Supper for a Song: Creative Comfort Food for the Resourceful Cook

by Tamasin Day-Lewis

Tamasin Day-Lewis’s upbeat, back-to-basics approach celebrates eating well, avoiding waste, and healthy comfort food that is easy on the budget and deliciously satisfying. Supper for a Song is a book for the clever cook in the cost-conscious kitchen. Even when times call for budgeting, we still want to eat well and to eat delicious food. With an eye on eating in, Supper for a Song is more than just a book on culinary economizing. With its upbeat tone and a focus on comfort food that is both healthy and satisfying, this book is really a philosophy of life and cooking—get back to basics, avoid being wasteful, enjoy food, and make the most of the wealth of healthful ingredients available to us. This is comfort food at its creamy risottos, robust pasta dishes, and tasty, succulent slow-cooked stews made from inexpensive cuts of meat. There are original ways to extend the Sunday roast to make great soups and weekday suppers. Leftovers are transformed into exotic suppers, zingy salads, and hearty stews. There is even a wonderfully indulgent baking chapter that offers cookies, cakes, and gooey desserts—plus, there are lots of chocolate recipes for that essential comfort factor.

"A delightful collection of sweet and savory pastries . . . posh pies, everyday pies, new pies, old forgotten favorites; a greedy celebration of crust and filling." —Nigel Slater, The Observer , reviewing Tarts with Tops or How to Make the Perfect Pie

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

From an illustrious family, Tamasin has also made a name for herself, in her own niche: cooking.

Tamasin is the daughter of Cecil Day-Lewis, poet laureate, and her brother is the acclaimed actor, Daniel Day-Lewis. She has established a career as a respected food writer - combining sophistication, literary skill and culinary class.

As well as writing a weekly food column for The Daily Telegraph, Tamasin's cookbooks have covered a range of comforting, rural recipes, from the preparation of seasonal dishes and picnics to the art of pie-baking and 'proper', slow cooking. She is a food purist and is known for her valiant promotion of all things organic and regional. She champions local products versus the supermarket giants.

Tamasin's books are refreshingly different for several reasons. She writes "for people who appreciate good food, for people of all skills." She collects recipes on her travels and sees her recipes as "a link with people" and her style is totally unique. Half novel, half practical, her pages are filled with fascinating background information on ingredients, memories, historical anecdotes, and all in impressively poetic language. Her book West Ireland Summers was a collection of favourite recipes taken from and inspired by her childhood in County Mayo. The rural theme continues in Tamasin's two series' for Good Food Channel, in which she cooks at her family home in the country.

Reviews

[LemontreeLime · Rating 3 out of 5]

well... huh. Now I adore Tamasin's cookbooks. You wouldnt be able to pry my copies of her two tart cookbooks out of my dying hands. Shes creative and funny, and writes recipes that make you think 'yeah, i can do that.' & 'wow that looks fantastic.' My rule of thumb on cookbook quality is that if i dont desperately want to make 3/4ths of the contents... then i do not keep that cookbook. If it doesnt make me dream, its out the door. So this one is a conundrum for me. Im disappointed that im not in alt over it. Im really sad there are only 6 recipes i want to try. This book may be perfect for another type of kitchen dweller, but it is definitely not aimed at me. I will try her potato bread, her crushed peas with feta&scallions, and even attempt the bay leaf+honey+lemon cake. But im not keeping this book, its doesnt make me dream.

but nobody better lay a finger on my copy of 'art of the tart'. That one might as well be graded as an apocryphal scripture, mana inside.

[Neilsone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has some crazy comfort food recipes in it. I gained two pounds reading it. I checked it out from the library and while this is great, I don't need these super heavy recipes for daily use. The bread and roasted tomato recipes are why I grabbed it. The other recipes seem a bit heavy, but a few look sane and tasty so I will give one or two a try. If you need to find inexpensive and yummy ways to cram a boatload of calories into your active family however, this would be a great book for you. If you're without kids and trying to loose weight, might want to pass on it.

Not a lot of education in this cookbook, which is a bummer, just a lot of recipes inflated by beautiful photography.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this...tried the lemon risotto which came out deliciously. Will be trying quite a few other recipes.