More Miss than Hit (Forever Summer - Nigella Lawson)

Member Name: cmh4135

Product:	Forever Summer - Nigella Lawson
Date:	29/01/08 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pretty coffee-table cook book

Disadvantages: Odd ingredients and unreliable results

Following on from my love of "Domestic Goddess" I was more than happy to receive another Nigella book as a gift. "Forever Summer" looks as enticing as "Domestic Goddess" - will it prove its weight?

"Forever Summer" was a book to accompany Nigella's TV series of the same name. It contains recipes from the show and many more besides. I don't know about you but I'm always a little skeptical of spin-offs. More often than not I find that the dumb down the natural cooking skills of the authors in favour of mass-market acceptability. I found "Domestic Goddess" refreshing in its yesteryear style and hoped, very much, that the homely feel would not be lost here.

The jacket describes the recipes and ethos of "Forever Summer" as "Easy Cooking, Easy Eating" and says "the keynote is simplicity, freshness, enjoyment". I'm hoping that it does, indeed, live up to these claims.

In fact, summer is just an inspiration and most of the recipes would be suited to all year round eating. Nigella, in common with us, is under no illusions that the balmy days of summer entrenched in Famous Five novels are just not an everyday (or indeed every year) occurrence and that the modern family will be pushed for time in such a way that, even if the sun should shine, we might not be there to enjoy it. Instead, Nigella seems to seek to put the old fashioned, lazy summer back into a summerless world.

"Forever Summer" does, if you so chose, provide the complete meal solution. Starters: Soups, Pastas, Salads; Mains: Fish, Meat, Poultry and Sides and Desserts and Drinks are all covered. Nigella is, to my mind, a goddess when it comes to desserts but I rarely rate her other recipes. This book, unfortunately, is no exception.

Beautiful illustrations accompany around 60% of the recipes. Ideally I'd like this percentage to be higher as presentation and an idea of what you are trying to create is all important to me. As with her other books, Nigella precedes each recipe with some words about the dish - whether that be how she came upon the idea or where it originated. These little bits make the book quite readable although some of the humour and homeliness of "Domestic Goddess" is lost. In keeping with her other offerings she explains what more unusual ingredients are and offers alternatives in case you can't get hold of certain items. There are a fair few "unusual ingredients in the book and, for that reason, some will be put off trying the recipes.

The mix of recipes should suit most cooks with some dishes ideal for entertaining, some for lazy picnics and some for everyday eating. Vegetarians will be disappointed in the main.

The recipes that I've tried have been easy to recreate and portion sizes have been accurate. I do however have a few issues with some of the taste combinations and flavours of the resulting plates of food. Certain "easy" dishes such as slow-roasted garlic and lemon chicken were deeply disappointing with unbalanced flavours from following the recipe. Tweeks produced a better result (and I acknowledge that tweeks are often necessary) but rarely is something as far out as I thought this was.

Overall I think this is a book that remains consigned to my bookshelf with good reason. It's a good, visual book, but not a cook's book and, unfortunately, falls into that TV spin-off trap that I was so worried about. If you like Nigella's stuff then get this book out of the library, see what takes your fancy and then copy the recipes out. I wouldn't give it shelf space in my rather full kitchen.

Summary: A pretty cook book that just doesn't deliver when it comes to the recipes