Jill Dupleix's book: Lighten Up

Publisher Quadrille | Pages 224 | £16.99

The Times Cook’s latest book on healthy eating posed an immediate dilemma for me: where was I supposed to I begin? The book’s contents aren’t arranged to facilitate emotional eating (frustration was the emotion). Instead, it is one that is divided into a curious myriad of categories that would flourish better as standalone mini-cookbooks. To test, I pick the recipe that I happened to have most ingredients for: the Spice-Grilled Mackerel. I wasn’t prepared to get more frustrated.

I lucked out on the mackerel; Dupleix’s recipes are generally fuss-free, but to maintain a high level of flavour, she specifies a wide array of ingredients. The mackerel recipe happened to be one of the shorter. The recipe’s two potentially specialised ingredients – Thai red curry paste and fish sauce – could be easily scoured. I didn’t have a grill though. So I made do with a frying pan.

The mackerel was easy to cook. Like she said, “you don’t have to mollycoddle fish like mackerel – they’re so rich and oily they can take whatever you throw at them”. Good. The last thing I wanted to do was to mollycoddle.

She saved me from mulling as well, with instructions that explicate almost every step you hardly have to think. “Start grilling the bread now,” she says in another recipe, “the eggs won’t take long.” Gladly. This, coincidentally, is her format throughout the book. I am unable to decide if this is a good or bad method – the skeptic in me feels she’s bound to leave something out. I wouldn’t know yet though – this recipe was my first. And in such a state of mind, I was willing to let her mind my peas and quails.

While waiting for my mackerel’s skin to crackle (part of the instructions), I flipped through the rest of the book to pick a second test-recipe. A couple stand out as innovative (one of the ‘Tofu four ways’ and ‘Sticky Chicken Wings’ in particular) but everything else seemed a little archaic. Dupleix chose to span cultures in selecting her recipes to include. In that manner, it seemed she picked each culture’s forerunner dish (Lamb Tagine with Dates, Korean Bibimbap, Spaghetti alla Puttanesca) so on the whole it feels like she’s simply scratching the surface of cuisines with this health book instalment.

She does however make an attempt to pull away from the hackneyed idea of a stifled health cookbook – except for the gathering of ingredients, which can seem like a giant task when your pantry is not well-stocked. When backed by a well-stocked pantry however, the recipes are accessible, even if some of the photography seems to border on the surreal. Surely food doesn’t turn out spotless every time.sher