You can't beat a recipe that begins 'This dish is improved by the use of rabbits with youth on their side', can you? Beyond Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly (Bloomsbury, pounds 17.99) has the same no-nonsense approach that characterises the cooking at St John, and the sound, matter-of-fact style of the first book. Plenty of pig, 'trotter gear' and deep-fried tripe for the brave. The braised squirrel recipe has this preamble: 'There is something quite poetic in the way the bosky wood the squirrel inhabits has been recreated - the earthy musk of the porcini and the watercress echoing the treetops.' Quite mad. Quite brilliant.
Jimmy Doherty caused quite a flutter in this office when his wellies first strode onto our TV screens three years ago, and his farm is going from strength to strength by the look of his new book, A Taste of the Country (Michael Joseph, pounds 20). A good collection of country recipes, plus such diverse tips as where and how to buy egg-laying chickens and how to make your own vegetable crisps.
Angela Hartnett's and John Burton Race's First Crack your Egg (Quadrille, pounds 19.99) is their introduction to cooking to accompany the TV show Kitchen Criminals . The recipes are star-rated in order of difficulty and wider ranging than Welsh rarebit and salads. There's a good photo guide on how to make mayonnaise, a lovely poule au pot with pork dumplings and a medium-easy cherry clafoutis.
Another book from a TV series is Anjum Anand's Indian Food Made Easy (Quadrille, pounds 14.99). It's not a book for a beginner, but the recipes are by no means complicated and there's a very good front section listing basic equipment and ingredients. Lovely food like oven-fried chilli chicken, a very easy all-in-one lamb curry, a Bengali prawn recipe in coconut gravy. Yum!
Pat Chapman's India: Food and Cooking (New Holland, pounds 19.99) has a comprehensive glossary of spices, clear breakdown of regional cooking and a huge span of dishes from a Lucknow leek, potato and cashew soup that predates vichyssoise by aeons to a parsee root vegetable roast and the fabulously named Railway Station Vegetable Curry, which is still served all over the network. You may have eaten it: I sure have.
Reader's Digest test their recipes very thoroughly, so I really recommend their 30-Minute Curries (pounds 9.99), some of which take as little as 10 minutes. The recipes are ring-bound so they lie flat.
I love the Fairtrade Divine chocolate company, so was delighted by their Divine Heavenly Chocolate Recipes With a Heart by Linda Collister (pounds 19.99, Absolute Press). Unbelievable hedonism ... brownies with baked cream cheese and walnut topping, hot chocolate brandy souffle, a Piedmonte torta that would just bring life to a standstill.
Ursula Ferrigno is one of those cooks whose passion leaps off the pages, and her New Family Bread Book (Mitchell Beazley, pounds 20) is no exception. From semolina pizza dough to saffron and raisin bread sticks, this covers all the bases for you in a lovely, straightforward manner.
