Ready in Minutes - The Cookbook by Alan Coxon
Many of you will know award winning chef Alan Coxon from his many appearances on TV as he presented, Coxon's Kitchen College on the Carlton Food Network, BBC2’s Ever Wondered About Food and was a regular guest chef on Gloria Hunniford's Open House Live, plus many other TV and radio shows. He was also the head chef at the Newport Bay, Paris and Woodfords Restaurant/Top Table Restaurant in the Isle of Man.
This stylishly presented book has 176 pages with around a hundred recipes and has lots of mouth watering photos, easy to follow instructions, as well as hints and tips on how to improve or modify the recipes.
It is a little different from many, in that rather than categorising the recipes by course or ingredient, instead it is organised in seven sections by the length of time recipes take to cook. It starts at zero minutes where little or no cooking time is needed, then progresses in five minute increments to thirty minutes for the more elaborate recipes.
Which, when time seems to be at a premium for most people these days seems to give lie to the old chestnut that they can’t spare the time to cook!
It offers a broad collection of uncomplicated starters, main courses and desserts. The emphasis throughout is on fresh, healthy food, using local ingredients and common sense. Many of the recipes have an international flavour including French, Spanish, Italian, Indian, North African and Mexican cuisines.
The book begins with the zero minutes recipes, which includes a range of tasty sounding salads and desserts which are mostly assembled with little actual effort, such as Pear and Watercress Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing. There’s a very seasonal thirty minute Poached Fillet of Beef with Pumpkin-Mustard and Cream Sauce and a even a five minute recipe for Dark Chocolate Fondant. (Click on the recipes to try them out)
Whenever I read a new cookery book I always have a good look at the ingredient lists, as often some chefs seem to delight in using food stuffs so rare or specifically regional, that unless you happen to be visiting a particular delicatessen in the heart of Tuscany you have no chance of finding them!
Alan actually wrote this book whilst in South Africa, so a couple of the ingredients are not common here, butter fish is one, though he does offer alternatives, the other is Rooibos tea, which is a kind of herbal bush tea, he doesn’t offer an alternative to this, though I have checked and it can be purchased by mail order in the UK.
As Alan has an interest in food archaeology, he also includes many food fact pages which contain the origins of the name of the food along with historical notes, facts, health and hints. For instance the fact that strawberries are the only fruit with its pips on the outside or that the herb rosemary gets its name from the Latin for dew of the sea.
I am happy to say that this is far more than a ‘coffee table’ book, in fact I am sure that you will be taking it down from your book-shelf often, especially when time is at a premium.
Available from 24th November.
Published by New Holland at £14.99
To order call: 01903 828 503
Click to visit Alan Coxon's Website
Readers Offer
Order your copy of Ready in Minutes (ISBN: 1770070273) at the special price of £12.99 (rrp. £14.99) with free postage and packing.
Simply call 01903 828 503 and quote reference code: STRM/04
Email: The Foody UK and Ireland
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