Cookbook round up

I’ve done a few of these before, going through some of my favourite cookbooks and talking about what recipes I particularly like or am looking forward to making. Despite my blogging silence over the past year, my love of cookbooks is just as strong. I have continued buying books, covering them in post-it notes, reading them religiously, and not really cooking enough from them at all. I’m working on it. So here is a run down of some of the more recent additions to my cookbook collection, and the recipes that have caught my eye.

Honey and Co - Food from the Middle East

Honey and Co - The Baking Book

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer

A few months ago at the staff cookery competition at my workplace (endlessly smug, see here), I had to do this whole interview thing while the judges were eating my food. I wasn’t really prepared for it, and microphones are scary enough at the best of times. The interviewer was throwing all of these questions at me which in hindsight weren’t the most challenging, but after nights of not sleeping due to the fear of cooking competitively, and then cooking competitively, I was a bit frazzled. But then the interviewer asked me what I thought the best Middle Eastern restaurant in London was, and everything became clearer. I could answer that no question. Honey and Co. And then Oliver Peyton looked up from the food (my food!) and there was a moment of recognition/approval. And then he said that they made the best shakshuka in London. High praise indeed.

I love Ottolenghi too, their food and their cookbooks are just incredible. But what Honey and Co has in spades is love. I know it is such a cliché (and I can’t really believe that I wrote that), but read their books, go to their restaurant (follow them on instagram) and you will know what I mean. They aren’t posting from test-kitchens or various site around London, its just them, their delicious food, and photos of their staff, joking around or holding flowers. The books are beautifully and thoughtfully written, with stunning photos. Their books have won loads of book of the year awards too so it isn’t just me.

One of my favourite things about Food from the Middle East is how the chapters are organised, with sections devoted to dips, pickles, bulgur wheat – to name a few. I haven’t made a huge amount from either of the Honey and Co books yet, mainly due to the fact that I haven’t been cooking as much as I would have liked, but everything just looks divine and I have tasted a few things that other people have made.

Delicious things I have tasted from Food from the Middle East include:

Butternut and tahini dip with hazelnuts - three of my favourite things, combined in an excellent way,

Carrot and butternut fritters or latkes,

Feta and spring onion bouikos (like super cheesey scones),

Mint and lemon chicken with apricots and potatoes,

Courgette stuffed with lemon rice and currants. I made this for a dinner party once, when I had a lot of people to feed. Deliciously flavoured risotto rice is spooned inside de-seeded courgettes, and then baked in the oven – was well as tasting delicious it was pretty hands off, which is always a good thing.

Feta and honey cheesecake on kadaif pastry base – I’ve eaten this in their restaurant, it was incredible. Feta in a cheesecake may seem strange, but it is good in the way that salt caramel is good. This recipe is like a restauranty version of the classic Palestinian dessert knafe – a recipe for which is in The Baking Book, and also looks wonderful. Kadaif pastry can be purchased at a lot of Arabic stores.

Things that look delicious in The Baking Book (given to me for my birthday by the wonderful Brianne) that I want to make include:

Sweet cheese buns,

Shakshuka – I make my own, but if this one is the best in London, it is definitely worth trying (15 cloves of garlic!)

Burnt aubergine burekas,

Spiced cauliflower muffins,

All the babkas – because, well obviously.

Peach, vanilla and fennel seed cakes,

Tahini sandwhich cookies filled with white chocolate and rose (I’ve promised my mum that I would make these for her birthday),

Chriskitch – Big Flavours from a Small Kitchen

Chris Honour and Laura Washburn Hutton

I got this book for my birthday from the brilliant and super foodie Michael and Rachel, and I absolutely love it. Chriskitch is a little café in Muswell Hill, a place where Jay Rayner discovered the joys of salad. 

One of the things I love about this book is that even though it is not a vegetarian or kosher book, I can eat practically everything in it. Which is so unusual and very special. The book is about epic salads, big flavours, generous feasts and vivid colours. And it’s a bit different – the flavour combinations and ingredients are clever and unusual, it is things I wouldn’t have thought of myself or seen elsewhere. And it all sounds so good. I haven’t made anything from this book yet, but I haven’t had it for very long. Recipes that have especially caught my eye include:

Watermelon, feta and pumpkin seed salad – flavoured with basil sugar and herbal tea. I love the idea of ripping up a herbal tea bag and using it in a salad – I’m sure it tastes delicious and would really confuse people about what they were eating.

Salmon ceviche with caramelised pineapple and raw fennel. I love raw fishy things, and the idea of pairing it with crunchy fennel and super sweet cooked pineapple sounds genius.

Salmon with herbs, walnuts and tahini. What I love about this recipe, and what actually made me fall in complete love with this book, is that the first recipe in the ‘mains’ section is for a whole side of salmon. This just makes me so happy – sometimes I will cook a whole side of salmon if I am hosting a lot of people for a meal, and it isn’t that easy to find recipes specifically for that. I love that vibe – it is lush and generous, simple to make with bright and complimentary flavours.

Whole chicken roasted with balsamic vinegar and rosemary. There are a few meat recipes in the book like this, that same vibe of generous and super flavourful. It’s a whole chicken, or a shoulder of lamb, of a big roast beef. No stingy small portions or dinners for two here. It is for people who love to cook, and share delicious things with others around their table.

Blue cheese, Guinness and sunflower seed bread. All of the breads in this book look absolutely incredible, but I will probably make this one first. It is a self-raising flour bread and so doesn’t need anything scary of time-consuming like kneading or proving. 

Salt sugar smoke: how to preserve vegetables, meat and fish

A change of appetite – where healthy meets delicious

Diana Henry

Diana Henry is an absolutely wonderful food writer that I have fallen in love with over the past year. I have been following her on twitter and instagram, and listening to her whenever she is interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme. She knows so much about food, and writes absolutely beautifully.  As well as recipes and thorough explanations about method, the books are full of wonderful memories and stories, just like all the best cookbooks. They are also styled beautifully, in fact I think the photography in her foods is my favourite of all of my cookbooks. Her book about chicken, A bird in the hand, is also excellent, but it is my Mum’s and I haven’t had a chance to really absorb it yet. Like Chriskitch, Diana Henry’s books also have a much larger proportion of recipes that I can actually eat – not a lot of shellfish, or meat paired with dairy, and not that many recipes focused on pork or bacon either.

 I originally bought Salt sugar smoke as a gift for some friends who like making jam and things, and flicking through the book for a few days with another friend before I had a chance to pass on the gift, I fell in love with the book and both me and my friend bought copies of our own. Although I haven’t made very much from the book yet, but my brilliant friends have, and it has all been very delicious.

Salt sugar smoke is encyclopaedic, it covers every aspect of preserving, written in an easy to understand, sensible way. I definitely want to try the white peach and raspberry jam, and I recently acquired a jelly bag and stand from Lakeland so that I can make the apple and thyme jelly. There are a few mustard recipes in the book –it hadn’t even occurred to me that mustard was something people could make in their own homes, but I definitely want to try all of them. I love the idea of me becoming someone who brings friends and family little jars of fancy homemade things.  Naomi has made the elderflower and rhubarb cordials and they have so delicious. I hadn’t realised that elderflowers grow so abundantly all over the place, and now that I know what they look like, I definitely want to make my own cordial with foraged elderflowers this summer. And the gravlax, all three recipes for it.

A change of appetite is a healthy eating book. It doesn’t feel like a ‘diet book’, like some kind of trend or fad thing to get on board with, just really well reasoned, sensible ideas about food. Diana Henry calls it ‘accidentally healthy’, things that are delicious and healthy in the way that they are supposed to be. No substituting mascarpone with low fat yogurt and calling it tiramisu here. What I love about this book is that Diana Henry understands the complex relationships we have with food, and how ‘diets’ can be so loaded. Food is so much more than fuel, it is inspirational, emotional and special, and it isn’t that easy to think of in clinical terms of calories and daily percentages. She writes:

“My biggest problem was thinking about food in terms of ‘healthy’ or ‘unhealthy’. I can’t think of meals a sets of nutrients. A meal is a colourful assembly of foods – many of which we don’t quite understand in terms of health – that should be, first and foremost, enjoyable…I’m much more into living life to the full than I am into thinking of my body as a temple.”

The recipes in the book are a mixture of Middle-Eastern and Asian in style, and all look so good, laid out in chapters designed around the seasons. Some of the recipes that I will definitely be making include: 

Japanese ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber,

Cucumber and yogurt soup with walnuts and rose petals,

Goats cheese and cherry salad with almond and basil gremolata,

Gooseberry, almond and spelt cake,

Roast tomatoes and lentils with dukkah-crumbed eggs,

Red lentil and carrot kofte with pomegranates and tahini.

Interlude number 3 - Some more cookbooks

Its my 100th post!!

Probably for the last ten posts on this blog I have been counting, from 90 right until now, my 100^th 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.

http://www.bake-a-boo.com/

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?

Interlude number 2 – the cookbooks

Here I am with another break from cooking (don’t worry I haven’t stopped). As I said in my first ever blog, I have too many cookbooks. I really do love them though, and as far as addictions go, it isn’t exactly the end of the world. Yes it is much easier to look for a recipe on the internet, but there is something about their physical presence, squashed on the shelf, arranged according to food style (of course). I love books where the emphasis is on the prose, and the personal journey or nostalgia of the writer.  They inspire me with my cooking, with my foodie adventures and my writing.

Not all of the cookbooks on the shelf are mine, others include: a great book on food activism Soy not “Oi”; Vegan Cooking for One, possibly the most depressing cookbook on the planet; Claudia Roden’s wonderful epic The Book of Jewish Food; Aromas of Aleppo, a great book on a really specific and rich culture – sometimes I wish that my own cultural heritage was a bit more complex than potatoes, herring and beetroot. I do love chrayne though…

Here is a list of some of my favourite cookbooks, what they are like and how they inspire me. I have left out a few of my favourites as I have harped on about them enough for the time being (The Moosewood Cookbook, Apples for Jam, Ottolenghi, River Cottage Veg Everyday!). Most of my favourite books were given to me as gifts, and so much love and thanks to those wonderful people who gave them to me.

Spooning with Rosie – Rosie Lovell

I first heard about this book eavesdropping a colleague talking on the phone about what she was cooking for dinner (a colleague whose food judgement I trust). I heard the word ‘spooning’ and I knew that I had to look into it. Anything that includes spooning is ok by me. Rosie Lovell owns a trendy little deli in Brixton, and she is a little bit like the kind of person I want to be. Her writing is multi-sensory and evocative “another late night in Soho…Now as usual, my alarm is pounding at me, calling me to the deli. Showered and squeezed into trusty jeans, I dash out the door of my damp 1930s flat. Round the main road I pass Simon, one of the more amenable local down-and-outs. ‘All right, Ma’am.’ He’ll be in later for his hot chocolate with five sugars…Electric Avenue is particularly alive at this time of morning, with sex-workers, red snappers, pig’s tails and pulsing beats coming from every crevice…”

The book includes a range of recipes in different styles, with a fantastic breakfast section. I haven’t actually made anything from this book yet, but there is a lot on my hit-list, including some coconut cakes made almost entirely out of condensed milk, a smoked mackerel and chard bake with a crunchy top, and grated apple and cheese on toast – genius! My one criticism would be that there aren’t enough photographs of the dishes, and the spine is pretty solid, so the book doesn’t prop open as easily as I would like from a cookbook. There are however some incredible illustrations of food-maps, pairing traditional flavours, kitchenware and hygiene tips. There is also a little section on food ethics.

The Great British Bake Off – Linda Collister, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

I loved this show so much. When it comes to competitions on TV, I’m not into sports, amateur singers make me cringe, and even potential next top models can’t hold my interest. Give me cake and an unrealistic amount of pressure and I’m there. Watching the contestants plead into the camera about how their kids won’t love them if they don’t win, or crying into their potatoes just makes me so happy.  From the looks of my Facebook and Twitter feeds, I think everyone else loved The Great British Bake Off too.

This book is just fantastic, it has all of the really good recipes from the show – both from the participants and the technical challenges, with incredibly detailed step-by-step instructions and beautiful photos. It is easy to follow and every chapter begins with an explanation of the practicalities and science behind baking. I haven’t cooked anything from this book yet but Hannah recently made the coffee and walnut traybake, and it was really delicious – she was really impressed with the book, and said that it explained the principles of cake in a way that most other books fail to convey. Recipes I want to try include Earl Grey cupcakes, Mary Berry’s Brandy snaps, filled with cream and dipped in chocolate and pistachios, and Jason’s (the really cute young one) salmon and pak choi quiche.

And Mary-Anne! Remember her? Remember her incredible patterned sponges? Truly one of the best things I have ever seen on a cake, and the recipe is in there! Makes me so happy. One day I am going to be organised and motivated enough to make someone a cake with ‘happy birthday’ or something written into the sponge.

I am unimpressed with the macaroons though, even the photos aren’t that good – mine (Ottolenghi’s) are better.

World Vegetarian – Madhur Jaffrey

This book had more little paper bookmarks in than any other book I own. It is an opus – over 600 recipes listed alphabetically according to vegetable (first artichoke, then asparagus), each with an introduction, place of origin and easy to follow recipe. There is also a section on dried beans, lentils and nuts. The book is well-researched and exotic: while there is a focus on Indian food, there are recipes from places such as Trinidad, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Afghanistan and Korea. Makes an incredible index and research tool, useful for how to prepare veggies, and aspects of food culture and history. One of the recipes which I have made many times is the poached aubergines with a Korean hot sauce – the recipe says that the kochu jang can be substituted with a mixture of miso and cayenne pepper. And its very tasty. Recipes I want to try include Papas a la huancaina – Peruvian potatoes with a spicy cheese sauce; Goan style black-eyed beans flavoured with anise, coconut and ginger; Nigerian red kidney bean stew with a peanut sauce – it’s a recipe that has peanut butter in it, so of course I am there.

The Flavour Thesaurus – Niki Segnit

Emma bought me this book as a present for my 25^th birthday. From what I can recall she gave it to me on the train, and I then spent the rest of the entire journey jumping up and down in my seat and reading bits of it out loud to her, like an over-excited 7 year old. An opus of 99 different flavours and their best, and worst combinations. The concept of the book is “Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook” – it’s a book for those who know how to cook, so the actual recipes are stripped back and presume a large amount of knowledge. I like this because it makes me feel a little bit smug every time I understand what she is talking about. As well as recipes there are tips, bad ideas, history, pop-culture and nostalgia.

I keep a bookmark in the book covered in my notes- recipes and ideas I want to try. I bought the novel Like water for chocolate after she referred to it a few times amongst various flavour combinations, and of her other advice was as good as that, this book is my new bible. Her writing is evocative and resonant – in terms of writing styles, hers has influenced me the most. Check out this tip about aubergines: “ideally an aubergine should be as tight and shiny as dolphin skin. Similarly they should squeak when you pinch them.” Recipes on my list to try so far include a chocolate cardamom tart and fennel seed crackers to serve with Stinking Bishop or a similar washed-rind cheese.

The Vintage Tea Party Book – Angel Adoree

“A complete guide to hosting your perfect tea party.” This is a really lovely book.  Angel Adoree runs the Vintage Patisserie and has perfectly set flame-red hair, and an enviable cleavage. As well as recipes the book has cute little crafting sections (invitations, painting on china, fascinators) as well as all the other tips you may need to become a super-hip vintage chic. Her tips for styling the perfect victory curls have been very useful. Some of the recipes are really interesting – the cakes, eggy things and chocolates especially. On one page, Angel arranges open triangular sandwiches with ribbons like bunting – SANDWICH BUNTING!!! Can you think of anything more brilliant? Perfect for the jubilee weekend I think. I haven’t made anything from this book either, but there is a very interesting recipe for an Earl Grey chocolate truffle which I am very keen to try. There is one recipe which is so incredibly complex, simple and sensual that my thighs tremble a little bit just thinking about it – I’m going to keep it under wraps for the time being, but I will let you know if I make it!

Moro, The Cookbook – Sam and Sam Clark

I think the main reason for buying this book was because Moro is so damn trendy. I was once walking down a street and ACTUALLY WALKED PAST MORO! I have never felt cooler by association.  It is actually a lovely book, and the paper just feels so nice. And Sam and Sam really know what they are talking about. This is probably one of the best-researched books I have (Claudia Roden’s doesn’t count because I don’t technically own it). Spanish/ Muslim Mediterranean in style, the recipes are spicy, exotic and warming. As I don’t eat pork, there are actually a lot of recipes in this book that I can’t eat – but they sound so good I have been known to try and convince others to make them, and describe it to me (yes I know, I’m a dork). It also requires ingredients like proper Spanish sherry and sherry vinegar – like Ajo Blanco, a very delicious white gazpacho – a vehicle for legitimately eating copious amounts of garlic. The fish tagines look incredible too, and the cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins. And the bitter chocolate, coffee and cardamom truffle cake – oh my.