Cookery Book Review

January 14, 2013

Winter Books & St Albans Cookbook Club – January 2013

How often do you cook a recipe from a cookbook on your shelf? They say that on average, we cook around three recipes from each book we own, which doesn’t seem like a lot, unless you have a rapidly escalating collection like me. In November, I started the St Albans Cookbook Club, in my town of St Albans, inspired by the Bath Cookbook Club, since we didn’t have anything similar. We met for the first time at a local coffee shop and talked about some of our festive titles. This time, I’ve asked everyone to bring a cookbook they received for Christmas. Next time, we’ll meet in one of our homes and I think we’ll challenge each other to cook a recipe from one of our new books to share.

For Christmas, I received one new cookbook as a gift, thank you Heidi, which was Peggy Porschen’s Baking Boutique, as well as a book on nutrition, called It Starts With Food. Since one promotes gorgeous cakes filled with buttercream and the other promotes a Paleo-style eating plan with no dairy, grains or sugar (Day 12, going well, by the way!) you could say they are at opposite ends of the spectrum. But that’s what I love about food; there is an endless supply of inspiration out there for whatever kind of cooking takes your fancy.

I reviewed and cooked from a few new cookery books before Christmas and the three-book Quadrille giveway I hosted proved to be hugely successful. Of the three books, I most fell in love with Tom Kitchen’s Kitchin Suppers.

I’ve also tried a couple of recipes from Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima, including her Banana Bread and Prawn Pasta Rosa – both easy to make and equally delicious. I can also recommend her Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, oh, how I miss chocolate and cake…

I have also enjoyed cooking from a new Polish cookery book, called From A Polish Country House Kitchen (soon to be reviewed) and have made a few good meals from Jamies 15 Minute Meals (which I much prefer to Jamie’s 30 minute meals,) despite the fact the timings suggested by both books are a bit unrealistic, even for a seasoned cook such as myself. I’ve yet to cook from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Volume II and I can’t wait to dive into Rococo’s beautiful new book, Mastering The Art of Chocolate too.

Today’s snow is making me want to curl up, or make jam, a new skill I learnt from Diana Henry’s Salt Sugar Smoke.

It looks like it’s going to be a busy spring!

A quick reminder for anyone local to me, the next St Albans Cook Books Club meets this Wednesday 16th January at 10am, at Bakehouse St Albans. Everyone is welcome, including children.

Did you receive any new cookery books for Christmas?

December 20, 2012

Review and Giveaway: Three Quadrille Cookery Books by James Martin, Anjum Anand, Tom Kitchin

Just in case Father Christmas doesn’t deliver lots of brand new cookery books to you on Christmas Day, the lovely folks at Quadrille Publishing have offered me three of their top Quadrille cookery books as a giveaway prize for one of my readers. These will keep you going well into 2013, and will provide you with plenty of inspiration for your cooking in the New Year.

1. James Martin Slow Cooking – Mouthwatering Recipes with Minimum Effort (RRP £20) Quadrille Publishing

Put your hands up if you love James Martin. He’s the cheeky Northern chappie who presents BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and he has a very loyal army of fans. His food is often inspired by British, comfort cooking, the kind of food your grandmother would cook for you. James’ family were pig and cattle farmers, so they would often eat hearty slow cooked stews, such as beef stew with dumplings. Slow Cooking offers a good mix of easy-to-throw-together soups, slow vegetable bakes, fish, one-pots, slow roasts, stews and braises and my very favourite chapters, slow puddings and slow bakes. I would love to lock myself away in a log cabin somewhere for the winter and I’d be very happy if I only had this book to cook from and a stash of red wine. Recipes I immediately want to cook are the Potato and Turnip Dauphinoise, the Miso-Marinated Monkfish, Ultimate Roast Chicken (a recipe based on one by Thomas Keller where the chicken is soaked in brine), the Treacle-Glazed Ham Hocks. To finish, I want to make the Jam roly poly, which has just five ingredients. You’ll love this one.

2. Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feasts – RRP £19.00 Quadrille Publishing

I met Anjum Anand at Food Blogger Connect in 2011 and I remember her saying at the time that she was writing a vegetarian cookery book. She demonstrated and served us all her Grilled Courgette Carpaccio, with Chickpea Salsa and Pistachio Dressing, a recipe which features in this book. It was one of those dishes that created an immediate impression and I remember coming straight home to make it. I think this is a really interesting book because it has allowed Anjum to draw upon her Indian heritage and memories of being raised by a vegetarian mother. Anjum’s father ate meat and so Anjum remembers eating both rich, meaty curries as well as vegetable and lentil dishes. Anjum also then married a vegetarian, who came from a generation of vegetarians and so she inherited recipes and advice from her new family, too. Her own children are vegetarian. I also like the fact that Anjum says that many of the recipes are a reflection of the diversity of India’s regional food, but she also includes recipes that have inspired her during her travels. She also adds in recipes that she just likes and cooks at home often, the ones that are ‘hanging by a home-spun cotton thread to an Indian heritage, but are too delicious not to be included.’ An example of that is the very first recipe in the book, a Coconut French Toast, or Anjum’s Mango, Pomegranate, Berry and Coconut Trifle towards the back. I’d love to try the Smokey Spiced Aubergines and Anjum’s Easy Everyday Lentil Curry, most of all. Rest assured, I’ll be cooking my way through this colourful book in the New Year!

3. Tom Kitchin – Kitchin Suppers (RRP £20) Quadrille Publishing

For a very long time, I have wanted to take a trip up to Edinburgh to visit Tom’s restaurant The Kitchin. Tom is a renowned Scottish chef who was trained by Pierre Koffmann, Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse. Tom very quickly received a Michelin star, just six months after opening The Kitchin. I am sometimes wary of books by celebrity chefs, just because I think they often can’t help being cheffy and so the recipes don’t translate well for the home cook. But this book, and I have saved the best to talk about till last, has left me completely smitten. Not only are the recipes homely, comforting and easy to follow, the book reads like a great big Scottish tartan blanket-wrapped hug! In his introduction, Tom says that he and his photographer, Laura Edwards, prepared and photographed all of the dishes in the book, just as Tom would cook them and serve them at home, and I believe him. At the back of the book, Tom thanks his ‘wee boys’ for coming along to photo shoots on Sundays and Mondays. Best of all, for anyone, who, like me, has extreme prop envy (think rustic bowls, a roast saddle of lamb nestled in a big pile of hay and tables graced with thick tartan fabrics) there are some props credits sourced by Polly Webb-Wilson in the back, too. I have already made Tom’s Pears Poached in Chocolate (photo below) and will be off to the pet shop to find some eating hay on which to cook my own saddle of lamb with Boulangere Potatoes laying beneath. A stunning book, well worth adding to your list or buying for the foodie in your life.

Here’s how to enter the Quadrille Publishing Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope Father Christmas does bring you a cookery book to add to your collection!

April 23, 2012

Review and Giveaway: Eat London 2 – All About Food (Book RRP £20)

With less than 100 days to go until the 2012 London Olympics and even fewer until the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, all eyes will soon be on London.

Food is a huge part of any celebratory occassion and (hopefully) visitors to London will be seeking out the very best places to eat, including cafés, restaurants, bakeries, food markets, as well as artisanal delis and pop-ups. London is fast becoming one of the most important food destinations in the world. We are certainly keeping up with culinary trends and in some cases, doing a very good job of setting them.

This week I received a review copy of a book called Eat London 2, All About Food. This is the second edition of the book, the first having been published in 2007. Since then, much has changed on the capital’s food scene and the publication of the second edition is clearly very timely.

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February 8, 2012

Review Couture Chocolate – A Masterclass in Chocolate by William Curley (Giveaway now Closed)

Anyone who has a chocolate addiction, as I have, will appreciate a good chocolate book and William Curley’s Couture Chocolate – A Masterclass in Chocolate provides the perfect hit. William Curley is Britain’s top Chocolatier (how I love that word), having won the title of the Academy of Chocolate’s Best British Chocolatier for the last four years running. William has worked in several Michelin-starred establishments, under Pierre Koffmann, Raymond Blanc and Marco Pierre White, before moving to the London Savoy as Chef Patissier where he met his Japanese wife, Suzue. William now owns two chocolate boutiques with Suzue, whom he credits as his inspiration. He’s a hard man to beat and Couture Chocolate gives us a little glimpse as to why.

This is not a book for the chocolate-shy. This is a book to embrace boldly with both hands as William unveils all the techniques and secrets to creating some of the most stunning chocolate creations. It is very comprehensive. If you were thinking about becomming a Chocolatier, this book would definitely set you on the right track. Think of it as distance learning by chocolate. Having said that, for those of us with nothing more than a mere interest in lovely chocolate, this book is a feast for the eyes and there any many recipes in here which will easily tempt you into tempering and charm you into chocolate-making at home.

Beginning with the essentials, Couture Chocolate explains the Discovery and Origins of Cocoa (wild cacao was originally consumed as long ago as 1500 BC by the Olmecs) with South American countries such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, as well as the Caribbean growing some of the best cocoa in the world.

There are three types of cocoa tree: the Criollo, the Forastero and the Trinitario and cocoa grows best in high humidity. There is a simple description of the Bean to Bar process, beginning with cocoa pods and ending in Couverture chocolate (cocoa butter is added to the cocoa mass and then processed with sugar and vanilla.) We are also given a breakdown of the main varieties of chocolate (dark, milk, white, powder, nibs) as well as correct storage and the all-important method of tempering.

There are also step-by-step instructions and photographs for making a basic Ganache (chocolate, cream, sugar and butter) – the backbone for many of the chocolate recipes throughout the book and then we begin…

The opening chapter of the book covers Truffles (balls of ganache that can also be used to fill chocolate and patisserie) and includes William’s recipes for his House Dark Truffle and House Milk Truffle as well as some more unusual flavours, such as Matcha and Pistachio Truffle and Cassis & Hibiscus.

Onto Couture Chocolates, essentially, the high-end, custom-made chocolates that you can find at William’s boutiques in Richmond and Belgravia. William takes you through the stages, such as making an infused or flavoured ganache chocolate, setting it into a tray, making layers (such as Feuillantine, Pistachio or Marzipan) followed by dipping and decorating. Imagine creating fillings such as Apricot & Wasabi, Sea Salt Caramel, Rosemary & Olive Oil (shown below) or Yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit) at home!

There is also a delightful chapter on Bars & Bites that would suit those wanting to make their own stunning chocolate gifts to giveaway. For example, there are step-by-step photos and instructions for Fruit & Nut Decorated Bars, Infused Bars as well as Chocolate Thins and Chocolate Lollipops.

A chapter on Bouchées (small delights) includes chocolate-coated Cinder Toffee (a childhood favourite of mine), Chocolate Macaroons, beautiful Hazlenut & Feuillantine Cakes (shown below) as well as a posh twist on a marshmallow teacakes, with blackcurrant purée or orange marmalade. I was also particularly taken by the Millionaire’s Shortbread and will be sharing the recipe for that tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Next, my favourite chapter, Cakes & Biscuits, with recipes for Chocolate Madeleines, adventurous-sounding Chestnut & Sesame Brownies, Chocolate Fig Cakes as well as cookies and sablés.

For those with a real interest in creating stunning desserts, flick straight through to the chapter on Patisserie, where you’ll find all the secrets to decorating with chocolate (how to make hoops, curls, waves and curls) before moving onto a classic Chocolate Mousse, stunning Chocolate Tarts (shown below) a Chocolate Mille-Feuille, or William’s Black Forest sponge with white chocolate and kirsch mousse. You’ll also find a recipe for Chocolate Tiramisu Caskets, shown on the cover of the book.

In case you haven’t had your fair share of chocolate by now, the final chapter reveals Ice-Cream, Sauces and Drinks. The Chocolate and Peanut ice-cream is firmly bookmarked for the summer along with William’s Chocolate Sauce and of course, I’ve spotted the Chocolate and Praline Spread (homemade Nutella!) as well as a very seductive White Chocolate Martini.

At the very back you’ll find a Directory of Stockists for all your chocolate needs, as well as an A-Z of Ingreditents and Equipment.

All in all, a veritable feast in chocolate. Is there anything missing? I haven’t spotted a recipe for William’s Signature Hot Chocolate so I’ll have to force myself to visit William’s shop in Richmond for that!

William Curley’s Couture Chocolate is Published by Jacqui Small LLP (An imprint of Aurum Press) with an RRP of £30.00 – currently £19.07 on Amazon.

Photography Credit: Jose Lasheras

Giveaway NOW CLOSED

Closing date: Wednesday 15th February 2012 The winner will be announced the next day.

Giveaway winner: Vicky Haddock.

Thank you to Jacqui Small Publishing for my review copy and for the giveaway prize.

Good Luck!

November 12, 2011

Review: New Edition Moro Cookery Book Collection (Giveaway now closed)

If you are a fan of Spanish food with a splash of North African and Eastern Mediterranean influence, then you’ll love the Moro collection of cookery books. In fact, these stunning books are a treat for any foodie, willing to take a culinary adventure and perhaps embark on an experiment or two in the kitchen. There is no doubt, that these books will blow your culinary boundaries, each one offering a unique treat for the taste buds, adding a really special dimension to your cookery book collection.

If you grow your own food or are an allotment keeper, you’ll particularly enjoy the third book, Moro East, with recipes that are taken from the plots and keepers of Manor Garden Allotments, which sadly no longer exist because they were paved over by the Olympics Committee. If you are fan of the food of Yotam Ottolengi, Skye Gyngell, Simon Hopkinson or Nigel Slater I think you’ll love cooking from these books too. The recipes are very rustic and once you begin to understand some of the flavours (lots of spices, fresh produce and fresh herbs) and methods of cooking used, such as grilling, braising, crushing and the more general throwing together) you’ll be hooked.

If you are new to the Moro books then all you need to know is that Moro is one of the most successful Spanish restaurants in London. The restaurant opened in 1997 and is known for it’s amazing Moorish cuisine. At the helm are husband and wife team, Samual & Samantha Clark, who have an equally infectious passion for alluring food. Their recipes now span three cookbooks, which have recently been re-published in paperback by Ebury Press. The word ‘Moro’, meaning ‘Moor’ in Spanish, inspires a mix of Arabic and Hispanic dishes, where tapas sit alongside mezze. The Spanish flavours offer boldness and richness, the Muslim Mediterranean, including food from Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon, bring lightness and fragrance to the table with equal gusto.

Here’s a taste of what’s on offer –

Moro the Cookbook (Book One)

Imagine Grilled chicken wings with tahini, Spiced labneh, Pinchitos morunos – Moorish skewers. A Feta salad with spinach, crispbread, sumac and pine nuts. Cod baked with tahini sauce. Roast shoulder of lamb with saffron rice. End with Churros con chocolate or a Seville orange tart. This book introduces us to some of the restaurant’s most popular recipes and is truly mouthwatering. I can’t wait to get stuck into this one.

Casa Moro (Book Two)

Named after their house in Andalucía, Casa Moro explores the personal philosophy of food that Sam and Sam Clark encountered on their three-month honeymoon. Meat stews are slow-cooked, wild food, such as Rabbit rice with almond and rosemary, ancient ways of cooking are revealed, simple mountain and village food, including Turkish village soup with bread and caraway are brought to a new audience. My favourites also include Potato cakes stuffed with minced lamb and and pine nuts, Swordfish with pomegranate sauce, Roast lamb with quince purée, Fried aubergines with honey, Turrón and coffee ice-cream. Basically, this book makes me want to go travelling, now!

Moro East (Book Three)

The third book has an even more interesting story to tell. The food is still essentially based on Muslim Meditarrenean cooking, but are from a little closer to home, from an allotmenet in the East End of London! Manor Garden Allotments was home to a large community of Turks, Cypriot, Greeks and Italians who cultivated the land and cooked an extraordinary range of recipes and dishes from the food grown on their allotments. Much of this food inspired the food at Moro and so the third book follows a year on the allotment. Very sadly, Manor Garden allotments, established in 1900, were bulldozed by the time the book was first published, in 2007, to make way for the 2012 Olympics! Crops included wild plums, rhubarb, figs, herbs, British staple vegetables as well as the more exotic, such as artichokes, kholrabi and chillis. Despite a huge campaign and opposition to save the site and have it incorporated into the Olymic gardens, the Olympic Committee decided to use the land as a pathway between stadiums. The recipes were saved and make up this beautiful third book with stories from neighbouring allotment keepers as well as from Sam & Sam’s own plot.

As it is impossible to chose a favorite and so I am pleased to offer one lucky reader the complete set, just in time to inspire you for Christmas!

******************GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED********************

Here’s how to enter –

1. Follow Sam&Sam Clark (@MoroSams) on Twitter and/or Ebury Publishing for a bonus entry and leave a comment to tell me you have done so

2. Follow Fabulicious Food on Twitter, Facebook, Network Blogs or Google Friend Connect (receive a bonus entry for each follow, just let me know by leaving a comment)

3. Copy and Tweet the following “I would love to win the new edition Moro cookery book collection via @RenBehan on #FabuliciousFood”

You can enter this competition via any or all of the ways described above. A winner will be chosen by an online randomiser. No details of any of the entrants will be passed onto anyone else. I will be able to see your email and contact you if you have won, but your email will not be visible to the public and will NOT be passed on. The books will be sent out by Ebury Publishing.

This giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Closing date: Thursday 17th November 2011, the winner will be contacted by email or via twitter on the same day.

******************GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED*******************

The winner is Janice @serialcrafter as per announcement post

Thank You to Ebury Publishing for sending me this beautiful collection to cook from.

October 20, 2011

Review: LEON Baking and Puddings (Book Three)

In case you’ve managed to miss it so far, this week is National Baking Week. The nation seems to have gone crazy for baking recently, with lots of baking programmes on TV and a whole array of new and very beautiful baking bibles to add to our collections. When Leon Baking & Puddings published by Octopus Books landed on my door mat I knew I was in for a treat.

Who wrote it?

The co-authors of this book are Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby. The book is very much a collaboration between the two of them, with recipes from them both. Claire used to be a pastry chef at Chez Panisse in California and now runs her own bakery in East London, called Violet. Henry co-founded the Leon chain of restaurants (along with John Vincent and Allegra McEvedy) in 2004 – with the aim of changing the face of fast food. PLEASE OPEN A LEON RESTAURANT IN ST ALBANS!

This is the third book in the Leon series. Allegra McEvedy wrote the first Leon book – Leon: Ingredients. Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent wrote the second Leon book – Leon: Naturally Fast Food and now Henry and Claire Ptak have written the third one together – Leon Baking & Puddings.

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September 28, 2011

Review: I Love to Bake by Tana Ramsay

It seems that everyone has the baking bug at the moment. It might be something to do with lots of baking programmes on the television but for me, it’s the start of a new term and there have already been a couple of school events requiring the production of a home-baked goodie.

It’s always good to have a few fail-safe baking recipes to rely on. The night before a bake sale is not the time to be experimenting. You need a recipe you can trust and that isn’t going to depend on too many Mary Berry-standard skills.

Tana Ramsay is a mum, who I’m sure knows this feeling only too well. Her latest book is called ‘I Love to Bake’ and is published by the Octopus Publishing Group. Yes, she happens to be married to Gordon Ramsay, but I’m quite certain that he isn’t the one up until midnight icing cakes for school fêtes. I’m sure that Tana’s experience of combining motherhood with writing cookery books (this is her fourth book in her own name) and a TV career means that she’s well versed in testing and trying recipes that work and that are quick and easy to make (perhaps with a little help with the washing up along the way..)

So, what’s in Tana’s latest book? Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that ‘baking’ includes a whole array of sweet and savoury family friendly dishes.

There are ten chapters in total –

Cakes & Cupcakes, Biscuits & Traybakes, Puddings, Chocolate, Sweet Pies & Tarts, Savoury Pies & Tarts, Meat Bakes, Fish & Vegetable Bakes, Bread and a final chapter on Easter, Hallowe’en and Christmas.

‘I Love to Bake’ is a bit of a baking ‘catch-all’ with recipes pitched a varying levels – some of them I’d say are very easily achievable, such as the Baked Tomatoes, Almond Jam Cookies (great to make wth kids) Blueberry Flapjacks (five ingredients to throw in a pan) and the Mackerel Fishcakes (using cooked mackerel fillets and left-over mash). Whereas some of the recipes are slightly more technical – such as the Sun-blushed Tomato & Pancetta Bread, Fish Lasagne (assembly and making a roux is required) or the Tapenade-coated Rack of Lamb with Mediterranean Canellini Beans (two separate recipes involved).

However, in general, they are certainly all achievable though my bread-making skills may need a little work before I reach the Bread chapter.

So far, some of the recipes that have made my family hit-list have included –

Lamb & Lentil Casserole – the recipe calls for swede and carrots but I made this with autumnal butternut squash and lentils and it was yummy

Sesame Coated Drumsticks – tahini, Chinese five-spice powder and runny honny make for a lovely tasty glaze

Easy Quesadillas – we swapped the salami for Polish garlicky sausage, delicious

Spiced Carrot & Raisin Cupcakes – a great after-school snack and they stayed very moist too for a good couple of days

My less successful baking adventures have included the Banana & Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I’m not sure what happened, it definitely had something to do with my dodgy oven. Tana does say that the cake remains very moist so you have to keep an eye on the timings and watch when it shrinks away from the tin. I did, but the cake was still very soggy in the middle making it very difficult to slice it evenly into three slices. To make matters worse, when layered up with the frosting the whole cake slipped as I tried to get it into the tin – not my finest baking hour, but it won’t put me off making it again as it tasted really delicious!

Other sweet-treats on my ‘must-try’ list are Tana’s Orange and Poppy Seed Cake and her Orange Polenta Cake with Golden Syrup (I’ve made a similar Orange, Polenta and Amarretto cake before to a Nigella recipe but I love the idea of pouring golden syrup over the top reminiscent of the sponge and golden syrup of school dinners. I also love the look of Tana’s Home-Made Custard Creams and her Chocolate Truffle Hearts.

Most of all, I really like the seasonal slant to Tana’s book and I think there are many recipes where you could easily substitute seasonal fruit or vegetables depending on the time of year. For example, the Cherry, Almond and Buttermilk Muffins would be wonderful during British cherry season as fresh cherries are required, but I would probably try these with small cubes of soft pears during the autumn. Similarly, fresh cherries are required to make the Bakewell Tart with Homemade Cherry Jam, but for a twist I might give this a go using fresh, seasonal plum jam instead.

Tana’s Baked Cheesecake with Rhubarb Compote is a lovely way to use garden rhubarb (and I love the fact that she suggests putting a layer of crème fraîche over the top of the cheesecake once baked – handy to cover any cracks!) I also can’t wait to try Tana’s Salmon En Croûte with Minted Pea and Bean Purée (the peas and broad beans are both frozen and the pasty is shop-bough and ready-rolled – I like the thinking!)

There are photographs by Chris Terry accompanying almost all of the recipes, but not every single recipe and some of the recipes include extra photos of some of the steps (the Lemon Tart with Blackcurrants shows a couple of the stages) but that isn’t carried throughout the whole book.

The final chapter, Easter, Hallowe’en and Christmas, is a tiny bit disappointing. A basic hot-cross bun recipe covers Easter and there is just one recipe for basic cookies to cover Hallow’een, so there could have been a little more content in that chapter although the Christmas recipes, such as the Spiced Orange and Cranberry Mince Pies and Whole Baked Camembert sound good.

All in all, I have really enjoyed baking from this book so far. I might challenge myself to try one of Tana’s bread recipes and for a party next week I’m making Tana’s Lamb shanks with White Beans which sounds like something that can just bubble away for a few hours in the oven.

I am a little bit chocolate-caked-out after my daughter’s second birthday with more celebrations to come this weekend, but there is always room for a good chocolate cake and Tana’s Chocolate Fudge Cake claims to combine a ‘light sponge with a light filling’ so it might have to get made for the next school cake bake sale!

With many thanks to Fiona at Octopus Press for sending me a review copy of this book. RRP £14.99 (Around £7.50 on Amazon)

Photography Credit: Chris Terry

Look out tomorrow for Tana’s Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe and for your chance to win a copy of this book.

June 25, 2011

Review: ‘The Free Range Cook’ by Annabel Langbein

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.

Photography copyright Annabel Langbein Media 2010

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.

Thank you to Octopus Publishing for my review copy of this lovely book

May 31, 2011

Food on the Radio and Rose Petal Jam Review

Yesterday saw Luton celebrating Britain’s biggest one-day carnival as thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate diversity and culture. As Poles make up a large part of the community across Herts, Beds and Bucks, I was invited back to BBC Three Counties Radio to talk to Toby Friedner about Polish celebratory food and culture.

It was a lovely opportunity to be able to reminisce about my own Polish foodie upbringing and to highlight some of my favourite Polish dishes, such as pierogi (filled dumplings) bigos (a Hunter’s stew made with sauerkraut, Polish sausage and mixed meats) and traditional Polish desserts such as Makowiec (poppy seed cake) and Nalesniki (pancakes filled with sweet cheese). I took along some Polish beer for Toby to try, a traditional Sałata Jarzynowa (mixed vegetable salad) some open sandwiches and a couple of Pączki (Polish doughnuts with jam) for good measure.

I was able to point Toby to some of the Polish recipes I have tried and shared on here, such as my mama’s Polish Apple Cake which makes a great teatime treat, ‘Kluski Lane’ or Poured Noodles or the delicious Apple Pancakes.

Though it rained towards the end of the day, I’m sure the Polish crowd in Luton celebrated in style, showcasing their carnival costumes depicting the legends and fairy tales of Poland. Thank you so much to Toby for having me as his guest and to Niki for arranging it in advance. To listen, you can click on this BBC Three Counties Link (iplayer) and catch me talking to Toby from around 1:37 onwards.

If you enjoy listening about food on the radio don’t forget to tune in weekly to Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen – a fun dinner party on the radio with three rotating guests, usually a chef, a home cook and a wine expert. You can also listen out for me during the show (usually around 12.30pm) highlighting a great seasonal product every week for you to keep a look out for and try, such as British asparagus, seasonal strawberries or new season’s lamb.

Speaking (or writing) of Polish food, this week I received a newly published book called Rose Petal Jam – Stories and Recipes from a Summer in Poland written by Beata Zatorska & Simon Target which offers a collection of recipes gathered from across Poland intertwined with stunning photography depicting the Polish landscape and history. After 20 years away from home, Beata, a doctor in Sydney, returns to Poland with her English husband Simon, to spend the summer recreating her grandmother’s recipes and exploring the country. This is a book I will certainly be referring to often and I look forward to trying some of the recipes in the book as well as collecting more of my own from home.

Favourites in the book (written in English with UK friendly weights and measurments) so far are the Roast Duck with Apples, Cabbage Rolls, Pork with Caraway and Onion, salads, soups and desserts such as Rose Petal Jam filled doughnuts, the Makowiec cake mentioned above and a traditional Miodownik, a Honey cake with Plum jam – delicious! If you like Polish or Eastern European food I would highly recommend this beautiful book!

I hope everyone enjoyed their bank holiday weekend. The radio chat was a lovely way to round off a very relaxing weekend for me, having spent the first part of ours visiting friends and seeking out delicious cream teas in Devon.

Look out this week to a round-up of the first installment of Simple and in Season – thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter and link-up!

May 23, 2011

Road-Testing the ‘My Daddy Cooks’ Recipe Book

Hot off the press, the latest cookbook to hit my shelf is Nick Coffer’s ‘My Daddy Cooks’. Things are very exciting in the world of cookery books at the moment as more and more non-TV/non-celebrity cooks and food writers are making themselves heard. This is partly due to the growing popularity and phenomenon of Internet blogging, which is literally thrusting ‘up and coming’ foodies straight into the hands of publishers who seem to be keen on bringing the very best of such ‘new voices’ forward. It seems there is room for new talent and I believe there should be. Whilst they may not soar quite as quickly as books written by or endorsed by the ‘big guns’ of the food world overnight, I say, look out -there is some real talent emerging.

Enter Nick and Archie. I first met Nick when I was asked to appear as a guest on his BBC radio show (I have the very lovely English Mum to thank for our introduction.) Nick was in the process of writing his first cookery book (though he has always kept the show and his blog/book quite separate). It was clear to me that his love of food was all-encompassing and that his enthusiasm would propel him forward at great speed.

Nick had drawn a great deal of attention by way of his My Daddy Cooks Video Blog, filmed in a small kitchen in Watford with his one-year old son, Archie, as his helper. Having watched his drinks business fold under the strain of the recession in 2009, Nick had found himself a stay-at-home dad. As anyone who spends the majority of their day at home with a child may know, oddly, there is a lot of time to fill – so they filled it by cooking together in their kitchen. Within a matter of weeks of their first ‘video-blog’ hitting the Internet, Nick and Archie had gained a huge following. They found themselves on the front page on the London Evening Standard, signed a cook book deal and Nick was given the chance to host his own food and drink based radio show through the BBC. And so now to the book…

My Daddy Cooks: 100 Fresh New Recipes for the Whole Family

I won’t call this a ‘review’ since it is obviously quite difficult to be impartial when you know the person who wrote the book. What I will say is that this is a ‘cookbook I like’ and the best way, I think, of working out whether a book is any good or not is to cook from it (you’d be surprised how many people miss out this stage). So, I’ve cooked and I’ve tested and I’ve picked out my favourites. I’ve also entered into something of a ‘tweet-cook’ with a fellow foodie who is also cooking her way through the recipes…and so far, so good!

My Daddy Cooks (the book) is not a children’s cookbook nor is it a book just for dads. It’s a recipe book filled with ideas for family meals, which have been tested by Nick and Archie in their kitchen – meaning that many of the recipes include activities that little people could help you with, under supervision. This is a book offering proper rather than fancy food, which is easy to put together for anyone, whether they have a toddler ‘assistant’ or not.

I am very pleased to report that there are no jacket potatoes that have been made to look like mice, nor are there any individually ramekinned shepherd’s pies, hidden vegetable sauces or gimmicky foods. Phew. I think there are quite enough of those type of books out there already.

There are ideas for breakfast in the first chapter named Beyond Toast (including Oven-baked french toast and Baked eggs in ham cups) as well as ideas for Lighter Bites, plenty of one-pot dishes (such as Oven-baked risotto, Sausage jambalaya, Quick sesame beef chow mein) along with chapters named My Daddy Cooks the Classics, Foolproof Grills and Bakes, Puds, Sweets and Treats (the Baked cinnamon apples and Muddy flourless chocolate cake are post-it noted). All the ingredients required to cook the recipes are readily-available in the shops and there are no store-bought sauces or artificial ingredients in any of the recipes.

Nick has come up with some very clever short-cuts to make food fun and easy to make (he calls it “giving it the My Daddy Cooks treatment”) and other than a few pots and pans and a set of scales, no fancy equipment is needed. A fair amount of recipes are cooked in the oven, though this is because it is often easier to stick something in an oven out of a toddler’s reach. Some of the recipes can be cooked on the stove, such as the recipes in the chapter called ‘Wok on the Wild Side,’ and there are even recipes for microwavable cakes for those moments when you only have enough time to “ping and ding”.

First up, Nick and Archie’s Mexican Lasagna. It first came to my attention when I caught Nick and Archie cooking it live on stage at The Real Food Festival a couple of weeks ago. It must have been pretty stressful to cook it in front of a live audience with a toddler who may or may not have co-operated on the day, but Archie was hilarious and it was clear to see that he’s a complete natural when it comes to cooking and that he enjoys it hugely. Archie’s version of the Mexican Lasagne included a load of red wine vinegar and whatever else he could find to throw into his bowl. Nick’s version was a little closer to the recipe in his book, though I think the best thing about all of the recipes is that real parents sometimes do have to improvise in the kitchen. As Nick says in his intro, “All the recipes in this book have been devised to survive even the most catastrophic interventions” which is handy, whether you have a toddler ‘assistant’ or not.

The notion of layering flour tortillas up with chilli shouldn’t work (I’m not a fan of sogginess) but my goodness, it does. The tortillas actually don’t go soggy, they stay remarkably intact and just end up being like chewable pasta – which the kids loved. Keen to re-create the yummy dish I had tasted at The Real Food Festival, I attempted the Mexican Lasagne on the afternoon of a toddler tea party in my garden. I had made the sauce a few hours before just to let the flavours develop and then my kids helped me ‘build’ the lasagna a bit later on. Four ‘under fives’ wolfed it down and asked for more. We re-heated the rest later in the evening and it was still as good, if not better, despite Nick saying in the book that it should be eaten straight away. Just to check it really was as good as I thought it was, I made it for the second time this week, re-naming it ‘The Mex’. I also tweeted Nick to ask him to dedicate a Facebook page entirely to this one recipe. Enough said about this one (my photos below).

Next I was drawn to the Sticky baked salmon with sesame noodles (it looks so good in the photo in the book) and with a quick substitution of asparagus for the red peppers owning to my silly allergy, I re-created the dish with no hassle at all and it was super-tasty.

Intrigued by two recipes for microwaveable cakes, I tossed a coin and went for the Microwave chocolate steamed pudding (with its own chocolate sauce) over the Microwave lemon treacle pudding (though that will be next). It took a matter of minutes to put together, there are no eggs in the recipes though somehow, in just seven minutes I had a perfectly cooked, soft, squidgy, chocolaty pudding ready to serve. As my fellow tweeter Laura also said of the recipe, this is a dangerous one to have in your repertoire on the basis that chocolate cake fixes, reminiscent of comforting childhood or school puds, really shouldn’t be so easy to come by.

Next on my list of recipes to try will be: the second aforementioned microwave cake, the Muddy flourless chocolate cake, Miso-glazed grilled fish (on the table in less than 30 minutes) Baked penne with courgette and home-made Italian sausage (another front runner in the ‘favourites’ category) Minced lamb and pea curry (I may never have to call for a takeaway again) and Turbo-quick shepherd’s pie (I like the name and it’s nice to see a twist on the classics with sliced potatoes cutting down the preparation time). All the recipes we’ve tried so far have gone down a treat!

As well as fun family mealtimes, I think you would even be able to turn to this cookbook to entertain friends. For a vegetarian dish I’d go for the Thai vegetable green curry or the Baked aubergines (Iman Bayaldi – a dish I love but have never tried to make myself before), Crispy Duck Pancakes (we could all now be just one hour in the oven away from re-creating this Chinese classic whenever we fancy) and for pasta in a matter of minutes, I would go for the No-cook lemon, cream cheese and smoked salmon sauce.

Not even the publishers could keep this one back, up against some of the most well known names in the cookery world it is holding its own already in the Top Ten of Amazon’s ‘Hot New Releases’ and I hear that Amazon have even been sending out copies ahead of its official publication date. At £8.83 on Amazon (the RRP in shops is £16.99) I think its a bargain and well worth the spend – not least for the fact that there are some great ideas in here (with a good proportion of photos) AND the recipes actually work as my own photos hopefully show (I own many books where they don’t!) If you’d like a little taster of Nick and Archie’s recipes you could always check out their Video Blog, or look out for their feature in The Times this coming Saturday.

Good luck to Nick and Archie on their continuing culinary adventure!

My Daddy Cooks – published by Hodder & Staughton

May 2, 2011

The Real Food Festival and Real Food Cook Book – Giveaway CLOSED

There are just a few days to go before The Real Food Festival opens at Earls Court on 5th-8th May 2011 and I am excited! This is the festival’s fourth year and each year it gets bigger and better.

What’s on offer?

Well, firstly, The Real Food Festival is much more than a food event or Farmer’s Market, it will be packed with activities for the whole family. Highlights include a Sheep Show, Kids Taste Tent with workshops encouraging little ones to make butter and bread, an area dedicated to growing your own food, a Butchery theatre, a working tea garden following the tea trail from bush to crop, cheese tastings, as well as a chance to discover an array of Street Food with vendors offering food from around the country inspired by global flavours. Pop along to the Real Food Theatre and you could see demos from Georgio Locatelli, Jason Atherton, or the Willie Wonka of Channel 4, Willie Harcourt-Cooze all doing their thing amongst many other great chefs and cooks (Click on this link for a timetable) You will also get to meet and chat to over 500 of our finest artisan food producers, tasting, seeing and learning about Real Food from experts and professionals in the field. The School of Artsian Food will also be on hand to advise on what it takes to be a truly skilled artisan food maker and you can end your day with a little tipple a a Boat Bar hosted by Adnams Brewery offering the famous Broadside beer along with hand selected wines.

What’s not to love about this event?!

You can still buy tickets for the event, tickets start at £13.50 for an adult (bought in advance) but there are also packages including a Real Food Festival Cook Book as well as VIP packages from £40.00 in advance, giving you priority entrance and a chance to visit the sumptuously decorated VIP tent with a complimentary cocktail and goodie bag in hand. Best of all kids go free courtesy of Sacla.

Or pop over to The Real Food Festival Facebook Page, “like” them and look out for offers and codes leading up to the event.

See The Real Food Festival Website for more information on tickets and packages.

This year you can also buy The Real Food Festival Cook Book, RRP £20.00, published by Duncan Baird Publishers and available from all good bookshops.

As many of us are interested in buying our ingredients from farmers’ markets, local farm shops and specialist retailers, this book is packed with recipes all following the Real Food ethos.There are more than 100 delicious recipes showcasing the Real Food ethos from a collection of well-known chefs including Raymond Blanc, Giorgio Locatelli, Thomasina Miers, Cyrus Todiwala, Ollie Rowe, Willie Harcourt-Cooze, Allegra McEvedy and Jun Tanaka. As well as this, the book includes authentic artisan recipes from some of the best producers from the show all brought together and edited by Valentina Harris.

I have a copy of this beautiful cook book to giveaway – see below for details on how to enter.

Please note the giveaway if for the Real Food Cook Book NOT tickets for the show.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED – THANK YOU FOR ENTERING

WINNER – @StephanieB246

March 9, 2011

Lotte’s Country Kitchen by Lotte Duncan

If ever you require a large dose of comfort or perhaps a little something to nibble alongside your tipple of choice of an evening, look no further than ‘Lotte’s Country Kitchen’. This cook book is a beautifully inspired collection of recipes by writer and broadcaster Lotte Duncan. You may also wish to prepare yourself for a trip to the garden centre …

Lotte lives in a quaint cottage in the heart of the English countryside and runs a cookery school from her home. Although she cooks with an Aga, her recipes are suitable for conventional ovens too. Packed with flavour and bursting with energy and personality, Lotte dishes out the food that “has formed the backbone of her life” and that she has shared on countless occasions with her family and friends. Having had the pleasure of meeting Lotte recently, it was lovely to see how her warmth and personality speak from every page in her book.

As well as being very keen to use the produce from her own country garden, Lotte is also a big supporter of local suppliers and independent retailers. She gives a few short tips on some of her favourite items and all of the ingredients in her book are easily and readily available. In particular, Lotte talks about using Rapeseed oil, which is lower in saturated fat (less than half that of olive oil) and contains Vitamin E.

Lotte has styled her own food throughout the book and it has been superbly captured by photographer Lara Holmes. The design also deserves great credit, as Matt Inwood and Claire Siggery of Absolute Press bring together Lotte’s English country garden and her recipes with enchanting style. Stunning flowers grace the pages, perfectly complementing the food, which brims with colour as well as flavour.Lotte takes you through her culinary year, month by month, starting (as she means to go on) with ‘cheeky olives’ to accompany a large glass of wine and a good chat with friends in the “dark, chilly month” of January. For supper, Lotte serves ‘little cheesy salmon pots with marinated cucumber’ and for pudding the not-to-be-missed ‘nutty treacle tart’ – orange-infused pastry filled with sweet and gooey maple and golden syrup coated nuts. I tried a slice of this made by Lotte’s own fair hand, served with a sharp crème fraiche and a crisp white wine and it was really delicious! The recipe is easy to follow and the pastry can be whizzed up in a food processor in no time.

Further into spring, Lotte looks forward to her annual “seed packet frenzy” as she begins to bring the garden into her country kitchen with dishes, such as ‘wild garlic, sorrel and nettle tart with cheesy pastry’ and ‘potted salmon with sorrel’ served in a pretty china teacup. Don’t miss ‘Daisy’s banana cake’, which my kids now love having as a treat.

By early summer, as Lotte confesses she is an “herbaceous plant addict”, she adorns her delightful ‘fairy cakes with fruit icing and sparkles’ with rose petals and shares her versatile ‘English herb and flower salad’, also perfect with some English asparagus or local goats’ cheese. I can’t wait to also try making my own ‘homemade butter’ to go with Lotte’s ‘dried berry scones’.

By late summer, Lotte is sitting in her hammock nibbling on ‘crunchy nutty chicken with chilli jam’ or ‘beer-battered alliums.’ Your own garden or a spot of berry-picking will, without doubt, inspire you to recreate Lotte’s ‘apple, blackberry and elderberry squidgy pudding’ or ‘plum and pistachio tart’. Beautiful British plums could also be steeped in vodka or gin (they certainly will be in my house this year).

Lotte brings happiness and joy to the table with every bite of her mouth- watering and eye-catching food. The recipes exude comfort and fun and they will certainly inspire you to look differently upon your garden, with flowers, fruits and herbs providing a wonderful twist to your cooking. Recipes are easy to follow and are easily achievable by the home cook looking for welcoming British cooking. Her funny and heart-warming head notes and recollections make this a truly special cook book for any home cook’s collection and would make a great foodie gift.

I am sending a copy of this book, very kindly signed by Lotte, to my sister in the mountains of northern Italy, who will love it, not only for its ‘English country garden’ themed recipes, but also for Lotte’s ability to evoke comfort on every level, bringing a touch of colour and sparkle to even the coldest of days!

For more information about Lotte’s book or the country cookery school Lotte runs from her home see http://www.lotteduncan.com/

Photos very kindly supplied by Lotte Duncan. Copy my own.

November 5, 2010

Cookery Book Review: Fay’s Family Food by Fay Ripley

I’m not too sure how I stumbled across Fay’s Family Food. It was probably a very frustrated search for recipes that would work for the whole family. With a toddler and a weaned one-year old ready to tuck into proper food I was keen to start cooking food we could all eat. More than this, I was keen to avoid the slippery slope of spending all day trying to get or keep food down my two children, only to head back into the kitchen to cook adult food once they were asleep.

Enter Fay Ripley, an actress best known for her role in Cold Feet, who happens to have found herself in exactly the same situation as me.

First off, I was pleased to see that there was no gimmicky food, just nice-looking recipes, many of which involved some kind of bung-in-the-oven principle.

Another plus is that at the bottom of most recipes, Fay suggests ways of adapting the recipe for babies, kids and sometimes how to add a bit of kick for the adults. For example, for the Mini Tuna Burgers she says:

Babies: Great finger food, freeze them raw

You: Yours can be served without the bun on a fresh green salad dressed with lemon and oil, if you prefer. Try adding a teaspoon of wasabi paste to your mayo!

Simple enough suggestions, but always handy to have good ideas pointed out to you rather than resorting to the default-option of reaching for a jar or getting stuck into a fussy-eater rut of fish fingers and chips or ham sandwiches.

We began with trying Chicken Souvlaki with Peach Salsa. This is a really yummy but simple kebab-type recipe which involved leaving the chicken to marinate in olive oil, sweet smoked paprika and fresh thyme leaves. Once cooked the chicken came out golden, succulent and tasty. My kids found the peach salsa quite fun since they wouldn’t normally eat fruit with their chicken (double bonus). As Fay says, “It’s on a stick, so the kids will automatically love it.” We agreed!

Since the cold and blustery nights have set in, I have also tried a couple of winter warmers. The One-Pot Chicken with Lemon and Thyme Rice has become a real family favourite (see below) as has the Orange and Ginger Casserole which works particularly well in my pressure cooker (once you get over the scary sounds-like-its-about-to-blow-up noise!)

My favourite recipe in this book has to be the Baked Spaghetti Carbonara. It deviates from a classic carbonara in that it introduces asparagus to lovely pancetta. Although I used lean bacon instead of pancetta since I felt compelled to compensate somehow for the carton of single cream. It is also baked in the oven with fresh breadcrumbs on top, giving it added texture. I actually made this in a tiny kitchen caravan in Wales when we had visitors to stay and it was a real winner for the adults and the kids alike.

For Friday nights (peak take away delivery night in our house) there is also a gratifying recipe for a Chinese take out; Sticky Ginger Chicken and Chinese Roast Brocolli. I found it so quick and tasty that I could almost have deleted that speed dial to The Lucky Wok. Much less salt in involved and no grease on the plates. There is also a Tandoori takeaway recipe if Indian floats your boat.

The book is divided into uncomplicated sections, such as Breakfast (I am converted to Parker’s chese on toast which adds pesto) No Meat, Don’t Panic and Don’t Panic Puddings. My favourite section is called ‘It’s my party party and I’ll eat sugar if I want to’ – probably because I have an insatiable sweet tooth. In it I found a sticky yet light chocolate and pear upside-down cake, a simple but deeply satisfying chocolate torte, great standy-by creamy lemon pots and a charming ‘Good afternoon’ apple cake all of which really hit the spot nicely, thank you. I made the apple cake with Bramleys from my garden which made a delightful afternoon treat.

For any aspiring Dad cooks, I would suggest Dan’s bung-it-in-the-oven Bolognese or Bob’s Bay Bird both of which are straight-forward but impressive dishes that children will love.

All in all, Fay’s Family Food did not disappoint me. It has made me cook food that we can all eat and many of the recipes are super-quick to prepare which is an added bonus. I really liked Fay’s down-to-earth style and surprisingly, all the recipes I have tried turn out looking exactly as they do in the photos!

Other cookery book reviews by Ren Behan

Leon 3 – Baking & Puddings – Great for family puddings and easy baking with many gluten free recipes

My Daddy Cooks – Easy, family cooking with or without kids!

Prepped! – Great for people who like to batch cook/multi cook for the whole family