Review: Something for Everyone
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 1, 2013
I love British blogger Carol Jones'sTried & Tested - 101 Recipes!  The book is well laid out and features an interactive Table of Contents that both connects correctly with the Kindle menu and lists every single recipe as well as the very useful extras that Carol has included - a handy chart of oven temperature conversions (indispensable if you are going to cook in "International"), a list of abbreviations and a glossary of cooking terms and equipment that you may need to refer to if you're cooking in British on this side of the pond.  (NOTE - Carol also includes charts of volume and weight conversions but I highly recommend that you not bother to try to convert these recipes.  More later.)Carol presents a huge variety of interesting mains and vegetable dishes, many of which would serve as vegetarian mains, plus a few soups and a small but choice selection of desserts and baked goods.  While Carol's recipes tend to be very international (Chinese Style Drumsticks, Chili con Carne, Oriental Style Salmon, Moroccan Mushrooms with Couscous), you'll also find lots of the curries and kormas that have become so much a part of British fare as well as more traditional dishes.The book is in UK metrics.  Now you could, I suppose, muck about with calculators and such trying to convert metrics to cups and pounds. Remembering that it took Julia Child years to do that satisfactorily with her own recipes as well as near-agonizing personal experience with recipes I brought back from Europe long ago, I absolutely do not recommend that you even bother to attempt that.  Here's the skinny -The pyrex glass measuring pitcher in your kitchen (and most other measuring pitchers intended for liquids sold in the US over the last couple of decades) have ml on one side.  In the metric system anything liquid is measured in ml.  You will need a scale for more solid things.  Once upon a time a metric scale was hard to come by.  These days you can find a good digital scale that measures in both ounces and grams for a very reasonable price and they are dead easy to use. (I'll upload a video I did for another review in a bit.) The measuring spoons that you already have are exactly the same, unless you happen to be cooking in Australian, which of course Carol's book isn't.Carol has made an excellent effort to make sure that the ingredients that she calls for are commonly available, but there are some naming differences to keep in mind -plain flour - all purpose flourstreaky bacon - the stuff we buy as bacon is as close as you can get. 1 piece is a rasher.lean bacon - Canadian bacongammon - fresh uncured hamfull cream milk - whole milkcaster sugar - superfine or bartender's sugargolden caster sugar - a superfine brown sugar.  Whiz regular brown sugar in the blender or substitute maple sugar, which has the right textureicing sugar - confectioner's sugarsingle cream - light creamdouble cream - heavy creammange touts/mange-tout - snow peasThere are also a few special ingredients you may not know about -A couple of recipes call forKorma Paste.  Pataks is quite widely distributed in the US so you may find this in the International section of your supermarket.Other recipes call forPassata.  This is a strained, crushed tomato product commonly used in Europe.  There are many varieties here at Amazon, but you could also simply take regular canned tomatoes and run them through your food mill or a fine sieve (blend first if they are whole) to remove the seeds and break them up.  Do not substitute tomato paste or tomato sauce as neither has the right consistency.Check the farmer's market for Gem Squash or grow your own for Baked Squash with Maple Glaze.  I do the identical recipe using acorn squash.Onion squash is also known as Red Kuri squash.  It is a winter squash that looks something like a small, redder pumpkin.  I often find this in the fall at farmer's markets.Grandma's $0.02 -Tried & Tested - 101 Recipesis full of interesting & unusual recipes featuring staple ingredients and clear directions.  Highly recommended