bright, lively layout, and superb photographs by Alberto Peroli. There’s plenty of “how-to” information, lovely profiles of fishermen, fishmongers and fish smokers, and those photographs, that make me want to hot-foot it to the nearest fish shop for supplies. Must cook: Fish stew with almonds and saffron.
THE SEAFOOD LOVER’S COOKBOOK
Martin Shanahan and Sally McKenna (Estragon, €15)
A second helping from the duo of Martin Shanahan, chef/proprietor of Fishy Fishy Cafe in Kinsale, and Sally McKenna, publisher, writer, designer, and in this case food photographer. Recipes for fish for breakfast, fish for lunch, fishy treats, fishy favourites and fish for dinner, plus a useful directory of fish shops around the country.
Must cook: Casserole of red gurnard with prawns in a tarragon cream.
FAY’S FAMILY FOOD
Fay Ripley (Penguin/Michael Joseph, €24)
You’ll recognise Fay Ripley as the dotty loudmouth from Cold Feet on TV, but she is also a mother of two young children, and a talented cook. The idea behind her book, she says, is “to cook food from which you can remove your babies’ and kids’ portions, if needs be, before adding the more challenging ingredients for yourselves; or better still, all tuck in together.” There’s a good sprinkling of wit scattered among the recipes, so it’s a good read, too.
Must cook: Sweet marinated pork fillet.
FLAVOUR: A WORLD OF BEAUTIFUL FOOD
Vicky Bhogal (Hodder Stoughton, €20)
Vicky Bhogal’s culinary origins are Punjabi, and the regional Indian cooking she grew up with was the subject of her award-winning first book, Cooking Like Mummyji. But with this stylish new release, she dispenses with borders, and opens her palate to ingredients based on their flavour, “rather than checking the origins of a dish or ingredient before I can stamp it as approved to sit on my plate”. The result is a stunning, beautifully produced and original collection of recipes that surprise and delight.
Must cook: Leg of lamb with black cherries, tamarind and walnut.
SERIOUSLY GOOD! GLUTEN-FREE COOKING
Phil Vickery (Kyle Cathie, €22.50)
You’d never know, at first glance, that there were any dietary restrictions attached to the recipes in this book; they all look appetising, and the variety of ingredients used seems unrestricted. But none of them have ingredients containing gluten, which means that coeliacs can use it to plan meals to share with others, without having to cook separate dishes. So, a gluten-free diet doesn’t have to be restrictive? Vickery, already used to improvising, from his Ready, Steady, Cook appearances, rises to the challenge. Must cook: Chestnut and roasted onion bread.
mcdigby@irishtimes.com