Eating In by Sue Lawrence

It's now well established that Eating In is the old eating out and who better to write a book about home-cooked food than popular Scottish writer, Sue Lawrence. With the recession biting in to another year, cooking for friends and family is not only more fashionable than ever but a necessity in these straitened times.

TWISTS AND TURNS ON FAMILY FAVOURITES

Inspiration can sometimes run short and familiar recipes are used over and over but in Eating In, the reader is encouraged to stray from the norm. Firstly, the recipes are very accessible, do not require a cupboard full of ingredients and most importantly, won't take too long in the preparation. Expect twists and turns on family favourites. A Scottish thread runs through some of them, with snippets of information on the country's delicacies.

IMPROVISE

Divided by various occasions, the short chapters are full of ideas that you can follow by the book or just adapt into your own repertoire. A pot of hummus probably finds its way into the weekly supermarket shop. Why not jazz it up a bit by adding some crabmeat, lemon zest and chilli? Sue starts from scratch with this recipe but there's no reason why you shouldn't improvise on a shop bought tub.

TRY THIS AT HOME

An easy pudding is Crunchie puds, a mixture of broken crunchies and whipped cream that you leave overnight to chill so that it goes gooey. This can also be frozen. The chocolate bar slab is good for picnics and goes down well with children - a celebration of golden syrup, butter, chocolate, Rolos and Toblerones. And if you have a glut of plums, the Plum and orange oaty squares is delicious.

You may think you have enough recipe books but Eating In is a cookbook that you can really cook from and it comes with the GWG recommendation.

Publication details:
Hachette Scotland
£25
Buy from Amazon.

13 September 2011