Something I want to do with this blog is to try and review some of the telly chef's cookbooks and the best way to do that is by trying the recipes. So I'll start with "Delia's How To Cheat At Cooking," which you can get from Amazon with a 55% reduction.
This review will be an on-going process as I try different recipes but the first thing to say about the book is how well it is designed. The copy I have has a plastic cover which is brilliant idea - as most of my cookery book's covers are creased and stained and ripped.
As for the recipes - well, for a book that is about cheating at cooking I did not find the ones I have tried that straight forward. For example the recipe for Greek lamb baked with garlic and lemon is described as simple, which it is, but there was garlic to sliver and fat to remove and parsley and lemon to grate and blend and chop. It was lovely to eat - and enjoyable to cook - but at no point did I feel like I was cheating.
The book does have a lot of cheats - jarred sauces and the like and a lot of these do seem to be good idea. However I don't think that the cheats take anything away from any enjoyment you might get from cooking a meal. So tomorrow I'm going to try the sizzling scallops with garlic butter crumbs. The scallops are frozen and the breadcrumbs are prepared - but the recipe is not super straightforward and I'm looking forward to trying not to cock it up almost as much as I am to eating the end result.
