Bill's Open Kitchen by Bill Granger

Bill Granger's restaurants are a Sydney institution and for those of us who are unable to travel to Sydney, his cookbooks can only be the next best thing. And they are as Bill's Open Kitchen is no exception. Open up the book, turn the pages and all that is best about Australia tumbles out onto your lap. Fresh, fresh ingredients combined with recipes of pure simplicity. You could not ask for more.

One of Bill's prerequisites for home cooking is that it shouldn't take too much time. This is the cooking that he does at home. Despite the fact that he is dealing with food all day long, he still likes to cook at home but with a young family, time is at a premium. All the recipes in Bill's Open Kitchen need to be cooked just before eating. Of course, this might not suit everyone but the important thing here is that the food is fresh.

In his last book, Bill's Food, Bill cut his recipes down to the absolute minimum. Here in Open Kitchen, he has upped the number of ingredients in each recipe but this doesn't detract from their simplicity. Recipes are grouped together by meal and you will soon find some firm favourites, whether it is buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, or banana maple upside-down cake for tea or the dreamy yoghurt pannacotta with rose-scented plums to bring a meal to its close. Enough of this sweet nectar as you will also find plenty of salads, fish and poultry recipes, as well as a smattering of red meat dishes.

To give you a taster, we like grapefruit and prawn salad. Ruby grapefruit segments are mixed with cashews, prawns, mint leaves and lettuce and served with a dressing of lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, spiced up with some red chillies. Fish sauce makes several appearances in Open Kitchen as it is no doubt something that every good cook should have on his/her shelf. It is made from salted and fermented dried fish or shrimp, which are layed into large wooden barrels. After several months, the liquid is drained off producing a strongly flavoured amber liquid.

As a Saturday lunch, Briget's onion and feta cheese tart closes the gap perfectly. Roll out a rectangle of puff pastry and fill it with caramelized onions. Cook in the oven on a medium heat and just before serving, scatter over cubes of feta cheese.

As you can see from these examples, the recipes are easy. They are interchangeable to a certain extent. The carrot fritters which Bill serves with seared scallops can be made into bite sizes and served with drinks, with the yoghurt dressing for dipping.

After the excesses of Christmas or if you are looking for a respite from turkey and all the trimmings, Bill's Open Kitchen will not disappoint.

Publication details:
192 pages. Photography by Petrina Tinslay. £16.99
Published by Murdoch Books
ISBN 1740452267
2003

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