Taste readers reveal their best-loved
cooking bibles
Winning tome: Cook & Enjoy by SJA De Villiers (Human
& Rousseau)
“I grew up with Cook & Enjoy,” says
Mafikeng reader Erica Harris. “I still use my mother’s old edition, of which the
front page is now sadly missing and the remaining pages are all loose. The
recipes are all very reliable and whenever I want to make banana bread or
roly-poly pudding, I reach for it.”
Cook
& Enjoy by SJA De Villiers
Potchefstroom reader Tanya Crous also lauds
the cross-generational appeal of the book: “My Ouma used it, my mom used it and
now I can’t cook without it. It seems like it will never go out of fashion. The
recipes contained in the book are all classic and failsafe, especially the one
for koeksisters, which is the one I grew up with and still use.”
Japie’s delight
This self-saucing pudding was
conceptualized by the author of Cook & Enjoy, SJA de Villiers. It is said
that De Villiers’ husband, Japie, would taste all the puddings she tested for
the cookbook and this one was his undisputed favorite.
Japie’s
delight
Serves 6
Easy
Great value
Preparation:
15 minutes
Cooking: 45
minutes
·
Large free-range eggs 3, separated
·
Caster sugar 220 g
·
Milk 1 ½ cups
·
Cake flour 50 g
·
Orange juice 1 ¼ cups
·
Lemon juice 2 T
·
Orange 1, zested
·
Butter or margarine 3 T, melted
- Preheat the oven to 1800C.
Beat the egg yolks and add the caster sugar, beating until light and
fluffy.
- Add half the milk. Beat until the sugar
had dissolved. Beat in the cake flour, followed by the remaining milk.
- Add the orange and lemon juices, orange
zest and melted butter.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold
in.
- Pour the mixture into a greased baking
dish, place in a pan of boiling water and bake for 45 minutes, or until
golden brown. The pudding forms a thin crust on top and a sauce at the
bottom.
Fat-conscious
Other well-thumbed favorites:
Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson “Every single recipe in this book is decadent and moreish,”
enthuses Port Elizabeth reader Alexandra Beth Rowley. “Nigella is someone who
simply can’t say no to anything containing butter, which makes her personal
foodie hero in my books.”
Jamie’s 30 Minutes Meals by Jamie Oliver “The recipes in this cookbook are really easy to follow and have
all worked out perfectly every time I’ve made them,” says Capetonian Jamie-fan
Gayle Erasmus. “One of my favorite recipes is the delicious (and easy) feta and
sundried tomato-stuffed chicken breasts.”
