Delicious books

It was a liberating moment when I read that Nigella Lawson had over 2000 cook books - now I really have a figure to aim for!

So you can imagine my delight at receiving a new title for my birthday last week - Scandilicious, a feast of Nordic cuisine.

• Scandilicious by Signe Johansen is the perfect book to help me reconnect with my scandi family tree - even down to my blond roots. 

I liked the sound of this rye bread sandwich of the sea. This morning I was off to the Bungay Co-op to catch me a smoked scottish mackerel. Unfortunately fennel bulbs have not reached the Co-op yet, but mandolined celery made a good substitute.

Mackerel, fennel and horseradish open sandwich

2 slices dark rye bread or pumpernickel, buttered

2 tsp horseradish cream

1 large fillet cooked mackerel, bones out

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

fennel fronds, wood sorrel, chervil or parsley to garnish

 ~ Spread a thin layer of horseradish on the buttered rye bread slices

 ~ Gently flake the mackerel onto the bread and shave very thin slices of fennel bulb on top

 ~ Garnish with fennel, chervil or whatever greenness you have handy

Enjoy a delicious taste of Scandinavian cuisine, knowing you are feeding your brain with omega-3's.

Recipe from Scandilicious by Signe Johansen

Small world: the author studied The Anthropology of Food at SOAS, same university as Alice who gave me the book!

My other birthday books related to food included these two:

• A Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester is part cookbook, part thriller, part hard to put your finger on what it is. But I loved this description of it: "Rest assured that the book you think you are reading at the start is not the book you turn out to be reading at the end...".

• Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lancaster Brisley - just pure nostalgia and it is really the illustrations rather than the stories that I love. Here is a little taster... of potatoes like "muvver used to make"

Small world: well it was a small world MMM lived in.

One day, when all the boxes are finally unpacked, I will tally up my cookbook total, I'm guessing more than fifty but less than one hundred titles... so far! 


Any suggestions for cook books you think I need in my edible library? I'd love to hear from you.