Great guide to cooking Sunday lunches (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Great guide to cooking Sunday lunches

12:54pm Wednesday 14th March 2012 in Book reviews

Mary Berry's Family Sunday Lunches by Mary Berry (Headline, £20)

This excellent book is great to flick through to get some ideas for Sunday lunches.

There are all the usual roasts, complete with useful cooking times, but also less traditional Sunday lunch dishes like paramasan and herb frikadellers, salmon and spinach bake and Oxford meatballs with pepper sauce.

Unlike some cook books, Mary Berry's keeps it simple - you never sense her recipes are striving for effect, just classic, beautifully-cooked food.

There are suggestions for starters, main courses and a range of cold desserts and hot puddings, plus plenty of tips on how to cook vegetables in a way to bring out their best qualities and flavours.

The winter curry and summer buffet sections offer some imaginative alternatives to the usual lamb, beef and chicken roasts.

All the recipes include tips on how to prepare the dish in advance and whether or not it freezes which, as the author points out, helps you keep one step ahead and make the best use of your time.

Richly illustrated, this book contains more than 150 delicious recipes to help you prepare some wonderful - and relaxed - Sunday lunch experiences.