Marie-Claire Digby'slists 10 of her favourite cook books of 2007, and the best thing to cook from them
WILD GARLIC, GOOSEBERRIES AND ME: A CHEF'S STORIES AND RECIPES FROM THE LAND
Denis Cotter (Collins, £20)
Not only the most gorgeous book title of the year, but also the most stylishly produced volume, and it's a cracking read, too. Cotter comes out of the kitchen and takes us on tour to introduce us to the common and not-so-common vegetables he so reveres, and to Ultan Walsh, one of the people who grows them for him. Must cook Aubergine parcels of haloumi and rocket with roast garlic and shallot raita (pictured).
NIGELLA EXPRESS
Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £25)
Follow la grande dame's shortcuts to "fast food for those who love eating", and you, too, could have time to flounce around in a négligée flirting outrageously and hamming it up. But, give the girl a break - her recipes are ace, and the new one recipe per page format, with an illustration opposite, is very user-friendly. Must cook Coq au Riesling. According to Tesco, its sales of Riesling went up by 30 per cent after she cooked this on her TV show.
CHOCOLATE & ZUCCHINI
Clotilde Dusoulier (Marion Boyars, £9.99)
Inspired by the original, and the best, food blog (www.chocolateandzucchini, com), this zippy tale of living and eating is penned by a twenty-something former software engineer living in Paris. Dusoulier writes with a lightness of touch that perfectly complements her repertoire of simple, modern recipes. Tres chic. Must cook Walnut, pear and Roquefort madeleines.
JAMIE AT HOME. COOK YOUR WAY TO THE GOOD LIFE
Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph, £25)
Essex boy gets down and dirty in the garden. I tried, I really tried, not to buy this book. Not even Jamie can churn out a cookery book every year and keep them fresh and interesting, I reasoned. My "do not delete" digital recordings of the TV show that spawned the book indicated otherwise, so I relented. Must cook Asian squash salad with crispy duck.
BALLYMALOE COOKERY COURSE
Darina Allen (Kyle Cathie, £30)
Not new, exactly, but revised and updated, with new photography and more than 100 additional recipes, many of them informed by the students who have passed through the doors of this venerable school. If you haven't got the time, or the €9,000, to do the 12-week course, buy the book. My new copy has knocked Nigella Lawson's How To Cookoff prime position in the "answers to everything" slot. If you don't already have it, make this the one book you really must buy this year. Must cook Ballycotton Seafood Lasagne. There are flavours and influences from all over the world in this new edition, but this is quintessentially Ballymaloe.
INDULGE: 100 PERFECT DESSERTS
Claire Clark (Absolute Press, £20)
Claire Clark . . . who's she? Clark mightn't be a household name here, but while working at the Wolseley in London, she was ballsy enough to approach Thomas Keller of The French Laundry in a hotel lobby and ask him for a job. She's now head pastry chef at the restaurant, which has three Michelin stars, and creating some of the most beautiful desserts in the world. "I cannot get enough of her shortbread," Keller says, and he's not the only one - the restaurant, and its Bouchon Bakery, make 9kg of the stuff daily. Must cook The shortbread, of course, and the citrus meringue quiffs, and the warm chocolate and raspberry tarts, and the pink champagne truffles . . . you get the picture.
RACHEL'S FOOD FOR LIVING
Rachel Allen (Collins, £20)
She's back, to make us green with envy as we drool over her house, her children, her clothes, her industrious lifestyle, and her food, too, of course. Lots of old favourites get a contemporary twist as Allen explores the connection between food and some of life's best moments. There is plenty of new material in here as well, and as always the recipes are very approachable. Now if we could just find out who made her gorgeous wooden kitchen cabinets, and where she buys her clothes . . .
Must cook Creamy coconut prawns with banana raita.
HOLIDAY
Bill Granger (Murdoch Books, £19.99)
The blonde bombshell in the frayed white jeans, sandals and pastel shirts, formerly known as bill, has become BILL, and found punctuation along the way. Let's hope he pens no more books with screaming titles such as bills food and bills open kitchen. He does cook up a storm, however, and his Asian-influenced recipes are always interesting. Must cook Roast chicken with coriander chilli stuffing and coconut gravy.
COOK YOURSELF THIN: THE DELICIOUS WAY TO DROP A DRESS SIZE
Harry Eastwood, Gizzi Erskine, Sal Henley and Sophie Michell (Michael Joseph, £14.99)
How many women does it take to write a cook book? Four, if they're glamazons with great clothes, fabulous make-up and hair styled to an inch of its life. But their book does have sound, common sense diet advice and low calorie, great tasting versions of everyday dishes, interspersed with nuggets of knowledge you might prefer not knowing, such as: "That large latte and blueberry muffin . . . 765 calories. Read it and weep." Must cook Beetroot chocolate fudge cake. So, those beetroot brownies you queued for at L'Gueuleton really were healthy food, after all.
EATING FOR ENGLAND: THE DELIGHTS AND ECCENTRICITIES OF THE BRITISH AT TABLE
Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate, £16.99)
Don't be put off by the stodgy title, this is Slater at his wry, observant best. There are no recipes here, just a collection of laugh-out-loud musings on food foibles, such as: "New-man-in-the-kitchen is more au fait with making fettucine than putting up shelves. He is more familiar with saucisson than Swarfega, and the only screwdriver he knows comes in a glass with ice and a little dish of olives on the side." His reminiscences on the arrival in his family home of an early-model coffee perculator had me laughed off the Dart: "A coffee percolator we now have, and we all stand round it, excitedly awaiting the result. My father says something about my mother saying she always wanted a perky copulator, which I don't understand." Must cook You won't; you'll be laughing too hard.