cookbook addict

Blogging is proving very comfortable these days, when I seem to make recipes that have been blogged or posted somewhere else and I choose the right language to share them ie no translation effort on my part. Today's recipe is no exception, you will find it here . The book it's taken from, Slow Cooker Revolution , is not very recent but it is my new slow-cooker reference. I normally use the internet or the crockpot blog , because the book I bought when I first got my slow-cooker is useless, and it's useful to have guidelines for recipes because eyeballing it sometimes result in disaster... As you can guess, America's Test Kitchen have produced a book so detailed and geeky that you can trust it with your eyes closed. It is quite meat-centric and American-oriented, but it provides hours of reading fun and many valuable tips on how to get the best use out of the pot. This soup is my first recipe out of it. There's this slightly dangerous recipe for Fagioli al fias...

Everybody loves Nigel. And so do I. I like the way he talks about food, writes about food, and not only food but his kitchen, his garden, where he shops. His recipes aren't always great for me because some of his favourite ingredients don't go down so well with children but still he manages to inspire me. So of course I had to get his newest book, Eat. And I like it because I think it's quite modern in his approach to midweek cooking. But I have a complaint, and it's not really Nigel-related. Quite a few of his recipes call for cooking chorizo. I can't find it where I live! How sad is that. No way I can make his chorizo burgers though they sound so delicious! Nigel's lentil bolognese Oh, well, lentil bolognese it is. Surprisingly delicious. Vegetarian. Comforting. Recipe is here .

Ages ago, W. travelled to Manila to work on a project. A Chinese guy he worked with took him to dinner at a Chinese restaurant and ordered an Asian feast in his honour. During dinner, the man told him his all-time favourite dish was chicken and rice. Pressed for more information, he said the chicken was just boiled in water. I found that really strange when he related this, but why not, after all chicken is comfort food all over the world, and rice is Asia's number one staple. But simple boiled chicken as a favourite dish? Now I understand the concept, this man had probably never cooked it for himself so how could he know that water wasn't just water but had the added components of herbs and condiments to improve it? And that you need other seasonings and relishes to really make the humble poached chicken shine? Hainanese chicken rice I was inspired by food-loving friends to try this recipe, which had caught my eye ever since I got Bill's Every Day Asian book. It...