The Natural Cook: Eating the Seasons from Root to Fruit by Tom Hunt

An interesting book in which Hunt invites us to cook vegetables and fruit in season, divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  Each vegetable or fruit is introduced with notes on preparation, taste and season and instructions given for cooking it three ways, for instance, for asparagus instructions are given for preparing it raw, char-grilling it and blanching it.  Below each method comes further ideas for using the ingredient, it is then followed by an extant recipe, for instance, the blanched asparagus is used for a variation on Italian Risi e Bisi (rice and peas).  It's an approach that teaches you the possibilities of each vegetable and fru

Elizabeth David on Vegetables by Jill Norman

I found this an interesting cookery book, definately a cookery book rather than a cookbook.  J

Jill Norman assembles here a number of David's writings about vegetables including history, personal experiences in Italy and inspiring recipes.  Here is a piece on the coming of potatoes to Europe and their one time status as aphrodisiac and expensive exotic, there how to cook a risotto properly.

The book is divided into sections on soups, small dishes, salads, pasta gnocchi and polenta, rice beans and lentil, main dishes, breads and desserts.  All the dishes are vegetarian although many can be accompaniments for meats.  There is also an introduction by Norman on David, her writings and influence on British food.

A book I will return to to improve my cooking skills, to make vegetables a tasty dish in and of themselves rather than just a side to meat.

Grown Your Food For Free (Well Almost) by Dave Hamilton

Dave Hamilton, co author of The Self-sufficientish Bible, has written a good introduction to gardening in both a money and environmentally efficient way, covering not just the propagation of fruit and vegetables but also peripheral subjects such as foraging, manufacture and sourcing of materials of garden buildings and hard landscaping, wildlife and tools.  This is a friendly book: Hamilton assumes you know nothing and takes the reader gently through beginning with a section on getting started and then moving through a season by season guide to planting, harvesting, seed collection and construction.  Each section is very well presented with plenty of headings, diagrams and step by step instructions.  A great book from which both complete beginners and indeed any gardener can learn.