DELIA SMITH'S RECIPES FOR SUMMER COOKING,
BAKING AND DRINKS

Review by

Delia's Summer Collection
(BBC Books) ISBN 978-0563488705 0563488700

Delia's recipes for summer meals use seasonal produce to make appetizers, salads, main dishes, desserts and preserves.

Summer menus include recipes for entertaining guests, barbecues, buffet parties and quick and easy everyday suppers. Beautifully photographed, the recipes for summer dinners, lunches and breakfasts include cooking tips and serving suggestions.

Bread baking

Organized by meal course, from chilled soups to baked desserts, Delia's Summer Collection features 140 recipes. Some are updated traditional recipes, such as the low-calorie hollandaise sauce for fresh asparagus.

Other seasonal recipes use herbs, such as chives, basil and mint, e.g., chicken with sherry vinegar and tarragon sauce. Even Delia's bread recipes use summer herb and seed toppings, e.g., sunflower and poppy seeds on wholegrain bread and blue cheese, garlic and thyme topping for focaccia.

Restaurant dishes

Delia Smith introduces each chapter and recipe. For example, she recommends that you use her recipe for Thai red curry paste to flavor fish cakes and chicken.

In other introductions, she credits her sources, e.g., Spices restaurant at Repulse Bay, Hong Kong, provided the recipe for spiced lamb and cashew kebabs.

Several recipes in Delia's Summer Collection have international flavors, such as crunchy peanut-coated drumsticks and Thai salmon filo parcels.

The 224-page cookbook uses both US and British measurements. It also provides a conversion chart for cooking temperatures, weights and volumes.

Vegetarian cooking

Where the cooking ingredients are unusual, Delia Smith defines them, e.g., elderflower cordial and black onion seeds. One of Delia's most unusual recipes is for a pineapple drink made from fermented pineapple rind.

You will also find vegetarian meals in Delia's Summer Collection, such as twice-baked goat's cheese soufflés with chives and roasted Mediterranean vegetable lasagna. Sauce recipes range from watercress sauce for cold-poached egg salad to fresh coriander chutney.

Summer desserts

Many of the recipes for summer desserts include fruit and ice cream—lemon meringue ice cream, rhubarb crumble ice cream and strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Other light summer desserts are baked, like the caramel meringues.

Besides summer lunches and dinners, Delia Smith provides recipes for breakfast, such as coffee and walnut muffins and fresh apricot and pecan muffins with cinnamon icing.

Preserving food

Delia's Summer Collection also features recipes for preserving summer produce, including spiced pickled runner beans and preserved dried tomatoes.

Peter Knab's 50 appealing photos of summer fruits, vegetables and Delia's recipes make you want to start cooking immediately.

Delia's Summer Collection

Contents

Introduction
  • Soups, Starters and Light Lunch Dishes
  • Herbs, Salads and Dressings
  • Summer Fish and Shellfish
  • The Vegetables of Spring and Summer
  • Barbecue and Outdoor Food
  • Summer Entertaining
  • A Vegetarian Summer
  • Summer Meat and Poultry
  • Jellies, Creams and Compotes
  • Ingredients Update
  • Ices and Granitas
  • Summer Baking and Desserts
  • Equipment Update
  • Summer Preserves
  • Bread, Pizza and Focaccia
Index

Author

Delia Smith is the British author of several cookbooks, including The Complete Cookery Course and the How to Cook series.

More Delia Smith cookbooks:

Delia's Happy Christmas


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