Bill’s Everyday Asian (this is a cookery book, not a porn site)

I love cookery and food in general, but it is one of those things. When you are a stay at home mum, which I am, having to come up with meals seven days a week tends to sap the strength of even the most committed foodie.  I often find myself dreading finding something to shove on the dinner table.

This is down in part to the repetition, but mostly, it has to be said, it is down to me sharing a house with four of the fussiest eaters the dear Lord ever saw fit to plonk on the planet.  I sympathise with them a little.  As a child I was faddiness personified, and had a weird and wonderful diet that drove my poor mother to distraction for years.  I have since, and for no reason I can put my finger on, become a kind of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall figure.  I am curious about almost all foods, and will try most things once, even things I think I will hate, just in case I don’t.

I also have an appetite like a Thames Dredger. I just keep on eating.

If there is no food around I am bereft, and have been known to start plucking my feathers out with despair.

I do have hopes that the family dining situation will improve however.  Tilly is becoming enormously adventurous, both in what she eats and what she cooks, and is now a pleasure to eat with, for the most part. She still has her moments, but that’s o.k.  I am just thrilled by the fact that she will try things, and she has finally come to the understanding that ingredients combined do not always taste of their individual components.  This is a revelation, and a very welcome one.

The other two are still working on things.  We have good days, we have bad days.  We have days where I want to smack them with a pan. We have days when we give up and go to the chippy.

At the moment though, things are looking up in the culinary stakes.  I have two new cookery books to review for Amazon Vine and we have been having a lovely time so far.

I have Bill’s Everyday Asian, which is possibly the most appalling name for a cookery book ever.  It sounds vaguely pornographic.  It is by the Australian cook, Bill Granger.

He is not really very well known in the UK, although I have noticed his face cropping up more often on the digital cookery channels in recent months. I believe he is hugely famous in Australia though.  I am imagining him as a kind of Australian Jamie Oliver.  At which all my Australian friends will now mail me with vehement denials that he is anything of the sort.

I got this because I got the book Bill’s Basics to review earlier in the year and I have used it over and over again.  It is a genius cook book, full of simple recipes that taste great and are really easy to do.  His carrot cake instantly turns you into a domestic goddess.  I have defected, for the purposes of carrot cake, from Nigella, who I swear by in all things baking, to Bill.  It is that serious.

I would point out for English readers that Bill’s Asian is not Indian food.  It is noodles and lemon grass and that kind of thing.  I wouldn’t say he draws influences from a specific country but it is Thai/Vietnamese style stuff.

I love this sort of food to eat, but rarely cook it, as I don’t really have any idea what I am doing.  I find it a bit daunting to be honest, but I thought if anyone could break me in gently, it would be Bill.

So far I have made two dishes, the chicken wings in a sticky, hot sauce, and a dish called Pork Larb.  The chicken wings were more simple than I imagined they would be, but rather messy to make.  They are as messy to make as they are to eat, and if you don’t make your syrup just before you coat your chicken wings you end up with your syrup mixture hardening in the pan to the point where it is fairly useless.  Once I had mastered the timing all was well, and all chicken wings were eaten appreciatively.

The Larb I made this evening.  Again, it was simple to make and, like stir fries, once you had prepped your ingredients it was quick too.  It is basically a kind of spicy mince, with crispy veg and fierce hits of lime and chilli and lemongrass.  The veg added crunch, as did some toasted rice grains.  We had ours with noodles. Bill suggested serving it with raw cabbage segments.

I wish, when I suggested this, that I had taken a picture of Jason’s face.

He has his limits, and raw cabbage segments is one of them.

Tomorrow I’m making a kind of clear, spicy broth that is served with bits of sirloin.

Jason is already banging his knife and fork on the table.

The next post is about our adventures with cook book number two.

Nom, nom, nom.

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