new books and more meatballs

This is the time of year when all the new cook books start to appear on the shelves in time for Christmas. And I am an extremely impatient person!!! So, as soon as I know that there is a new cook book out by a favourite author, I have to buy it immediately – even though I often live to regret my haste as the price comes down prior to Christmas! Two of my favourite celebrity chefs have just released new books – Jamie Oliver’s “Jamie at Home” and Nigella’s “Nigella Express”. I bought them both from Amazon UK and they arrived last week. Very exciting!!

They are both now sitting beside my bed waiting to be feasted upon! I have read right through Jamie and I think that this is his best book to date. There are a lot of vegetable based recipes and as vegetables are my favourite thing, this is great!!!! The book is incredibly inspiring and is even inspiring me to have a small vegetable plot at our new house (this is in 12-18 months time when it is actually finished!!

Nigella looks fab too. One of my favourite books is still How to be Domestic Goddess. But the thing I really love about Nigella is her writing style! Even when the recipes are pretty basic, she has a certain style about her that makes reading them highly entertaining – you feel like she is your friend and is speaking to you! It might be a stretch to call some of these “recipes” as a lot of the recipes are pretty basic, but Nigella has style!

I will report progress on any recipes cooked from these two new books!! And I am also coveting a few other new books too – Holiday by Bill Granger which is out in a month or so and Global Baker by Dean Brettschneider, sue out later this month. I wish I could wait to ask for these for Christmas presents, but I just can’t do it!!

Last night for dinner it was my weekly Dish challenge. I was wanting to make a recipe from issue 11 that was spiced lamb with a side of Indian spiced spinach with yoghurt and chick peas. Yesterday morning, before I rushed off to an early morning meeting at work, I hunted through the freezer for some lamb, but to no avail. So instead, I got out some beef mince and I made meatballs adding the same spices that I was meant to be rubbing the lamb with (curry powder, ground coriander and smoked paprika). I also added in some chopped fresh coriander.

The spinach dish was divine. Onions, red peppers and garlic slowly cooked, then with ground coriander, curry powder, tumeric, cinnamon and tomato paste added, spinach wilted and then 1 cup natural yoghurt and a can of drained chickpeas. Yum! I served the whole dish with some basmati rice.