Made to Make The Mouth Water (Gary Rhodes at the Table - Gary Rhodes)

Member Name: pjs21

Product:	Gary Rhodes at the Table - Gary Rhodes
Date:	09/02/01 (6425 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy Recipes

Disadvantages: Not enough Puddings!

Gary Rhodes at the Table is a great cook book full of some of the most warming and satisfying meals.

I’m not normally a fan of Mr Rhodes, but I happened to turn onto his TV Series as he was making Roast Chicken Soup. This was no ordinary chicken soup – oh no! This was a beautiful creamy looking soup into which was placed a whole roast breast of chicken. I know that all the veggies that must sound revolting, but it was the most mouth-watering chicken soup I think I have ever seen.

He even managed to make Spinach Soup look appealing.

This book, based on the TV Series, is separated into nine chapters.

1. Appetizers
2. Soups
3. Fish
4. Mains
5. Vegetables
6. Desserts
7. Savouries
8. Basic Recipes
9. Menus

In order to get the full glory of this book onto page I shall endeavour to go through this book section by section, stopping to wipe the drool on occasion.

APPETIZERS

Appetizing this section is, infact, that word hardly describes how these recipes make you feel when you read them. It includes:

Grilled Asparagus with Champ Potato and Tarragon Oil (Yum!)
Bacon and Beans
Crispy Prawn Cocktail
Warm Sole Salad
Spicy Vegetarian Crispy-top Pie
Country Pâté
Marinated Vegetables with Soft Cauliflower Cream

17 Recipes in total all of which start to make you feel hungry….

SOUPS

I have already mentioned two of the soups out of the 17 recipes (I see a them here!) in this section, if they weren’t enough to get your juices going, how about some of these:

Fisherman’s Soup (this looks particularly stunning)
Cream of Tomato (Which I have made, and is probably the best recipe I’ve used!)
Cod Brandade Soup with Leeks and Potatoes
Fresh Herb Broth
Winter Vegetable Soup ( I adapted this recipe to suit my tastes and it was beautiful, perfect for these cold evenings)


Soup is so much easier to make than I ever thought it was and it is well worth the effort to make your own. Hungry yet?

FISH

Try these out!

Roast Sea Bass with Glazed Crab Mashed Potatoes
(I saw him make this one on tele and it looked fantastic, especially the potato.)
Tunafish Steaks on Bitter Red-wine Onions
Rich Fish Stew
Warm Salmon Quiche Lorraine
Creamy Smoked Haddock Shepherds Pie
Fillets of John Dory Poached in Shiraz Wine on Creamed Celeriac and Cabbage. (Just saying that one gets me going)

Guess how many recipes there are in total in this section. 17? Could be. No, there are 20 in this one and each is easier to make than it sounds.

Though be warned – if cost is important to you when your making a big fish dish, choose carefully. I went to Tesco and picked up 4 different types of fish from the Fresh Fish Counter.

I had 2 whole Trout, 2 fillets of Cod, 2 fillets of Salmon and 2 fillets of Haddock. The Trout cost me just under £3.00. The Salmon, again, just under £3.00. The haddock was a little more expensive at about £4.20. But the cod – the cod was just under £8.00. The reason for this is that Cod has just become trendy again. It’s easy to cook and you can pretty much do anything with it – therefore the price has gone up.

This op could go on for ever, here are some of the other delicious recipes included.

MAINS

Roast Salt and Peppered Duck Breast with Spicy Plums
Red Wine Beef Lasagne
Glazed Honey and Lemon Roasted Chicken with Buttered Forked Potatoes
Hot Cheshire Pork Pies
Steamed Rabbit, Fennel and Tarragon Suet Pudding
Layered Mushroom and Onion Suet Pudding With Truffle Cream Sauce

30 Recipes in total to be found in the Mains chapter

VEGETABLES

Baked Mashed Potatoes
Sautéd Butternut Squash
Roast Onion (Always good!)
Braised Blue Cheese Leeks


13 recipes all of which will go with practically anything.

DESSERTS (My favourite chapter!)

Warm Whole Lemon and Almond Pudding with Fresh Raspberries
Rich Bramley Apple Millefeuilles
Frozen White Chocolate Mousse with Port Wine Figs (Looks too good!)
Classic Rum Baba
Hot Chocolate Soufflé with Chocolate Sauce (To die for!)

21 – I’m really beginning to get hungry now – recipes in this, the most welcome section in any cook book.

SAVOURIES

Home Made Baked Beans on Toast
Open Smoked Haddock Lasagne
Dressed Crab Salad
Mushroom Toasts with Melting Swiss Cheese
Cheese!

13 very simple recipes for the lighter evening meal.

BASIC RECIPES

Fish, Chicken, Game, Lamb, Veal or Beef, Vegetable – You name it, there’s a stock recipe here for it!
Mayonnaise
Tomato Ketchup
Fresh Pasta
Home-Made Crunchy Breadsticks
Crème Anglaise

30 basic recipes for useful things that are good to eat.

MENUS

This section contains Gary’s (I don’t suppose he’ll mind me calling him Gary?) recommendations for set menus of Two, Three, Four or Six courses using the recipes in the book.

Did you make it to here? If you did – well done. Even I went off to get a quick snack between Vegetables and Desserts!

So there it is – Gary Rhodes at the Table, his brand-spanking new book.

It’s a good one too – an essential in any kitchen. The recipes are easy to follow, and easy to adapt to your own tastes. The RRP is £18.99. WHSmiths have on sale at £14.99 at the moment and Amazon.co.uk at only £9.69 or something around that!

Buy it, cook, eat, enjoy, then eat some more.

Good health!

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