Some cookbooks are great for drooling over; some are better to cook from. Tom Doorley tries out the recipes in new books by Paul Flynn and Gary Rhodes
I like cookbooks; I just don't like using them for the purpose for which they are intended. Quantities bother me. I have been told, very politely, that I'm an "instinctive" cook; in fact, I just enjoy winging it. Most of the things I like to cook - risotto, roast chicken, pasta with various sauces, even Yorkshire pud - I've done so many times I can do them, almost, with my eyes closed.
Ask me to follow a recipe and I get flustered. I have to get the scales out, find the measuring jug, set the timer. But I decided to try out two new cookbooks: Gary Rhodes's Keeping it Simple and our own Paul Flynn's Second Helpings. The results were mixed, but this may have more to do with me than the books. However, the two recipes that worked to sheer perfection took all the annoyance out of the others.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE: by GARY RHODES
This is an admirably uncheffy book, and every recipe seems quite achievable. A picture of virtually every dish, in full colour, means that even a sloppy cook such as I can produce something that looks vaguely good.
Bacon and egg salad was, however, not a red-hot success. Not because I didn't do exactly as I was told - this is a straightforward combination of crisped Serrano ham with salad leaves anointed with a blue cheese dressing and topped with a soft-fried egg - but because none of us really liked egg yolk and salad.
Spicy monkfish bites with a cucumber and mint raita sounded fabulous. And the raita was indeed good, thanks to using larger slices of cucumber than my usual coarsely grated version. However, the chunks of fish, marinated in a spicy yoghurt mixture, didn't really work for me. When fried in olive oil they were meant to go a bit crusty; in fact, despite a hot pan and plenty of oil, they steamed rather than fried and lost most of their coating. They tasted okay, but looked like something that the dog had the delicacy to leave outside rather than bring in.
Ah, but the blackberry and almond tart. This was sheer pleasure and a complete doddle to make. I used my wife Johann's recipe for pastry, but I'm sure that a bought version would be fine. The combination of almond filling, enriched with eggs, and the gloriously scented blackberries that seem to be commonplace throughout Ireland this season, was fabulous. And it was curiously relaxing to cook. I would simply add that I started with whole almonds and ground them in the food processor. Ready-ground almonds are often a bit stale and rancid.
SECOND HELPINGS: by PAUL FLYNN
Paul Flynn, of The Tannery in Dungarvan, returns to writing (for which he has gift that puts him in the same league as Nigel Slater) with Second Helpings, which is illustrated with excellent cartoons by Ken Buggy, the multi-talented chef who runs Buggy's at Glencairn, near Lismore in Co Waterford. However, poor design and woeful photographs are a let-down. Nevertheless, even when allowing for poor proofing (there are "leaks" in the index), this is both a great read and a source of great food.
Mind you, I was not entirely successful with a recipe for eclairs which required the choux pastry (a scary thing to produce, but it worked) to be piped in spirals onto an oiled baking sheet. Being without the apparatus, or the patience, for this, I resorted to what you might call choux buns.
I will confess to having cooked Oriental Crab Risotto for unworthy reasons. I didn't think it would work. I hate mucking around with risotto, which is far too common a habit among Irish chefs, but I hadn't reckoned with Paul Flynn's unerring sense of what works. The dish was a triumph, subtly delicious and an absolute revelation to this Doubting Thomas. Stirring, as Paul says, should be constant. It was a stunner.
Next day, I took handfuls of the cold risotto, formed them into patties, dipped them in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fried them until crisp and golden. Served, as a starter, with wedges of lime, they were ace.
tdoorley@irish-times.ie
Keeping it Simple, by Gary Rhodes, is published by Penguin, £25. Second Helpings, by Paul Flynn, is published by Collins Press, €30