My dear friend Sue Simkins has written yet another book. I first met Sue in 2010 when she wrote her fantastic cookbook called ‘Cooking with Mrs Simkins’, which I highly recommend you get a copy of if you haven’t already got it. Since then we’ve communicated regularly and I’m always impressed with Sue’s attitude to life, her cooking abilities, her engaging style of writing and the passion which she skilfully enthuses into her books.
Sue’s latest opus is called ‘Traditional Yorkshire Cooking with Mrs Simkins’ and although I am from Derbyshire and proud of it. I have already used a couple of her recipes from this book to great effect even though I am ‘ova the border’. I think my favourite recipe in this book is the Christmas Tap Room Loaf (pages 56 & 57) and apparently, this recipe featured in the Yorkshire WI Recipe of 1957 and at 61 years old, I must say it is an absolute classic.
A traditional Yorkshire pastime is to consume fruit cake or fruit loaf with mature cheese and it is one of my favourite naughty pleasures. I was sent a copy of the book about 2 weeks ago and baked this that weekend and when I went out to purchase the ingredients I also made sure to buy ½ a pound of the maturest cheddar I could find on Deli counter. Really easy to cook, particularly with Sue’s easy to follow recipe format and I must say everything worked out perfectly and I was able to make a 2lb tin and 1lb tin filled with this. The 1lb tin I gave to my 88 year old next door neighbour who also hugely enjoyed it. It’s also delicious with butter and Golden Syrup.
There are 65 delicious north country recipes in this wonderful book, it runs to 123 pages and it retails at just £5.99. It’s published by Dalesman (www.dalesman.co.uk) who are based in the gatehouse of Skipton Castle and is well worth adding to your recipe bookshelf and most importantly using!
