• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Main navigation

  • Buy the Book (USA)
  • Media
  • Recipes
  • Lockdown
  • Buy the Book (UK)
  • About Ren
  • Blog
  • Widget Area for Top Menu

  • Cost of singulair at costco

Review: ‘The Free Range Cook’ by Annabel Langbein

June 25, 2011

A short while ago I had the really exciting opportunity of interviewing one of New Zealand’s best loved food writers, Annabel Langbein, for an online magazine called The Foodie Bugle. Annabel was visiting the UK having just published a new cookbook and launched TV series called The Free Range Cook.

I have been so enthralled with this book since receiving it that I wanted to share a few words about it with you here too.

Although, as you are probably starting to guess, I am slightly obsessed with cookbooks, for me, it feels like ‘The Free Range Cook’ most sums up the kind of food I love to cook but also gives me great scope to challenge myself to further improve my skills and my approach to cooking.

Two things really stuck with me following my interview with Annabel. The first is that she has a family mantra which is to “eat food, not barcodes,” which seems pretty simple yet sensible to me. Annabel tries to ensure that family week-day cooking is quick and easy and need take no more than fifteen minutes of your time. She also tries hard to make sure her family sit down together to eat and during evening meals they light a candle to make it almost like a ritual.
The second thing was her philosophy “the closer you get to the source, the better your food is likely to taste.” Again, this is something that I am really starting to learn how to embrace, perhaps even more so as a result of becoming a food blogger. The quality of the food that you select is so important, but even so, good food needn’t be expensive.
Chapters in the book are organised in a really organic and natural style; From the Oven, From the Garden, From the Farm, From Lake and Sea, From the Larder and From the Orchard and are beautifully shot against a backdrop of some of New Zealand’s most amazing landscapes.  There are also sidebars beside some of the recipes with clever ‘Fridge Fixing’ suggestions, where some parts of the recipe may be made in advance or stored or used to combine something else. For example, roasting and adding a bulb of garlic quickly turns Mayonnaise into Roasted Garlic Aioli and you could roast an extra bulb and store it in oil in the fridge for later use in dressings, sauces and risotto.  Recipes cover many different aspects of cooking such as baking, cooking outdoors, cooking with home grown produce (including tips for creating a vegetable garden), preserving, making jams, dips, sauces and marinades as well as putting together meals and menu plans for simple entertaining.

Annabel’s focus, really, is to make the best of everything that nature has to offer. She promises that anyone can make her ‘Busy People’s Bread,’ a one-mix dough which rises in the oven with no requirement to knead. She encourages you to try planting even a small window box of fresh herbs or visit a farm or farmers’ market for the freshest seasonal produce you can find.
Recipes are simple, down-to-earth and inspiring. A few that immediately caught my attention were the Slow Roasted Tomatoes with Fresh Cheese and Pitta Breads, Goat Cheese and Spinach Soufflés and Crispy Pork Belly.
Slow roasted tomatoes with fresh cheese and pitta bread.
Photography copyright Annabel Langbein Media 2010
Goat's cheese and spinach souffle.     Crispy pork belly.
Annabel’s style of cooking seems easy to adopt and she has a really relaxed, laid-back approach to her instruction. I am also especially excited to make the Strawberry Cloud Cake (how good does this look?!) and will post separately next week to tell you how I got on.
Strawberry cloud cake from
Thank you to Octopus Publishing for my review copy of this lovely book

Filed Under: Food Journalism, Interviews46 Comments

« Review: ‘Food is Fun’ Kids Cookbook by Anorak Magazine
Pantry Paella with Veg Box Runner Beans (Nigella) »

About Ren

Ren Behan is a British-born food writer of Polish descent. She is a mum to three young children (13, 10 and 5) and spends lots of time with them in the kitchen. Ren writes about seasonal, family-friendly food on her blog www.renbehan.com. She also contributes recipes and articles to online and print food publications, such as Food52.com, GreatBritishChefs.com, Huff Post Food and JamieOliver.com. She holds a Diploma in Food Journalism with Distinction and has completed a Food Styling course at Leiths School of Food and Wine.

Ren’s cookbook, Wild Honey and Rye: Modern Polish Recipes, draws upon her Polish heritage and regular travels to Poland.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Gianna says

    July 11, 2011 at 4:22 am

    >The GFC widget is down right now. I will follow as soon as it comes back.
    I subscribed by email.

    Reply
  2. Gianna says

    July 11, 2011 at 4:20 am

    >I love Fall produce.. honeycrisp apples, pumpkins, pomegranates 🙂

    Reply
  3. Atreau says

    July 11, 2011 at 3:14 am

    >For me it's autumn because of the apples and pumpkins!

    Reply
  4. Anonymous says

    July 10, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    >i follow you on networked blogs

    jim.coyne2@verizon.net

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says

    July 10, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    >i like you on facebook

    jim.coyne2@verizon.net

    Reply
  6. Anonymous says

    July 10, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    >i tweeted

    http://twitter.com/#!/JCoyne1031/status/90195467765420032

    jim.coyne2@verizon.net

    Reply
  7. Anonymous says

    July 10, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    >i follow @AnnabelLangbein on twitter

    @JCoyne1031

    jim.coyne2@verizon.net

    Reply
  8. Anonymous says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    >Summer is the best because you can have fresh corn on the cob

    jim.coyne2@verizon.net

    Reply
  9. sumn says

    July 10, 2011 at 7:20 pm

    >My favorite season is late summer when my tomatoes start coming in. I have green tomatoes on my plants now, and I can't wait until they start to ripen. They are so much better than the store bought ones.

    Reply
  10. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:47 am

    >and I've tweeted your message @fionamaclean

    Reply
  11. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:45 am

    >My favourite season for fresh produce is spring. The flavours are so fresh after winter and there's the promise of summer fifimac at hotmail dot com

    Reply
  12. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:43 am

    >and followin @AnnabelLangbein @fionamaclean

    Reply
  13. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:38 am

    >and I am following you on twitter @fionamaclean

    Reply
  14. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:37 am

    >and I've liked your fb page fiona mary maclean

    Reply
  15. fiona maclean says

    July 10, 2011 at 10:37 am

    >Hi I'm following you with google friends connect

    Reply
  16. Anonymous says

    July 9, 2011 at 9:42 pm

    >From The Garden would be the most intriguing chapter for me!

    theyyyguy@yahoo.com

    Reply
  17. April says

    July 9, 2011 at 5:19 am

    >I love summer for fresh fruits and veggies

    Reply
  18. calvad says

    July 7, 2011 at 6:05 pm

    >My favorite season for fresh produce is summer! calvad at aol dot com

    Reply
  19. sweetsue says

    July 5, 2011 at 12:44 am

    >I follow you on GFC.
    smchester at gmail dot com

    Reply
  20. sweetsue says

    July 5, 2011 at 12:42 am

    >Summer is my favorite. Today I had strawberries, blueberries, a tangerine, and watermelon!
    smchester at gmail dot com

    Reply
  21. Amber says

    July 3, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    >I like Fabulicious Food on Facebook – my FB name is Amanda Moore
    Thank you for the giveaway 🙂
    hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply
  22. Amber says

    July 3, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    >I follow your blog publicly with google friend connect
    Thank you for the giveaway 🙂
    hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply
  23. Amber says

    July 3, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    >I love summer for fresh asparagus, eggplant etc.
    Thank you for the giveaway 🙂
    hurdler4eva(at)gmail(dot)com

    Reply
  24. Deborah says

    July 3, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    >I liked Fabulicious Food on Facebook (Deborah Rosen).

    Reply
  25. Deborah says

    July 3, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    >I follow with Google Friend Connect (Deborah).

    Reply
  26. Deborah says

    July 3, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    >I used your Tweet button @AsTheNight.

    Reply
  27. Deborah says

    July 3, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    >I followed AnnabelLangbein on Twitter @AsTheNight.

    Reply
  28. Deborah says

    July 3, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    >My favorite season for cooking with produce is autumn. I love rich, earthy vegetable stews but enjoy the option of cooking with lighter fare like tomatoes, fall greens and peas. asthenight at gmail dot com

    Reply
  29. janet @ the taste space says

    July 3, 2011 at 10:27 am

    >This looks like a wonderful cookbook! I love to cook by season… and there is no better season for its produce than summer! Bring it on! 🙂

    Reply
  30. createwithmom says

    July 3, 2011 at 2:21 am

    >my favourite is summer
    would love to be included in the giveaway
    following on twitter
    torviewtoronto and createwithmom
    torviewtoronto@gmail.com

    Reply
  31. mverno says

    July 2, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    >i follow as mverno via gfc
    mverno@roadrunner.com

    Reply
  32. mverno says

    July 2, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    >i like berry season strawberries, blackberries,blueberries
    mverno@roadrunner.com

    Reply
  33. emily13 says

    June 30, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    >I like on Facebook too – thanks!

    Reply
  34. emily13 says

    June 30, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    >I love cooking early Autumn, you can start to make hearty stews, I can use the potatoes from the garden, there's usually other veg still growing here too, plus the neighbours give me apples and rhubarb so i can make lots of lovely crumbles.

    Reply
  35. mummy24 says

    June 28, 2011 at 6:39 am

    >i am following with gfc

    Reply
  36. mummy24 says

    June 28, 2011 at 6:37 am

    >i have tweeted as @ashlallan

    Reply
  37. mummy24 says

    June 28, 2011 at 6:35 am

    >i am following you on twitter as @ashlallan

    Reply
  38. mummy24 says

    June 28, 2011 at 6:34 am

    >my favourite chapter would be from the farm!

    Reply
  39. Fabulicious Food says

    June 27, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    >Test comment – issue reported

    Reply
  40. Mikki says

    June 26, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    >Spring is great for fresh produce. I love the asparagus, artichokes and strawberries 🙂
    coeur.de.verre@hotmail.co.uk

    Reply
  41. mycustardpie.com says

    June 26, 2011 at 11:00 am

    >Well, having just won Prepped via your lovely blog I feel a bit guilty commenting. The problem is I'm a bit of a cook book addict too and your description had me hooked – the pork belly and the cloud cake had me itching to start turning the pages myself! My favourite season to cook is autumn – time to get the rich stews and casseroles out while fruits of the hedgerows are still abundant for a blackberry and apple crumble to warm you up after a country walk to pick sloes for gin.

    Reply
  42. nickandkatherine says

    June 25, 2011 at 4:06 pm

    >Following through Networked Blogs. Katherine Aitken

    Reply
  43. nickandkatherine says

    June 25, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    >I already like Fabulicious Food on fb

    Reply
  44. nickandkatherine says

    June 25, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    >I tweeted the post using @mumoffunkids. Didn't use the link button as didn't want to allow access, but have tweeted the link.

    Reply
  45. nickandkatherine says

    June 25, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    >Following Annabel Langbein on Twitter. @mumoffunkids

    Reply
  46. nickandkatherine says

    June 25, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    >My favourite season to cook with fresh produce would have to be the late summer/early autumn. Tomatoes, courgettes, fresh potatoes, beetroot. Making anything from hearty stews to fresh salads. These ingredients are so very versatile.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Posts by email!

Subscribe now to get new posts direct to your email inbox

Search the site

Follow me on Instagram!

340,000+ Pinterest Followers – RenBehanFood

Visit Ren Behan Food's profile on Pinterest.

Archives

Footer

Copyright © 2023 Ren Behan · Custom Theme by Moonsteam Design