This August sees the first of Homebru Cookery … an extension of the incredibly successful Exclusive Books campaign, which celebrates local books and authors. With cookery books always being such a massive part of this promotion, it was time for this mouth-watering genre to have an entire campaign of its own … aptly titled Tasty Reads – Mzansi Made.
So this month, dive into the close on 50 recipe-filled books that made the Homebru Cookery list. Like an exceptional menu at your favourite restaurant, it’s hard to choose (we always have food envy) … but we’ve found our favourites.
It’s easy to spot the most loved, and used, cookbooks in our houses. They’re the ones with smears of olive oil on the cover and faint outlines of spilt sauce quickly wiped off the pages inside. But by golly, we won’t be doing that with our copy of Tashas Inspired. This celebration of food and art is a glorious collection of some of Natasha Sideris’ favourite, classic recipes from around the world, beautifully illustrated with not only mouth-wateringly stunning food photos, but also original works of art … half recipe book, half coffee table book.
It’s a visual feast … with recipes like Savoury Cheesecake (a grown-up cheesecake Tasha remembers having with her mum at Harper’s, the Stuttaford’s department store café), with Tortilla from Spain and Waldorf salad from New York. There’s a Greek salad that will impress the socks off your guests (and which even can’t-boil-an-egg cooks will be able to dish up), and Salmon Wellington (for the more capable in the kitchen). Each of the chapters are themed – think New York Deli, French bistro, Spanish tapas bar – with posh cocktails (Frozen Limonana, Drunken Cherry Champagne, Grapefruit Martini), clever hints and tips on how to create a suitable atmosphere at home … heck, there’s even a Spotify playlist for you to play at your dinner party. This book is an inspiration and a joy, and we won’t be spilling olive oil on the cover! A Homebru choice, R1209 from Exclusive Books.
New York café vibe with chilli eggs on hash browns. A gazpacho Spanish affair. And a blue cheese wedge salad which was de rigueur among New York’s fashionable set of the 1920s. We’re sharing these recipes from Tashas Inspired … you’ll find them – and one or two more of Natasha’s favourites – on our website.
Paging through Nicky Stubbs’ cookbook feels like an enjoyable hour catching up with lovely old friends. Written, she says, as a love song to the family and friends who’ve fed her, taught her to cook, eaten and cooked with her, it’s a nostalgic journey with her mother via the sponge cake thick with butter icing, with her grandparents who lived at the foot of Mount Currie in East Griqualand, and who dished up roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on Sunday and kept home-made biscuits in a blue-and-white striped Cornishware jar on the dresser. So in the book you’ll find these recipes – her mum’s sweetcorn fritters, the gazpacho served at her wedding in the Free State, her cousin’s recipe for buttermilk rusks; and alongside those, recipes we used to make and have long forgotten about. Dishes like chutney chicken (who didn’t make this back in the day? With Mrs Balls chutney and a packet of brown onion soup, it was delicious and we are making it immediately). For the quick seed loaf we made before guests arrived, and for those lovely pressed picnic loaves which we wrapped in wax wrap and took on picnics and long drives. For apple crumble made with tinned apples and lemon meringue pie made with Tennis biscuits and condensed milk. For Friends and Family isn’t a new release, but it’s a marvellous Homebru buy, a celebration of heirloom recipes, some with modern twist … a tribute, says Nicky, to all who value the joy and community of meals prepared with love. Human & Rousseau, R424 from Exclusive Books.
There is not a single recipe in this cookbook that we won’t try. Honestly, how often can you say that about a cookbook? Well, you can about Bibby’s Kitchen … and mean every word. From the healthy chocolate Nutella (Dianne suggests you make double … good advice) to the Labneh breakfast cheesecake, from the trio of amazing hummus salad bowls to the Parmesan meatballs, from the no-bake caramel and walnut chocolate tart to the semolina orange syrup cake, it’s just page after page after delicious page of achievable, glorious recipes, for entertaining, for weeknight dinners, for those who love food and enjoy cooking. Subtitled The essence of good food, Dianne says she’s not a chef, professional or otherwise. “Just a woman who loves to cook. A lot.” So for anyone who loves to cook – a lot – this one’s the perfect Homebru buy. Human & Rousseau, available from Exclusive Books for R429.
Inspired? We’re sharing the recipes for Nicky Stubbs’ Coq au Vin from For Friends and Family, and Dianne Bibby’s Parmesan Meatballs with Sundried Tomato Sauce from Bibby’s Kitchen. You’ll find them on our website … so on with your aprons and into the kitchen you go.
Books can be bought instore, or online, via Uber-Eats (food and books, who could ask for more?), phone-in or Insta-shop.
Spend more than R450 for free delivery and books take around 36 hours for delivery. Details: exclusivebooks.co.za
Compiled by Kym Argo
