Many of the books reviewed here are available at excellent discounts from Fishpond. Click on the book titles or covers to check prices.

New Zealand Food and Cookery, David Burton, ISBN978-1-86953-728-9, David Bateman Ltd,  RRP $NZ59.99, $AUD51.00

In 1982 I reviewed Burton’s book Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Food and Cookery for the New Zealand Times newspaper. That book has now been considerably revised and has doubled in size to 140,000 words for this renamed fourth edition and I was suerprised to see an excerpt from my original review featuring on the latest cover.

Burton has an impressive history in food writing and this is a valuable compendium of recipes from New Zealand’s early days onwards, gleaned from many sources including old recipe books and recipes shared on scraps of paper.

In the introduction he relates how he faced howls of scepticism when he began work on the first book. “Hah! New Zealand cuisine? There’s no such thing!” was a typical reaction.

The big question has always been whether the modern citizenry wants to own New Zealand’s cuisine. “And now, finally, after decades of cross-cultural foodie flirtation, it seems that we do.”

It’s interesting to note that a number of the almost mystery items listed in the original opening chapter on Maori food and cookery have found their way onto today’s restaurant menus and Maori bread, “borrowed” from early European settles, now features on 21st century supermarket shelves.

Alas, today’s Kiwi cooks cannot make some of the recipes. As a child I can remember digging on Muriwai beach for the treasured shellfish, toheroa. We’d return home with our quota and make toheroa fritters. Over-harvesting depleted stocks and there is no longer a toheroa season. Other seafood like crayfish and paua (abalone) has moved into the luxury class.

Some recipes have been omitted from the new book but others have been added. Burton has also expanded the commentary that runs throughout, giving an updated view of how things have changed on the local culinary scene since the early 80s.

Kiwi classics abound - whitebait patties, pavlova, hokey pokey biscuits, mock whitebait, Highlander mayonnaise. And all conveniently stored in one book.

Many of us will find the recipes like a trip through our childhood – the mains and desserts that appeared on the table, the biscuits and cakes that starred at afternoon tea, the baking that went into our lunch boxes.

This isn’t one of your photo-filled cookbooks. There are occasional black and white photos and sketches. But the words are what count in a book like this and it’s a darned good read, never mind the “pubic bar” proofreading oversight…

MoVida Rustica: Spanish Traditions and Recipes Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish, ISBN 978-1741964691, Murdoch Books, RRP$59.95

This is the one I’ve been waiting for, along with the opening of Camorra’s latest restaurant, MoVida Aqui. We’ve truly embraced Spanish food and the tapas cult, and we are no longer content to leave the delights of Spain to occasional nights out. We want to cook these wonderful flavours in our own kitchens.

Camorra and Cornish set off on a journey to fulfill our wishes. From the chefs of Madrid to the widows of Galicia they researched recipes.

“The Spaniards I spoke to responded so well when I explained I was searching for the foundations of Spanish food, the bedrock of traditions on which their cooking was based. I told them I wanted to highlight some of the pillars of Spanish cooking, and the culture in which their food was grown, prepared and eaten. They gave me their recipes as gifts to share, not to covet and make my own,” says Camorra.

Over 18 months he visited Spain half a dozen times to research dishes “and I think I ate my entire body weight several times over in food from almost every region.” People shared their time and their recipes and showed the Melbourne chef how they made their food.

And oh, what food! Anyone attending Camorra’s master class at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival earlier this year will remember the Tortillitas de Camarones, delicious little fritters of baby prawns with a chickpea and flour batters and lively chopped herbs, the preserved tuna, the incredible chocolate marquis with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt served with crisp baguette wafers. And who could forget Herminda’s rustic corn pie with baby scallops that had some of us lingering at the kitchen counter for one more bite. I’m pleased to report they all feature in the new book, enhanced by Alan Benson’s great photography.

Spanish food literally shouts flavour – fruity oil, tangy vinegar, solid seasoning, well chosen herbs and wonderful anchor ingredients. As I turned the pages of MoVida Rustica I could almost feel the warm sun playing on the gardens where the runner beans, leeks, quinces, tomatoes and peppers were growing.

A toasted jamon and tomato roll, fried egg and potato draped with more jamon, chunks of pan-fried tuna with smoky paprika, Catalan flat bread topped with peppers, courgettes and tomatoes, pork and veal meatballs with a fried almond and eggplant sauce, roast cod with a hot garlic and chilli dressing.

The recipes Camorra has gathered aren’t for pretty, poncy dishes  scattered with tiny blossoms, they’re for good gutsy boldly flavoured fare that is going to be dished up at my outdoor table over the summer.

And with any luck, I will master the smoked tomato sorbet that keeps me returning to MoVida for Frank Camorra’s delicious little tapas – crisp croutons topped with anchovies and a quenelle of the sorbet. Recently I asked a foodie who was tweeting from the restaurant if she had ordered this best seller. “It’s compulsory, isn’t it?” she replied.

For Spanish food addicts, this new book is also compulsory.

Buon Ricordo: How to Make Your Home a Great Restaurant Armando Percuoco and David Dale, ISBN 978-1-74175-727-9, Allen & Unwin, RRP $65.00

When Armando Percuoco started running restaurants in Australia 30 years ago “the only thing Australians knew about Italian food was spaghetti Bolognese. Now they order the most adventurous dishes with perfect pronunciation.”

But, says Percuoco, while Australians have become sophisticated restaurant customers, they remain sadly distanced from their food when they’re at home. “Cooking becomes a chore and eating a solitary pleasure.”

With this book, he aims to remove the mystique from restaurant food and show us how to cook great Italian food.

He introduces his favourite ingredients followed by some simple recipes even the kids can make then launches into classics, “adapted slightly for modern times”. There’s a chapter for show-off dishes, one that features healthy  food and the final pages reveal “how we eat at Buon Ricordo when the customers can’t see us.” These are the occasions when staff  gather for their meal and chefs take it in turn to good for everyone on different days.

This last chapter is particularly interesting as staff come from different backgrounds and their cooking makes the meal a time of adventure – Lebanese, Middle Eastern, Thai and Chinese influences punctuate the more expected Italian fare.

The healthy food is an unpretentious collection that includes some dramatically simple dishes where the ingredients are the focus, particularly as in Pesce con Pesche, a dish which features scampi with peaches. Four ingredients (where have we heard that before?) but on this occasion, the dish delivers. Scampi with a blended oil and peach puree and some simple peach slices dusted with chives.

Similarly the Pagello con fiori – goldband snapper with zucchini flowers – has a delicate beauty, the fish resting dramatically on a bed of bright wing-like blossoms.

The show-off recipes are both dramatic and interesting. They require a little time and effort but Percuoco shares ideas and tips on producing fare to amaze guests – a potato, olive and anchovy stack prettily embellished with orange segments and delicate curly endive,  pasta with a dramatic hare sauce, a whole stuffed piglet, medallions of venison with pureed beetroot and glowing pumpkin gnocchi.

This is a book that can be used for different reasons and seasons. The attractive photos are by Greg Elms, while co-author David Dale has previously collaborated with Lucio Galletto in Soffritto and Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen and wrote Who We Are : A snapshot of Australia Today

Manna from Heaven: Cooking for the People You Love Rachel Grisewood, ISBN 978-1-74175-728-6, Allen & Unwin, RRP $59.99

There’s nothing coy about this book. It’s bright, colourful and in your face. Purple, lime green, orange, bright pink, teal blue. But it’s more than funky rainbow pages.

Rachel Grisewood trained to be a chef at the Leith School of Food and Wine in London and was lured to Australia. In Sydney she started experimenting with a chocolate bar and was soon turning out chocolate crunch on her kitchen table. A friend sold and delivered it in her tiny Volkswagen. The product range grew and Manna from Heaven and The Sydney Biscuit Company were born. Her products are now sold in numerous retail outlets and are served on Qantas flights.

Rachel loves to cook for family and friends and this is a collection of the food she serves to the people she loves – including her famed chocolate crunch.

There’s lots of good baking in there, lunches, cooking with market produce, finger food, dinner dishes – all of it photographed (by Adrian Lander) at Rachel’s house using her own cooking equipment and belongings. A cheerful volume with plenty of lovely food to share with friends.

Mercurio's Menu Paul Mercurio, ISBN 978-1741966138, Murdoch Books. RRP $34.95

“Try this experiment: get a map of Victoria, close your eyes and jab your index finger on a spot. I guarantee if you travel to that location you will find good produce, good food and, of course, fantastic scenery and people.”

That seems to be the tenor of this book as the dance man rips off his pumps and turns 21st century hunter-gatherer. Fortunately, today’s produce is much more accessible than that of our ancestors. There are plenty of people out there growing and rearing the best and people who are skilled at turning fresh and simple produce into delightful plates of food.

This book is based on seasons one and two of Mercurio’s popular TV show and repeats some of the delightful stories and recipes that featured on the small screen. He journeys round Australia and New Zealand, cooking with local food producers and chefs and gathering their recipes.

A Venetian Journal: Food, Travel, Dreams Tessa Kiros, ISBN 978-1741966053, Murdoch Books, RRP $39.95

If you love to travel, map your journey, jot down your favourite eating places and recipes and the wines sampled along the way, here’s a delightful travelling companion to the author’s best selling Venezia, but with numerous pages left blank for the new owner’s thoughts and experiences.

It includes fragments from Kiros’s own journals and many lovely photos by Manos Chatzikonstantis from his frequent visits to Venice with Kiros.

There are also occasional recipes along the way and this is a very atmospheric book that will become a lovely keepsake for any traveller’s journey to Venice. And even if you never go to Venice it’s a splendid vehicle for recording your personal travel experiences.

It’s an elegant production that is sure to end up under many Christmas trees this year.

The Little Book of the Sea: Food and Drink Lorenz Schröter, ISBN 978 1 84708 122 3, Granta, RRP $24.99

What do eel, abalone, oysters, fugu, shark’s fin, sea horse, caviar and lobster have in common? They are all traditional but completely useless aphrodisiacs.

One hundred grams of mussels contain on 50 kcal. The same quantity of tuna in oil contains 350 kcal.

A speciality at Botafumeiro restaurant in Barcelona is precebes – goose barnacles. At Prir Frakkar in Reykjavik it’s whale meat of the “politically correct” type, whatever that might be!

Every year 24 million sea horses  are caught and consumed or sold as souvenirs in spite of being on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature as species which may not be caught, sold or consumed.

The Laurentian Great Lakes of North America hold more than 6000 trillion gallons of water.

This little book is full of interesting facts and tales, mostly pertaining to edible things from the sea. It includes a smorgasbord of both useful and useless information. A delightful little stocking stuffer for those who like to draw up a chair at the dining table.

"Marie Claire" Real + Simple Michele Cranston ISBN 978-1741964745, Murdoch Books, RRP $39.95

I am a trifle mystified about the inclusion of a number of photos of attractive young women scattered through this book. In the publication details at the back they are designated as “lifestyle” shots. Sure, one or two of the photographs include food as props, but, for me anyway, their presence jars a little.

That aside, what about the recipes? As Cranston comments in her introduction, “… great food is all about enjoying the real and relishing the simple”.

The recipes are fresh and seasonal, not overly complicated and mostly gentle on the waistline. They cover the year’s bounty in a series of light meals, leafy greens, healthy flavours, summer grills, soups, roast comfort, winter’s slow food, sweet and savoury delights and iced refreshers.

It’s good looking, too – just like the girls.

The Songs of Sapa: Stories and Recipes from Vietnam Luke Nguyen, ISBN 978-1741964653, Murdoch Books, RRP $69.95

Sydney restaurateur Luke Nguyen, co-author of Secrets of the Red Lantern, takes a personal and culinary trip through Vietnam, visiting family, friends, food experts and cooks and gathering recipes.

There are numerous engaging tales as he does his research. He finds an elderly woman in Hanoi frying spicy cassava bits in an old wok. He asks how they are made and she points up some stairs. There he finds the woman’s son sitting on the floor making tray upon tray of them. Nguyen joins in and helps make a batch himself.

In Dalat he discoveres a place run by Buddhist monks who serve mock meat dishes and fresh salads from locally grown vegetables and herbs. One is lotus stem and oyster mushroom salad. His recipe substitutes pickled lotus shoots which are easier to find outside Asia.

In Hoi An he comes across a group of men playing cards. One, Lam,  asks where he is from and is excited to hear about Australia – he is a shoemaker and his favourite customers are Australians. When Lam learns Nguyen owns a restaurant, he invites him home for dinner – his wife is a chef. Nguyen helps in the kitchen and tastes pumpkin flowers for the first time.

He meets family he’s never met before and they all have one thing in common – a passion fr food. And Nguyen’s passion is obvious on every page.

He takes time to help out in an English class for street kids who in turn introduce him to the dishes of their region. At the end of the week the older students lead him on a street food crawl, an eight dish degustation ranging from AUD 35 cent broth to a $12.80 feast of white-shelled snails, mussels, scallops and lobsters.

As with his previous book which was written with his sister Pauline Nguyen, this volume is a mix of narrative and recipes. It’s interesting to join Nguyen as he travels, putting the recipes and  food in context. And it’s a good read. I’ve cooked from the earlier book and look forward to trying more Vietnamese dishes.

Rotis: Roasts for Every Day of the Week Stéphane Reynaud, ISBN 978-1741965377, Murdoch Books, RRP $49.95.

Those who have followed Stéphane Reynaud through his Pork & Sons and Ripailles books will welcome his latest, a collection of roasts “for every day of the week”. While a daily roast might be a big ask, Reynaud does ring the changes and this is the perfect book if you have a cut or jointed of meat, a bird or a fish in search of a recipe.

Monday is roast beef, Tuesday veal, Wednesday roast chicken and game, Thursday pork, Friday roast fish, Saturday lamb and Sunday lunch is roast game. Sunday evening is “all the rest” and the book finishes with vegetables and side dishes.

Roasts are often a stumbling block for home cooks.  How hot, how long? When do the vegetables go in? What sauces go with what meats?

Many of Reynaud’s roasts are a far cry from the English-style roasts many of us were brought up on. Certainly there’s a basic roast pork, but then there’s pork roast with bacon and sliced cheese, pork belly with coriander or a rack of pork in a salt crust.

There are various ideas for chicken stuffings, and methods for cooking other poultry like pigeons,  duck, guinea fowl.  I often buy rabbit, but it’s a long time since I roasted one but I am ready to try Lyonnaise roast rabbit.

The roasted fish recipes are interesting – salmon, monkfish, tuna.

There’s a variation on the famous seven-hour roast lamb, various rack and shoulder recipes and lamb in a bed of straw.

Sunday’s roast game includes venison and wild boar then comes Sunday evening. Many of us can remember roast leftovers morphing into cottage pie but Reynaud has other trick in his apron – meatballs, Thai-style beef croquettes, lasagne, moussaka, TV sandwich.

His side dishes, too, range from Provençale vegetable tian to ratatouille to “pudgy” lentils, cardoon gratin and a sauté of “forgotten vegetables” – parsnip, swedes and Jerusalem artichokes.

There is no flashy styling for the camera. The roasting pans, some of them rather battered, are full of crusty bits from the meat. There’s the occasional knife, wooden spoon or fork in the picture but mostly this is honest food just as it comes out of the oven.

Cooking for Christmas ISBN 978-1741964363, Murdoch Books, RRP $49.95

Christmas is closer than we think but here’s a book that will help alleviate a little of the panic. It’s a collection of more than 130 recipes that will see you through the silly season. There are party nibble and gourmet gifts, confections, preserves and cocktails.

Logically arranged chapters follow a Christmas meal from the first course through to dessert.

There’s a chapter of tips for a low stress Christmas  - buying  items that will keep well ahead of time to spread the cost and ease budget strain, planning a menu and thinking through cooking logistics, making shopping lists, clearing fridge and freezer space, counting down to the big day and so on.

There are plenty of recipes to help you decide what to serve, all beautifully photographed. These are billed as “timeless recipes” and the book will serve you well for the Christmases ahead.

Bills Sydney Food Bill Granger ISBN 978-1741965544, Murdoch Books, RRP $49.95

This hardback book in a sleeve celebrates Granger’s 10 years in print and is an updated collector’s edition of his first cookbook.

These days he owns three cafes in Sydney and one in Japan and, as restaurant critic Terry Durack observes in a foreword, “He works damn hard to make it all look so simple.”

When Bill moved to Sydney as an art student, he discovered fish. He’d come from Melbourne and his father was a butcher.

He worked as a waiter at a Paddington café, later cooking three nights a week. He opened his own restaurant, bills, in 1993.

This book contains favourite recipes from his menus over the years, with ideas for simplifying them.

The original recipes haven’t dated. This is lovely fresh interesting food ranging from delicious breakfast fare through to lunch and dinner. Many recipes have that Asian influence that has become the cornerstone of many of Australia’s best dishes and the plates of food photographed will have you wanting to reach for a fork and try them – Grilled scallops with curried noodles, Green papaya salad with chargrilled beef, Tuna salad with soy-mirin dressing, Spaghettini with crab, lime and chilli.

There are delicious baked goods and inviting desserts, all with the unmistakable Granger touch we’ve seen on TV. Put this one on your Christmas wish list.

Bourke Street Bakery Paul Allam and David McGuinness, ISBN 978-1741964332, Murdoch Books, RRP $69.95

There are few things as beautiful or inviting as a display of freshly baked bread, specially when it’s good bread and you can mentally hear the crisp crack of the crust or anticipate the chewiness of the loaf or the wonderful aroma of warm bread.

At a time when people are being lured back into the kitchen and discovering the satisfaction of cooking, tasty meals, there’s the next dimension waiting for them – breadmaking and baking. There are so many different breads and bread products, all with their own characteristics.

Bourke Street Bakery is a book whose time has come as we make our own food. The sight of photos of floury hands kneading soft springy dough made me want to leap into the kitchen and  join in the fun.

If you’re keen to take the bread journey, it’s well worth learning to make your own sourdough starter and this book includes excellent instructions for cultivating and maintaining a starter that will serve you for a long time.

Once you’ve mastered the basic bread, the book includes many variations you can play with.

Next challenge for the budding baker is pastry and many learners are surprised to find how easy some of the simple kinds of pastries are to make once the basic techniques are mastered. And it’s certainly worth making  your own puff pastry at least once to find out how really good it can taste. Step by step illustrated instructions in the book remove much of the mystery.

Croissants, Danish pastries, bear claws… And there are plenty of pies and tarts to satisfy those who like savoury offerings as well as those with a sweet tooth. Cakes, sponges, muffins biscuits, desserts. This is a really comprehensive volume` and photographer Alan Benson’s photos double the appeal of every recipe.

The authors are both chefs, bakers and co-owners of the popular Bourke Street Bakery in Sydney’s Surry Hills and more bakeries around Sydney.

This is a beautiful collection of the baker’s art and a book many cooks will be glad to own – and cook from.

Ready, Steady, Party Lucy Broadhurst ISBN 978-1741964493, Murdoch Books, RRP $34.95

School holidays are just around the corner and this is an ideal book to have at the ready for one of those “I’m bored!” days.

It’s the latest in a series of Ready, Steady titles that feature cooking for kids and with kids.

While not every cooking session might lead to a party, there are themed chapters to make things easier if they do.

The shipwrecked chapter, for example, features sailors’ knots of pastry and cheese, pirates’ punch,  sunken subs, mini fishermen’s burgers, fishy nuggets, pirate ship cookies, meringue lifebelts, ice cream cannonballs dipped in chocolate – you get the picture. Some of these will double as everyday lunch items for non-party times.

Other themes include off to the circus, fairy princess tea party, into the wild, teddy bears’ picnic, disco, farm, ballerina, in another galaxy, camp out, Halloween (lots of ghoulish fun there), Easter egg hunt and north pole.

There are good tips on organising and planning the party, decorations  and invitations (more to keep the kids occupied with!) and assorted party games for running off energy or burning off the sugar rush.

There are lots of fun drinks, snacks, cakes, savouries – everything a clever parent or caregiver will need. And there are plenty of photos to capture young imaginations.

Cooking from the Market - Fruit ISBN 978-1741965452  Cooking from the Market - Vegetables ISBN 978-1741965469, Murdoch Books, RRP $24.95 each

I can’t resist trying  unfamiliar produce or perhaps finding  new ways to use old favourites.

Lately I’ve played with King Brown mushrooms, baby globe artichokes, Jerusalem artichokes, edamame, blood oranges.

Sometimes there’s only a small window of opportunity with produce which has a short season. You have to make the most of it when you can.

These two books will be very helpful on those days when you buy first and wonder what to do with your purchases later.

The fruit recipes are divided into citrus, hard fruit, soft fruit, stone fruit and tropical fruit.

A sampling includes grape fritters, venison with blackberry sauce, lamb tagine with quince, Parmesan pears, chilled mandarin soufflé, plum and caraway biscuits.

On the vegetable side there are winter vegetables, the onion family, brassicas and greens, salad vegetables and pods and beans.

There’s a French shallot tatin, Finnish creamy baked swede, spiced baby turnips, parsnip and mustard soup, a broccoli and ricotta soufflé, sautéed witlof with olives and caperberries.

While there are some familiar recipes, there are also more unusual treatments and these will be handy books to have in the kitchen when you return from the market.

Slices ISBN 978-1741961195,  Petits Fours ISBN 978-1741961188, Murdoch Books, RRP $29.95 each

These books, each subtitled “a fine selection of sweet treats” join Cookies and Cupcakes in the Indulgence Series.

I was immediately impressed by the styling in each case – by Lynsey Fryers and Matt Page respectively. The interesting recipes are taken to a new level  as the finished products are presented with meticulous attention to detail. In fact, the illustrations certainly reflect indulgence.

Petits Fours spans dainty little morsels, timeless classics and small extravagances for memorable occasions. Think mini cherry galettes, lavender and honey madeleines, petits pithiviers, tiny rum babas,  orange cheesecake petits fours,  hazelnut and chocolate dacquoise, mocha lamington, Baileys and white chocolate opera. Nothing big and brassy, just little bites of sophistication.

The slices are also nicely understated. This isn’t school lunchbox fare but more something to be enjoyed quietly with a good tea or a glass of dry sherry or a Madeira. Again there is a mix of favourite like classic brownies and Bakewell slice. Afternoon delights include Earl Grey custard and  sultana slice,  orange, pistachio and semolina slice, a mean rocky road. Little luxuries like choc cherry slice, angel food slice with white balsamic strawberries, passionfruit bougatsa slice. Many of the recipes would double as desserts or a selection could made a very classy tasting plate to end a meal.

These books are an invitation to indulge in a good old-fashioned afternoon tea party.

James Halliday Australian Wine Companion: 2010 James Halliday ISBN 978-1-74066-754-8, Hardie Grant Books, RRP $34.95

If there’s a universal remedy, it might well be that glass of wine with dinner. A good wine enhances the enjoyment of food, lifts the spirits, promotes conviviality. But a bad wine…

Many of us will still have vivid memories of lip-pursing, gut-thrashing poisons that cascaded out of some of the bottles or, dare I mention it, flagons we opened in the past. Buying a bottle of wine was akin to playing Russian roulette, specially when the wallet wasn’t groaning with unliberated cash.

Fortunately much of that is behind us as we’ve become better educated about wine and resources for increasing our knowledge are no longer limited.

One of the bibles slaking this thirst for knowledge is surely the James Halliday Australian Wine Companion. The 2010 edition was released recently and Halliday’s snapshot of the 2009 vintage amply illustrates the vagaries of climate, growing seasons and the forces of nature and their influence on the end product.

The story across South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and, to a slightly lesser degree, New South Wales has, he says “an eerie similarity as you move from region to region: a mild, indeed cool growing season punctuated by between four and ten days of extreme heat from the end of January into the first week of February.”

There were significant, frequently savagely reduced yields, sometimes due to wet and cold weather at flowering or, in other instances, the ongoing drought.

“But right across Australia, early indications are of wines that will be of high to outstanding quality.”

Victoria takes up the most of Halliday’s state-by-state look at the regions where heat affected some areas grossly and others sustained smoke taint. Worst affected was the Yarra Valley with yields down 30 to 100 percent.

This time Tyrrell’s in the Hunter Valley is Halliday’s winery of the year. Cornerstone of the portfolio is Semillon, a wine more prone to the vagaries of cork than any other.

“The screwcap has ended all that, giving a guarantee that a good semillon will cruise through its fifth, tenth, twentieth, even fiftieth birthdays” gaining character and complexity, “There will be no nasty surprises waiting for you,” says Halliday, echoing Bruce Tyrell’s belief that “we are entering a golden age for Semillon”.

This year 148 wineries are new entries in the Wine Companion and 1467 wineries are profiled, compared with 1661 in the previous year’s book. There are tasting notes for 5884.

The best of the best by variety is followed by the best wineries of the regions. Ten of the best new wineries are listed and there are ten “dark horses” – wineries that have excelled over the past 12 months. And for those shopping on a strict budget there are ten of the best value whites and reds for $10 and under, and a further ten of each for $10-$15. The wine surplus is pushing down the price of wines that would normally be far more expensive so these are lists worth having in the wallet or on the iPhone.

I like the vintage charts for each region showing the quality of the vintages, red and white,  from 2005 to 2008. These can be up and down and it’s worth consulting the chart for the better years.

And so, from Abbey Creek Vineyard to Zitta Wines, there is comprehensive analysis of the present state of the local wine industry – the wines to seek out, to cellar and to enjoy.

In addition to an alphabetical index, there’s also a list of wineries by area, handy for those venturing out for regional wine tastings or vineyard lunches.

This is a comprehensive guide for the oenophile, one to keep in the glove box as well as the cellar. There is also Halliday’s excellent Australian Wine Companion website where you can also become a member (fee discounted for owners of the book) and access further information.

And there’s a free iPhone app if you’re on the road and want to locate a winery. While this doesn’t have tasting notes on the wines, there are cellar door details and links to winery websites.

My Grill: Food for the Barbecue Pete Evans, ISBN 978-1741965438, Murdoch Books, RRP $49.95

This new title is out in time for Father’s Day and I’m betting more than a few chaps will succumb to a case of tong envy and buy a copy for themselves.

Evans has an engaging TV personality and this comes through in his latest book as he deals with the various BBQ scenarios and presents appropriate fare. There’s a Getting Away chapter where fancy gas-driven barbecues are abandoned for the simpler things like camp ovens, wood fires, well used old wire grates or holiday house barbies.

I love the idea of his Indian-spiced barbecue fish in banana leaves, the freshly caught fish spread with a delicious concoction of  chopped fresh coconut with chillies, coriander, mint, turmeric and cumin with lime juice and a dash of sugar. There’s also a terrific Turkish lamb sandwich with spiced pumpkin and pickled carrot – a far cry from BBQed bangers.

There are recipes for those lazy days when families and mates gather and share food and fun. I was pleased to note the inclusion of Barbecued gozleme as I’ve made a gozleme recipe from one of his other books and enjoyed it a lot. There are Crab and sweet corn cakes for little snacks,  Steak wraps with chilli beans, spicy squid, pretty salsas and salads, tuna steaks with tasty garnishes, Greek-style lamb chops with a zucchini, anchovy and feta dressing, Mulloway cutlets with spiced eggplant relish, Wok-fried blue swimmer crab with Thai basil and eggplant – dishes teaming with good gutsy flavours.

The final chapter is Into the Evening, barbecuing with a touch of casual sophistication. This is my favourite part of the book – scallops barbecued in the shell with chipotle chilli and coriander butter,  smartly parcelled barramundi fillets in bamboo leaf with bloack bean and chilli sambal, seared tuna with wakame and ponzu salad,  tea-smoked duck breast with foie gras ravioli.

Throughout the book, recipes are prefaced with reminiscences, comments about individual ingredients, how some recipes evolved, hints on the logistics of making some dishes. This is certainly one of the more inventive barbecue collections I’ve seen. Definitely one to cook from – and often.

Must remember to get the gas bottles filled…

Little Italy Laura Savan ISBN 978-1741964356, Murdoch Books, RRP $49.95

A few years ago a friend and I attended night classes in Italian cooking.. We split into groups of four and by the end of each night the class would have cooked up half a dozen different dishes. We’d sit down at a long table to share the results over a glass of wine. We enjoyed the first term so much we just kept re-enrolling for the next course.  During the year cooked our way round the various regions of Italy and learned much about how location, local climate, history and terrain influenced the cuisine of each area.

Laura Savan’s book reminded me of those happy classes. Not only is it a cookbook, it’s also a comprehensive guide to Italy’s wonderful produce. If you’ve ever stood at a deli counter bewildered by the items on offer, this book is a great source of demystification.

Savan, who lives in France but originates from Veneto, starts the feast with antipasti and discusses olives, sun-dried tomatoes, capsicum, marinated artichokes, anchovies, tuna, bottarga, cuttlefish ink. We learn facts about each, plus different ways to use and serve. This is the formula for the book which proceeds on through condiments, pizza, cheese, cured meats, pasta fresh and dried, gnocchi, risotto, trattoria fare, seaside dishes, vegetables and desserts.

I found the chapter on cured meats particularly informative – how to pick genuine mortadella, the difference between culatello and prosciutto, varieties of pancetta, all about lardo, the different sorts of salami. Enough to bring on a hunger attack.

The formaggi or cheese section is equally useful. We are talked through Parmigiano Reggiano, Grana Padano, the Pecorino varieties, mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone, Gorgonzola.

The pizza section has a primer on bread varieties and the pizza toppings are fresh and simple – no sign of “The Works” here.

The recipes, too, are an interesting mix, particularly in the vegetable section which features some tempting pies and tarts. I’ve already flagged a few to try.

It’s an attractive book, enhanced by Gregoire Kalt’s uncomplicated photographs.

Dream Baby Guide Sheyne Rowley, ISBN 9781741753257, Allen & Unwin, RRP $39.95

If you are currently grappling with feeding a baby or toddler, Sheyne Rowley’s Dream Baby Guide is a good resource. She goes back to basics and looks at aspects of meal-time planning. This includes trouble areas like cup throwing and spoon snatching and aims to establish the boundaries and avoid behavioural issues. She believes when it comes to meal times “there should be no hard and fast rules other than ensuring there is a good balance of food being eaten each day.”

While it’s a good many years since I faced the baby feeding challenge, I do know that keeping meal times as harmonious as possible can pay dividends for years down the track and I like Rowley’s commonsense approach and her suggestions for dealing with meal-time behaviour or outcomes that need repairing.

Of course, mealtimes aren’t her only concern - this book deals with all facets of baby-rearing including sleepless nights - and I was interested in Australia’s own Baby Whisperer’s guide to achieving the nirvana of happy children and parents. This is an impressively thorough guide and one I would have welcomed 30 years ago.

This is Rowley’s first book and encompasses babies aged six to 24 months. She has an interactive website www.dreambabyguide.com designed to complement the 782-page book.

Slow Cookers: The Slow Cooker Recipes You Must Have , ISBN 978-1741962260, Murdoch Books, RRP $34.95

A casualty of our shift to Melbourne four years ago was my slow cooker. It was a refugee of the 70s, when it was called a crockpot and was fashionably orange and brown. It was also a little too small, didn’t have a removable serving bowl and was a challenge to clean. I acquired an automatic oven that bridged the gap and the slow cooker lurked unloved on a high shelf until rediscovered and despatched to the tip, its power cord looking rather dodgy.

Today’s models are a distinct improvement and devotees will be pleased with this title from Murdoch Books’ Kitchen Classic series.

There are soups, home cooking of the comfort food variety, dishes for entertaining, hot and spicy numbers and pulses and grains – certainly some of it far more exotic than we made 30 years ago. These appliances seem purpose made for spicy dishes in particular, with the long, slow cooking bringing out the flavour of the chillies and spices. They are also good for the cheaper cuts of meat that become rewardingly tender with gentle braising.

The recipes are far from dull and are drawn from Mediterranean, Asian, Middle Eastern and other ethnic cuisines. If you are a dedicated slow cooker user, this book would be a useful source of inspiration.

Pies and Tarts, ISBN 978-1741961645, Murdoch Books, RRP $34.95

This title and companion volume Casseroles and One-pots are the latest releases in Murdoch Books’ Homestyle series.

As this book demonstrates, pies comes in many guises. There are pot pies, cobblers, quiches, hot pies, cold pies, double-crust pies, open pies, pasties, big and little pies, sweet and savoury – and plenty more variations.  Pies for all occasions are featured – for picnics, snacks, dinner.

You can make your own pastry following the book’s recipes, or use sheets of readymade.

How about an artichoke and provolone quiche,  or one featuring roasted pumpkin and spinach? A vegetable tart with salsa verde, a cheese and chive soufflé tart, a beef and caramelised onion pie, a beef, stout and potato pie, spinach and feta triangles, rabbit pie, raspberry  lattice pies, lemon meringue pie, vol-au-vents or Portuguese custard tarts?

With more than 150 variations to choose from, it will be a long time before the pie maker runs out of ideas.

Growing Herbs ISBN 978-1741965926, Murdoch Books, RRP $24.95

I’ve had several herbs gardens over the years and they’ve all given me a great deal of satisfaction and now, as we are on the eve of moving into our own new home, I am plotting another.

Certainly nothing peps up a dish more than the addition of fresh herbs and you don’t need a huge backyard to achieve a reasonable level of herbal self-sufficiency.

A few traditional culinary herbs in planters on a balcony will keep you well supplied. But, if you have a small piece of earth, you can get a bit more ambitious and have a corner of Asian herbs or plant some of the wonderfully interesting medicinal herbs.

Several specialists have combined to write this very informative book. It begins with a short history of herbal cultivation and we remain indebted to those intrepid travellers – Roman legions, for example – who took seeds and plants with them on their journeys to cultivate for their own use.

A third of the 256-page book is dedicated to growing herbs – their cultivation, propagation, harvesting and storing, along with companion planting. Then there’s that wonderful challenge of herb garden design or how to fit Sissinghurst into a tiny suburban plot.

The middle section deals with using herbs, not only in the kitchen but as natural dyes, remedies, medicines, air fresheners, cosmetics, pest repellents and cleaning products.

Finally there is this plotter’s paradise, the herb directory. Which herbs must I have? Which do I use most often? Which are seasonal? I can’t get too carried away as my new herb garden will be planters on a terrace and maybe a couple of plants – a bay tree or rosemary? – by the front door. And experience has taught me which herbs manage spells of neglect, which ones aggressively take over and which ones sulk and expire.

Growing Herbs is a very useful cook’s and gardener’s companion, beautifully illustrated and, even in winter, inspiring. It’s also well priced and by growing your own, you’ll soon re-coup its cost.

Chicken ISBN 978-1741963786, Murdoch Books, RRP $24.95

Chicken is a great basic canvas for the cook. It can be presented simply or tarted up. It can be the main ingredient or just provide the flavouring.  This is one of the latest titles from the Murdoch Books Test Kitchen series and it’s a good basic book for poultry lovers. The chapters are simple – ligh, fast and slow.

Chicken is a good staple to have in the freezer, whether it be boneless thighs, chicken breasts, legs or mixed pieces. And with an ingredient-specific books like this, you can soon sort out a recipe while the bird bits are defrosting.

There is plenty of variety in the recipes which embrace the gamut of cooking methods.

Also released at this time is a companion volume, Meat.

Bowl Food ISBN 978-1741964141, Murdoch Books, RRP $19.95

Murdoch Books started publishing their Chunky Food series in  2002 and more than two millions copies have been sold globally. Now the series is being relaunched at a great new price.

The first of these is Bowl Food which is well timed for the onset of autumn.

The food that comes in bowls is frequently comfort food, to be enjoyed from a comfortable seat in front of televisions, or at a table by the fire and there are plenty of recipes in the book to fill the bill.

The chapters cover soups, salads, pasta, rice, wok, curries and one pots. From spicy laksa to a lamb tagine, paella to braised chicken and spaghetti with smoked tuna and olives, there are plenty of recipes to tempt.

Each one is photographed. Some are quick and easy to prepare while others need time in the oven. Some can be made ahead and reheated when required while others are almost instant food.

This is a grand addition to a beginner’s library or a good stock book for the experienced cook.

Snowflakes and Schnapps Jane Lawson, ISBN 978-1921259029, Murdoch Books, RRP $69.95

Jane Lawson is currently the publisher for food titles at Murdoch Books and is the author of a string of fine titles, including Spice Market, Grub, Yoshoku and Cocina Nueva.

This title makes winter something to look forward to as she leads a culinary journey through the cold-climate cuisines of northern, central and eastern Europe.

While some of the brooding photos early in the book capture the chill of winter, the comforting sight of many warm and tasty dishes certainly lifts the spirits. Photographer Brett Stevens has certainly set the correct mood.

Some of it is good hearty fare like pot au feu, rabbit in red wine with spinach canederli, slow-baked brown beans with spice-roasted bacon. But there are also lighter, more delicate dishes like grilled oysters, fish frikadeller with curry remoulade, a buckwheat blini platter.

This is a good introduction to some maybe less-familiar Northern Hemisphere cuisines.

A section on white Christmas fare is a big attraction, specially given the Down Under liking for mid-winter "Christmas" dinners.

Serendip: My Sri Lankan Kitchen Peter Kuruvita, ISBN 978-1741963649, Murdoch Books, RRP $59.95