Cookbook new releases: May

Those wired into the cookery publishing matrix will know that this actually came out in April, but – mea culpa – I mixed up the dates (I'm barely used to the fact that it's 2016, let alone nearly May). Normally I wouldn't own up to such stupidity, but Nathan Outlaw's third book is so good I couldn't leave it without a mention. With the chef's previous two cookbooks sharing fish preparation techniques and impressive dinner party dishes, Everyday Seafood can be seen as something of a prequel, bridging the gap between afishionado (sorry) and complete beginner. These dishes are a fantastic introduction to cooking fish at home and, with many of the recipes calling for fish fillets and pre-cleaned seafood, you're free to ask your fishmonger for a helping hand and graduate to wielding a filleting knife at your own pace. The great thing about this book (and, indeed, Nathan's cooking) is that it gets you to look at fish in a different way. Fan of satay? Swap chicken for equally meaty monkfish. Planning a barbecue? Ditch the supermarket burgers and throw a majestic jerk marinated lobster onto the grill instead.

There's no shortage of books about the art of sourdough baking, but Jane Mason's Perfecting Sourdough is the only one so far that, as a timid beginner, has instilled in me enough confidence to try. That's no slight on the other books, of course, but it's Perfecting Sourdough's hugely informative introductory pages that offer a wonderfully preemptive safety net for the baking beginner. The troubleshooting pages are a highlight, with misshapen loaves illustrating typical problems – cracked loaf, dense texture, gaping holes – and offering solutions. While it might be daunting preparing your own starter and baking a sourdough loaf from scratch for the first time, keep Jane's personal mantra at the back of your mind: 'everything is good toasted, even if it's ugly.'