A Wolf in the Kitchen: Easy Food for Hungry People (Penguin cookery library) Book

The identity of the wolf in Lindsey Bareham's kitchen is hinted at by her subtitle, "Easy Food for Hungry People". It is a book of quick and easy recipes (and implicitly an instructional work) aimed primarily at students and other young people leaving home, although Penguin appear to have decided not to draw attention to it in the packaging, perhaps mindful of recent surveys which indicated that a depressingly large number of the young people thought microwaving a frozen pizza was "cooking". They were right to do so, as this undeviatingly excellent volume deserves the widest possible readership. Students will indeed find it invaluable, and respect its lack of condescension; others will value the range and vitality of the recipes, their unfailing zing and deliciousness, their practicality and economy. Anyone who comes home tired and hungry but yearning for something tasty and substantial will fall on it with ravenous cries of appreciation. The cooking is based round healthy appetites, active social lives and slender means: noodles, pasta, rice, potatoes, stir-fries, curries and sausages all feature strongly. There is a judicious use of convenience foods (frozen peas, stock cubes), but in the main the ingredients used are fresh and seasonal (and therefore cheaper). A Wolf in the Kitchen is also packed with advice--on shopping, on maintaining a store-cupboard, on planning--that no-one could turn their nose up at. What more can one say? This is a wonderful book, apt to its purpose but going far beyond it. --Robin DavidsonRead More