It’s been a funny old year, and one that saw kitchens – private and professional – under greater duress than ever before.

Back in March, lockdown sent us all to the stove, whether we liked it or not, with everyone somehow having to conjure up three meals a day from whatever we were able to snag from the suddenly very dystopian and empty-shelved supermarket. Then, worse luck, having to wash up on a never-ending loop, again, and again, and again…

Many of us found ourselves redirecting our pandemic-induced fears and worries into the fickle, bubbling lifeform of a sourdough starter, while too many bananas were left out to brown in aid of banana bread, and plain flour black markets sprung up overnight amongst neighbours.

Throughout it all, cookbook authors and chefs kept us fed and enthused via Instagram cook-alongs. And once restaurants had recalibrated (although many sadly were lost and shuttered), it became our civic duty to order in with abandon – oh the relief of not having to think up something else to put on pasta.

Hospitality has suffered – and continues to do so, quite catastrophically – and for many who have been unable to support restaurants, cafes and pubs in person, cookbooks have offered a path to deliciousness, comfort and escape. They’ve subbed in for jaunts abroad, stretched dinner plans beyond ‘something on toast’ and made us feel at least a little more connected to the wider world.

Big culinary hitters like Nigella have risen to the occasion. Her latest cookbook (and accompanying series) Cook, Eat, Repeat is a soothing mix of recipes and essays, celebrating brown food and rhubarb, and food that ultimately aims to bring pleasure (like roast chicken served on crisps, and fish fingers fried up with chilli, garlic and ginger).

Jamie Oliver has incessantly churned out recipes since his Keep Cooking And Carry On series had us in tears when it first aired at the beginning of lockdown #1, culminating in 7 Ways, a cookbook that brings together the seven key ingredients shoppers rely on most, and builds easy weeknight family dinners around them. Yotam Ottolenghi meanwhile teamed up with Ixta Belfrage on Flavour, which looks at vegetables in all new, exciting fusion ways.

Other highlights have included Ryan Riley’s ground-breaking Life Kitchen, filled with recipes designed to spark the taste buds and sense receptors of people going through cancer treatment; Jack Monroe’s Good Food For Bad Days couldn’t have been more timely; Amy and Emily Chung broadened our culinary horizons with their debut Burmese cookbook, The Rangoon Sisters; and 2019 Bake Off winner David Atherton’s illustrated My First Baking Book focussed on getting kids cooking fun but healthy dishes.

Here are three more cookbooks you might have missed in the milieu, that deserve a second look.

Our top 3 not to be missed…

1. Red Sands: Reportage And Recipes Through Central Asia, From Hinterland To Heartland by Caroline Eden (Quadrille, £26)

As much travelogue as cookbook, Red Sands comes of the back off Caroline Eden’s hugely successful and atmospheric Black Sea. This time her attention swivels to Central Asia, inspired by a lunch in the Kyzylkum Desert where she ate raw onion rings, meat skewers (shashlick) and wedges of watermelon. She writes that her aim was to explore, preserve and record a fast-changing region through its food – and does so in two parts, spring and autumn – interspersing dishes with stories as she goes.

Eden recommends a canned peach and sour cream cake for dark, cold months and opines about a hot and sour kimchi for topping rice; there are mini towers of Russian Easter bread and an intriguing sounding carrot and honey ‘jam’, while hearty dishes abound, like pilaf with beef and lemon. It will transport, educate and feed you.

2. My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes by Hooni Kim (W. W. Norton & Company, £30)

Born in Seoul, chef Hooni Kim is arguably best known for becoming the first person to gain a Michelin star in Korean cuisine. He runs two restaurants – Danji and Hanjan – in New York city and splits his time between the US and South Korea, and founded YoriChunsa.org, a charity that supports orphans in Korea to find work in catering.

My Korea is his first cookbook and goes big on the traditional ingredients he won’t compromise on (which he explains in detail, so you can stock up), and shares the food that’s intrinsic to how he cooks and eats. It’s easy to fall in love the second you hit the condiments page, and that’s before you even get to his recipes for spicy raw blue crabs, spicy braised chicken, soy-poached black cod with daikon and bibimbap with beef tartare. This is some seriously exciting food.

3. Faviken: 4015 Days, Beginning To End by Magnus Nilsson (Phaidon, £45)

Faviken was chef Magnus Nilsson’s highly revered two-star Michelin starred restaurant in remotest Sweden, where the food was sourced incredibly local to the kitchen. It even appeared on Netflix series, Chef’s Table. It closed in 2019 (Nilsson was interested in pursuing new projects) so this hefty book of recipes acts as obituary and commemoration.

The food itself swerves from iconic, crazy complicated and impossible to recreate in a home kitchen, to something more akin to, ‘OK, I can just about give that a go’. In the former category we have the likes of kalvdans (featuring cows’ colostrum), wild trout roe served in a warm crust of dried pig’s blood, and a cup of bird’s liver custard with malted cabbage. In the latter we have a grilled oyster, pickled and semi-dried root vegetables, and cottage cheese pie. It’s out of this world cooking.