Bill's Open Kitchen
[Books]
Review by ADELINE LIM
Author: Bill Granger
Publisher: Murdoch Books, 192 pages
Wouldn't it be wonderful, if after a long weary day at work, you reach home only to be greeted at the door with a waft of warm lentil and pilaf rice, accompanied by the aroma of spicy lamb cutlets sizzling in the pan? Or of caramelised chicken with hot steamed rice?
I believe many of us long to cook, to realise this dream for our families. But often, even preparing a simple meal can feel tedious, overwhelming, or even impossible – when we have had a challenging day or a tight schedule, for example. At times I wonder, when I have guests coming, and an unexpected appointment to tackle for the next day: “What can I cook within 30 minutes? Or an hour?”
Bill Granger understands the increasing demands on our time, being a father with two young daughters, while running two restaurants named “bills” and “bills 2”. His second daughter was just a few months old at the writing of this third book, Bill’s Open Kitchen. He reminisces: “On a recent holiday in Paris, I had the luxury of shopping daily at the local market, buying some of the most beautiful produce I have ever seen – blueberries with flavour, pink and white radishes the size of my little finger, just picked herbs and salad greens, amazing cheeses that oozed – really extraordinary. We spent time planning and cooking meals, day after day. While I’d love to be able to shop and cook like this every day, it’s not realistic given my increasingly busy life. Sometimes there’s barely enough time to go for a quick trip to the supermarket, but I never let this become a barrier to cooking, or let the job of preparing dinner every day become tedious.”
With this in mind, Bill’s latest book offers food ideas and recipes that are simple and fuss-free, which require only basic cooking techniques, and work for both family meals and entertaining. What this book offers is a talented restaurateur’s personal collection and concoction of over 100 recipes that his family and friends enjoy.
It was a delight to discover a broad range of recipes from Thai fried rice, to beef and mushroom pot pies, to semifreddo with caramel figs.
I appreciate the clear and simple layout of the book. For example, the recipes for beef and mushroom pot pies, and the tomato relish to go with them, all fit into the same page. There is no need turn to another section to look for the relish. Each recipe result is excellently photographed by Petrina Tinslay, a leading food and lifestyle photographer.
There is no danger of mistakenly mixing up two recipes here. Sometimes when I am following a recipe from a book that crams several similar versions of the same thing on a page, for example, fruit cake, rich fruit cake, stout fruit cake, it can be an effort to stay focused, especially when it’s a first try. I appreciate this thoughtfulness particularly when I am in a rush to get dinner out.
The ingredients are mostly simple everyday produce that we can get from the growers’ market (pasar tani) or supermarkets – tomatoes, Chinese parsley, soy sauce, fish sauce, salad greens, cucumbers, chick peas, olive oil and such. Admittedly, there are a few unusual ingredients such as haloumi cheese and sumac, a Middle Eastern spice, but these can be substituted with other cheeses and spices.
The recipes are well thought out and arranged in meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, tea, dinner and dessert. The work is done for us. We need not browse through each recipe to consider when to cook it.
Breakfast recipes consist of hearty traditional fare minus the grease of yesteryear: scrambled eggs and sides (Bill is famous for eggs), pancakes, fresh baked beans and other hearty options. Lunch is light and refreshing. You will find ideas such as grilled chicken with chickpea salad, warm tomato and ricotta pasta salad, and Vietnamese chicken salad. Afternoon tea follows with the aromas of warm mandarin chocolate cake, honey cheesecake, pistachio biscuits, and the like. Dinner arrives with richer selections such as marinated coriander chicken, lamb with saffron rice, marinated lamb with spicy eggplant salad and spicy coriander beef. Dessert is rich and heart-warming with baked brown sugar custards, blueberry trifle, and other mouth-watering but simple options.
For breakfast, I tried the fresh baked beans. It was very different from the usual canned metal-tasting tomato sauce cum beans mixture. People in my life who disliked baked beans tried it and came back for more. It was light, slightly tangy with tomatoes, and a light sprinkling of herbs. A refreshing change! During another lunch, I rounded up some volunteers, tried the Thai Fried Rice, and was asked for second helpings. Bill Granger has a knack for pairing foods. And best of all, the recipes work. The Greek salad with pan-fried haloumi was a breeze to make – and delicious.
If you look through the recipes in Bill's Open Kitchen, and think, “Hey, I can make these! These recipes are simple,” you have grasped the point of this book. As Bill Granger said, “I do home cooking.” He created these recipes so you can easily replicate them at home. I personally find that this book inspires and encourages the cook – both men and women – to start cooking again, instead of settling for takeouts.
Review by ADELINE LIM
Author: Bill Granger
Publisher: Murdoch Books, 192 pages
Wouldn't it be wonderful, if after a long weary day at work, you reach home only to be greeted at the door with a waft of warm lentil and pilaf rice, accompanied by the aroma of spicy lamb cutlets sizzling in the pan? Or of caramelised chicken with hot steamed rice?
I believe many of us long to cook, to realise this dream for our families. But often, even preparing a simple meal can feel tedious, overwhelming, or even impossible – when we have had a challenging day or a tight schedule, for example. At times I wonder, when I have guests coming, and an unexpected appointment to tackle for the next day: “What can I cook within 30 minutes? Or an hour?”
Bill Granger understands the increasing demands on our time, being a father with two young daughters, while running two restaurants named “bills” and “bills 2”. His second daughter was just a few months old at the writing of this third book, Bill’s Open Kitchen. He reminisces: “On a recent holiday in Paris, I had the luxury of shopping daily at the local market, buying some of the most beautiful produce I have ever seen – blueberries with flavour, pink and white radishes the size of my little finger, just picked herbs and salad greens, amazing cheeses that oozed – really extraordinary. We spent time planning and cooking meals, day after day. While I’d love to be able to shop and cook like this every day, it’s not realistic given my increasingly busy life. Sometimes there’s barely enough time to go for a quick trip to the supermarket, but I never let this become a barrier to cooking, or let the job of preparing dinner every day become tedious.”
With this in mind, Bill’s latest book offers food ideas and recipes that are simple and fuss-free, which require only basic cooking techniques, and work for both family meals and entertaining. What this book offers is a talented restaurateur’s personal collection and concoction of over 100 recipes that his family and friends enjoy.
It was a delight to discover a broad range of recipes from Thai fried rice, to beef and mushroom pot pies, to semifreddo with caramel figs.
I appreciate the clear and simple layout of the book. For example, the recipes for beef and mushroom pot pies, and the tomato relish to go with them, all fit into the same page. There is no need turn to another section to look for the relish. Each recipe result is excellently photographed by Petrina Tinslay, a leading food and lifestyle photographer.
There is no danger of mistakenly mixing up two recipes here. Sometimes when I am following a recipe from a book that crams several similar versions of the same thing on a page, for example, fruit cake, rich fruit cake, stout fruit cake, it can be an effort to stay focused, especially when it’s a first try. I appreciate this thoughtfulness particularly when I am in a rush to get dinner out.
The ingredients are mostly simple everyday produce that we can get from the growers’ market (pasar tani) or supermarkets – tomatoes, Chinese parsley, soy sauce, fish sauce, salad greens, cucumbers, chick peas, olive oil and such. Admittedly, there are a few unusual ingredients such as haloumi cheese and sumac, a Middle Eastern spice, but these can be substituted with other cheeses and spices.
The recipes are well thought out and arranged in meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, tea, dinner and dessert. The work is done for us. We need not browse through each recipe to consider when to cook it.
Breakfast recipes consist of hearty traditional fare minus the grease of yesteryear: scrambled eggs and sides (Bill is famous for eggs), pancakes, fresh baked beans and other hearty options. Lunch is light and refreshing. You will find ideas such as grilled chicken with chickpea salad, warm tomato and ricotta pasta salad, and Vietnamese chicken salad. Afternoon tea follows with the aromas of warm mandarin chocolate cake, honey cheesecake, pistachio biscuits, and the like. Dinner arrives with richer selections such as marinated coriander chicken, lamb with saffron rice, marinated lamb with spicy eggplant salad and spicy coriander beef. Dessert is rich and heart-warming with baked brown sugar custards, blueberry trifle, and other mouth-watering but simple options.
For breakfast, I tried the fresh baked beans. It was very different from the usual canned metal-tasting tomato sauce cum beans mixture. People in my life who disliked baked beans tried it and came back for more. It was light, slightly tangy with tomatoes, and a light sprinkling of herbs. A refreshing change! During another lunch, I rounded up some volunteers, tried the Thai Fried Rice, and was asked for second helpings. Bill Granger has a knack for pairing foods. And best of all, the recipes work. The Greek salad with pan-fried haloumi was a breeze to make – and delicious.
If you look through the recipes in Bill's Open Kitchen, and think, “Hey, I can make these! These recipes are simple,” you have grasped the point of this book. As Bill Granger said, “I do home cooking.” He created these recipes so you can easily replicate them at home. I personally find that this book inspires and encourages the cook – both men and women – to start cooking again, instead of settling for takeouts.
posted by 9T9 at
3:02 pm
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