This book is going to find a ready place on my cookery shelves; I’ve been much taken with James Ramsden’s recipes and his method of cooking. His recipes are broken down by time, showing what can be done, in some cases, days ahead, and then hours ahead and then just before eating. This methodology gives you at least three stages meaning you can have your food preparation ongoing. It is meant for cooks dealing with parties and get togethers, the basic recipes for 6-8 yet these can easily be halved or multiplied and the book really has a wider appeal to anyone wanting a decent supper on the table without slaving over the oven for hours at a time. Some careful reading of the recipes also reveals that many can be frozen half way through the process, further cutting down on cooking time meaning good food on the table in less time that it takes to “ping” a ready meal.
Do-ahead Dinners How to Feed Friends and Family without the Frenzy Synopsis
'This is a book you really want. No fifteen minute magic or culinary sorcery, just practical, staged cooking of the most sumptuous dishes. Made me salivate.' Yotam Ottolenghi Cooking for groups can be a stressful operation, yet at his supper club, The Secret Larder, James Ramsden has built a reputation for creating exciting, trendy, tasty food without the gaga gourmet, whilst being able to maintain a relaxed and sociable presence amongst the guests. This is because he prepares the majority of his food ahead. In this book, James offers an exciting array of inexpensive recipes, that can be prepared ahead and served up without a fuss so that the cook can be with their guests, not stuck in the kitchen. Do-ahead cooking need not be limited to hotpots and pies; James' innovative recipes include scotch quail eggs with homemade brown sauce, fennel soup with brown shrimp and dill, pig cheek salad with pickled shallot and buttermilk dressing, rhubarb crumble ice cream and raspberry gin and tonic. The recipes are not exclusively for entertaining - many double-up as easy after-work suppers. This is a book for every cook's bookshelf.
James Ramsden is a 27-year-old food writer and broadcaster. He has written about food and cookery for the Guardian, the Times, the FT, delicious, Sainsbury’s Magazine, London Evening Standard and many others, and presents the Lad that Lunches on BBC Radio 1. His supper club, the Secret Larder, is one of the most popular in London and was described by one journalist as “harder to get into than the Ivy.” He has built a reputation for creating exciting, trendy, tasty food without the gaga gourmet, and yet he is also known for his relaxed and sociable presence amongst the guests. He is the author of Small Adventures in Cooking.
