1 The Sportsman by Stephen Harris

Phaidon, £29.95

Authoritative, appetising, generous, a distillation of time and place. You can almost hear the seagulls and smell the seaweed. Stylishly penned portraits of the Thames estuary and salt marshes, and the surrounding Kent countryside. A slight warning: perhaps not one for the novice cook and it’s not overburdened with recipes but you will likely want to cook every one. An understated triumph.
Buy it for: the slip soles and seaweed butter

2 At My Table by Nigella Lawson

Chatto & Windus, £26
The new Nigella. What more do you need? There is a beguiling casualness to the (lack of) structure of this book other than a classy collection of good things to eat. An alluring reminder of what a fine recipe writer – indeed, writer – she is.
Buy it for: the cakes, of course, and the elegant swipe at spiralising

3 Letter to a Beekeeper by Steve Benbow and Alys Fowler

Unbound, £20
A love letter to bees and gardening, a lyrical romance over honey, funded by its readers. There are postcards, seed packets, diaries, expert advice about gardens and apiaries. And then there’s Sir Ian McKellen. Savour it like heather honey. God save the queens.
Buy it for: the bees

4 River Cafe 30 by Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen, Joseph Trivelli

Ebury, £28
Thirty years since the Cafe opened, 22 years since the orginal blue book, seven since the sublime Rose Gray died, this is a lavish reboot. Ninety refined original recipes plus 30 that are new, as clean to read as you could hope.
Buy it for: the revised chocolate nemesis and the new crab and artichoke salad

5 The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater

4th Estate, £26
The perfect Christmas present for your food-loving friends and family, though keep one back for your own kitchen. With its reassuring tone in troubled times it could sit happily by your bedside. Almost like holding hands.
Buy it for: welcoming winter days and for the Christmas cooking

6 Made at Home by Giorgio Locatelli

4th Estate, £26
Locatelli is incapable of making a bad book – each (this is his third) appears to be lavished with love, like the recipes. Perhaps a little more utilitarian than the others but at least you won’t feel so guilty when it gets splashed with tomato sauce (there are four recipes for it).
Buy it for: the 4am spaghettis

7 Downtime by Nadine Levy Redzepi

Ebury, £27
The cook’s cook’s cookbook. A debut collection from a wife of a famous chef, standing free from his long shadow. Informed by an interesting past and present, proudly independent, there is much to admire here, including the writer’s voice. Recipes smartly pitched at the competent and less confident cook.
Buy it for: the surprise homage to Antonio Carluccio

8 The Folio Book of Food & Drink edited by Jojo Tulloh

Folio, £34.95
Wisdom from Jeeves to James Joyce, Olney to Orwell, the sort of old-school miscellany of fine food-and-drink writing you’d hope to find in the library of a small hotel by the sea. The illustrations are also a delight.
Buy it for: keeping by your bed or in the loo

9 The Plagiarist in the Kitchen by Jonathan Meades

Unbound, £20
“It’s all theft,” says former Times food critic Meades of the impossibility of writing an original recipe. Here, he’s chosen 125 of his favourites for an “anti-cookbook”, interwoven with brilliant anecdotes, such as his futile search for the definitive cassoulet, and sharp asides, such as his instinctive dislike for borage because it’s in Pimm’s and that means “braying men in straw hats”. All of which accumulates into a bracing polemic about the very idea of eating well.
Buy it for: the prose. Pike is “rich yet delicate and sweet – the only sweet thing about it”

10 The Angry Chef by Anthony Warner

One World, £12.99
The Angry Chef is development chef turned blogger Warner’s splenetic persona. Writing in character, he cleverly turns his forensic dismantling of the pseudo-science behind recent food fads into something that’s both enlightening and a hoot. And he’s more than just an irate science wonk, with the chapter on convenience food revealing Warner is wise to the complex, often emotional reasons behind our eating habits.
Buy it for: the lapsed “clean eater” in your life

11 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

Canongate, £30
Must-read debut from the most compelling new voice in food writing, a cookbook that gently teaches the reader that the key to expertise lies in fine tuning the senses. It’s an instruction manual, complete with beautifully illustrated charts and tables, but a romantic one, the author in love with the act of cooking and eager for the reader to feel just as much joy (while picking up new skills along the way).
Buy it for: the flavour wheel that helps balance herbs and spices from around the world

12 The Modern Cook’s Year by Anna Jones

4th Estate, £26
There’s something of the kitchen diary about Jones’s third book of vegetarian recipes. Even the seasonal arrangement of the dishes carries a sense of how they might fit into a real rather than idealised life, with the sloughing off of winter marked by ingredients fitting the “herald of spring” and “first warm days”. It’s comprehensive, too, with tips for perfect soups, salads and plant-based summer barbecues.
Buy it for: the cakes, broths and clever one-pot/one tray dishes

13 Trullo: the cookbook by Tim Siadatan

Square Peg, £25
North London’s Trullo is the perfect neighbourhood Italian and its first cookbook, written by chef and co-owner Tim Siadatan, captures the easy-going spirit of the place. Sure, there might be a recipe for rabbit offal, but that only points to the breadth on offer, from simple cannellini beans, king cabbage and pancetta to full-on feasts such as rolled pork loin stuffed with nduja and prunes. Not to mention pasta so great they opened another restaurant, the phenomenally successful Padella, to sell that alone.
Buy it for: the pici cacio e pepe

14 Sabor by Nieves Barragan Mohacho

Fig Tree, £25
Debut cookbook from the former executive head chef of the all-conquering Barrafina who’s about to open her own restaurant, also called Sabor (it means “flavour” in Spanish). The dishes are inspired by the food she grew up with in the Basque country, and her travels across Spain and the UK. That means rich dark stews, her mum’s recipe for braised rabbit in salsa and her very own version of scotch eggs, made with, of course, Iberian pork.
Buy it for: perfect tortilla with chorizo

15 Food in Vogue edited by Taylor Antrim

Abrams, £55
Beautiful food images by some of world’s best photographers, selected from the archives of American Vogue. That means stunning still lives by Irving Penn and terrific portraiture, with Annie Leibovitz’s image of Nigella, her son and a trio of kitchen-wrecking chickens a particular highlight. There’s also plenty to read, including a selection of columns from peerless in-house food critic Jeffrey Steingarten who writes of the sensory overload of the “last time you ate a perfect peach” or “every time you have pizza bianca” as part of “the collective genetic memory of the human race, reaching across national and racial lines, superseding all questions of taste, culture, habit, or custom”.
Buy it for: adding a touch of glamour to your bookshelves

16 Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi, Helen Goh

Ebury, £27
Before Ottolenghi became a household name, he was a pastry chef and here he returns to his origins, with the help of Australian psychologist turned cake queen Helen Goh. An instant classic that’s the product of a long and fruitful friendship.
Buy it for: the many showstoppers, especially the pineapple and star anise chiffon cake

17 Lisboeta by Nuno Mendes

Bloomsbury, £26
Mendes is the most prominent champion of Portuguese food in Britain, with this book a love letter to the city of his birth, Lisbon. Some recipes will be familiar to anyone who’s eaten at his lovely London restaurant Taberna do Mercado – runner-bean fritters with clam broth, the unfathomably delicious steak sandwich (marinated in pork fat, basically), and the much Instagrammed splash of deep red and bright orange that is the baked egg and pork-fat pudding. There’s plenty of cultural history, too, with guides to the city’s neighbourhoods and surfing beaches just along the coast.
Buy it for: anyone thinking of a weekend break because they’ve heard Lisbon is hip

18 Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen by Zoe Adjonyoh

Mitchell Beazley, £25
Subtitled “traditional Ghanaian recipes remixed for the modern kitchen”, this is a compelling exploration of Adjonyoh’s Ghanaian/Irish heritage, featuring many dishes from the south London restaurant that made her name.
Buy it for: Adjonyoh’s trademark jollof fried chicken

19 The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis

Phaidon, £24.95
Having grown up in Jerusalem and moved to the US, here Kassis rediscovers her culture and identity through her mother’s za’atar-filled flatbreads and crisp rice-stuffed chicken. A celebration of the flavours of Palestinian food, as well as the inspirational women in the author’s family.
Buy it for: the knowledge and recipes of a community

20 Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray by Adam Federman

Chelsea Green, £20
Gray’s autobiographical food writing, especially 1986’s Honey From a Weed was both ahead of its time and the result of an extraordinary life: wartime single motherhood, becoming the Observer’s first “women’s editor”, pottering round the Med with sculptor Norman Mommens, i t’s all here.
Buy it for: the wild story behind Honey From a Weed

Food books of the year: a selection of OFM’s favourite recipes

Giorgio Locatelli’s grilled Jerusalem artichokes with heritage carrots

Jerusalem artichokes have an incredible sweet, nutty flavour and when they are griddled until they are crispy they are delicious. Originally they were introduced to Italy and the rest of Europe from the New World, and one theory is that their name comes not from Jerusalem, the place, but the Italian word for sunflower, girasole, because they are actually a variety of sunflower. However, when the early explorers first found them, they needed to describe the flavour, which they likened to an artichoke.

Serves 6
jerusalem artichokes 1kg, large
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra virgin olive oil 80ml
pinot grigio or other subtle white wine vinegar 150ml
golden, white and purple heritage carrots 200g of each
pea shoots 300g

Cook the artichokes in boiling salted water for about 1 hour (depending on the size), until tender but still firm. Drain under cold water to stop them cooking further, then peel and slice 1cm thick. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, then season and put on a hot griddle pan or barbecue until marked.

Pour the vinegar into a dish, put in the artichokes, cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate for 2 hours, turning them every so often. Lift out of the vinegar (but reserve this).

Peel the carrots and then, still using the peeler, shave into long strips. Put into a bowl of iced water to crisp up for about 10 minutes. Drain, season and put into a bowl. Toss with the reserved vinegar and the rest of the olive oil, then add the pea shoots.

Arrange the griddled artichokes in a serving dish with the carrots and pea shoots on top.
From Made at Home by Giorgio Locatelli (4th Estate)

The Sportsman’s baked cod with chestnuts, parsley and bacon

One year I was looking for a fish dish to put on our Christmas menu. I have loved chestnuts since I was a small boy, when I used to walk past the old men selling them from their charcoal braziers, and the smell always puts me in a festive mood. Their sweetness meant that I needed a salty element – and I never need too much of an excuse to get out my own bacon. When I added the fresh flavour of parsley the whole thing seemed to come together.

Serves 4
sea salt
cod fillets 4 x 200g
maple-cured bacon 2 thick-cut slices (see below, or use good-quality shop-bought)
good-quality salted butter 50g, plus extra for greasing
chestnuts 12, peeled
chicken stock 100ml
lemon juice a squeeze
parsley purée to serve (see below)

For the maple-cured bacon (makes 1.2kg)
boneless pork loin 1 x 1.5kg
maple syrup 500ml
sea salt 600g (I use sel gris)

For the parsley purée (makes 300ml)
parsley leaves 1 large bunch
sea salt

For the bacon: a large plastic tub or Tupperware container is useful for the bacon recipe. You want it to be just larger than the pork. Once cured, the bacon will keep, refrigerated, for 2–3 weeks.

Rub the pork all over with the maple syrup. Put into a plastic tub, cover with a lid or clingfilm and refrigerate for 2 days. Turn several times.

Remove the pork from the plastic tub and wipe it out (but don’t wipe the pork itself). Return the pork to the tub, skin-side down, and cover with half the salt. Cover again and refrigerate for 2 days.

Rub the salt off the pork, then return it to the tub, skin-side down, and cover with the rest of the salt. Return to the refrigerator for another day.

Rinse the pork thoroughly and pat very dry. Hang in a cool place for 3 days. The pork is now ready to use, as you would bacon. Store in the refrigerator once cut.

For the parsley purée: bring a large pan of water to a boil. Snap the bottom stalks off the bunch of parsley and discard. Boil the rest of the parsley for 1 minute.

Transfer to a blender. Blend on low speed, adding the cooking water a tablespoon at a time, until you achieve a smooth, loose purée. (Don’t add it too quickly as you don’t want the purée to be too liquid.) Push through a sieve then season with sea salt to taste. Transfer to an airtight container – it will keep in the fridge for up to 2–3 days. Cool very quickly to keep the green colour in a bowl of ice.

For the cod: salt the cod fillets all over and leave in a colander in the sink for 20 minutes. Rinse and pat dry.

Meanwhile, pan-fry the bacon until crisp and brown, then drain briefly on paper towels, cut into batons and keep warm.

Add a tablespoon of the butter to the same frying pan and gently sauté the chestnuts for around 10 minutes until they are tender and evenly browned. Add the chicken stock and simmer until the stock has evaporated to create a lovely glaze. Remove from the heat and keep warm.

Preheat an overhead grill to high and lightly butter a medium non-stick frying pan.

Arrange the fish in the buttered pan and top each with a piece of butter, reserving a tablespoon for making a sauce. Grill the fish for around 3 minutes, basting often with the browning butter. Once the fish is nearly cooked, remove from the grill and leave in a warm place to finish cooking in the residual heat. Reserve the juices, adding a squeeze of lemon juice to create a sauce.

To serve, make an artful swoosh of parsley purée on each plate. Dress the fish fillets with the buttery lemon sauce, adding another squeeze of lemon juice and a little seasoning to each. Place the fish on top of the parsley purée, then top with the reserved bacon and chestnuts. Drizzle on any remaining sauce and serve immediately.

Note: To peel the chestnuts, use a sharp knife to make a cross in the skin and deep-fry them for 2 minutes. They should then peel easily. Alternatively roast in a medium oven for 15 minutes, or simmer in boiling water for 15 minutes.
From The Sportsman by Stephen Harris (Phaidon)

Reem Kassis’s maftool with butternut, chickpea and chicken stew

Maftool – gorgeous caviar-size pearls made of whole wheat – is one of the most distinctively Palestinian dishes you will find. The word maftool means “rolled” and refers to the way flour is rolled around small bulgur grains to arrive at these pearls. In Galilee, people tend to make them larger and call them moghrabieh, while in central and southern Palestine they are made as small as caviar and called maftool.

Serves 4
For the stock
chicken joints 1 kg (about 4 bone-in breasts or 4 legs, or two of each)
onion 1 whole
salt 1 tbsp
nine-spice mix 2 tsp (see below)
ground caraway 2 tsp
ground cumin 2 tsp
bay leaf 1
tomato paste ½ tsp (optional, just for colour)

For the stew
olive oil 2 tbsp
onion 1, sliced into half-moons
butternut squash ½, diced
chickpeas 1 x 400g tin , rinsed and drained

For the maftool
olive oil 1 tbsp
butter 1 tbsp
maftool 500g (see note below)

For the nine-spice mix (makes about 100g)
allspice berries 6 tbsp
cassia bark or cinnamon sticks 6
coriander seeds 3 tbsp
black peppercorns 1 tbsp
cardamom seeds 1 tsp
cumin seeds ½ tsp
cloves 10
mace 2 blades
nutmeg ½, crushed

To make the nine-spice mix, place all the ingredients in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Stir with a wooden spoon periodically to ensure the spices do not burn, until you begin to smell the aroma of the spices, about 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool completely, about 1 hour. This step is crucial because if the spices are not cooled properly, they will form a paste when ground rather than a powder.

Place all the roasted spices into a heavy-duty spice grinder and grind until you achieve a fine powder consistency. Store the spice mix in an airtight container. It will keep for several months although the aroma will fade with time.

Then make the stock. Put the chicken into a large stockpot and cover with 2 litres of water. Bring to a boil on high heat, skimming away scum from the surface, then add the onion, salt, spices, bay leaf and tomato paste, if using, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the chickens are done but not falling apart, about 1 hour. When done, remove the chicken pieces and set aside, covered in aluminium foil to keep warm.

To prepare the stew, heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat and add the sliced onions. Sauté for about 5 minutes until softened and golden brown at the edges. Add the squash, toss to combine, and cook for a further 2–3 minutes. Using a fine-mesh strainer, pour in 1 litre of your stock into the pot, then add the chickpeas and allow everything to simmer until the squash is cooked and the flavours have all melded together, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and butter in a pot with a tight-fitting lid over medium heat. Add the maftool, tossing to coat, and stir to toast lightly, about 5 minutes. Using a fine-mesh strainer, pour 500ml of your stock into the pot, cover and bring to a simmer. Once the maftool has absorbed about half the liquid, turn off the heat and allow to sit for 15 minutes. This method, which is halfway between the absorption and steaming methods, produces the best texture for the maftool: fully cooked but still fluffy.

To assemble, preheat the grill. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, salt, and black pepper and place under the grill, skin side up, for 3–5 minutes or until the skin is a crispy golden brown. Meanwhile, tip the maftool into a large serving platter and ladle some of the stew over it. Top with the chicken and serve with bowls of the stew on the side.

Notes: Maftool is becoming widely available in supermarkets and online, but if you can’t find it, use moghrabieh, fregola sarda or giant couscous.

The spice mix is featured in many of the dishes in this book, lending them a uniquely Palestinian flavour. It is my mother’s own blend but feel free to adjust to suit your taste, or you can substitute with store-bought baharat or Lebanese seven-spice mix for an equally tasty, albeit slightly different, flavour profile.
From The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis (Phaidon)

Nuno Mendes’s egg and olive oil cake

This is one of my favourite Portuguese desserts, which is made from just egg yolks, sugar, a touch of flour and a rich Portuguese olive oil. The quantities here make quite a small cake, but they can easily be doubled or tripled.

Serves 4
caster sugar 100g
eggs 4 whole, plus 1 egg yolk
olive oil 80ml
plain flour 20g
extra-virgin olive oil to serve
sea salt flakes to serve

Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Grease and line a 20cm round baking tin with baking parchment. Put the sugar, eggs and yolk in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for up to 30 minutes, until very light and fluffy.

Gently fold in the olive oil and flour and pour the batter into the tin. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the cake is just set but still a little gooey in the middle.

Let it sit for 5–6 hours so that it collapses and sets, and the top forms a crust. Drizzle a generous glug of extra-virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt on top, then eat it at room temperature.
From Lisboeta: Recipes from Portugal’s City of Light by Nuno Mendes (Bloomsbury)