title: Rock Recipes
author: Barry C. Parsons

publication date: October 29, 2014
publisher: Breakwater Books Ltd.

My food philosophy is pretty simple: Real quality ingredients and a good simple recipe is all it takes to prepare real everyday food for real people.
— Barry C. Parsons (Rock Recipes)

I have to be honest. When I first saw the title of Barry’s book (and blog), Rock Recipes, I (naturally) assumed that it was a cookbook focusing on the cuisine of Newfoundland and Labrador, the province in Canada more informally known as ‘The Rock’.

But after a casual glance through the book, I realized that I couldn’t be more wrong.

the first nibble:

Rock Recipes is a bright, vibrant ‘general topic’ cookbook that covers a huge variety of recipes. There are a few locally-inspired dishes (or recipes that feature local ingredients), but most of the time the recipes are quite general, influenced by cultures from around the world, and the ingredients are readily available to everyone.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many amazing dishes I wanted to try right away.

Crab Cakes Eggs Benedict from Rock Recipes

On my first pass through the book, the most tempting recipes from each chapter were:

• Main Dishes (Chicken) – Oven Fried Chicken, pg. 22
• Main Dishes (Beef and Pork) – Pork Chimichangas with Avocado Pineapple Salsa, pg. 56
• Main Dishes (Seafood) – Shrimp and Bacon Pad Thai, pg 82
• Quick and Easy Dinners – The best Beef and Broccoli, pg. 96
• Slow-Cooked Sundays – St. John’s Stout Stew with Irish Soda Bread, pg. 116
• Side Dishes and Soups – Newfoundland Style Ham and Split Pea Soup with Dough Boys, pg. 152
• Brunch – Blueberry Cheesecake Scones, pg. 170
• Cookies and Bars – Queen Anne Squares, pg. 206
• Cakes – Blueberry Snack Cake, pg. 228
• Dessert – Sticky Toffee Pudding, pg. 244

 
the nitty-gritty:

number of recipes (as stated by book): n/a

recipe list? Yes, at the start of each chapter, there’s a list of recipes contained in that chapter

table of contents:

The categories are simply named and very concise. I love the groupings because it’s so easy to know exactly where to go to look for a recipe.

Plus, who doesn’t love a cookbook with a chapter for ‘brunch’ and separate chapters for ‘Cookies and Bars’, ‘Cakes’ and ‘Dessert’. For someone who doesn’t think his baking is his strong point, there is a LOT for sweet-lovers to indulge in from Rock Recipes!

photography:  What’s rare about Barry’s cookbook compared to others is that he’s both the author AND the photographer – if you’re a regular reader of his blog, then you’ll recognize that the photos that appear on his website are the ones that appear in the book.

His photography style is simple, clean and very well-put together. Lots of bright, colourful shots, where the food is definitely centre stage. Every recipe comes with a photo (LOVE) and many of the photos are full-page shots. His photos are what I aspire to for kitchen frolic!

French Onion Braised Beef Brisket from Rock Recipes

photo to recipe ratio*:  out of 114 total recipes**, 114 recipes had at least one accompanying ‘finished dish’ photo or step-by-step photo (photo : recipe ratio = 1 : 1)
notes:
* this is a manual count, so numbers may be slightly off due to human error (mine)
** only ‘main’ recipes are counted – recipes that appear as part of another dish are not counted

recipes:
– separate ingredient list? yes
– serving info given? yes
– prep/cook time given? no
– recipe format: numbered steps

As soon as you start reading the recipes, you can tell Barry is a story-teller, and knowing his food blogger background explains a lot. The recipes are all introduced with a long blurb (much longer than many other cookbooks) and makes this cookbook a joy to read and browse.

I love how well-laid out the recipes are – the ingredients are broken down into the different components, there’s colour-coding, the steps are spaced out nicely and everything just flows. Some of the recipes come with tips (either specifically for the recipe or just general cooking tips).

The accessible and easy-to-follow recipes, combined with the beautiful food photography, makes browsing recipes a breeze. I can’t remember how many recipes I flagged on my first pass through the book, although I must tell you that the one that made me extra excited was Barry’s Sticky Toffee Pudding.

You see, Paul and I had recently become quite fond of the Sticky Toffee Pudding from a fish and chips place in our neighbourhood. However, the $5 per pudding price tag was quickly adding up, and when I saw Barry’s recipe (the photo looked incredibly similar to the one we loved) I knew it was going to be the first thing I tried (more on my attempt below).

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake with Irish Cream Whipped Cream from Rock Recipes

the last bite:

I can say without a doubt that this book is going to become a staple in my kitchen. The easy-to-follow recipes and Barry’s simple writing style make following the recipes a breeze, but it’s more than that. The variety of dishes, the accessible ingredients, the mouth-watering photos (yes, I’m one of those that picks recipes based on photos) all add up to a great combination that makes me want to cook every recipe.

Published in 2014, I wish I had discovered this cookbook last year when it was released, because it definitely would have made my list for of favourites for 2014. In any case, I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone who wants a solid general cooking book to add to their shelves. You won’t be disappointed!

cooking the book

Sticky Toffee Pudding

what worked: This was very easy to put together and I loved Barry’s suggestion to make these in muffin tins. The serving portions are absolutely perfect and I make batches of these at a time and freeze the extras. The sauce is also amazing. The whole thing is just sweet enough (but not overly sweet) and turned out exactly as I had hoped.
what didn’t work: Nothing, really. My only issue with this is I have a tough time removing them from the muffin pans (even with liberal greasing and flouring) and a few of them get torn in half as I try to get them out. I might go and buy a silicone muffin pan just for this reason.
did your dish look like the one pictured in the cookbook? Yes! I was so happy with it.
ease/expense of ingredients: Although I didn’t have a few of the ingredients on hand (dates, molasses, light syrup), they weren’t expensive to get and there are easy substitutes that also work (I did a batch using honey instead of molasses and they turned out just as good).
would you make this again?: I’ve already made this recipe several times – everyone in my family loves them and I have had several requests to make more, so the answer is obviously, Yes.

Click here to purchase Rock Recipes from The Book Depository (free worldwide shipping) or Amazon.

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