It’s Easier than you Think by Jo Seagar

It may be a truth universally acknowledged that one should never judge a book by its cover, but is there a corresponding axiom warning against evaluating a recipe book by the quality of its sweets? If so, I should confess that Jo Seagar’s no-nonsense new cookbook It’s Easier than you Think went straight to my sweet tooth with a recipe so audaciously saccharine as to make the hardiest pancreas tremble.

Seagar’s caramel oat slice, a heavyweight of the baking chapter, calls for a half-kilogram of butter, in addition to two cups of brown sugar, 800 grams of sweetened condensed milk, a substantial whack of golden syrup and a half-cup of chocolate (white and dark). (Mercifully, she notes that it is for “special occasions only.”)

Elsewhere, in the desserts section amid the usual comfort foods – a strawberry citrus cheesecake, microwave chocolate pudding, oaty crumble with rhubarb and berries – lurk banoffee creams, requiring gingernut biscuits, cream, more sweetened condensed milk (caramel, this time) and a crumbled Flake bar. In accordance with Seagar’s devotion to simplicity, the instructions suggest both treats would be a cinch to make.

But whether your tastes lean to the sweet or the savoury, here Seagar solidifies her reputation for producing solid Kiwi tucker with a minimum of fuss. Old-fashioned and homely yet up-to-date food is what she does, and she duly ensures It’s Easier than you Think panders neither to the trendy nor the overly traditional.

Dinner recipes are inspired by traditional stick-to the ribs fare (steaks with shallot and red wine sauce, maple-glazed meatloaf), the flavours of Asia (hoisin ginger lamb cutlets, coconut prawn laksa), and guaranteed crowd-pleasers (crumbed fish fingers, three-cheese macaroni).

The classics feature prominently, some updated – the pav is in rolled form, with lemon curd added to the cream, and the coconut ice is gluten-free – and all creations are captured with mouthwatering precision by photographer Jae Frew. The whimsical design, an all-important feature of cookbooks, dovetails with Seagar’s appreciation of the traditional – one double-page spread reproduces Creamoata and Corn-Vita packaging.

With the title, Seagar channels American celebrity chef Ina Garten, the ‘Barefoot Contessa’ and top-rating host of various programmes on the Food Network whose signature phrase is, “How easy is that?” Ease is the dominant message and purpose of this cookbook, the second collection of recipes from Seagar’s eponymous Cook School in Oxford, North Canterbury, where Seagar and her husband run Seagars, which encompasses the school, a café and a kitchen shop.

It’s not a book that poses special challenges – for serious restaurant food, you are much better to consult the first Masterchef New Zealand cookbook or Simon Wright’s glorious volume The French Café. Rather, It’s Easier than you Think is designed for hard use, with weighty stock suitable for cooking spatters and general wear-and-tear, and compiled with an evident understanding of its potential readership – the weary parent of picky eaters, the learner baker, the host of a family gathering.

Anyone who has ever watched Seagar deftly whip up a batch of scrumptious tidbits will be familiar with her ‘simple and delicious’ mantra. It’s Easier than you Think delivers on the promise of its title.

3 / 5 stars: Tucker to please the pickiest of eaters.  Click here to view more Easy Mix Book Reviews.

Our Family Table by Julie Goodwin

Seven-and-a-half-thousand people vied last year for a shot at $100,000 and a cookbook deal, with the ultimate victor emerging in the form of a 40-year-old New South Wales mother of three, amateur cook Julie Goodwin. The contest was the first Australian edition of the TV cooking show Masterchef, which proved as much of a hit Downunder as in Britain, where it originated.

The publishing prize has resulted in Our Family Table, a handsome, weighty compendium filled with family recipes, passed down through generations, and newer dishes given to Goodwin by friends and neighbours.

The tastes are doled out in an orderly, 10-chapter fashion, starting with breakfast and covering the usual suspects: side dishes, desserts, sweets, special-occasion dinners and Christmas feasts.

More inventively, a chapter titled ‘Feeding the multitudes’ contains the dishes Goodwin loves to serve to her family (there’s a spaghetti bolognese, heavy on the mince, a ‘ridiculously cheesy lasagne’, chicken parmigiana . . . do you detect a theme?), while, in a rather sweet gesture, the final chapter (‘Our family table) consists of blank pages for the recording of the reader’s own culinary treasures.

‘Wide open spaces’ was my favourite, with its recipes for the camping trips Goodwin writes about relishing as a child and now with her husband and three sons. An easy recipe for damper on a stick is accompanied by a delectable ‘Camp fire train smash’ of vegetables and a simple lemon risotto cooked in a pot over the fire.

Our Family Table could not be classified as avant-garde: it features trusty crowd-pleasers and the odd harkening-back to a 1970s dinner party (veal with mushroom sauce, cauliflower cheese). There are instructions for ‘Mum Coughlan’s passionfruit shortbread’ and ‘Grandma’s hazelnut chocolate biscuits’: comfort food rather than culinary feats.

A personal attempt at Goodwin’s great-grandmother’s six-ingredient treacle scones resulted in small, light and irresistibly tasty morsels. They were moreish without being overly indulgent, the recipe calling for just three teaspoons of butter and two tablespoons of golden syrup.

The book leaves you with a strong sense of who Goodwin is, with its quotes and cooking tips from her loved ones (‘Use the good china. Every day is a special occasion’) and personal anecdotes (she shares the trial-by-fire experience of learning to make the perfect poached egg during a stint at a Sydney café).

It is not for the would-be chef or advanced home cook; for someone comfortable with the most complex tasks of Elizabeth David or Julia Child, this compendium of family favourites would be unchallenging and I daresay uninspiring.

Rather, it can be categorized alongside the likes of the Edmonds Cookery Book as a useful and dependable resource for simple, crowd-pleasing fare. The dishes are straightforward, requiring no sophisticated equipment or cooking techniques. Such risky dishes as souffle are modified by being twice-baked, and Goodwin manages to make even the potentially intimidating crème brulee, with its call for a blowtorch, look manageable.

Our Family Table is the work of a woman who loves food and who is accustomed to finding nutritious ways to fill the bellies of growing children. For those with similar requirements it would be a smart investment, and as one of the loveliest-looking cookbooks I have seen, a harmonious addition to the shelves.

3 / 5 stars: Comfort, not cordon bleu.   Click here to view more Easy Mix Book Reviews