Tender

OK, last week I succumbed and bought Nigel Slater's tender. I have been eyeing it up for a while, but there it was in the cheapo bookshop in Barnstaple, £6.99, serious bargain. (Sorry, Nigel, hope you got your share). In fact, there were 2 of them, so I bought them both. One for me, one for the  present box. Not for anyone in particular, you understand, but in case an occasion presented itself. And low and behold, was talking to Charlie, who is a Real and Professional Cook, who revealed she was about to move house. So there was her house-warming present. And I had already revealed the bargain that it was, so no-one can accuse me of cheating. So there.

It is a lovely book. Would I have spent £30 on it? Hmmm. Maybe if someone had given me it as a present.

But I am enjoying it. I used to be a big Nigel fan, but over the years we have drifted apart. He is very much a last minute, throw it all together kind of guy, and I am gradually morphing into a slow cooker kind of woman (though this week we have been mainly eating M&S pizza and sausages. Bad mother). But this book is lovely. Why??

There are lots of nice pictures of VEGETABLES

He talks about his vegetable patch as if he loves it.

He has lots of recipes for chard - always exciting

He enthuses about runner beans. The fact is that everyone who has a vegetable patch grows runner beans. And if you grow runner beans you get a lot of them. It is impossible to grow just enough runner beans. They glut.

Now, go to Delia, go to Nigella, go to Rachel, go to the Good Housekeeping book of every dam' recipe you want, and none of them will give you any ideas of what to do with your glut except for boil them. Or steam them. Or runner bean chutney (which I think is vile. I only really like fruity, spicy chutneys). So a runner bean section is VERY EXCITING. And if you don't think that, then you don't have a vegetable patch.

He quotes Michael Pollan in the introduction!! Is there no end to the wonder of this book?

Well...I was a bit irritated when he dropped in the fact that Monty (nice trousers) Don popped round to have a look at his soil.