 |
| Five books for Food Lovers 2017 |
I bought so few food-related books in 2016 that I talked more about those trusted indispensables than the new in that round-up. This year, I faired rather better on the new books front. Here are the five I particularly want to recommend this year. As usual, there's an older book in there. And another was, strictly speaking, published in 2016. The list could have been longer but I've got to draw the line somewhere. There's a book to move my bread-making skills on from what has become my safe place; one to bring an antidote to that Sunday night gloom; there is a book that is spicing up my cooking; one to feed my mind with some serious talk about food production, culinary history and much more; and a book stuffed with recipes you really want to make again and again from a writer who moved Simon Hopkinson to say of her prose "Describing how to boil potatoes would inspire me...". Here they are, in no particular order:
 |
| Two Kitchens: Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome by Rachel Roddy |
Two Kitchens: Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome
by Rachel Roddy
Rachel Roddy's second book, Two Kitchens - Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome is a closely linked follow-up to her award winning Five Quarters - Recipes and notes from a kitchen in Rome and, again, you get so much more than just recipes. This time we join her in both Rome and Gela, the little town which guide books advise you to drive straight past. To Rachel it is "... full of disrepair and despair but quietly beautiful and intriguing if you give it time ...". It is Gela that blew away any romantic ideas about Sicily for the author - the utopian Mediterranean holiday island is a far cry from real life in the south east corner of the island. Poverty, dilapidation and bad agricultural practices are a fact of life that are not glossed over in the book. Yet the way of life in Gela has captivated her. ... Read more ...
 |
| The Sunday Night Book: 52 Short Recipes to Make the Weekend Feel Longer by Rosie Sykes |
The Sunday Night Book: 52 Short Recipes to Make the Weekend Feel Longer
by Rosie Sykes
I used to dread those last few sepulchral hours of the weekend, particularly in winter when it can feel like all traces of colour have leeched into the sodden earth. That Sunday night feeling when the prospect of a whole week of school hit like a freight train. How much more bearable those last few hours would have been if we had embraced the opportunity to cook together in the way chef Rosie Sykes's family did. Based on the kind of food they liked to cook and eat, The Sunday Night Book is the antidote to that Sunday night curtains-drawn glumness. But whatever the day of the week, it's uplifting cooking to banish the blues. There are failsafe recipes for comforting dishes on toast; one-pot dishes that you deliberately make too much of just so you have leftovers for later in the week; a bowl of pasta, of course; something eggy; light salads for when the weekend has been too good; ideas for leftovers; and, at the end of the book, "if all else fails" there's a chapter on Cocktails and a little bite to eat. ... Read more ...
 |
| Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese by Bronwen & Francis Percival |
Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes and the Fight for Real Cheese
by Bronwen & Francis Percival
I confess as a cheese appreciator I had been looking forward to this book, but Reinventing the Wheel is not just for cheese lovers. It's a book for anyone who cares about the food they eat and the welfare of those who produce it. It tackles the wisdom of mega-dairies and industrialisation and the tension between modernity and tradition. Across 12 chapters, Bronwen and Francis Percival examine the culinary history, terroir, microbiology, sociology and politics of cheesemaking. ... Read more ...
 |
| Fresh India: 130 Quick, Easy and Delicious Vegetarian Recipes for Every Day by Meera Sodha |
Fresh India: 130 Quick, Easy and Delicious Vegetarian Recipes for Every Day
by Meera Sodha
My bookshelves are light on Indian food books. I love Indian food and relish it when someone who really knows what they are doing cooks it for me. However, I've always been unconvinced that I can get the spicing right. I think I do a reasonable Lamb Rogan Josh. This, I feel sure, would qualify as one of those dishes "swimming in brown sauce" which is far removed from the "fresh, vibrant and seasonal" Gujarati ones in this book. I have a more than acceptable Chicken Biryani in my repertoire, thanks to the cook and food writer Sri Owen (yes, I know Sri Owen is Indonesian but she knows her way around a number of cuisines). It comes with a long list of spices and yogurt for saucing and made me appreciate how subtle Indian spicing can be. But it's the incredible range of vegetarian dishes which have come out of India that I most enjoy, and most want to be able to cook. My copy of Madhur Jaffrey's, admittedly weighty, World Vegetarian can only give me a glimpse of India.
Finally, I've found a book that is giving me the confidence to cook Indian vegetarian food myself. Fresh India by Meera Sodha is a follow-up to her well received first book Made in India. ..... Read more ...
 |
| Tartine Book No. 3 by Chad Robertson |
Tartine Book No 3
by Chad Robertson
My food books list back in 2014 included a recommendation for Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. He probably needs no introduction but the book is all about the use of natural leaven (levain or sourdough), which French bakers used for bread, croissants and brioche until the 1930's when commercial yeast became available. After years of believing I could never produce a decent loaf in a domestic kitchen, I put my faith in Chad, and a 'Dutch Oven', and have never looked back. Tartine Book No. 3, published in 2013, was a welcome present this year to move my bread-making skills on from what has become my comfort zone. Because there is much to be discovered beyond Country Whites, Wholewheats and Ryes. A whole world of ancient, sprouted and double-fermented grains, porridge breads, crispbreads and pastries awaits. I'm just getting started with Tartine Book No. 3 so you can take this book recommendation with a pinch of salt, but it's a recommendation built on the strength of my 'oven spring'.
If you are into bread making, or thinking about it, you might like this piece I wrote when I was getting started - The Sweet and the Sour
