Rediscovering my recipe books

We've started going to the market on Saturdays to do our grocery shopping. Its a nice change of pace, and fortunately we live really near one of the best markets in Vienna, Karmelitermarkt. The market is the oldest in Vienna, and is a small yet bustling place, that is brought to life on Fridays and Saturdays by a farmers market. At the market is a great fruit and veg shop, that sells better and cheaper produce than the supermarkets do.

Karmelitermarkt - via www.wien.gv.at

The market square is also home to a variety of cafés and stores, including a kosher butcher, a fabric store, a horse butcher and a plant store. The cafés and bars offer a nice place to sit and watch the world go by after you've done your shopping.

One of the side effects of coming home with a big bag of fresh produce is getting more creative in my meal making, and doing more meal planning. As autumn sets in I find it easier to plan what I want to eat during the week, and it is so much nicer coming home to ingredients waiting in the fridge rather than having to think about it on the way home.

To that end, I've started using my collection of recipe books as inspiration, and my favourite at the moment is the ever brilliant Nigella Lawson's Nigella Express which my parents bought me for Christmas a few years back. My Mum loves this book and so do I - easy, simple recipes that are big on flavour and low on effort, but not nutrition and quality. This week just gone I made coq au Riesling, using the slow cooker rather than do it in the oven in the evening, and mirin glazed salmon (although as I only had mirin seasoning which is full of sugar it ended up being just soy marinaded salmon).

Tonight (Saturday) we're having Chowder with Asian flavours, but with a few adjustments, like using sweet potatoes rather than regular ones (because I have them) and just ordinary fish instead of smoked (because smoked white fish is expensive).

I'm really enjoying just looking through all of my recipe books and thinking about what I can do with the contents, and how I can adapt them. I go for long periods of time when I rely on my own cooking knowledge to inspire me but then I have phases where I need much more inspiration. I have a good selection of recipe books ranging from my vintage copy of Marguerite Patten's Cookery in Colour (my grandmother gave it to me) to Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet, and everything in between, so plenty to choose from!