The Conran Cookbook

Taking you from the market place to the plate,
The Conran Cookbook
encompasses everything the home cook needs to know from the essential knowledge necessary to choose and prepare over 1000 ingredients to equipping the kitchen, planning successful menus and cooking over 450 delicious and nourishing dishes.

The best cooking depends on a sound knowledge of the raw materials, and the first half of the book is packed with meticulously researched and illustrated information about buying and preparing the vast range of ingredients available today. Over 1000 illustrations include practical step-by-step photographs to illuminate essential food preparation techniques such as cleaning, filleting and boning fish and meat, and making bread, pasta and pastry. Comprehensive cross-referencing makes information easy to find and allows you to explore any subject from a straightforward description - such as where lemon grass comes from and its uses - to advice on buying, preparing, cooking and serving.

In the second half of the book, Caroline Conran, Terence Conran and Simon Hopkinson have chosen over 450 fail-safe recipes from past and future classics that represent the essence of homecooking. These include old favourites such as Steak and Kidney Pudding, Salade Niçoise and Sherry Trifle, along with those at the cutting edge of contemporary taste, such as Hot and Sour Shellfish Broth and Coconut Ice cream, reflecting the increasing influence of Oriental, Pacific and Mediterranean flavours. Fifty inspiring photographs demonstrate the rewards of cooking with the best quality ingredients.

Further sections include a guide to choosing and using kitchenware, advice on planning seasonal menus for every occasion, and a comprehensive glossary of key terms and techniques, to provide invaluable back-up to the business of buying, preparing and cooking.

Written by three experts who are united in their passion for good food,
The Conran Cookbook
is both an indispensable reference book and a stimulating read, making it the definitive guide for anyone who wants to develop their understanding and knowledge of good cooking. This really is the essential cookbook.