Cookery Reviews

Author: The CSIRO

Synopsis: We all want our children to lead happy, healthy lives. We know they need to eat well and be active in order to avoid the lifestyle diseases we hear so much about these days, such as obesity and diabetes. Parents want to do what's right, but many are unsure of how to get started. In response to this growing need for information, the CSIRO presents a step-by-step healthy eating and activity plan for families, based on extensive research. Find out:

* what are healthy foods for kids
* how to encourage kids to be active
* how to motivate your kids to make changes that will last
* how to organise yourself as a parent to make healthy living a reality.

Packed with easy-to-follow advice and more than 100 delicious recipes for stress-free family cooking, The CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids is your complete guide to helping your children on the road to a lifetime of good health.

Buy The CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict
What we liked most about this book is that it is full of sensible advice, about raising happy, healthy children which we believe is what every parent wants to do. We also like the fact that the authors highlight at the start of the book ‘we are mindful that every child is unique, see the book as a starting point that can be used in a number of ways depending on what you and your family need’ Although a large section of the book is devoted to nutrition, with delicious recipes of food that both adults and children will enjoy, it also has other helpful advice about wellbeing. With half-term and the summer holidays rapidly approaching this is a very valuable book for any parent. Highly recommended!

Synopsis: Sophie Dahl, one of the most glorious women on the planet, shares delicious secrets from her slinky kitchen, funny stories and favourite recipes in a beautifully illustrated hardback. With delectable recipes for each season, this luscious abundant take on food will delight women everywhere.

In this beautifully colour illustrated cookbook, Sophie shares 100 of her favourite recipes that show that healthy can be delicious and indulgent.

Sophie lived out the latter part of her adolescence under the public spotlight as the first anti-waif model. Flirting with every food fad from Atkins to raw food, she experienced both misadventures and victories in her quest to have a healthy relationship with food. Now she reveals the recipes that allowed her to eat what she wants while being sylphy as a sapling.

Sophie cooks with gusto and passion and here she takes us on a delicious journey through a wonderful collection of her favourite recipes for every meal and every season - from her Grandmother Gee-Gee's ginger parkin, to her dad's amazing chicken curry to what she serves her boyfriend for breakfast. Try out her mama's baked acorn squash and the delicious student-days favourite 'Paris Mash', plus childhood-fun puddings like Carnation milk jelly or decadent desserts like Chocolate chestnut souffle. Sophie reveals compassionate common sense about food, and serves up a lashing of healthy recipes that celebrate the joy of eating so you'll never want to diet again.

Original, funny, intimate, and quirky with a bit of whimsy, this glorious book is full of wonderful anecdotes and delicious recipes, scattered with Sophie's own lovely Matisse-like line drawings that slope off the page.

Buy Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict
If you missed this book when it was first published, but like us you have been inspired by Sophie’s delicious television series, do buy it now! It is an absolute joy. Her delightful take on life comes through in her very personal commentary and drawings which run throughout the book. The food is exactly as she describes it, ‘indulgent but balanced food that celebrates the simple joy of eating’' More than anything the book oozes with her enjoyment and passion in cooking. Focusing on the seasons and with evocative photography and descriptions Sophie takes us through her favourite recipes for Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer as well as a most delectable collection of puddings. With recipes for every mood, we didn’t just love this book, we adored it! Highly Recommended!

Synopsis: In this much-needed new book, which has already sought high appraisal by winning the Andre Simon Food Book Award, Darina reconnects you with the cooking skills that missed a generation or two. The book is divided into chapters such as 'Dairy', 'Hens and Eggs', 'Bread and Preserving' and forgotten processes such as smoking mackerel, curing bacon and making yogurt and butter which are explained in the simplest terms. The delicious recipes show you how to use your homemade produce to its best, and include ideas for using forgotten cut of meat, baking bread and cakes and even eating food from the wild. The Vegetables and Herbs chapter is stuffed with growing tips to satisfy even those with the smallest garden plot or window box, and there are plenty of suggestions for using gluts of vegetables. You'll even discover how to keep a few chickens in the garden. With over 700 recipes, this is the definitive modern guide to traditional cookery skills.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Skills-Cooking-time-honoured-recipes

Hot Brands Verdict

In this fabulously comprehensive book you will find everything that you could ever want to know about the traditions of cooking.

Many cookbooks are built around recipes, but this is so much more. You almost need to read it cover to cover to appreciate it fully. You also need to read the publishers comment at the front about some of the remedies and advice, but evoking childhood memories this book is packed full with delicious recipes and stunning photography. This isn’t so much a cookbook as a collector’s item. Highly Recommended!

Synopsis: A tie-in to a 6 x 30 minute BBC2 series, Alys's Back garden Fruit and Veg. Gardeners’ World presenter Alys Fowler takes up the challenge to prepare at least one meal a day using only home-grown produce.

However, rather than taking up an allotment, Alys will be serving up feasts with ingredients grown in her small suburban backgarden. And there'll be no sign of traditional, regimented rows in raised beds, compromising the beauty of her cherished outside space. Alys has a wonderful new approach to growing fruit and veg: she’ll transform her garden into an area where tomatoes sit happily next to roses, carrots are woven between the lavenders and potatoes share space with the hedge. The hearty dishes she serves up will show that nobody will be going hungry on her avant-garde grow-your-own regime, and she’ll meet experts who will teach her how to preserve, pickle and store her wares, too.

Young, chic and urban, Alys is at the forefront of this revolutionary new style of gardening. She is marrying the delights of growing your own, and the sheer joy a beautiful flower garden, all in a small space, and is on a mission to demonstrate how anybody can do it. Good for the pocket, good for the environment and hugely rewarding, Alys’s modish edible landscaping will inspire a new generation of urbanites to get digging.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edible-Garden-How-Have-Your/dp/1846079748

Hot Brands Verdict
What we love about this book is the sheer joy of gardening as expressed by Alys. Anything is possible in her gardening world, whether you are a novice, or experienced gardener you cannot fail to be inspired by the way that she encourages you to jump in and experience gardening in all its glory. Anything is possible, tomatoes next to roses, carrots woven between lavenders and potatoes grown in pots on the patio. When you have grown it, she also shows you how eat it with delicious recipes. Beautifully photographed, your escape to the country can be closer than you think. We loved it, and the television series currently running too. Highly Recommended!

Synopsis: Jamie does…is Jamie's personal celebration of amazing food from six very different countries. Cheap, short-haul flights and long weekend getaways have become increasingly popular and within a few short hours of the UK there are new and exciting worlds of food waiting to be discovered as Jamie finds out.

Each chapter focusses on a different city or region - Marrakesh, Athens, Venice, Andalucia, Stockholm and the Midi Pyrenees region of France. Classic recipes sit alongside new dishes that Jamie learns along the way. Alongside each recipe there is a beautiful photograph of the finished dish, as well as incredible reportage shots of Jamie's experiences in each country.

Jamie says: 'The food I’ve embraced on each trip is a mixture of what you could call the clichéd star dishes - the many tagines of Morocco, the flamboyant paellas of Spain, the comforting risottos from Italy and the zingy fresh flavours of a classic Greek salad - and the recipes that I’ve been inspired to make after walking through the markets and soaking up the vibes of each place. What you'll find in this book is fun, optimistic, escapist food you can actually cook and enjoy in your own home.'

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamie-Does-Oliver/dp/0718156145

Hot Brands Verdict
We always get excited when there is a rumour of a new Jamie Oliver book and Jamie does….really exceeded our expectations.

Jamie is without doubt one of our most accessible chefs, and his conversational style coupled with the wonderfully intimate and atmospheric photography from his long time photographic partner David Loftus, is an absolute delight.

Making his way around Europe, creating delicious meals, meeting local people, followed by the recipes means that this not just a cook book, it is a wonderful escapist treat, and we loved it. Highly Recommended !

A six-part accompanying TV series started on Channel 4 on Wednesday 14 April at 9pm. don’t miss it!

Read the book,watch the series, kick-back, relax, pure bliss!

Synopsis: Katie Caldesi travelled the rice fields of Italy's northern provinces and the lemon groves of the south, the richly diverse urban and rural terrains and patchwork regions. She collated recipes, techniques and ingredients to create this unique compendium of Italian food. "The Italian Cookery Course" will guide you through the vast collection of famous recipes and lesser-known regional dishes, with clear instruction on how to replicate them at home. The book is broken down into straightforward chapters including 'Meat', 'Fish', 'Dolci' and 'Cheese'. Each chapter contains 'masterclasses' on technique, revealing the practical secrets of Italian cooking and giving the reader new confidence in the kitchen. All this is interwoven with fascinating narration about the culinary influences that have come together to create this wonderful cuisine.

http://www.kylecathie.co.uk/

Hot Brands Verdict
This is an absolute gem of a book, full of techniques, Masterclasses, ingredients and traditional recipes. The photographs inside are delightful, images of food, people, and places that capture the spirit of Italy. With delightful titles, like Thunder and Lightening Soup, and Duck with Orange Sauce which is set against a stunning sunset, you won’t just cook with this book you will take a gastronomic tour through Italy. If you can’t get away to Italy this will take you there in spirit. We loved it! Highly Recommended!

Synopsis: Bake & Decorate is the stunning debut book from cake designer Fiona Cairns.  Dazzle and indulge friends with modern magnificent treats that taste divine, using very simple decorating secrets to create impressive cakes and cookies.

Bursting with ideas for delicious cakes and cookies that will make you go weak at the knees, this book not only shows how to decorate but also how to master the art of successful baking. The first section of the book focuses on baking, and here there are over 30 delicious recipes for large cakes, small cakes and biscuits aimed at those with little or no baking experience.  In the second part of the book Fiona provides ideas for over 50 fabulous decorating ways.

Buy Bake and Decorate from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict
Cakes are one of our passions here at Hot Brands, particularly for OUR Creative Director, who uses every spare moment to create fabulous cakes and she really loves this book. Beautifully illustrated with detailed recipes, including such delights as Pistachio and Orange Blossom cake, Very Lemony Crunch Cake, Easter Chocolate Truffle Cake, Summer Berry Rose-scented Meringue, and Easter Tree Decorations, and the delightful Daisy and Sunflower Cupcakes. This is a book to treasure, whether you are a beginner, or more experienced you will find inspiration in this delightful book. We loved it! Highly Recommended!

Synopsis: Learn how to make the most of your oven, wok, spice cabinet and grill with this series of cookbooks featuring easy and reliable recipes.
The popular techniques-based It series is packed with attractive, easy recipes for the home cook. Step-by-step photography and detailed information on cooking techniques, utensils and ingredients make this series a kitchen library must-have.

This new release of the series features fresh contemporary covers in the 'Original Chunky' format that will inspire a new generation of home cooks.

Buy Bake It (It Series) from Amazon.co.uk

Hot Brands Verdict
Part of the  ‘It Series’ of books, this is a fabulous collection of recipes about baking. Covering Bread and Muffins, Cakes, Biscuits, Bars and Slices, Pastry, Baked desserts, and On the Side, which includes a delicious collection of sauces. Every recipe is illustrated with mouth-watering images. In a handy size this is a book destined to become a kitchen must-have, full of delicious ideas for breakfasts, lunch, dinner and of course afternoon tea! Highly recommended!

A year-round guide to growing your own vegetables and fruit, so that you can enjoy the incomparable taste of homegrown produce, with over 60 delicious recipes

Synopsis:
As the New Urban Farmer, Celia shares her gardening expertise, picked up since taking on her allotment plot in November 2005 and learnt through a combination of hard graft, trial and error, and shared tips from the other allotmenteers. This knowledge has been distilled into a year-round gardening book that is part-journal, part-gardening manual and part-recipe book with one aim: to inspire you to cultivate and enjoy your own delicious homegrown produce.
The New Urban Farmer is divided into four main sections – one for each of the seasons – and within those seasons it is further divided into individual months. For each month of the year Celia starts with a rundown of what is both good to sow and good to eat. Moving through each month, Celia highlights the key jobs for that period along with the main stars of the vegetable plot, finishing up with mouth-watering recipes that will put that month’s harvest to best use.
For keen growers without an allotment, Celia also gives advice throughout on raising crops in pots, growbags and window boxes. Urban, edgy, green and honest, this is the ultimate book for beginner gardeners.

Hot Brands Verdict
This is a great concept, combining gardening with cooking. During 2009 more and more of us became interested in gardening, and this stylish book is a perfect guide for anyone who is beginning to get green fingers. Beautifully photographed, it is divided into four sections, and under Celia’s guidance you discover what is best to plant, a list of what to do when, and how to turn what you have grown into delicious meals. From Plot to Plate, absolute genius! So if you are looking for a healthy and fulfilling spring and summer, this book is perfect. We loved it ! Highly Recommended !

Buy New Urban Farmer from Amazon.co.uk