Book Review: "Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course"
So - this is my first ever proper entry, and as such might be a bit pants. Guff aside, I thought I'd start by waxing lyrical about my favourite cookery book.
It's this: Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course.
It costs about 30 quid and is quite easily heavy enough to cause a nasty concussion should it drop on you from the top of the kitchen cupboards.
It's not perfect. The layout is sometimes confusing, and there are a handful of comedy pagination issues which means that you get directed to pages that sometimes don't contain the reference you are after. But, there are plenty of reasons for me to love it.
1. I have never, ever, had a bum recipe from this book. Everything I have made using recipes in here turns out well - and I've made an awful lot of the food in this book.
2. There aren't too many pictures - they're just not needed. If you don't know what a roast chicken or a biscuit looks like then there is simply no helping you. I don't need to see the thing, artily shot and made shiny with hairspray. I just need to be told exactly how to cook it in words of as few syllables as possible. Most of the time I cook hungover. I can follow her recipes even when reading hurts and I'm still sweating gin - that level of clarity is no mean feat.
3. It's not just poncy food. Sure - sometimes I want to impress someone and ideally avoid poisoning them, but there is also basic information and tips in there for food to chill out with, or to make when you get home from work and even a Pot Noodle seems ambitious.
4. Her food tastes nice. Really nice.
5. There are millions of recipes in there, so you get god value for your 30 hard earned sheets.
6. It's silver and shiny. Mmmmm, pretty.
That's it for now. More later - might pop a few of my recipes in, otherwise I'll forget them.
It's this: Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course.
It costs about 30 quid and is quite easily heavy enough to cause a nasty concussion should it drop on you from the top of the kitchen cupboards.
It's not perfect. The layout is sometimes confusing, and there are a handful of comedy pagination issues which means that you get directed to pages that sometimes don't contain the reference you are after. But, there are plenty of reasons for me to love it.
1. I have never, ever, had a bum recipe from this book. Everything I have made using recipes in here turns out well - and I've made an awful lot of the food in this book.
2. There aren't too many pictures - they're just not needed. If you don't know what a roast chicken or a biscuit looks like then there is simply no helping you. I don't need to see the thing, artily shot and made shiny with hairspray. I just need to be told exactly how to cook it in words of as few syllables as possible. Most of the time I cook hungover. I can follow her recipes even when reading hurts and I'm still sweating gin - that level of clarity is no mean feat.
3. It's not just poncy food. Sure - sometimes I want to impress someone and ideally avoid poisoning them, but there is also basic information and tips in there for food to chill out with, or to make when you get home from work and even a Pot Noodle seems ambitious.
4. Her food tastes nice. Really nice.
5. There are millions of recipes in there, so you get god value for your 30 hard earned sheets.
6. It's silver and shiny. Mmmmm, pretty.
That's it for now. More later - might pop a few of my recipes in, otherwise I'll forget them.
posted by stevie at 9:22 PM
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