Rant in E minor

Ok I've blatantly plagiarised a title from the late great Bill Hicks, but he was a master of ranting if ever there was one. Realistically this should probably just have been called rant number 1 as it is probably the first of several entries into room 101, but the hicks title seemed a little more colourful.

anyway, you probably haven't guessed but todays entry is photography in cook books. Apologies to any professionals on the site who may have done work for cook books, but I hate it. If you're going to put photographs in a cook book it should be vaugely indicative of what the final dish will look like when your average person, as oppose to the book's writer, prepares it. The problem is the photos invariably look nothing like the result of following the instructions. It's almost as if the photographs are taken to sell it as a menu item, trying to make it look as succulent as possible. I thought for a while it was maybe just my cooking, but I've conferred with others and they all seem to have similar problems.

I love cook books and I'm always happy to try cooking something new but these photos can be so off putting. the problem is that after you spend ages preparing and cooking the dish, no matter how good it looks or tastes, and how well appreciated it is by those having dinner, if it doesn't look like the picture there's that little sensation of frustration and failure.

These Bhajis for example, according to the book, should look like the bright red things in the upper right hand corner of the photo. Quite how I'm not sure as there isn't a single ingredient that has that sort of colouration. We've made them a few times before and know by now that they will never look like the photo but they do taste damn fine, like I say it's just frustrating.

If anyone's interested they were my offering for tonight's dinner. Roz made a Massala and Aloo Gobi, so I made the mixture for Bhajis (although Roz did the actual frying of them as I was working. A damn fine tea it was too.

The recipe is from Tommy Miah's cook book it should be readable in the photo but if anyone is wanting me to type it out just let me know.