Whats your favourite cookbook and why?

[Freya]

I have a few little cookbooks but nothing really main-meal wise, mostly desserts/baking. Im looking to buy a few good cookbooks incorporating meats, vegies etc to make main meals.

So tell us what your favourite cookbook is and why?

(ANY cookbook; doesnt matter what its encouraging you to make!)

[Olive]

i love Marie Claire Food Fast!

[Pandora]

oooh I have so many, its had to choose! Really. Im at work I will have to go home and check them out and get back to this one.

[Rouge]

I have a lot of faves:-

Nigellas
Jamies
Martha Stewarts Baking Handbook (this is my baking bible)
Baked (by some guys that run an awesome NYC Bakery)

But my absolute overall cooking bible would have to be Stephanie Alexanders Cooks Compendium (I have two editions and one signed!)
Second to that would be Larousse Gastonomique
And then a few others...

I have a mammoth collection so its hard to pick one

[jackrose]

I am a cookbook fiend! I will read them over a novel any day and have a shelf full of them.

By far, my favourite is Stephanie Alexander's Cooks companion. I love is as it is arranged by food rather than recipe type. That means if I have eggs, I can look up eggs and get a whole lot of ideas. Too many carrots, check out the carrot chapter for inspiration. She also has heaps of tips on how to choose, store and cook everything from Morton bay bugs to Beans (fresh, canned and dried). This is the one book I always go back to.

At the moment my other two favourite are Jamie Oliver At Home, based on his recent tv series cooking from his garden. I am working my way through that one cooking each recipe in it! I just got Karen Martini's Cooking at home for my birthday and have tried a couple of recipes from that - it is really good. (these two are on high rotation mostly because they are my newest!)

One I always go back to reguarly for simple meal ideas are the books by Donna Hay from her Marie Claire days. I find any of the Marie Claire ones good as the pictures are so good - inspirational! - As Olive said, the Marie Claire Food Fast. This one gets a vote from me too. It is good for the meat and veg main meal thing you are looking for.

Otherwise, I regularly check out websites like Taste - they always have new recipes up which are pretty good.

ETA: I also subscribed to Delicious for a year, that was great. There was always something to try in that mag with the added benefit of being seasonal. I like Delicious more than others as I find some Magazines too fancy to really be helpful on a day to day basis (eg Gourmet Traveller - great for a read but not too handy for feeding the family) and some others too simple/bland/boring.

[*TripleJ*]

its the Brentwood park preschool 1997 cook book lol
my mum gave it to me and it has my favourite receipe Mars bar slice lol

[Jennifer13]

My DP is a huge fan of Jamie Oliver, particularly his Ministry of Food cookbook. So I'm a fan of any cookbook that keeps him in the kitchen!!! He likes the easy explanations for making meals, which is what it mostly covers.

For myself, I'm another one for Stephanie Alexander's enormous Cook's Companion. It has absolutely everything I ever need to ask! It is not a picture cookbook, but it really is a must if you want to know how to *do* anything, if that makes sense? Sauce or gravy, roast, bake, what to do with a certain type of food, it covers all of it.

[Curly]

I love Jamie Oliver. He taught me how to cook.

I actually now have a reputation for being a good cook and it's only because I've cooked so many Jamie recipes that I now have a bit of a feel for it. I've never had a failure with him yet. Plus he is English but with a love of Italian food which is my background exactly (English/Italian) so just about anything he comes up with, I love.

Only problem is now whenever I do cook something new my family always say "is this a Jamie recipe?" which is a bit annoying because I have branched out a bit!

Here at home we'd eat a Jamie recipe at least once a week because some of his dishes have made it into our regular rotation, they are so easy I know them off by heart.

[christy]

I too am a Cooks Companion girl...

I also have a few fav's other than that which I use for inspiration:

I have 2 years worth of Delicious mags which I use regularly
Donna Hay Classic
An old Womans Weekly Cake Creations

I don't follow the recipes but I use them for ideas and for flavour combinations.

[amberj]

I'm surprised so many people like Jamie's cookbooks. I have two of them and I can't get in to them, but then I am particularly un-gourmet.

My fave cookbook is a women's weekly one, called "Quick Short Recipes". Yummy, easy food.

I also just bought "The $21 Challenge" and am enjoying that, because it shows you how to use up all the bits and pieces in your pantry.

[Freya]

Great suggestions! Sounds like I should hunt up a copy of this Cooks Companion book, sounds like my kinda cookbook.

I also would love the Jamie Oliver cookbooks. Im not a fabulous or adventurous cook so he seems like he goes at a speed I can keep up with lol

[Phteven]

Does the internet count lol?
I usually google a recipe I want to cook, read about 10 versions and then make up my own.

[anney]

Same as Pony!!! Have sold most of my cook books but still keep a collection of the old womens weekly ones. I like the internet as you put in the ingredients you have and it comes up with something.

[jamakin]

Another Jamie Oliver fan here! i have never had any of his recipes fail me, and i also make at least one of his a week, they've become our staples.
Also use Stephanie Alexanders too, great referance book, especially if you have something unusual in the fridge and you have know idea what to do with it!

Anyone going to see Jamie's live show in Melbourne?

[fourthontheway]

I like Jamie Oliver's recipes, and Nigella, and High Wittingstall (I'm his groupie lol)

But my favourite recipe book .... is actually a magazine! I love super food ideas! They come out every month with amazing, simple, budgeted meals and every time I buy one I use atleast 4 recipes from it, sometimes more! My friends all borrow them too lol I posted some to FNQ not long ago, so they traveled about 2000km and back again lol

[human bean]

I am not the most skilled in the kitchen, and I find my huge Women's Weekly 'Cook' book to be the one I refer to the most. It's big and chunky, divided into eggs, lamb, beef, pasta etc and best of all it's simple. And that's what I need!

[Laranna]

Yup another Stephanie Alexander fan here.

My first cookbook was Family Circle Cookbook - it taught me the basics.

My other faves are Charmaine Solomon's Asian Favourites and the CSIRO ones for healthy family dinners.

[toomanyshoes]

too many to list lol I'm a bit of a cook book junky!

I really love the aus women's weekly "cook" - I think it would be a very good present for someone moving out of home or someone wanted to learn to cook. Its not as over whelming as some of the other big cook books are. Has great pages that explain all different types of noodles and how you would use them, as well as many old and new recipes. its also one of the ones to just have on hand to look up things like nan/mum use to make, IYKWIM?

The crabapple bakery cupcake cookbook is to die for! Super yummy things in there! I used the white chocolate mud cake recipe for my sister in laws engagement cake and 5kg of lindt couverture (cake + filling + icing) oh my! there was not a single crumb left!

Vogue's entertaining + travel latest seasonal kitchen was great also. Some really yummy 'out of the box' things in there!

if your a sucker for a dinner party colin cowie's dinner after dark is lovely! even if just for the BEAUTIFUL pics! but there are also some really lovely recipes and a few things I wouldn't try but over all a lovely book. (he's also got a wedding one which has amazing photos as well!)

thats all I can really think of atm