My favourite cookbook

I think it is fair to say that I really like cookbooks, and it is hard to choose a favourite. Even after a recent cull of at least a third, I still have two shelves of them near the kitchen, and others stashed around the house. I also save recipes from magazines and newspapers and file them in those ring binders. I find lots of recipes online but there is something lovely about browsing an actual book, looking for inspiration.

I like to be inspired by cook books that have a bit of a story for each recipe, and lots of glossy pictures.  The cookbook by Roald Dahl and his wife is an old favourite, he shares lots of recipes and memories of family gatherings, as well as dishes from his childhood, cooked by his mother and nanny. The sushi cookbook doesn't have many anecdotes, but the recipes and photos are amazing, and my cousin bought it for me while she was living in Japan, so it is special to me.


This is my favourite cookbook, and the first I ever bought. I left home at 16 and had no idea how to cook beyond omelettes and toast. Do you remember book sellers used to drop off all kinds of books in offices, and return a week later to take orders? This is how I came to be the proud owner of the Australian Family Circle Cookbook. I read it on the way home in the bus, it was a bloody revelation after weeks of burnt fish fingers and takeaway.



I love that the chapters are divided in a no nonsense fashion. Recently I went looking for inspiration to cook fish, (being married to a keen fisherman, I am always on the look out for different ways to prepare it) and two cookbooks where very frustrating in that the chapters where divided into 'seasons' (we eat fish all year round here, mate) and implements that you cook with, so chapter headings where 'The Steamer', 'The Fry pan', 'The Roasting Dish'. Excuse me but how annoying! I can put a bloody fish in all those things!!


Inside the covers, The Australian Family Circle Cookbook is full of retro classics photographed in all their glorious early 80's techno colour, or whatever food photography filters they used back then. I know that turkey is sprayed with something and then hit with a blow torch, but I still want to dive in. I remember a flatmate making that Swedish Chicken dish, and those curried carrots where the first thing I made from the book - on my junior admin mail girl assistant wage, they where probably the only thing I could afford! This book has taught me how to make cheese sauce, marinate chicken, make jam, roast meat and cook casseroles.

I still love and use this cookbook all the time, and so does everyone else in this house that cooks. Do you have a favourite cookbook that has passed the test of time?