Book: Nothing Fancy - Recipes and Recollections of Soul-Satisfying Food

By Diana Kennedy

Diana Kennedy has lived in Mexico for most of her adult life and is probably best known for her books on Mexican cuisine. But it's recollections from her childhood and early adulthood in Britain on which she draws for many of the recipes in her cookbook .

"There was never much money around for luxuries," she writes, "but because my mother was so versatile in the kitchen … we ate extremely well … I was her biggest fan and always looked forward to her meals: she even made liver and onion seem like a very special dish."

A stint in the Women's Timber Corps during the second world war took Kennedy to south Wales and other parts of Britain, then to Europe, Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Haiti, where she met Paul Kennedy, a foreign correspondent based in Mexico City.

The recipes in are varied. Of course, there are Mexican recipes, such as ensalada trompa de res (beef muzzle salad) and sopa de albondigas (meatball soup). But there are also recipes for British-style roast potatoes; raised pork pie; cold jellied tongue; ragout Toulousaine; Iranian broiled lamb; corn souffle; Philadelphia snapper soup; mincemeat; and Christmas pudding.