10 OF THE BEST Ten celebrated food writers share favourite cookbook recipes to cook through the year Design by Mecob FROM CKBK's FOUNDERS For too long, food lovers have faced a choice between the speed and convenience of internet search or the quality and authority of the best cookbooks. As keen cooks, we became frustrated with this tradeoff. Too often we found ourselves making do with what we could find online, only to regret it. We knew that the best-loved cookbooks could offer so much more — if only they could be made more accessible. We decided it was time to do something about it, and the result is ckbk. By bringing the best cookbooks by award- winning food writers and culinary legends together in one place online, ckbk unleashes your imagination in the kitchen. Our curated collection caters to every possible taste, while ckbk's personalized recommendations guide you to the dishes most relevant for you. To give just a hint of ckbk's range and diversity, we are thrilled to share with you this "taster selection" of 10 recipes, each one chosen by a leading food writer, to inspire you through the year. For a summery pasta dish, try Marcella Hazan’s Fettucine with Clams and Zucchini, personally recommended by her son Giuliano, a leading instructor on Italian cuisine. If the weather has turned chilly, how about Patience Gray's rustic Greek fish soup, suggested by Tessa Kiros? With each recipe you will find an accompanying recommendation from one of our experts, explaining why that dish means so much to them. Savour them all, and be sure to let us know how you get on in the kitchen! Join us on our journey with ckbk — we promise to keep you stocked with an endless supply of culinary inspiration! MATTHEW COCKERILL NADIA ARUMUGAM spring method The Sugar Club Cookbook was one of “the most inspiring cookbooks of its time, Put the first seven ingredients of the chilli sauce and twenty-two years on, this beautifully in a food processer and purée to a coarse paste. illustrated and designed tome still fills Put the sugar in a saucepan with 4 tablespoons me with the kind of mouthwatering of water and place on a moderate heat, stirring excitement about food that only a truly well until the sugar dissolves. When it has, great cookbook can. Peter Gordon’s remove the spoon and turn the heat up to full. uniquely imaginative approach to cooking Boil for 5—8 minutes and do not stir until it has has been one of the most inspiring turned a dark caramel colour (but don’t allow it catalysts of my own career and this to burn). Now stir in the paste, bring the sauce book was for a very long time back to the boil and add the last three ingredients. my Bible. Return to the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Leave it to cool before eating. It is impossible to select only one recipe as they all resonate so strongly with me— Lightly oil the scallops with sesame oil and Sugar-cured Beef on Ginger Buckwheat season, then grill each side on a char-grill, Noodles; the chapter dedicated to offal; overhead grill or skillet for 90 seconds. Sit the now infamous Grilled Scallops with them on a bed of watercress, put a dollop of Sweet Chilli Sauce and Crème Fraîche— crème fraîche on top and drizzle generously but above all I love the chapter on laksa, with sweet chilli sauce. which thanks to Peter has become one of my all-time favorite dishes not only to eat but to cook. Each version has its own unique palette of powerful flavors, and bold colors and textures; all comforting, enlivening, and encouraging of experimentation in that very charming and informative way that Peter has about him. Peter’s recipe for Grilled Scallops with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Crème Fraîche, his signature dish, really sets the scene for this groundbreaking book. The combination of charred sweet scallops and rich crème fraîche—enhanced with a punchy sauce bursting with Asian aromatics such as lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger and galangal—results in a taste unlike any other. The dish Grilled Scallops awakens the palate and perfectly showcases Peter’s mastery, not only INGREDIENTS in the kitchen but at recipe writing too. with Sweet and roughly chopped 1 thumb of galangal, peeled His recipes always work! 12 large diver-caught scallops, and roughly chopped trimmed ” Chilli Sauce 8 lime leaves Sesame oil 3 lemon-grass stems; remove Salt and pepper and Crème the two outside leaves, discard Watercress leaves the top third of the stem and Selected by ANNA HANSEN ½ cup crème fraîche Born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, Fraîche finely slice the remainder Anna Hansen trained as a chef under Fergus 1 cup fresh Henderson and Peter Gordon. With Gordon, she SWEET CHILLI SAUCE coriander leaves opened seminal London restaurant The Providores, 10 cloves of garlic, peeled 1½ cups caster sugar and was consulting chef to New York eatery Public. 100ml (5fl oz) cider vinegar From The Sugar Club Cookbook Hansen went on to open The Modern Pantry, 4 large red chillies, stems gaining two AA Rosettes and a ‘Bib Gourmand’ removed 50ml (3½fl oz) Asian fish sauce by Peter Gordon in the Michelin Guide. She is the author of 3 thumbs of fresh ginger, peeled 50ml (1¾fl oz) tamari © 1997 Peter Gordon The Modern Pantry Cookbook. spring method Geraldene Holt’s Cakes, first published “in 1980, contains the same recipes Prepare the cake tin by cutting a 28 × 28 cm that made the author’s stall at Tiverton / 11 × 11 in. square of baking paper. Fold the Pannier Market such a wild success— paper in half and line the base of the buttered it’s a solid collection of British standards, tin with the fold vertical lengthways to separate thoroughly tested and perfected in a real the two colours in the mixture while the kitchen. cake bakes. It’s not all Victoria sandwiches and Cream the butter with the caster sugar and beat shortbread, however (though the book until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a has these too); Geraldene’s curiosity time, and then fold in the sifted flour. Mix the allows for everything from an airy Paris– vanilla essence into one half of the mixture, and Brest to a cake designed to use up spoon into one side of the prepared cake tin. the dregs of wine. The collection’s so Add a drop or two of food colouring to the comprehensive I haven’t quite managed remaining mixture to colour it pink, mix in the to cook my way through the whole book rose-water and spoon into the other side of . yet. the cake tin. Smooth the mixture level. One of my favorite recipes so far is Bake in the preheated oven until the cake the resolutely unfashionable Battenberg is springy in the centre. Cool in the tin for Cake with its neat pink and yellow 2 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to checkerboard squares, the first of which cool. When cold, carefully peel off the paper Geraldene cleverly flavors with rose, and to separate the two cakes. Trim the cakes to the second with vanilla (very few other make them equal size and cut both in half recipes bother to flavor the sponge, lengthways. Spread apricot jam over the relying instead on the visual for interest). surface of each strip and sandwich them This delicate combination, both of which together to give alternating coloured squares. work brilliantly with the almond icing, makes it as delightful to eat as to look at. Roll out the marzipan on a board lightly dusted with icing sugar to make a rectangle about 40 In fact, it’s so beautiful that I once took × 20 cm / 16 × 8 in. or large enough to wrap a loaf to a boyfriend’s parents’ house, around the cake excluding the ends. Brush the expecting them to serve it for afternoon marzipan with the rest of the jam and place the tea. Disappointingly, they didn’t. Several cake on top, bring the edges together and press months later, as we all tucked into a Yule together firmly. Trim the ends neatly if necessary. log, eschewing the traditional fruitcake, I Turn the cake the right way up and crimp the top discovered that the entire family detested two edges with your finger tips as for pastry marzipan. I still wonder what happened crust, then use a sharp knife to lightly mark a to my poor cake. lattice pattern over the top. Wrap the cake in ” Battenberg Cake greaseproof paper and store in a lidded plastic box overnight before cutting. Oven: 180°C / 350°F / gas mark 4 Baking time: 35–40 minutes INGREDIENTS colouring ½ tsp rose-water Selected by Felicity Cloake 175 g / 6 oz butter 4 tbs apricot jam, sieved Felicity Cloake is an award-winning food writer 175 g / 6 oz caster sugar 350 g / 12 oz marzipan and the author of Perfect, Perfect Host, Perfect 3 eggs Too, Completely Perfect and The A–Z of Eating. EQUIPMENT From Geraldine Holt's Cakes Her most recent book, One More Croissant, a 175 g / 6 oz self-raising flour celebration of the culinary delights of France, is ¼ tsp vanilla essence 28 × 18 cm / 11 × 7 in. tin; by Geraldine Holt both a travelogue and food memoir. She is a food cochineal or pink food baking paper © 2011 Geraldine Holt spring method One of my all-time favorite cookbooks “is Great Cooks and Their Recipes by Put the veal escalopes between two sheets of Anne Willan.