Real Fast Food

A British friend sent this to me a couple of years ago and it has been an absolute lifesaver. I use it all the time, at least once a week if not three or four! Although I enjoy the act of cooking, it's not something I feel particularly adept in or secure with yet (having only really started, in a big way, this past year). This is a great book for making practical meals, regularly, without a whole lot of experience under your belt.

Slater's book has a variety of really tasty, easy-to-understand recipes with a minimum of fuss and generally a minimum of ingredients, too. I've found his chicken recipes particularly nice, especially the "Chili Chicken with Pitta," which has become a firm favorite amongst all my friends. Although I must admit show more they usually take me a little more than half an hour, the recipes I've tried have all been well worth the trouble. I never thought I would be regularly saved by a cookbook from *Britain*, long the subject of culinary jokes - but I'm so pleased to be wrong! show less

I've used this book far more than Slater's beautiful later books. There is always a prompt to inspiration but simply looking up eggs, bacon, pasta, cheese, etc. when time is short but 'real' food needed. Chapters are Bakery, Eggs, Fish, Pasta, Vegetables and Salads, Grains, Chieckn, Meat, Cheese and Fruit.

I love Nigel's down to earth approach to food. No fancy stuff here - good simple everyday food - my kind of cooking - full of glorious glossy pictures to make your mouthwater :-)

Great collection of extremely simple but elegant meal ideas.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/914452.html

It's been a real inspiration to me this holiday; the concept is a very straightforward one, cooking really tasty meals reasonably quickly. I can't say that it always took me less than half an hour to do the recipes, but the results were worth it. Slater encourages experimenting, and this evening's meal was my substition of stewed leek instead of fennel in his pork and lemon dish. All very yummy.