Author(s): Maria Elia

World Cookbooks

Full of Flavour features 18 of Maria Elia's favourite ingredients, offering over 100 stunning recipes and a rare insight into how a chef's mind works to create the perfect balance of flavours and textures. Each chapter opens with one of Maria's 'mind maps' - the starting point of her creative process where she sketches an ingredient and looks at every possible complimentary flavour. Whether game, lamb, greens or pulses, all are taken on a 'flavour journey' so you can see how Maria has developed the recipes in the book and in the subsequent variations. Each dish has been designed not only to excite the palate but to inspire you to adapt and create your own ideas, even including some working pages along the way for you to jot down your notes. Why not swap butternut squash for new potatoes in the recipe for Slow Roasted Smoked Paprika Chicken with Butternut Squash, Cherry Tomatoes and White Beans; seasonality is key to Maria's dishes, making them cheaper to make and more nutritional, so if a fruit or vegetable is out of season she shows how easy it is to adapt and improvise. As Maria says, the best thing about cooking is that it's a never ending learning experience.