Each country has a few home cooking bibles that guide your hand while you are learning the ropes.
For Spanish born chef Jose Manuel Pizarro, the reference book in question on Spanish Home Cooking is 1080 Recipes by Simone and Inés Ortega (Phaidon), a mother-daughter writing team. Simone, the mother, has been a food writer for some 50 years.
1080 Recipes was originally published in 1972 and the first English Edition (US and UK) only this year in 2007.
The book offers over a thousand ideas as the title suggests.
Jose Manuel Pizarro explains why 1080 Recipes is so important to him in Cooking at home and away (on Word of Mouth).
As he states, when you move to another country as he did 5 years ago when coming to London to cook at Tapas Brindisa, you might have to tweak the recipes depending on what ingredients you can and cannot find. With years passing by, you have fond memories of how you discovered various food staples even if at the time it might not have been love at first sight.
I can relate to that. I have a weathered paperback version of French home cooking recipes with me ever since I moved to the US.
As for adapting recipes, when I make a Croque Monsieur, the French ham comes from Canada, the cheese is sometimes provolone or asiago.
Getting back to 1080 Recipes, you can Download A Few Recipes such as Grilled Melon with Sesame and Honey or Galician Stew and get a taste of it.
I guess I will have to get my hands on a copy.
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