Home Cooked by Donal Skehan

Here’s some Friday afternoon eye candy for you! I mean, have you ever seen such a good-looking skillet of homemade paella? Seriously. It’s all I can look at.

If you’re in the mood for the kinds of meals that frequently involve Dutch ovens, roasted vegetables, and warm Yorkshire Puddings on the side — all with the enthusiastic help of this Irish gentlemen with his very nice smile — then you’ll want to clear your schedule for some one-on-one kitchen time with Home Cooked.

• Who wrote it: Donal Skehan

• Who published it: HarperCollins

• Number of recipes: Around 100

• Recipes for right now: Maple Pork Chops, Roast Asian Beef Stew with Chilli Noodles, Baked Risotto All’Arrabiata, Spicy Seafood Paella, Polenta Chips with Rosemary Salt, Caramelised Banana Cakes, Salted Peanut Caramel Mud Pie, Chocolate Pistachio Espresso Biscotti

• Other highlights: I can think of no other way to describe Donal Skehan’s recipes other than, this is the food I want to eat! Some of it feels like classic comfort food, like one-pot roast chicken with root vegetables and soft scrambled eggs tucked into warm croissants. Some of it just gives me a gut reaction of “yes, please, right now,” like that steaming pan of easy weeknight paella or an especially seductive Asian beef stew with chili noodles. This is one of those books that ends up fluttering with post-it flags by the time I’m finished paging through it.

I also really love Donal’s approach with these recipes and his way of handing them over to us. He breaks each recipe down into its most basic steps, never assuming that we’ll know something but also leaving room for us to use our own best judgement. They’re written in his friendly and exuberant voice, which makes me feel both confident and eager to get my hands in there for myself.

This feels like a collection of meals that can be relied upon — whether that’s for an easy weeknight supper or for a special holiday dinner party. In this cookbook, there are plenty of ideas for any occasion.

• Who would enjoy this book? Anglophiles and fans of Donal Skehan, but also those who appreciate a good bowl of stew. These are comfort food recipes, but with enough of a UK-slant (or perhaps just a Donal-slant!) that they feel fresh and new and extremely irresistible.

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: Home Cooked by Donal Skehan

• Visit the author’s website: Donal Skehan

Apartment Therapy Media makes every effort to test and review products fairly and transparently. The views expressed in this review are the personal views of the reviewer and this particular product review was not sponsored or paid for in any way by the manufacturer or an agent working on their behalf. However, the manufacturer did give us the product for testing and review purposes.