For BlueSkyFriday’s Favourites #8, we asked cookbook obsessive and culinary genius Rose to share her favourite recipe.
As someone with an insatiable appetite for cookbooks who reads them most nights before lights out, I feel well equipped to answer this. Yet I’ve been deliberating the answer for far too long now. Should it be one of Nigella's iconic bakes - Lemon Polenta, Chocolate Olive Oil, Chocolate Guinness? Cakes that I’ve taken credit for time and time again, when actually they’re such good recipes my four year old could have made them.
I could go for a trendy, foodie choice like the Zuni cafe roast chicken salad or Tomos Parry’s Basque Cheesecake (or even the OG version from San Sebastian’s La Vina).
Or perhaps it’s one of Yotam’s classics - his early aubergine, pomegranate and saffron yoghurt or his bean, mange tout, hazelnut and orange salad from Ottolenghi The Cookbook, which opened our eyes to “Middle Eastern vibes”. Speaking of seminal cookbook moments, I love the early Naked Chef books with recipes like “The Easiest Sexiest Salad in the World” with mozzarella, fig and Parma ham, a combo you wouldn’t think twice about now but back then in the 90s it was radical stuff.
But since I grew up near Norwich, am I being disloyal by not choosing a Delia Smith classic? My parents dined in (and out) on the safety of Delia’s recipes - and I spent my teens teaching myself from Delia’s Summer and Winter Collections.
Recently though I've become addicted to Tom Kerridge and particularly his Hand & Flowers cookbook. I love that it's technical and uses niche ingredients whilst the presentation is unfussy and elegant. So I am choosing his Pork fillet with pomme dauphine, roasted onion & mustard mayo, a dish whose flavours he’s distilled from an NYC hot dog. I love it. It’s incredible. If you’re going to cook this though, you can pare it right back to just the pork, potato, onion & jus (with greens on the side) and it’s still mind blowing.
Hoping I’m not too hot and full on my desert island after my main course, I’ll definitely be needing a pudding by Ravneet Gill - her glorious Miso chocolate tart (with bran flakes in the crust) is an obsession in our house. Make it now!!
June, 2025
