h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For people with small children I recommend Annabel Karmels books for lots of exciting ideas. Be careful though as some were publish before the warning about using nuts so a few recipes are not suitable for children under three.

I like Ken Hom's cook books. And the naked chef..

Probably my most used cookbook is Sarah Brown's Vegetarian Kitchen. The Covent Garden Book of Soups is great too. And they've just released another one which apparently has lots of ideas of what you can do with soups once you've made them as well as other meals.

If you like Indian food I have to reccommend Madhur Jaffrey. I've yet to come across any dish in her book titled Indian Cookery (unimaginative but to the point) which wasn't awesome. Great food though some requires a lot of effort. Yummmmmm

I'd agree with you about Indian food being time consuming. But for really time consuming stuff, Thai food wins hands down.

I'm still on the hunt for a really good vegetarian curry. They always seem to be lacking something.

The books by Sainsbury's used to be quite good for ideas. Don't know what the newer ones are like though.

Actually, I've been intending to try cooking Thai for a while. Do you know a good bok on the subject? As for vegetarian curry.... I prefer meat in mine and don't know of a good veggie one. Sorry.

There is a fantastic book on thai cooking which goes into lots of detail about preparation and stuff but I don't have a copy. It's the in-laws so I'll give them a bell and get them to tell me the name of it.

I look forward to it. Thanks!

I finally remembered to ask the MIL about the Thai cooking so here it is.

The Taste of Thailand by Vatcharin Bhumichitr and is published by Pavillion (priced around £12.99)

It has excellent descriptions of traditional Thai ingredients and lots of recipes. Be warned though, most are very time consuming to prepare but they do taste fantastic.

Madha Jaffrey has a fantastic recipe for thai savoury fruit salad - could easily be vegetarian as only has little bit of chicken and prawns in it - in her Far Eastern Cook book. That has thai, vietnamese etc in it too.....