And now for something completely different!
I have never reviewed a cookery book before but I saw this on Net Galley and I couldn't resist. My slow cooker is one of my favourite kitchen tools and I am always on the lookout for new, simple recipes. I was a bit hesitant when I started flicking through and saw what looked like a lot of fancy stuff but thankfully I was pleasantly surprised.
This book does so much right and it really deserves kudos for it. You can tell Nicki has been writing recipes for a long time and she really does include a lot of fantastic detail. It starts off with a general introduction followed by some slow cooker tips. These weren't all new to me but it was still useful to include them and it shows the attention to detail put in.
Now onto the recipes themselves. They are divided up into 5 sections: vegetables, chicken/turkey/pork, lamb/beef, seafood and brunch/breakfast. I was actually glad not to have a dessert section since I never tend to use these parts of my recipe books but I can see some people potentially wishing it had one. This structure makes sense for the most part, although the pork does seem a little out of place with the poultry.
Each recipe is laid out fantastically. It starts with an overview of the dish, followed by ingredients which are sorted by where you use them (most dishes are slow-cooker focused but may require some stove work or other elements). Beneath this is a little box which contains information about which ingredients/steps you can plan up to days ahead. I found this incredibly useful as people using a slow cooker are often pushed for time, so it's great to know what can be done earlier. After this comes the method, followed by fridge/freezer instructions (again, incredibly useful) and finally there is a little additional tip.
As mentioned above, I really was a fan of the content of the recipes. There's a fair range of dishes but I was impressed by how the main slow-cooker dish was usually simple but the side dish would be fancier/involve rarer ingredients. Firstly, the inclusion of a complementary side dish for every main one is something that added a wonderful touch to this recipe book and showed the skill of the chef behind it. Secondly, by doing it this way it means that you can easily skip the side dish if you only want a tasty simple meal, but have the option for more extravagance if you're hosting or have money/time to spare. Not counting sides, I would happily try making 24 out of 46 recipes which sounds low until you realise I don't eat beef or lamb. Excluding those, it has a much higher ratio than any other recipe book I've bought.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book and will certainly be checking out the author's food blog as a result of reading it. The layout and attention to detail is phenomenal, the recipes are varied and tasty, and the tips and other notes are useful on the whole. A wonderful find for anyone with a slow cooker.
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