Dishy Book

With the wealth of cookbooks around at the moment, Kevin Gould's witty and irreverent Dishy (subtitled "Real Food for Real People") is something of a treat. The easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes range from classic coq au vin, mackerel with sharp fruit, lamb cutlets with smooth chickpeas and panfried monkfish with roasted garlic. Choose side dishes such as the enticingly named "velvet spinach" (the secret's in the creme fraïche) and butter baked witloof (a type of chicory from Belgium, for those not in the know). Desserts are healthy (misted fresh fruit) or downright wicked (grand pot au chocolat).What makes Dishy stand out, however, is its bright, colourful design and tongue-in-cheek humour--it's packed full of colour photographs, cartoons and witticisms galore (a double-page spread of fluffy chickens precedes instructions on how to cook them); a recipe for a whole roast duck cooked with a hairdryer faces one for goose with curling tongs and crimpers. Buy the book to find out which one is genuine. The best touch is the list of imaginatively titled menu suggestions at the end of Dishy--there's the "Hoping to Get Lucky" menu, the "Two Couples of Similar Social Standing Who've Known Each Other for Ages, and Are Talking About Holidays" menu, "Intelligent Documentary TV Dinner" (a lot of leaf salad and furrowed brow), the Soap TV dinner (refried tomato spaghetti and release of trouser button) and the pièce de resistance, the "Impressing A Couple You Call Your Friends But Don't Really Know That Well" menu (prawns and wilted rocket and guessing each other's incomes). Dishy is a book of visual delights to chuckle over--oh, and has some genuinely interesting recipes as well. --Catherine TaylorRead More