Neil's cookbook of the week: Home Cook by Thomasina Miers

Some of you may remember that I used to present a programme on BBC Radio Scotland called The Kitchen Café. It was a great time in my career. Cooking on the radio is harder than you think. I met so many great people and for several years we recorded groundbreaking radio, different every week. I got to interview so many of my culinary and non-culinary heroes.

Ottolenghi was a highlight. We spoke for about an hour about garlic and cumin—he was a lovely guy. I interviewed Thomasina Miers, the founder of Wahaca. She had just written a book called 'Home Cook'. I was sent a copy, and I read it cover to cover. It really gelled with me. I understood it and wanted to eat almost all the dishes—and that is over 300 recipes.

She was so warm and gentle, and it was a great interview. I was looking through my old notes of that day. Yes, I was a tad nervous, but it is great to be able to ask some different questions about how and why. For a while, I felt like the great Terry Wogan… OK, maybe not.

This book is for the home, yes—but as we all seem to be edging towards simpler food in restaurants (and about time too), this book is timeless. There is something for everyone here.

Obviously her thing is Mexican food, with tacos and spice—which I adore—but there is a universal food approach here that includes shepherd’s pie, crispy chicken thighs, gnocchi, curry, a delicious grilled halloumi and peach salad, and so much more.

I had not picked this book up in a while—now I can’t put it down.

Neil's cookbook of the week: Steak by Tim Hayward

‘Steak, The Whole Story’ by Tim Hayward is a great book. It contains a huge amount of knowledge and has everything you need to know about meat and beefy goodness: how to buy it, where to buy it, store it, butcher it, season it, cook it, rest it and carve. Then the important part—how to eat it and what with.

I really like Tim, and his writing has always fascinated me. He even reviewed us years ago, for the Financial Times I think it was. With a vast encyclopaedic knowledge of all things food, Tim delves right into the subject. He acknowledges that he learns himself from the process, and what I adore is always the simplicity he craves.

This is bold and brash. A book for meat lovers, steak lovers, full-blown carnivores. A book for people who dream of that fatty bit in the middle of a rib-eye steak, who save the last chip to mop up the juices on the plate, who are quite honestly one step away from being a vampire—and folks, I am one of these people.

There are great recipes here and techniques, but I really like how this book is laid out. It is easy to follow and fun too. There are pros and cons for every steak, and everyone has their favourite. Me? Depends on my mood, I suppose.

There is a time and place for every steak, but the thinking man’s steak—the rump—is good, full of flavour, you have to work at it. Fillet is rather posh, very tender. Sirloin is a real favourite in our house, as is the mighty rib-eye, but a flat iron has a delicious, almost gamey or offal-like feel about it.

To be fair, there is too much choice. I love them all—and with watercress, chips (beef dripping ones), and béarnaise please, if you are offering.

Neil's cookbook of the week: The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

This week’s book is a big one—quite literally—as it is over 700 pages of incredible information about the food of Italy. ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking’ by Marcella Hazan is a real go-to for a technique, a style, a recipe, a dish, a classic favourite, or how to do something. It has hundreds of recipes and guides you through the basics to slightly more complex dishes. It is a valuable book to have on your shelf, although a bit daunting due to the size.

This was given to me as a gift from my youngest son Louis and his girlfriend Frank, who is from Sicily. Some of you may recall our carbonara cookery competition, which I lost. This was given as an olive branch, as I was in a huff, and to teach me how to cook proper Italian food—and it is very good. No pictures here, but a few good illustrations about how to fill ravioli or roll pasta, but it is a book to read, not to gaze at images. Trust me, everyone would get something from this book. Nigella Lawson said, “If this were the only cookbook you owned, neither you nor those you cooked for would ever get bored.” I agree.

Neil's cookbook of the week: Hokkaido by Tim Anderson

This week I am sharing a beautiful cookery book—a book that recently has helped me open my mind and understand food from different cultures. ‘Hokkaido: Recipes from the Seas, Fields and Farmlands of Northern Japan’ by Tim Anderson has been such a great read. It takes you on a food holiday to somewhere we did not know existed. An incredible story, with wonderful people, and an almost forgotten region.

The Ainu people migrated many centuries ago from northern Russia to this island, and the word ‘Ainu’ means ‘land of humans, land of gods’. These proud people have been treated badly in history, with governments allowing logging and dam building—but now, with help from the UN, these Indigenous people have their ancestral lands forever.

This book tells of the power of food, food history, and the connection we all have with it. It focuses on different places around the island and what is good to eat there. Some familiar dishes—like ramen and noodles—to sashimi, scallops, clams, and even a smoked venison sausage using Ezo deer (a species new to me).

The images in this book are fantastic. It has a colourful, almost Japanese cartoon feel. One chapter I really enjoyed was on croquettes. There are so many potatoes grown on the island and they are lovely with a curry, burger—who knows! Let us open our minds and enjoy this book for being fun, different, and educational.

Neil's cookbook of the week: The Balkan Kitchen by Irina Janakievska

It could only be one book this week, and of course it is 'The Balkan Kitchen' by Irina Janakievska, winner of 'Narrative Cookbook of the Year' at the inaugural Food Seasons Awards at The British Library, which I was lucky enough to help judge. This is a great book—one that delves into under-explored food communities, with food history and culture at its core. I adore it and know I am going to learn so much from each chapter.

It shows the power of food, and many of the dishes are completely new to me. It is a book for teaching and exploring another part of the world, where inspirations collide and flavours mix—from hints of the east, west, and everything in between. A treasure trove of delicious recipes and very good photography.

I especially enjoyed the personal stories—heartwarming tales that show just how much food and its history can mean. I love the dish that is similar to haggis, and Imam Bayildi—a dish that looks incredible. I adore aubergines, and according to legend, this one made an imam faint from sheer deliciousness.

The bread section is excellent, full of interesting ideas. One that stood out for me is Soparnik, a herby chard and wild garlic flatbread-style pastry, generously drizzled with olive oil.

This is a brilliant cookbook, shining a light on an often-overlooked food culture from the Balkans, and showing how food sits at the heart of a place, even in a rapidly changing world. Rush out and get yourself a copy.

Neil's cookbook of the week: The Edinburgh Book of Plain Cookery Recipes

This book is very special to me, given as a thoughtful gift by a dear friend on our five-year anniversary at Cafe. It is a wonderful book, and again from the 1930s, when a cookbook consisted of so much more than just dishes with recipes. It was about how to run a house, how to be frugal, thrifty, sensible, and how not to waste food. Keeping a tight ship is always a good idea, and 'The Edinburgh Book of Plain Cookery Recipes' is so good—it is fabulous reading, prepared, as it says in the front pages, for The Edinburgh College of Domestic Science.

This really appeals to me, as my great-grandmother went to a cookery school in Edinburgh in the later part of the 19th century. I do not know which school it was, but flicking through this book makes me wonder if she would have known this place. She worked as a cook at The Royal Hotel in Coupar Angus and met her future husband, my great-grandfather, there. He was an ostler—someone who looks after horses and carts—and the rest is history.

There are some incredible dishes here, with my favourite being ‘Poor Man’s Goose’, which contains no goose at all, but sheep’s liver and heart, bacon and onions, layered up with sliced potatoes, sage and onion—it actually sounds quite nice. And still with a French influence, as there always will be, with croquettes and a good recipe for Maître d’hôtel butter to go with grilled steaks.

With a section on invalid cookery and how to make sandwiches, there is something for everyone here. If you can find a copy of this book, I would buy it—it is quite rare.

Neil's cookbook of the week: The Food of The Scots by Alexander Fenton

My choice of book for you this week is not really a recipe book at all, but a wonderful compendium: ‘The Food of the Scots’ by Alexander Fenton. This book has been such a great read. It is never far from me and is full of interesting facts and figures about what Scots used to eat and drink throughout time.

Until relatively recently, we ate a simple diet of oatcakes, cheese, broth and some meat. Very few wild plants were used, and although crops were grown, it was simple fare. It takes me back to tales from my grandfather, who was sold at a fair in Dundee as fee’d work, to be employed on a farm as a labourer. All his wages were paid to his parents, and he was given lodgings — a very simple straw bed — and food, which consisted of a short menu of potatoes, onions, milk, and sometimes, as young boys, they would be invited into the farmhouse to eat with their employer. Fascinating stuff.

Life was harsh, but records show that if you did have money, you ate quite well — especially at festival times such as Christmas, Beltane, Whitsunday and Easter — when animals were slaughtered and feasts were had. The main diet consisted of oats, which grew easily in a wet and rather damp environment. This book focuses beautifully on what we actually ate throughout history.

Peasemeal was eaten a lot and called brose, although a savoury porridge of oats was also referred to as brose. It was commonly offered around the hearth at most mealtimes, filling children’s tummies and providing a very healthy staple. Beremeal was another grain used, preferred in the Highlands and Islands over oats. A form of barley, it was again a staple — used to make a bannock and served with butter, cheese or honey, perhaps. But there was always a pot of soup simmering away on the hearth.

The wealthy would be eating lots of beef and veal, shellfish, all sorts of game, and spending a lot of money on it too. Cheesemaking was a great way to preserve milk, which happened in the summer months before fridges, so it was vital to preserve as much as possible — even the blood from a freshly slaughtered pig, used to make black pudding.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: A Bird in the Hand by Diana Henry

This is a true favourite of mine. There’s something hypnotic about cooking a chicken, and here Diana Henry does it so well in many different ways in A Bird in the Hand: Chicken Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood. Nigella has said, “I wish I had written this book,” and I can see why. I think Diana has written over ten books now and is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers.

I got this copy from an event she hosted at the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School, and as she was signing it, she told me—not to tell anyone—but Café is her favourite restaurant. So many great recipes here: a chicken with prunes and red wine really floats my boat, as does her way of roasting a bird with thyme, lemon and smashed garlic potatoes.

Diana has the ability to produce food that we actually want to eat. Food that can grace any table, is full of flavour when shared with loved ones, and comes with easy-to-follow recipes. It’s making me dribble like Tinto just reading it—and any leftovers (if there are any) are always welcome the next day. Versatile and a real crowd pleaser, chicken isn’t a boring meat when a master like Diana is in control. I like this book a lot.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Taste of the Sea by Rick Stein

This week I have chosen a great book from one of our favourite all-time seafood chefs, Rick Stein. He has been cooking with passion for many decades and providing us with many happy hours of television. It would be hard to dislike what he does. I have always said, he has the best job on the planet. He gets to travel the world, cook beautiful day boat fish, doesn’t bother what the critics say about him, seems very happy, enjoys a glass of wine and has written scores of books, many of which we all have.

He is a true master of the craft of fish cookery, and I admire his rustic, often sometimes chaotic approach to cooking. He really enjoys what he does, and it shows. What I like about him is that he is always learning and noting things down. This book 'Taste of the Sea' is, I believe, his first book with a television programme, showing off the picturesque corner of the world, his beloved Cornwall, with chocolate box villages, seaside harbours and estuaries full of food for him to play with.

The Telegraph newspaper's quote on the back of the book reads: “We should treasure Rick Stein” and I agree. There are over 160 recipes here, both classics and some different takes. His signature dish appears here, tronçon of turbot with hollandaise, such a simple dish, and one I will order if I ever get to his fabulous-looking restaurant. If you haven’t picked this book up for a while, I would suggest you do so today. It is a very good book indeed.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Recipes of the 1940's by Irene Veal

I felt that, as it is a week of remembering the end of the war in Europe and victory for the Allies, it would be a good idea to share a book from the 1940's. The war was fought just as much at home as on the battlefield — with the ever-worrying knock on the door, women working the land, working as mechanics, and doing all sorts of jobs in factories as the men were away.

Cooking must have been a way to take their minds off the news, and with the difficulties of rationing, powdered eggs and milk, it must have been pretty tricky. The “Grow Your Own” campaign, Dig for Victory, was a great way to get more food on your plate and in your tummy. With every square inch of land being used for growing veg and rearing chickens, there was a black market in eggs, chocolate and other luxuries.

This book, ‘Recipes of the 1940’s’ by Irene Veal, is a celebration of food that offers us recipes and dishes served at the best restaurants at the time — The Savoy and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a fabulous place still there to this day, tucked away in a wee alley off Fleet Street. An old haunt of Dickens and many more through time, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London in 1666 and is ageless.

Lots of tripe was consumed, I gather, and sausages weren’t rationed — though I do wonder what was in them. I believe fish and chips weren’t rationed either; there must have been queues round the block on a Friday evening.

I adore this book; it gives us a slice of what folk ate during those tough years of the war. A book to appreciate, and to think back on what life must have been like 80 years ago.