Home cooking but make it gorgeous. Make it the thing that improves your day. Make it beautiful, useful and delicious. Make your life just, like, 10% better. With thanks to Liz for her review.
I don’t think I have ever read an author talk about their passion to impart their knowledge about things that inspire them, so much as in the Kitchen Book. The title could not be more apt. There are a good number of pages dedicated to The Kitchen and all things within and why they should be there.
I felt redeemed in my justifications of some of my own items in my kitchen that I don’t use after reading these pages. Ella talks about disposing of kitchen items only to regret and have to replace them even though she hints she may still not use them. I felt myself saying out loud “YES!”. This is me!
If you have a deep love of all things kitchen, cookery and recipe you will know. I can best describe Ella’s passion to share her knowledge as “ardour”, it sums up her eagerness that we follow her lead. What is wonderful is that Ella knows herself and has found “her” and she wants us to do the same because it’s a good thing.
Ella explains practically why we have or should have all these items she talks about, ingredients, spices etc in our kitchen.
The Yoghurt Pot Naan is a great recipe. The Beef Stir Fry – I absolutely agree there can be many a bad stir fry. I have the same wok shown in the book and my stir frys are incredibly disappointing. Ready-made, prepared, shop bought veg or sauces, appear to the culprit and yes, I am guilty of this misdemeanour.
I love that the book is in sections and my favourite is the Toast Matrix Section. The colours when entertaining, how decadent and adult. I imagined the “gussied up” toast – loved that expression, and the sheer look of horror after the sticky honey incident. This put a smile on my face.
I was very happy to see Corn-flake cakes in the book having made them a few times recently with young grandchildren. I’m keen to try this version but may still need to include the cocoa powder to make it chocolatey.
I couldn’t possibly have imagined what the section “On the Floor” could cover. The question “does thinking about cooking make you want to lie on the floor?” Yes! Sometimes but Ella suggests her recipes will take approx. 45 mins, no longer so I am hopeful that scenario should not happen. The Cookie Section gives us a basic recipe for all cookies and tells us how to switch it up.
A fabulous bible of the kitchen and life and how to make things just that little bit better. Thank you Ella!
About the Book
No-knife potato curry, cumin lamb ragù, turmeric satay salmon, marinated bavette, and kimchi remoulade; breakfast bars, rhubarb and custard, sticky lemon cake, and one-bowl cannelés. This is cooking for real life – the kinds of recipes you will actually make and actually love.
There are plenty of ideas to get you through the week with minimal faff and maximum reward, whether you’re at your lowest ebb or striving for elegance:
- The big list: how to stock the fridge, freezer, spice drawer and more
- On the sofa: sticky-crispy Korean tofu, pistachio chilli, pumpkin and raisin roasted rice
- At the kitchen counter: brown butter cornbread, herby mango salad, green chickpea quesadillas
- For a gathering: sheet-pan leek latkes, pig cheek and queen bean burritos, smoky rosemary palomas
- With a tablecloth: asparagus fritters, miso mushroom ragù, smoky tea chocolate pots
- For the week ahead: bread and butter, cure-all one-pan beans, pink onions, caramelised garlic
- On the floor: carbonara rice, fish finger and smoked sweetcorn tacos, sausage and rocket gnocchi
Roasting a chicken. Planning for the week ahead. Throwing a party (for three or thirty or more). Baking fail-safe cookies (for when failure to have cookies really isn’t an option). The Kitchen Book is your source of wisdom for the 4pm what’s-for-dinner panic, and the definitive answer to ‘Maybe just toast and an early night?’
These are recipes that will stick with you for life.
About The Author
Ella Risbridger is a writer and journalist from London. With bylines in the Financial Times, Guardian, Observer, Vogue & many others, her books span from cookery to picture books, poetry to essay collections. Her best-selling debut, Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For), won Cookbook of the Year at the Guild of Food Writers Awards, and was named a book of the year in multiple publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Sunday Times, New York Times, Daily Mail and Washington Post. She was described by the Times as “the most talented writer of a generation”, which is nice. Ella is also the creator of You Get In Love And Then…?, a best-selling newsletter with thousands of paid subscribers; an amateur painter, potter, and candlestick maker; and the part-owner of one very fat orange cat.
Purchase the Book
This book can be purchased in our store either on its own or in a cosy Book Box.
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