If there’s one thing that I absolutely love to do it’s eat good food. That means: full of flavour, well-cooked and packed with taste. Be it a full meal, a side dish or a freshly baked dessert, there’s really nothing I won’t volunteer my taste buds for. Many of the Dubray booksellers are fantastically adventurous cooks and bakers. Recently, our Twitter page was filled with the tasty dishes they had replicated from their beloved cookbooks. When a new cookbook arrives in store, I always enjoy taking a gander through, immediately regretting my actions as I start to grow hungry looking at the photos!
Cooking also allows us to tour the world through our kitchens. Thanks to Mexicana by Esther Clark, I have travelled to a Mexican feast with my favourite buttermilk chicken tacos and pickled jalapeño aioli. They are amazing: crunchy, spicy and delicious.
Recently, needing comfort food more and more, I have turned to some well-loved classics such as The Currabinny Cookbook by James Kavanagh and William Murray. Their potato gratin recipe is actually James’ mother’s own and is delicious and warming. Also a lover of the chicken katsu curry by the Wagamama restaurant franchise, I jumped at the chance to cook it in my own kitchen. I followed this with the tonkatsu recipe from their Wagamama: Feed Your Soul cookbook and my mind was blown by the combination of flavours and textures: crispy battered pork accompanied by a sweet yet spicy sauce that is simple and easy to make – Japanese comfort food straight from my kitchen!
But the most appealing part about many modern cookbooks is the fact that chefs want to make these recipes accessible to everyone by supplying easy-to-follow methods. These, combined with improved access to shops containing different spices, herbs and rarefied ingredients, mean that it’s never been easier to travel the world from the comfort of your own kitchen.
