Cookbook Corner: At Our Table

At Our Table, compiled by Delicious Magazine, is a substantial and weighty tome, beautifully presented with stunning photography which sets off the food to great effect, and it even provides a colour palette and decorating tips for each special occasion.

The book has been set out for different events – Brunch – Garden Party – Beach Party – Happy Birthday – Easter Lunch – Ultimate Dinner Party – Christmas in July – Barefoot Christmas – New Year’s Eve.

Each section provides a full menu for the culinary ambitious, or you can pick and choose your favourites for putting together a simpler meal, or just choose a recipe that takes your fancy.

Some recipes look decidedly ambitious with names that sound like a poem, such as ‘Soft Creamy Polenta with Charred Cavolo Nero and Broccolini’, or ‘Crab Arancini with Oozy Raclette’.  However, I didn’t find any of them too complex, or with a list of ingredients as long as your arm and costing your other arm plus a leg!

I have promised myself I will try the ‘Gluten Free Apple, Almond and Banana Bread’ which looks deliciously moist and moreish, the ‘Baked Lemon French Toast’, the ‘Spiced Peach and Passionfruit Pavlova’ and ‘Prawns with Tabasco Aioli’, although not all at once!  

The ‘Cheat’s Christmas Pudding’ and the ‘Ginger Shortbread’ look particularly inviting and I’ll put them aside for next Christmas.

From the simple ‘Egg and Bacon Roll’ to “Testaroli with Slow-Cooked Pork and Rosemary Ragu’ there is something for everyone’s level of experience and pocketbook.

And if you don’t fancy cooking then it’s just a lovely book to browse through and place enticingly on your coffee table (and I really like the grosgrain markers so thoughtfully provided so you can mark your recipe selections).

At Our Table, compiled by Delicious Magazine, is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.