Foodstyle Review Magazine
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Interesting cookbooks
Foodie book offerings reviewed by
Alan Titchall.
I don’t like Made by Hand. It doesn’t do it for me; but that’s not to say it won’t, or hasn’t, hit a note with the water-sipping generation, which isn’t me. I also did a stint as the managing editor on a wedding magazine and overdosed on self-conscious copy embellished with ‘lifestyle self-improvement’ messages. Sure, the recipes are simple, clear and achievable, and are largely based on ‘fresh, natural and easy-to-find ingredients’, as this book takes pains to point out. And I herald the way the author has cut down the amount of sugar in her recipes – Kiwis put too much sugar in their baking, jams and chutneys, reiterating recipes from pre-fridge ration days when it was an important preservative. However, I struggled with the ‘health, happiness and longevity’ homilies. Moderation is the best philosophy when it comes to cuisine lifestyle, my old Granny used to say, and it worked for her for some 104 years. “I find I never need to buy fast food, nor do I ever want to,” says Julie. What? Miss out on a Subway, a well-made pie or pizza, gourmet burger, or fish and chips? Convenient food, in moderation, is surely no less healthful than the castor sugar and butterfat consumed in this country under the comforting inducement ‘home baking’. A picky point, but it is current publishing vogue to print cookbooks on matte paper, which doesn’t do the recipe photographs (taken by the author) any justice in my opinion – but that’s publishing fashion for you. A
health-focused cookbook that should especially appeal to those with
dietary concerns, such as gluten-intolerance and low-fat watching. I’m
waiting until January when Julie’s Simple Café Food is re-published,
revised and updated, by Penguin. While many of the recipes have been supplied by the chain of Speight’s Ale Houses located throughout the country, with the food styling by Fiona Smith, this book also includes anecdotes, beer and food matching, and the history behind the Speight’s company and its personalities. Writer Nicola McCloy has made a good job of the text and it is very funny to read. “Go bush to avoid Valentine’s Day,” say the notes for February 14 on the Southern Man’s Calendar. The photography, by Aaron McLean, while good, is on matte paper that, again, mutes the impact of the food styling. Two recipe sections I particularly like: Salads, “If a Southern man is going to eat a salad, you’d better be sure there’s going to be a bit of meat in there;” and the section on pies. You can’t read past the ‘chick’n’mush pie’ or ‘Mrs McConnell’s venison pies’ without the urge to buy a packet of flaky pastry and fire up the stove. The ‘shearers’ shanks recipe is as good as any, while the ‘summit-smoked wild pork’ recipe from Speight’s Ale House in Palmerston North is very interesting – marinating the pork belly in beer before smoking it with Darjeeling tea, rice and sugar. A pudding and beer matching section also makes interesting reading. Very unblokey, there’s even a section on ‘accompaniments’ which includes black cherry chutney and a good hummus recipe – ‘The perfect recipe for a Southern man who wants to impress a Northern lady,” apparently. It
wouldn’t be a southern recipe book without including the endemic
‘cheese roll’, staple diet of skint scarfies. There’s two in the ‘light
meals’ section, one featuring a packet of onion soup mix (no, no, no!),
and the other, from Speight’s Ale House in Napier of all places, which
is exactly how I remember them from my Speight’s drinking, Dunedin Uni
days. Royalties
from each book go to the Starship Children’s Hospital, which provides
healthcare to over 150,000 children from around New Zealand and the
Pacific Islands each year. The proceeds are part of a wider campaign to
raise millions needed to rebuild Starship’s neuroservices and medical
specialities wards over the next two years. Among other interesting recipes are Jo Seagar’s ‘Roast lamb with coffee and cream’, and a ‘lamb and yoghurt pie’ by Tina Duncan that is topped with filo-pastry sheets and inspired by a holiday in Greece. For the adventurous family cook is the ‘Vietnamese Lamb shanks’ recipe by Karen Halby, and ‘Braised lamb with cinnamon and olives’ by Fiona Smith – cinnamon is a venerable spice complement to rich beef dishes. A book that is both a worthy cause for the Starship foundation and your recipe book collection. Born in 1913 and raised in a ‘privileged’ upbringing, David lived what was described at the time as a ‘bohemian’ life. She smoked Gauloises, was husky-voiced, and fond of wearing black pencil skirts and white shirts (which must have made her look like a wait staff). Her first book, Mediterranean Food, was published in 1950 and her third book, Italian Food (1954) was one of the first cookbooks in the UK recognising Italy’s regional cuisines. David also had a passionate interest in English cooking and her 1977 book English Bread & Yeast Cookery had a big influence on artisan breadmaking. At Elizabeth David’s Table was published to celebrate the 60th anniversary of David’s first book, and cherry-picks her ‘greatest hits’. What makes this collection of recipes so valuable to anyone serious about cooking is that the dishes are photographed – most of her original recipes were not illustrated. A journalist of the old school, David’s directness and polished style, lack of pretentiousness, and authoritative observations, raises the contents of this cookbook to the top of the litany pumped out by today’s publishers. The chapter on sauces is indicative of this – each classic sauce gets a page with handy observations and tips you don’t often see in today’s recipe books. Nor are they complicated recipes. ‘Mutton stewed with brandy and garlic’ would, these days, be perfect for a slow cooker. ‘Chicken baked with green pepper and cinnamon butter’ is inspiring, while classics such as ‘pears baked in red wine’ and ‘coffee ice cream’ and the old English ‘snow cheese’, should never be forgotten. It is books like At Elizabeth David’s Table that make you realise how many good recipes are sitting back in history - as modern recipe books and restaurant menus trip over themselves to present one culinary fad after another. If you only have one Elizabeth David cookbook on your pantry shelves this should be it. Summer 2010
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2010 Foodstyle Review. All
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