This is an unsolicited book review.  I bought this book for a gift just because I knew the recipient liked cookbooks and liked quick and easy dinners. I also love cookbooks and quick and easy meals so I read the book before I gifted it.

About the Book:

Over 70 delicious and hassle-free meals that you can cook in a single roasting tray or pot. Simply take a handful of fresh ingredients, spend a few minutes preparing them, pop them in a pan and let the oven do the work.

Roasting Pan Suppers is filled to the brim with over 70 delicious meals that you can cook in a single roasting pan or pot.

Take a handful of fresh ingredients, spend a few minutes preparing them, pop them in a pan and let the oven do the work. In hardly more time than it takes to cook a ready meal, you can have a home-cooked, nutritious feast.

Featuring vibrant meals, from ginger and turmeric chicken with potato and chickpea curry to lamb steaks in mojo verde with roast potatoes and green pepper, Roasting Pan Suppers is perfect for anyone wanting to squeeze nutritious home made meals into a busy lifestyle. The book also contains delicious vegan and vegetarian meals, including mushrooms stuffed with rice, spinach and pine nuts and baked pearl barley, peas, beans and green sauce.

Filled with fresh, delicious and hassle-free meals, this book is perfect for anyone who wants to cook up nutritious food and avoid a sink full of washing up.

About the author:

Rosie Sykes is a chef and food writer who has cooked in the kitchens of some of Britain’s most celebrated chefs, including Joyce Molyneux, Shaun Hill and Alistair Little. Her critically acclaimed gastropub, The Sutton Arms in Smithfields, London, established her as one of the most exciting cooks working in the UK, and from 2001 to 2003 Rosie wrote for the Guardian Weekend Magazine as The Kitchen Doctor. She currently works as development chef for restaurants as far apart as Cambridge, Oxford and Abergavenny, south Wales.

Rosie is the author of The Kitchen Revolution (2008) and The Sunday Night Book (2017).

What I thought…

I did not know who Rosie Sykes was but upon cracking open the book, I deduced she was British.  Therefore, some ingredients are listed in grams and temps are listed in Celsius (and C Fan).  Another clue came in the “Introduction” where Sykes writes about the heat of the oven being easier to manage than the “hob.”   There will be lots of notes in the margins of the book I am sure with all the conversions.  (I may stick a conversion chart in with this gift.)

Sykes is in love with the oven.  She talks about the trick of thickening up tomato sauce in the oven, and I thought, “That’s a genius idea.”  (Perfecting this technique was the impetus for this book.)

“Timing is Everything” (10-11) charts out recipes by the time you might have—“About 30 Minutes” to under an hour to over an hour. I always love a cookbook author that includes menus and Sykes does (12-13). She not only makes menus for “Feast with Friends” but also categorizes them into a laidback feast and one that you can prepare in advance. “Table of Goodies” lists ideas for a buffet. There’s also an “Al Fresco” menu, Midweek summer, vegetarian and vegan options, and “Celebration Meals.”

The cookbook proper is divided into sections: Meat, Fish, Veg, Sides, Sweet. The index is organized well and is easy to use.  Beautiful photos are included for most of the recipes.

The Meat section includes a few chicken recipes, one duck, a couple of pork dishes, a few beef and four lamb recipes. Under Fish, the “Baked Mussels with Tomato and Fregola” (52) sounded interesting (just because I never thought of baking mussels). “Fish Wrapped in Ham with Butter Beans and Sun-Dried Tomatoes” (68) also sounded intriguing.

The Veg section had the most recipes that spoke to me. I love roasted veggies. I have some chard growing in the garden so I have earmarked “Potato, Leek, Swiss Chard and Blue Cheese Gratin” (83). I also want to try her baked risotto technique (84). There’s a lot of inventive recipes in the Veg section, not just simple roasted root vegetables. Most of these could be main courses.

From the Sides section, I did make the “Charred Cabbage with Chili and Sherry Vinegar” (108) and loved it. “Oven-Braised Beans with Smoked Paprika and Thyme” (119) is also copied. (But really, I wanted to make them all.)  An oven-roasted risotto may show up later at EE as well.

I’m glad there was a Sweet section and some of these recipes were also intriguing: “Lumberjack Flapjacks” (131) and “Chocolate Banana Tahini Brownie” (128).

I only got time to make one recipe before I presented this book as a gift, but I did copy quite a few.

I was glad I had time to read and review the book before wrapping it up.  (I also know I can borrow it anytime.)

I’m linking up with Foodies Read.

Also, please vote for me in the Most Innovative Recipe of the Year, Guacamole Chicken Salad Sandwiches.  You can vote until August 22.