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This is a pretty book. Y’know the kind that smile sweetly down from the shelf cooing “buy me”, fluttering their pages seductively, flashing their bold colours like a peacock. However, quite often I’m disappointed to find that much like my geriatric uncle’s very young Slavic girlfriend, there’s not much behind the stunning facade.
‘Meals in Heels’ I am happy to report is both divinely gorgeous and interesting, a mixture rarely seen and much coveted.
The graphics are in the colourful fashion-sketch style, (which my lovely ladies in green are currently flaunting on my homepage) which is fun, and the text written in attractive script rather than formulaic block text.
The introduction to the book includes top tips and hints for entertaining efficiently and cheaply, and while normally I tear past this part and into the recipes, when I did take time to read this, they were very very good. For example, mix up the serving dishes – use martini glasses or banana leaves for a unique presentation. She also lists some ‘final flourishes’ which can be added at the end to brighten up and dress a dish, a handy go-to list if, like me, you try to keep a tight ship when it comes to fresh produce and often have to raid the back end of the fridge for something brightly-coloured that could masquerade as a garnish.
There is nothing predictable about the recipes, including ‘Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with parmesan’, ‘Goan tomato and coconut fish curry’ and ‘Persian chicken with walnut and pomegranate sauce’. Yes, some of the ingredients to these recipes will be tough to find in your local discount supermarket (pomegranate molasses anyone?), but there are also quite a few old favourites, jazzed up for entertaining, which is very helpful indeed. The idea of putting Beef & Guinness pie into small ramekins and making mini-pies, for example, or of piping the mashed potato into fancy swirls on a shepherd’s pie, are smart, easy and affordable switches from feed-the-kids-quickly-I’m-tired dinner to oh-crap-he’s-brought-home-his-boss entertaining.
However it’s not without its faults – there are no photographs of the food, which never fails to disappoint me, both to gauge the visual appeal of a recipe and also to see how the experts arrange the bleedin’ food on a plate instead of my usual schlap-bang-whallop. Funnily enough, this doesn’t bother me as much as it normally would as the recipes are detailed, clear and written in a lovely flowing style. The writer, Jennifer Joyce, feels like a prettier, smarter, more knowledgeable friend on whose words I hang adoringly.
All in all a great buy, available for under a tenner with free delivery from Play.com, or about €6 and an hour of rooting in TK Maxx.
Ooh, ps, she has her own (fab) blog, in which she regularly publishes articles, receipes and, yes, PHOTOS of the nyummy dishes!
