Kerrie and Perry 1

I love to cook and I have a lot of cook books, they are a great source of inspiration and pleasure. There is nothing like flicking through a good cook book even if you never cook a thing from it, so relaxing. I have many books that have rarely been used to cook with but have been and continue to be a source of ideas and information.  Last night I was given a copy of The Country Housewife's Handbook first published in 1939 by The West Kent Federation of Women's Institutes, this slim and pictureless book is so different from the books of today. Not sure that I will ever make the celery wine or cure a rabbit skin to make a pram rug but a great read.

 Many years ago I attended to a masterclass with Neil Perry and purchased a copy of his book Simply Asian. Since then I have followed his career and the opening of his restaurants at the Crown Complex with great interest. We have celebrated a few special occasions at The Rockpool Bar & Grill. Some time ago my son and daughter in law presented me with a book, prefacing their gift with a comment that they hoped that I would like the book, use it to cook from and that they would be invited to eat what I made from it. It was a copy of Neil Perry's book Rockpool Bar and Grill.

My daughter in law suggested that I follow in the footsteps of the blogger in the film Julie and Julia and cook the recipes from Rockpool on a regular basis until we had sampled a good selection of the recipes. So with some pushing from them I have made a commitment to cook from the book. The best I could come up with for this was a numbered series - Kerrie and Perry.

Tonight for dinner I made with a few minor variations Four Raw Tastes of the Sea (page 117) My version is Three Raw tastes, the mussels are cooked. I also used different fish to those suggested in the recipe, however, have tried to embrace the concept.

left to right
wild barramundi with preserved lemon salsa. mussels with harissa and acocado, scallop ceviche, salmon with ginger, jalapeno and coriander dressing

 This was followed by Seared Crisp Snapper with Smoky Cherry tomatoes, Borlotti Beans and Green Olive Butter (page 234). Wild barramundi was substituted for the snapper fillets.

Roasted Potato chunks with sea salt and steamed broccolini accompanied the main course.

Dessert was Passionfruit Pavlova (page 413). I made individual pavlovas, topped with a cream made from passionfruit curd and whipped cream and finished with lots of passionfruit pulp.

Maybe I will try to cook something from every book on the shelves, surely this is justification for owning so many.