Book Review: Masterchef – The Cookbook

BREAKING NEWS: MasterChef Australia: The Cookbook Volume 1 is the best-selling book in Australia after its first full week on sale, making it the fastest selling illustrated cookbook opening week ever recorded on Nielsen BookScan  (stats released by Random House Australia).

Yes, I was thoroughly addicted, glued to the television screen with my novice-chef glass of wine and my cooking apron knotted firmly against my spine in expectation. Yes, ancient jars of herbs and spices began tumbling out from the dim, dark recesses of my ‘cooking stuff’ cupboard soon after the series commenced. Yes, I eventually ditched the jars and went and bought fresh herbs - but even more than that… I even planted my own herbs.

I also sharpened knives. I scrubbed the great clunking wooden chopping board, hauled out from semi-retirement. I dragged gadgets out from the back of the utensil drawer that had been wedged against the backboard for all eternity. I became inspired, driven and insatiably lustful to create nightly dinners of such gastronomic worth, my family grew cutlery from their extremeties and sat expectantly at the dinner table the moment a clatter emerged from the kitchen.

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Monica Trapaga returns with some home cooking

You might remember her from Better Homes & Gardens and almost everyone remembers Monica Trápaga from her years on ABC’s Playschool. In the five years since she last appeared on Australian television, Monica Trápaga has been busy raising kids, recording Jazz CD’s and writing a cookbook, inspired by her daughter Lil.

When Lil, now aged 24, announced she was leaving home, Monica Trápaga did what a lot of mother’s do, she presented her first born with a cookbook. When I left home twenty years ago my mother gave me The Commonsense Cookery Book. These days mums have a virtual smorgasbord of cookbooks to choose from, but Monica Trápaga wanted to give her daughter something more personal, Read more

Book Review: Buon Ricordo – How to Make Your Home a Great Restaurant

It’s probably a no brainer that if you’re going to make your home into a great restaurant, you’d be heavily influenced by the type of cuisine that epitomises the very core of family-based cooking – that time-honoured, community-driven affair that is Italian fare.

In this beautiful new book, authors Armando Percuoco and David Dale indeed take a focus on the home, with Chapter 2 – Family Fun - featuring easy ways every member of the family can be involved in the precious preparation of good food. Pizza, of course, is featured, but there are also recipes such as calzone, ragu, crocchette (potato croquettes) and semifreddo, that will draw in even the most reluctant chef – both as a way to become involved in the multifarious ways cooking brings us together – and in the eating.

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One Mum’s Solution to Less Cooking and Cheaper Grocery Bills

The self-publishing success story of 2008 – ‘Table Tucker’ by Penina Petersen – has been re-released by Hatchette Australia.

Table Tucker is the budget cookbook where recipes and shopping lists work together to produce an easy to follow program that promises to change the way you shop, cook, eat and live. The author of Table Tucker, Penina Petersen (pictured with her husband and son), is not a chef, dietitian or greenie – but this busy working mum has created an ingenious way to feed yourself or a family on a budget whilst saving precious leisure time. In addition to recipes and shopping lists, the book includes information on home safety, food preparation, food storage, buying in season and wisdom for daily living. Read more

Cookbook Review: Little Vietnam by Nhut Huynh

I can still remember the moment I slid my teeth into my very first Vietnamese rice paper roll.

I can feel the soft, dry, sticky exterior on my lips and tongue. I can feel the slight give of the sheet as my teeth enter the interior of the roll, and the tang of the fragrant dipping sauce on the tip and sides of my tongue.

I can feel the crunch sensation of the Vietnamese mint, the vermicelli, and the al dente vegetables inside. And I can sense the burst of flavour and freshness as it zips up my nose and does crazy things to my brain.

There is nothing – nothing on earth – like a Vietnamese rice paper roll. But, of course, that is not the only dish from Vietnam that will curl your toes and send your eyeballs skyward.

When traveling through Vietnam with our children, many years after I declared Vietnamese my favourite cuisine (followed very closely by Japanese), I was very fortunate to have an experience that remains one of the most precious of my life. It was the experience of cooking real Vietnamese food with my eight-year-old daughter at a cooking school near the central coast town of Hoi An. Read more

Bake: celebrating the time honoured tradition of baking

Following on from the best-selling COOK and KITCHEN, The Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen has launched BAKE.

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Best Price: The Nile Australia’s Largest Online Bookstore for AU$66.99

As the years go by, the pleasure that comes from in freshly baked bread and cakes is as strong as ever. This highly desirable baking masterpiece contains over 500 recipes for all those much-loved cakes, muffins, biscuits, slices and scones that everyone remembers from their childhood.

“There is nothing more comforting than the sweet, rich aroma of homemade bread, cake or biscuits wafting from the oven,” says Pamela Clark, Director, The Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen.

“I can remember my great-grandmother making scones, turning the dough out of a big bowl onto a scrubbed wooden kitchen table,” Clark added.

Bake details everything you need to know about baking techniques and implements from the trusted name in home baking. Clear instructions and meticulous measurements are essential to achieve perfect baking results, and with the triple-tested seal of approval, success is guaranteed the first time and every time.  As well as fabulous triple-tested recipes and beautiful photographs, a number of special features – each containing 12 photographs, give additional information about the deeply satisfying art of baking.

BAKE: Celebrating the time-honoured tradition of baking will also be available from bookstores, selected newsagents and from ACP Books from 1st April. Recommended retail price is $74.95. BAKE is published by ACP Books.