Book Review I
Books for Cooks
t’s that time of year again and food writers and chefs are rolling out the books in time for Christmas. Yes, it’s still 3
months away and already the C-word is being mentioned and the market is flooded with tasty treats. I can’t help but agree with Nigel Slater when he says, “a good
cookbook should be a good read and that…. there is nothing so beautiful as the feel and smell of a book in the hand.” I have great trouble resisting the delights of a new cookbook, not least as they tend to combine two of my favourite things – food and travel. With the Food Festival in mind here’s my pick of the crop – and it’s a bumper one this year:. The old favourites are all there with a new book:
Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima (Chatto & Windus £26): fresh, tasty and unpretentious food, all with the spirit of Italy on the plate pronto! Jamie Oliver’s latest creation 15 Minute Meals (Michael Joseph
£26): does what it says on the tin. Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Hugh’s Three Good Things
(£26 Bloomsbury Publishing) recreates the magic formula to simplify cooking with over 175 recipes each with just 3 simple ingredients. Think of mixes combining salty, sweet, crunchy and sharp, rich, crumbly etc etc. All three have their place in my kitchen but the following are
my real jewels in the crown. My aunt once told me that the sign of a good cookbook is one which contains at least 3 recipes that you can create and revisit. These all seem to reach this standard and offer something new to boot. Diana Henry’s Salt, Sugar and Smoke: How to Preserve Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Fish (Mitchell Beazley £20) is the latest offering by this multi award winning food writer and attendee at last year’s Food Festival. The art of preserving in times of glut is an old one but nonetheless relevant in these cash-strapped times and this book brings us new ideas from around the world and all accessible to the home cook. The author includes preserves, pickles, jams, cordials, bottled fruit and cured food across continents, regions and history. The Food Bugle (www.
foodbugle.co.uk) refers to it succinctly as ‘palate travel.’ Think rhubarb schnapps, rhubarb, rose and cardamom jam, sweet fig vinegar, crunchy Russian dill pickles and Middle Eastern pickled aubergines – need I go on. And she can write too – her style is easy but informative and provides the traditions of preserving as well as literary anecdotes. The author alludes to Simone de Beauvoir who compared jam-making to capturing time whilst the tantalising photography is enticing with a book cover almost good enough to eat. Picking up a Nigel Slater book is like going back to an old friend – it’s easy, reliable and full of comfort. His new book
by Emma Jones doesn’t fail to please and contains a
year’s worth of recipes, many from his hugely successful TV series, Simple Suppers. The Kitchen Diaries II: A Year of Simple Cooking (Fourth Estate £30) is full of classic simple Slater ideas. My favourites include blackberry and hazelnut friands, bacon wrapped salmon, pork shoulder with ginger and anise, Nigel’s chocolate banana muscavado cake and fig and hazelnut loaf for cheese and last but not least - the perfect little spring onion omelettes. These are proven recipes which I know I will return to for years to come. Thomasina Miers – Masterchef Winner 2005 and co-founder
of Mexican Street Food cantina Wahaca has a new book out called Wahaca – Mexican Food At Home (Hodder & Stoughton £20). It’s a colourful, fun and fiery mix of all types of Mexican food and drink with recipes for salsas, burritos, mouthwatering black bean and chorizo empanadas and broad bean, pea and new potato quesadillas and not forgetting the perfect margaritas. She also explains simply the vital contents of the Mexican store cupboard – and most importantly the secret of chillis. With the South Devon Chilli Farm on our doorstep we have no excuse but to embrace this colourful cuisine which has so much to offer us. This year ‘Tommi’ will be coming to the Dartmouth Food
Festival to host a special edition of Saturday Kitchen in the Flavel.
She’ll be joined by Mark Sargeant, Richard Bertinet and
the South Devon Chilli Farm amongst others, for a delicious menu of tastings, demonstrations, wine recommendations and chat. Buy your tickets now! Don’t forget the Dartmouth Community Bookshop will be
running a new and second-hand bookstall in Avenue Gardens during the Food Festival. Signed copies of books by Festival chefs and food writers will all be available. Local teenager hits the literary jackpot! We can’t fail to mention the success of local teenager, Abigail Gibbs. Based in Brixham and educated at Kingswear Primary, Dartmouth Community College and Churston Grammar she has just struck a staggering six-figure deal with publishing giant Harper Collins. Her Twilight inspired vampire novel,
The Dark Heroine - Dinner with a Vampire (Harper Voyager £6.99), which began as an e-read will hit the bookshelves on 25 October and seems set to be a hit. It has romance, action and is “addictive and enthralling.” Well done Abi - an inspiration for us all and proof that there is a book – or in her case, at least 2 – in all of us!
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