Its my 100th post!!
Probably
for the last ten posts on this blog I have been counting, from 90 right until
now, my 100th blog post. And of course people kept asking what I
will do when I reach 100, how will I mark that momentous occasion? And here it
is. No fanfare, no fireworks, just me talking about food. I suppose it is a
fantastic achievement, but nothing really has changed. I’m still the same
person, buying too many cookbooks and not actually cooking as much as I should
be. Don’t worry though – I’m not going to get all reflective on you, I did
enough of that a few posts back after Jewish New Year.
I
really do buy too many cookbooks, and so it is probably time for another
cookbook interlude, where I can tell you about a few of my exciting new
purchases.
All
of my favourite cookbooks seem to have a playing card in them, but I’m not
going to tell you why.
Bake a Boo Bakery Cookbook –
Zoe Berkeley
The
Bake a Boo bakery is in Mill Lane in West Hampstead, and the baker/author of
this book is gluten and dairy free, making this a very interesting baking book.
The bakery also offers gluten and dairy-free afternoon teas. The book is full
of really lovely recipes and is a really useful resource if you, like me, have
a lot of friends with dietary restrictions. As well as gluten and dairy, there
are also recipes that are sugar and egg free, as well as some that are full of
all the things cakes are supposed to be full of, for ‘normal’ people. I am
moving to West Hampstead pretty soon (woohoo) and really looking forward to
visiting this bakery.
The
scone recipe is sugar free and looks very similar to my Grandmother’s, which is
always a good sign. Because of all the cream and jam, scones don’t
actually need any sugar – apart from the odd raisin. And they will probably be
the first thing that I make from this book (I am having trouble perfecting my
scones). Other recipes that look really good include a pear and custard slice,
Florentines, elderflower tea loaf, a vegan chocolate hazelnut cake, and a
gluten-free passion fruit cake.
Prashad Indian Vegetarian
Cooking– Kaushy Patel
Prashad
is an Indian restaurant in Bradford, that came to prominence when it won Gordon
Ramsey’s Best Restaurant TV show in 2010. It is a really lovely book – even the
paper feels really nice. They are also really fantastic tweeters, an attribute
I have recently come to really admire. The first time I flicked through this
book, I got so excited that I did a little dance and probably squeaked quite a
bit. I have many Indian cookbooks, but the reason why this one made me so happy
was because it was the right kind of Indian - Gujarati. Kaushy Patel is from
Surat in Northern India, the same region as the owners of the Indian restaurant
of my childhood, and still probably my favourite – Rams in Kenton. (Other favourites are Shayona and Pradips and anywhere on Drummond Street).
This book contains all of the recipes of my favourite dishes, ones I have been
searching for in other books for years.
A
lot of recipes are vegan, wheat-free, or onion and garlic free, and so this is
also a very useful book for those with dietary restrictions. The book also has
a really handy selection of practical points and tips, with really excellent
advice like:
‘Try not to cook when you
are stressed or short on time – cooking should be a pleasure as well as a means
to an end. And always think beautiful thoughts when you cook. Not only will it
make you feel happier, but it will make your food taste beautiful too!’
Other
handy hints in the book include tips on how how to stop aubergine from
oxidising, or stop your dhal pan from foaming over.
The
book has an incredible selection starters and Indian street food, including of
Bataka vada – fried balls of potato with coriander, coconut and lemon, and a
samosa chaat recipe which I am definitely going to try – this recipe was in
fact the main reason why I bought this book. Other recipes that look really
interesting include Vagareli makai, a spicy sweetcorn curry with peanuts, and Renghan
reveya, whole baby aubergines stuffed with a peanut spice paste. It also contains at least three different chickpea curries, and chickpea
curry is probably my all-time favourite curry (see here for a very inauthentic but still yummy one).
Supper Club – Recipes and
notes from the underground Restaurant – Kerstin Rodgers
Kerstin
Rogers runs a supper club called the Underground Restaurant, and blogs as Ms Marmite Lover – what’s not to love? Her book describes itself as ‘a
homage to the secret restaurant phenomenon’. Despite her restaurant being
really near where I live, I haven’t made it there yet, mainly due to
incompatible timings and my lack of being able to get my act together. It is on
my must-do list, as soon as I have some free time.
The
book is so brilliant - before we even get the recipes, the section at the front
deals with the practicalities of running a supper club or pop-up restaurant,
with really interesting insights covering all the bases – from marketing
strategies, taking payments, timings, to health and safety. There is also a
great directory of all pop-ups all over the world.
As
Kerstin is pescatarian, there are also more recipes in this book that I can eat
than in usual cookbooks. Recipes worth mentioning include Butternut squash and
feta filo triangles, Gratin dauphinoise with smoked salmon, chillies en Nogada
and Chocolate and marmite cupcakes. There is also a recipe for butterscotch
schnapps involving putting dime bars in a bottle of vodka, and sticking the
whole thing in the dishwasher.
This
comment on courgette flowers also gets a mention (for obvious reasons):
‘The flowers on the end of
baby courgettes are girls. There is an almost gynaecological pleasure in
teasing open the petals of the flower and inserting little goodies into it.
It’s lesbian cookery!’
Skinny Weeks and Weekend
Feasts – Gizzi Erskine
I’ve got a bit of a crush on Gizzi Erskine. Before she trained at
Leiths, she was a professional body piercer, and so of course my inner teenager
thinks that she is just about the coolest person ever. On the cover of this
book she is looking coyly into the camera whilst showing off her incredible
tattooed back, and hiding a massive knife behind her back. And there is even a
little pattern of angry carrots in the background. It is definitely a book to
judge by its cover. In fact, the entire book’s design and graphics are probably
some of the best I have ever seen.
Skinny Weeks and Weekend Feasts is essentially a diet book – instead of
the 5:2 diet, it is more of a 2:5 diet. Basically, watch what you eat during the
week, and indulge on the weekends. Although I haven’t been following the diet
plan exactly, I have been keeping by this philosophy for the past few months,
and I think that it has, slowly, been paying off. The first half of the book
contains recipes for the skinny days, and the second half of the book contains
recipes for weekend feasts. To emphasize her philosophy further, only the
recipes in the skinny section are calorie counted.
Recipes that I definitely want to try include:
From skinny - Black lentil soup, Low fat smoked mackerel pate and Malaysian
fish stew.
From feasts - Pumpkin and cashew nut curry, Watermelon gazpacho
(seriously) and Peanut butter and cornflake brownies.
Well then, there was post 100, where’s my medal?
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