Books....

I'm not normally a prolific reader by any stretch of the imagination but at present I have three on the go and I can't get enough of them.

I'm around 100 pages into "French Provincial Cooking" by Elizabeth David and I've not hit a single recipe yet, it mostly seems to be a massive rant at how poorly the English viewed French cooking at the time and of course vice versa.

I just love the way she writes. She comes across as one of those terribly posh but slightly squiffy women that you sometimes see in pubs talking the hind legs off a Donkey (or should that be "Ooooorf an Ass"?). Actually she reminds me of my Nanna !!!

I do miss my Nanna dearly. I miss the way she talked, she was brought up near Glasgow the actual place is etched in my memory but for some reason I cannot think of it right now. Anyway I'm pretty sure the area was not conducive to the accent that my Nanna had which was kind of a mixture of Robbie Coltrane, Billy Connelly and Queen Elizabeth.

"When" wasn't pronounced "Wen" it was "Whhhen", lots of emphasis on the "Wh"

I also miss her copies of Country Life magazine that she used to have my Polish Grandad go down to the Newsagents and pick up. Can you imagine that ?!?! My lovely Grandpops, quite obviously foreign because his grasp of the English language was never great, in his Brown cords, cardigan and flat cap buying a high society country living and lifestyle magazine and taking it back to a two bedroom council flat.

We'd look through every issue to try and find the perfect country house to live in. Of course Nanna always wanted a Castle in Scotland, she'd have made the best Lady of the Glen ever. Instead of fending off Marauders by tipping boiling fat from the ramparts she would definitely substitute the fat for Lentil and Bacon soup.

One of the other books is aimed more at the professional cook or student cook, it's origins are from the United States but as it's in it's seventh edition now it's very varied in it's use of ingredients and recipes so apart from other reference books of the same ilk which generally seem to be based on French food this one has a more Global/International feel about it.

It really does cover all bases and starts off explaining how a modern kitchen works and how that has changed from the days of Marie-Antoine Carême through Georges Auguste Escoffier right up to the present day. Not sure I'll ever be in a position to have all these kitchen stations in place but it's good to know how it all works.

Health and Safety, Food Hygiene, Stock rotation and Menu Planning are all covered in this mammoth book and I can't wait to get to each section.....Oh it's "Professional Cooking 7th Edition" by Wayne Gisslen if anybody is interested....it's hefty both in size and in cost !!!

Good day..