View Full Version : Delia Smith's new book
I don't know if anyone has avoided the recent news about Delia and her new cook book. But just in case you have, apparently she has a new 'cheat's' cookery book out.
It uses ready made ingredients apparently to help you create meals quicker but just as nice as if it was made from scratch.
Anyway, I haven't seen the book, but I am interested to read it so I may get it.
On BBC Breakfast this am, there was a real pair of snoots on it really putting Delia down and basically saying she's lost the plot and done a really bad thing by promoting the use of 'cheat' ingredients.
in particular, they singled out 'Aunt Bessie's' frozen mash...they were saying 'how hard is it to make mash, for goodness sake...what sort of person would even consider buying it?'
Well, I took exception at this as I DO use that product because I have ME and it is impossible for me (unless I am having a really good day which isn't often :( ) to stand and peel potatoes, then wait for them to boil, Lift the pan to safely drain them, then physically mash them. So the frozen mash is a godsend as far as I am concerned. It is made of real potato, is nutritious, not dried stuf, so what's the problem??
I wish more cooks thought about labour saving and time saving recipes that are economical, sensible and realistic as not all of us have the ability or desire to spend forever in the kitchen for a meal that takes 5 mins to wolf down anyway!!!
So next time I am out, I'll be checking her book out!
***rant over*** :lol:
Mazza ........I had ready made mash for my tea tonight! :D
I heard that the big shops are now stock piling ingrediants that she has mentioned inher book including frozen chips :o
Exactly, I bet these items will be so hard to get now - she has a lot of clout does Delia!! :lol:
Sparrow
16-02-08, 09:56 PM
She was on the radio saying we should eat battery hen eggs too :rolleyes:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=514633&in_page_id=1770
I saw those peeps being interviewed too mazza :dry::rolleyes:
I have never used frozen mash myself, but if it is made from real potatoes and just frozen, so what?? :huh: Is it any different to other frozen veg?? I doubt it :dry:
Delias last couple of cookery books had some of her recommendations flying off the shelves and hard to get, so better stock up quickly then :lol:
I actually used to like cooking once upon a time, but over the years 'other things' have gradually taken over and I don't have either the time or inclination to 'stuff mushrooms' as they say :rolleyes:
Good for Delia for moving with the times, when all of us are so busy these days with working, families,chores, etc etc, it is good to see her actually realising how people in the 'real world' have to sometimes live with little or no time left for anything else, least of all spending hours cooking.If we can cut corners but still produce a healthy home cooked meal, why not??
I am all for it and will look at this book myself :)
Annabel
17-02-08, 06:57 PM
I have the book!:rolleyes:
I must admit I raised an eyebrow at the amount of times Delia suggested the use of Aunt Bessie roast potatoes, mash and even those weird crispy bites!
I personally wouldnt eat them too frequently because they are quite oily, especially those crispy bites. but heyho, so what, now and then its OK!
I was quite surprised to see her suggest the use of M&S tinned mince. I can only assume its very good quality or she wouldnt be recommending it.
Some of the cheats she suggests arent my thing at all - like buying ready grated cheese - it is quite expensive and I have never found it to be as nice as grating your own parmesan or cheddar, also she suggests buying various types of frozen veg like aubergines, butternut squash and even chickpeas (nowt wrong with tinned ones to my mind), which would never cross my mind.
I think her main message is very similar to Nigella Lawson's - basically, it would be great if we all had acres of time to make everything fresh and lots of money to ensure its all organic, but at then end of the day we are busy people, on a budget and that being the case she has given a lot of recipes that are foolproof, tasty and quick.
i saw a couple of the receipes in the Mail i think it was last Satuday, anyway she had a receip for portugese custard tarts, not my one of course, had a laugh.
Sometimes when i am going round the shops it amazes me the stuff you can buy ready prepred like mash pots, how long does it take to do mash pots, i love them and have them every tuesday night yum yum and pankcakes? how long does it take to whip up a batter and do them, no time at all. As to those frozen roasties, yuck yuck, nothing better than your own rostie, which we had today. Nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with the frozen ones, they can be quite hard.
As to chips, have you seen the fozen Rustic chips, even i can eat them not as nice as a fried chip, but if you can't have fried chips it is quite a good substitute aslo the McCann Rustic Chips have "green traffic light" for salt, fat and sugar yipeeeeeeeeeee:jump::jump: being diabetic you have make a lot of stuff yourself, but then i always did, like my own rice pudding, cakes, desserts and mash and meals from scratch, also did you know that they now sell a one calorie spray, one spray = one calorie, they do olive oil, cesar dressing, and other oil and another dressing. I cannot use the receipes that i saw in the Mailfrom delia too much sugar and too much fat. Remember low in sugar high in fat, high in sugar low in fat.
meant to pass this on ages ago, do you every look from GI LOW, what it means is that it can be very high i sugar, but when you eat it, your body disgestes the sugar slowly, so for me it does not give me a huge sugar rush, it disolves it slowly, i always buy tesco gi low yogurt 22pence per pot and anyone can eat them. Tesco do a nice GI MEDIUM fruit loaf, same as eating teacakes, but just GI MEDIUM.
I use the 1 cal spray all the time at the minute, Isis :D I am on a diet - have lost 2st [and 3 lbs :lol::rolleyes:] and want to lose quite a bit more. That spray certainly helped me achieve the weight loss .
I always cook a roast on a Sunday though otherwise my family would sulk :lol:
I always do my own roast potatoes and everyone loves them ^_^ but I do use Aunt Bessies Yorkshires I must admit ;)
hi sp
well done for the weight loss:notworthy:, you must be so proud of yourself i lost 3 1/2 stone but that was diabetes and the medication, but i was actually only 1/2 stone overweight anyway developed it because of another medial problem.
If you want to have a go at your own yorkshires, try doing it with 2 eggs not 1 and also when you are about to pour the batter in the tin give it another whip with a tablespoon of plain, they come up lovely and then you can use your spray to spray the tin. We sometimes have something my mum used to call batter pudding, instead of using plain flour, try self raising and pour it in a big dish not individual ones. and bake for about 1 hr until cripsy, hubby loves it, but it has to be crispy and sometimes that just does not happen:(. well done for the weight loss, keep up the good, i bet it will be a new wardrobe for you when you have finished.:thumbs:
well done for the weight loss, keep up the good, i bet it will be a new wardrobe for you when you have finished.:thumbs:
You bet it will,Isis :lol:;)
I'm already saving for it :rolleyes:
I wonder if she is doing this last book for money
I mean normally these cook/chef types are all about using local butchers, farm shop local shops etc, not buying half ready staff from mark's :unsure:
Jamie Oliver will have a fit!!
Annabel
17-02-08, 09:19 PM
I dont think he will though, Beth. The hype about the book is not what the reality is. the book is about cooking good , tasty food but using shortcuts to make the process faster. Delia says we cant all be great cooks and we shouldnt be made to feel guilty about that. she says some of the cookery progs on telly are getting way to poncey and up themselves with the local produce thing, which I do agree with. how can I, living in London, realistically buy everything locally? 'tis impossible!
Incidentally I have Jamie's new book as well, his message is - if you put the effort into growing a few veggies in your garden, patio, or windowsill this will save you money and you will have much nicer grub. even if you just grow a few herbs in a pot they WILL cost you less than buying them from the supermarket.
there is an advert in the paper today - marco pierre white says he rubs a knorr chicken stock cube on a chicken before roasting it to give it extra flavour. so if its good enough for a 3 star michelin chef to use a few tricks, its good enough for me!
they are singing from the same songsheet really, but just watch the media whip up a great big fuss over it, what a load of BS it will be.
sp
don't do what i did was to rush out buy new clothes, my other ones were literally hanging off me, and i was trying to belt them, but that did not work espically with trousers, i started off 18, then bought 16, then brought 14 and now i buy 12 :oat the charity shop which i support i am now on first name terms with the people that work there. i seemed to loose the most weight when i came out of hospital, and they still don't know what was wrong with me, it just fell off, but then i was only eating 1/2 weeabiox for breakfast, 1/4 of sandwich for lunch and my dinner consisted of 1/2 potato and a soupe spoon of 2 different vegs and 2 slices of meat. i spent £300 on new clothes for our cruise last year, tried them on 2 weeks before i went and guess what they were all TOO BIG! so i took them to a friend and had them altered, but i will have to try them all on again this year becuase i have lost more weight since then and so they will have to go in again!!!!!:eek: i love shopping but as i said to my hubby on friday i am getting to the stage where i am complely shopped out he could not believe it!:faint:
as for growing your own, well my neighbour and i both grew tomatoes and you could have had several baths in them the amount that we had between us.:lush:
...must say I do draw the line at the 'ready-grated' cheese - it's revolting and seems to have a load of powder all over it!
Even I can grate cheese, whatever knackered old state I am in :) .
But I do appreciate the frozen mash and the roast potatoes too - I honestly find them a godsend - nobody knows how hard simple chores like peeling and boiling can be unless you have a condition like ME :( . Same for pancakes - it's not so much the making the batter, but the standing and cooking them :( . it's just impossible for me when I am in a bad way - hence buying ready made ones this year - kept the kids happy on pancake day although they did try to make their own, but it was just too dangerous! :sad: .
Strangely, I have a small tin of the mince beef that's mentioned in the book - I bought it ages and ages ago as someone said to me that it tastes great with mash or on toast as an emergency meal when I am hardly able to move ;) . I never really fancied it as I just thought it would be horrid!
I'm intrigued to know what it's like now as I never ever buy tinned food (like meat) like that!
I want to see her book so I can form more of an opinion, I will go in search tomorrow! :D
Mazza
You are a star:angel: anyone with MS as far as i am concerned is a star I know one person with it and she is just some amazing woman take my hat off to all of you!!
I found the book!! I can't belieeeeve she puts the frozen mashed potato in chocolate fairy cakes - now that's got to be going too far even by my standards!!! :bigeyes: :lol:
A lot of her recipes are a bit naff and a cop-out to me, in a way, it's as if she's given up on thinking...but there are a few I'll happily try so 4 recipes out of however many in the book isn't that bad I s'pose... :rolleyes:
It's an interesting enough read, I guess ;) .
:lol:
Planet 24
18-02-08, 07:02 PM
Strangely, I have a small tin of the mince beef that's mentioned in the book - I bought it ages and ages ago as someone said to me that it tastes great with mash ...... Try it as a filler for toasted sandwiches not too much in as when it heats up the gravy sort of runs.
They come out like crispy savoury pancakes.
Annabel
19-02-08, 10:43 AM
A lot of her recipes are a bit naff and a cop-out to me, in a way, it's as if she's given up on thinking...but there are a few I'll happily try so 4 recipes out of however many in the book isn't that bad I s'pose... :rolleyes:
I thought that as well, some of it is so obvious you wonder why its in a cook book. but if it helps people fair enough.
I do think Nigella's book is much much better.
I buy too many cook books, I think!:huh:
Same here, although I'm having to stop it! I don't even use the recipes very much, I just like looking at the photos!! mind, in delia's latest, there aren't many pics of the dishes....wonder why?? ;) :rolleyes:
:lol:
Annabel
19-02-08, 12:07 PM
I made Delia's spanish stew with pork, chorizo and potatoes, it was good!:cool: however, if i make it next time i will use chcken thighs rather than pork, as the pork got a bit stringy.
it was very easy though as all the ingredients went into a pot raw and then into the oven on a low heat til cooked, very low effort required (where's P24???:lol:)