UKC

I will admit as much as i enjoy my cooking (and eating) i do only own one book (tend to find lots of recipes online). the one book i do own is Nigel Slater's 'real fast food' great book and i really like his style of cooking.
So which books do you own and enjoy ?

In reply to lost1977: Roast Chicken and other Stories - Simon Hopkinson. Not always easy recipes, but amazing food. All with cream and butter.

In reply to lost1977: Without a doubt (and having lived in a student house with tons of cooking books) Hugh Fearnly Wittingstalls Meat book. And that's coming from someone who mostly eats vegetarian food, definitely the most used book I have.

Every bookshelf should have Delia's cookery course and a Madhur Jaffrey book as well. It kind of depends what you like to cook and eat, are you a Larousse Gastronomique or a jamie oliver kind of guy? Jamies Italy book is good btw if you're into italian food.

In reply to lost1977: Larousse Gastronomique and the Silver Spoon are two lovely ones to have to hand, but I use them more as cookery dectionaries or encyclopedias than recipe books. For dishes to actually follow and produce, try Hugh FW's Meat (which you can happily sit down and read as a book from cover to cover as well), and Rick Stein's mediterranean one has given me a few very pleasant meals.

In reply to lost1977:
I'm a total cookbook geek!

For me:
Every Grain of Rice by Fuschia Dunlop is my current rave. It's loads of really interesting and really easy Chinese home cooking, mostly Sichuan and Hunanese style. The only issue is that you'll probably have to go via a chinese supermarket to stock up on things like preserved mustard greens and salted black beans, but unlike a lot of older books in a similar vein, she actually gives you pictures of tins and jars and packets so you know what sort of thing to look out for.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Every-Grain-Rice-Chinese-Cooking/dp/140880252X/ref=...
Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi is good when I'm after something a bit special and don't mind putting the effort in.
Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East by Arto Der Haroutunian is remarkably good for, er, vegetarian stuff from the Middle East. Lots of stuff that's very quick and simple but surprisingly interesting and unusual.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetarian-Dishes-Middle-East-Haroutunian/dp/190230...
Madhur Jaffrey's Eastern Vegetarian Cookery almost goes without saying.

On the interwebs, Smitten Kitchen is really good if you can handle the odd bit of cooing about her baby / lifestyle:
http://smittenkitchen.com/

Oh, and Niki Segnit's Flavour Thesaurus is brilliant for ideas / inspiration. Either "I've got some broccoli and I want to stir-fry it, what could I use to make it a bit more interesting" or just browsing for ideas...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flavour-Thesaurus-Niki-Segnit/dp/0747599777/ref=sr_...

In reply to lost1977:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0982761007

I have a mixture of regional reference books, french, Italian, Indian... some useful instructional books Leiths, Delia and a few celeb books for ideas like hairy bikers and Jamie. I don't think I've made meal to a recipe in years, but they're great for a starting point.

In reply to lost1977: The four hour chef

Its pretty good.
Dave

In reply to lost1977: http://www.amazon.com/In-Search-Perfection-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/0747584095

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Total-Perfection-Heston-Blumenthal/dp/14088024...

My bibles.

In reply to lost1977:
Mrs Num Num cooks a sublime 'nouille de pot de poulet et de champignon' to die for. Who needs cookbooks?