Cookbook review: Good Food by Neil Perry

This one was a gift for my birthday earlier this month. It's become a much-appreciated gift too.

Good Food is one of those cookbooks that I wouldn't have even flicked through, let alone thought to cook from. That's because I thought that Neil Perry's recipes would be far too fussy and chef-y. He is a highly successful high-end restaurateur, and celeb chef - all QANTAS first class menus and his own line of commercial products. (I must admit that I really like his mayonnaise, and I usually hate commercial mayonnaise.)

So it's been a very pleasant surprise to find that I have made about seven different dishes from Good Food in the last month. His recipes are very straightforward, with easily sourced ingredients, giving great results.

We're having a very strange November weather-wise here in Melbourne. Very hot days. Very wet days (thankfully!). And some very cold - as in get your boots out again - days. So most of the dishes I've made so far from this book have been transeasonal: spaghetti with veal meatballs and tomato sauce, pan-fried chicken breast with tzatziki, and my favourite, pumpkin, sweet potato, pea & chilli risotto. I haven't made proper risotto for years (all that constant stirring can be challenging with three kids running around), but I was so pleased with this recipe.

A special mention too for the incredibly easy chicken & macaroni salad, which I made for The Hubster and me to take to work for lunch over several days. Yum. I left out the cherry tomatoes, as my youngest son had gobbled them all up before I got to them, but the finished recipe was still wonderful. (I did roast a chook for this one, which ends up cheaper and tastes better, plus provided us with chicken for the kids school sandwiches as well.)

I've only had one so-so result from Good Food - the saffron chicken & rice. It was OK, but not delicious enough to get me making it again.

Recommended. You can also see a preview of the book here.