Product Description

In Easy British Food James introduces the kind of easy-to-prepare versions of family favourites that he's become famous for - dishes such as cottage pie, Cornish pasties and treacle tart. Alongside these he brings us his recipes for some of the simplest to prepare British classics, including roast beef, poached salmon, and gooseberry fool. Easy British Food is packed with traditional roasts, pies, stews and fries. You'll find all the simplest national favourites - from liver with bacon and onions to home-made Cumberland sausages, from beef and black sheep pie to Welsh rarebit, from jam roly poly to raspberry pavlova.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84502 in Books
• Brand: Books
• Published on: 2005-05-12
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Synopsis
In Easy British Food James introduces the kind of easy-to-prepare versions of family favourites that he's become famous for - dishes such as cottage pie, Cornish pasties and treacle tart. Alongside these he brings us his recipes for some of the simplest to prepare British classics, including roast beef, poached salmon, and gooseberry fool. Easy British Food is packed with traditional roasts, pies, stews and fries. You'll find all the simplest national favourites - from liver with bacon and onions to home-made Cumberland sausages, from beef and black sheep pie to Welsh rarebit, from jam roly poly to raspberry pavlova. But with these are popular new dishes too: pizza margherita, lamb curry, garlic pesto, pea and salmon risotto and creme brulee, which are all made easy in this delicious collection. James is perhaps best loved for his teatime cakes and bakes, and in this book he doesn't disappoint. His irresistible recipes include parkin, shortbread, Madeira cake, doughnuts and carrot cake. Whatever the occasion, Easy British Food has the perfect dish.

Customer Reviews

Great book
As someone who has recently come to back to cooking after too many years of ready made meals, I don't consider myself a natural cook so this book has done wonders for my cooking confidence! These recipes are easy to follow & not only do they taste fantastic but they actually turn out looking just like the mouth watering photos! Its an honest down to earth book full of very tasty recipes for food I grew up on. The ingredients are stuff you have probably already got in your kitchen, as long as you have a decent stock of herbs and spices you'll be fine. I've now bought more of James Martin's recipe books and I LOVE cooking again.

Good Yorkshire food, just like my mum makes...
This is the cook book I use most, unlike most cook books it seems to be aimed at producing food which you eat on a regular basis (pies, roasts, meatballs, curries, simple fish dishes etc) rather than flash dishes designed for entertaining, which most cook books cover. Using these recipes you could create a varied, balanced diet for the entire family/house, that they would never become bored of. If you could learn to cook most of the recipes in this book you would certainly be considered a bit of a culinary genius despite the simplicity of the recipes. It odd to think really that the average Yorkshirewomen (my mum included) used to keep all this stuff stored in their heads!

Anyway back to the book, it covers breakfasts, lunches, dinners, 'teas' and deserts, there are some genuinely excellent recipes in here; simple lamb curry, the meatballs and all the roasts spring to mind, however the book is worth buying just for the 'Beef & Black Sheep Ale Pie' which has to be the nicest pie ever made!

James Martin also suggests a number of 'shortcuts' that makes cooking these recipes easier, which is appreciated as we all know you can take shortcuts in cooking but only some a good idea, the rest usually result in taste disaster, so its nice to hear a professional chef's tips in this area. You do get the impression that this is the way James Martin cooks for himself and family, when he doesn't have to live up to the standards of his professional life, as such I think this is a level of cooking we can all aim at!

Another thing I like about the book is the honesty about the portion sizes (honesty it appears is a pervading theme in the book). When it says 'Serves 4' it means 'four hearty Yorkshire folk' not 'four models on a celery diet', as such most of the recipes almost guarantee leftovers, making tomorrows meal a doddle.

I recommend this to any person who is a bit too busy for home cooking but wants to try and fit some in, with guaranteed success; as well as busy mothers (or the relevant family cook!) and especially students in house shares. As mentioned some of the recipes will be enough to feed a house of four for a week, they're all generally pretty cheap to make and several contain alcohol as well.

James Martin's Easy British food
Bought as a first cookbook for a budding cook - we both found it a good book - both visually and informatively. It is unpretentious, and makes no apologies for shortcuts and use of brand foods.Also - nice photos of Whitby! A good no - nonsense book from a chef who appears to have his feet still on the ground, and who loves his craft.