by Liz Allen

Created on: February 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 04, 2007

Having lived for over twenty years in Cairo, where home cooking was the norm, on returning to the UK I gave in to the temptation to try out quite a few of the ready meals that I came across in the supermarkets. I was often short of time, and that was my excuse for not going overboard on home cooking.

I did think it might be useful to have a recipe book just in case, and bought The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book for as little as one pound as part of an introductory offer when I joined a book club. It went up on the top shelf of the bookcase, and there it stayed until I thought I would check its advice on roasting the Christmas turkey.

It was some time before the book was opened again. We always used to buy ready-made pizza bases and put our own toppings on. Then we wondered if perhaps we could make our own pizza dough as well. I finally got the cookery book down from the shelf and found the dough recipe. You do need a bit of free time, as after making the dough and kneading it for a while, you then have to leave it for about an hour to prove before shaping it and then adding the toppings. Believe me, the extra time and effort are worth it; we still have two ready-made bases in the cupboard, but we just don't want to use them any more. They cannot compare with a home-made base.

I was invited to lunch early in the summer by some friends who served as a starter a salad with ham, nectarines and roquefort with mascarpone cheese and fresh herbs. It was delicious, and I was desperate to find something comparable when I invited them back a few weeks later. Leafing through the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book I came across a salad with crisp-fried prosciutto and blueberries, salad leaves, chicory, toasted pine nuts, and parmesan cheese. I was a little surprised that the prosciutto was to be fried, but it was a big success, and the pine nuts and parmesan added wonderfully to the flavour.

The weather had not been exactly summery for the previous two weeks, so I was looking for a warming main course and plumped for lamb tagine. The ingredients include ginger, coriander, saffron, bay leaf, fresh parsley and sherry, with a cinnamon stick, a few dates and some honey added fifteen minutes before the end of the cooking time. It may sound a little sweet for some, but this is offset by the spices. Although it was a warm day, we really enjoyed this dish.

I have also tried a similar vegetarian recipe from this book: chick pea, aubergine and mushroom tagine. Again, there is a good variety

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