Review of Tana Ramsay’s Family Kitchen
July 4th, 2007
Lovely looking book but recipes a bit impractical and quantities specified questionable.
I picked this up in Eason’s a couple of weeks ago and had a quick look through it. It looked great. Plenty of what seemed to be family friendly recipes and new ideas for breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Aswell as a section on parties. Perfect.
Recently we have gotten into a bit of a rut foodwise and I had been looking for some inspiration. I’m an adequate cook. I can follow a recipe and have a fair few dishes which I now cook well. But it gets fairly disheartening when you spend ages cooking something new and then some or all of the older kids discard it. They aren’t particularly picky about food, usually eating a range of meat, vegetables, spices, herbs and flavours. But that said, it would be nice to try something new.
So I decided to try the “chicken and mango casserole”. It looked appetising. The kids like mango and I had never tried it combined with chicken. The end result was ok, not great. There was too much cream in it and it was very rich, a bit cloying. The mango disintegrated to an orange mush which didn’t look great. So not a huge success really as the children tended to just pick the chicken out and eat it.
There are numerous ideas for breakfasts. Some are good. I like the ideas of “cheesy fingers with boiled eggs”, “fruit salas with oats and warm yoghurt” or “wholemeal pancakes with caramelized apples”. Though timewise I think these will have to be tried on the weekend or in the holidays rather than on a schoolday. But I find suggested recipes of “homemade baked beans” or “smoked haddock kedgeree” very unlikely to happen here.
She has some good lunch bite recipes such as “ham and cheese muffins”, “golden puff pastries” and “stuffed potato cakes” which I am looking forward to trying as they look easy enough to do and likely that the kids will eat them.
I guess, overall, I am disappointed with this book. I expected straight forward, easy to complete new recipes so that I could produce new dishes without taking too much time. I wanted new ideas but I also wanted simple and not overly complicated dishes which comprised of foods that the children were likely to eat and enjoy.
I will try more of the recipes and look forward to making some of the “orange sponge fingers” or “oatmeal and cranberry crunch biscuits” with the children.
UPDATE: The ham and cheese muffins turned out great, very easy to make and tasty. Handy for an “on the go” snack for the kids, will be definitely making them again.
Rated /5 on Jul 04 2007 by ManicMammy
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5 Comments Add your own
1. J | July 22nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Hi
Have you tried the bolognaise recipe in the book, it’s gorgeous! I also like the ham and cheese muffins and the pastry pizza wheel thingys are gorgeous, although don’t look like anything in the photo (and I’m not too bad a cook). All in all I loved the book and convinced all my friends to buy it, however I agree when a lot of them said there were too many cloying photos of Tana and her family and not enough of the food and it could of been proof read a little better (the lentil and chicken recipe for example lists something in the ingredients that then doesn’t appear in the instructions, although the chicken and lentil recipe is still really nice). Still, I’m really looking forward to her new book amongst other good cookbooks that are coming out this autum (see http://lacer.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/a-quiet-week-ahead/). I feel the need for some new cookbooks to, as stuck in a bit of a cooking rut to, recycling endless Bill Granger recipes or so it seems.
Happy cooking
2. manicmammy | July 22nd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Hi J,
Just had a gawk at the bolognaise recipe, it looks fab. Am liking the idea of adding pancetta to my usual one. Thanks.
I hadnt heard of Bill Granger, despite what seems to be an enormous number of cookbooks. Now I’ll just have to get one of his to add to the collection!
3. J | July 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Ooh Bill Granger is fantastic, the god of Australian cooking. He’s got little kids so he throws in quite a few kid / family friendly recipes to. Really nice and healthy food, but not sooo healthy it’s boring if you know what I mean! I’d recommend his latest one, called Everyday, got a gorgeous recipe in it for pitta pizzas, didn’t think until I tried it but pitta bread makes gorgeous pizza bases.
PS The pancetta in TRs bolognaise recipe is what definitely makes it, that and it’s long cooking time, makes it really nice!
4. Laura | July 26th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Have a look at this great food book , full of family meals with quick and easy recipes and some nutritional tips a must for busy mothers.”Savvy Kids Food” - Author Sarah McKerron
get it on http://www.kalahari.net
Web site for the book http://www.savvykids.biz
5. susan | September 20th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I did the pea and parmesan risotto last night but the quantity of butter was far too much. If I do it again I would use at the most half the amount she suggest.
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