‘Breakfast for Dinner’ ~ a Review

Having just written about Dinner on Toast for lunch and Ice Cream for Breakfast  it is a coincidence (or maybe destiny) that I am now reading a rather lovely book called Breakfast for Dinner!  

Written by Lindsay Landis and her husband Taylor Hackbarth, a couple of American chaps, and published by Quirk Books this really takes me back to my years in the Caribbean where Sunday Brunch at the Tamarind Club was a huge, popular and fun event.  Many of the dishes in Breakfast for Dinner are either similar to those I used to do or exactly what I would like to do if I was still cheffing out there, or even here.

On first flick through there are a lot of American ways of putting things which may be unfamiliar in the UK; but, seriously, don’t let this be a deterrent.  Among talk of grits, marinara sauce and Monte Cristos there are some excellent recipes and ideas and, in fact, I’m having a bit of a drool right now as I browsefor examples to give.

The Parmesan Beignets look gorgeous as does the recipe for Tomato Peach Jam which is recommended to serve with them. Chocolate Brownie Waffles are a inspiration as is so much in this book.

In addition to great photos (I’ve been trying to find out who took them but perhaps it was the talented authors themselves)  and very tempting recipes there is a lot of useful info on how to poach eggs, make crepes and homemade pasta, and such like.  In addition are footnotes to the recipes giving alternatives, serving suggestions, suitable side dishes and, a personal favourite, what to do with leftovers.

Bacon Action! 

Another thing I very much like about this book is there is a lot of bacon action; Bacon Jam, Candied Bacon, Maple Bacon Cupcakes, Candied Bacon and, of course, that old breakfast standby Bacon Infused Bourbon leading inexorably to how to make a Bacon Old-Fashioned. 

"The Perfect Egg" by Aldo Buzzi – an enthusiastic Review

A while ago I bought this lovely little book in a charity shop, what a wonderful find.  I keep it by me to dip into whilst waiting for something e.g. for my man to come back to the car, or the kettle to boil, that sort of thing.

This collection of 39 essays on the matter of food and food related ponderings is a joy to read, erudite, funny, thoughtful, mouth watering, the writing is sublime and, as the Mail on Sunday says (although I don’t always agree with them, I do here) …

“Scrumptious … the recipes here are almost incidental, stirred in with snatched of travelogue and languorous memoir that set each in time and place.”

There are indeed a few recipes in the book but as the Mail on Sunday put it they are “almost incidental”, they are also in some cases a little strange such as this boiled egg recipe from a fifteenth century chef …

“Put fresh eggs into cold water and allow them to boil for the duration of a  Paternoster or a little longer”!

For more information on boiling eggs, how long they take and other ways to cook eggs see here.

Aldo Buzzi seems to have been quite a guy; he was an architect, a food and travel writer and seems to have done quite a lot in the film industry from set design to screenwriting.  He lived to be 99.  

The Perfect Egg was published in Italian in 1979 and, luckily for me, was translated into English by one Guido Waldman and published in 2005.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough – get it from Amazon here. 

I shall certainly be looking out for his other writings, A Weakness for Almost Everything which was published in English in 1999 sounds particularly appealing.

Thank you Mr. Buzzi.

“An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler – a Review

I am a member of The Kitchen Reader – a great foodie online book club.  Every month we read a designated book, food writing rather than recipes, and review it on our blogs.  When I saw that October’s book was, “An Everlasting Meal – Cooking with Economy and Grace” by Tamar (good Cornish name!) Adler I was in two minds whether to read it or not.  On the plus side it is Just My Sort of Thing being about the use of leftovers, both incidental and planned, on the minus side I didn’t want it to influence my own book  in any way.  

Everything worked out perfectly however because although I ordered the book some while ago it only arrived yesterday – two days after sending my own manuscript off to my publishers.

Even better because of its late arrival I had a good excuse to lie around all day reading!  And what did I think?  Read on …

I was hooked pretty well from the start when Ms. Adler said in the introduction how much she loves M.F.K. Fisher’s book “How to Cook a Wolf” and had modelled “An Everlasting Meal” on it.  Well, as M.F.K. is one of the World’s bestest food writers ever (see here for my review of her “The Art of Eating”) this sounded promising.

I find I agree very much with pretty well everything else she says too with one very minor exception.  She states in her section on eggs (written so enticingly I immediately had an egg for lunch!) that Frittatas in Italian and Tortillas in Spanish are called “egg pies” in English.  Well I have been English for bloody ages and have never heard of such a thing in that respect but only, on only perhaps, when referring to a quiche like dish!  Pernickety of me or what?

Tamar Adler’s writing style in unusual and attractive, she says that “beets … have their own way of being” and that “Capers are odd and wild as birds”!  Her chapter “How to Paint without Brushes” on learning about food from its touch, its smell and its sound is spot on.  As she so rightly says, something is ready when you taste it and “don’t wonder”.  Of course this does take time but is so very, very worth it.

“An Everlasting Meal” is different to my own leftovers book; it is a really good read, something to take to bed with you and enjoy (maybe just jumping up occasionally to cook an egg) whereas my own is a handbook to keep in the kitchen and refer to whenever a leftover occurs. Our thinking, however, is very much the same and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants so learn how to cook from the soul.

On the same theme here is someone else I agree with …

“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”

Julia Child

About my Egg …

I’ve had a few torn flour tortillas in the fridge for a while so made myself a baked egg in a tortilla nest. Its easy – grease a ramekin and encourage a torn tortilla into it to form a cup. Break in an egg and top with a spoonful of cream (or in my case leftover Alfredo sauce – easy recipe for this gorgeous sauce here). Pop in a medium oven till the edge of the tortilla is crisp and golden, the white is set and the yolk is still soft. I baked a couple of tortilla wedges alongside, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

Speaking of Cookbooks …

My book mentioned above was published in March, 2013. Originally titled The Leftovers Handbook a second edition is now available and is called Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers. In it I give all the information, ideas and recipes I can think of for over 450 possible leftovers.

"Garlic & Sapphires" by Ruth Reichl – a Review

I used to live in the Caribbean on a boat in Trellis Bay – above.  Sometimes on visits home to the UK I would mention this and people would accuse me of being lucky.  This was not the case; it was not luck that took me to the Caribbean it was a decision to go followed by appropriate action.  (And incidentally I was very poor at the time, getting there left me with just $8 in the world!)

Reading of Ruth Reichl’s wonderful sounding career I nearly said she was lucky but I think not.  More accurately Ruth Reichl is talented, hard working and resourceful.  Either way her fab lifestyle makes me jealous.  In a nutshell she played dressing up and then ate in wonderful restaurants whilst pretending to be someone else – and she got paid for it. 

Her book, “Garlic and Sapphires ~ The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise” is a lovely read; interesting, funny, informative and foodie with several recipes scattered amongst its pages.
  

Ruth Reichl was the restaurant critic for the New York Times and therefore very recognisable to restaurateurs, hence the need for a disguise.   She found her dining experiences when dressed as a “nobody” very different from those when dining as herself.  Which is, of course, reprehensible.  On many occasions when working as a chef I have been told that so-and-so was in house so to make sure to go the extra mile, so to speak.   This always got up my goat (as we say in my family!).  Surely the idea is to do your best at all times not just do second rate work unless someone “important” comes in.  It seems, however, that this attitude is not the norm in the restaurant business.

Anyhoo – I heartily recommend this book, give it a go – you can get it from Amazon. or visit Ruth Reichl’s own site here where there are details of her other books; “Tender at the Bone”,  “Comfort me with Apples” and “For you Mom, Finally” which I shall certainly be looking out for.

Speaking of books about food I have written a few cookbooks myself – here’s my Amazon Author Page (just in case you’re interested!).

In other news …

My friend Jenny of JennyEatwell’s Rhubarb & Ginger has pointed out a rather lovely spam comment that I received in connection with my recent post on yukky gnocchi.  Very nicely put I thought.  Coincidentally it reminds me of my research into krumplinudli which are the same sort of things as gnocchi – perhaps it is a side effect

Here it is verbatim, I cannot see how it pertains to my blog but I am glad they took the trouble to write ~ enjoy …

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"Small Adventures in Cooking" by James Ramsden ~ a Review

~  Menu  ~

Tagliatelle with Black Garlic Alfredo

Crunchy Blue Cheese Crumbs

Glass of Secret Red

Sweetie out my Advent Calendar

You may remember that I have already reviewed two excellent books in the New Voices in Food Series published by Quadrille; Stevie Parle’s “Real Food from Near and Far” and Niamh Shields “Comfort & Spice”.   Well here’s another one and, quelle surprise, it’s as good as the other two.  I thought I’d better get it reviewed before Christmas as it would make a great pressie.

First of all I must say I like this guy’s style – really easy and relaxed; less like a chef telling you how it is than a friend chatting about food.  Surprisingly, but in a good way, his recipes in the chapter “Corner Shop Capers” are built around tinned foods and his instructions are certainly not “set in stone” he gives lots of tweaking ideas and ways to tart up his dishes.  Also, I am pleased to say, he advises the intelligent use of leftovers.  He gives shopping tips, help on seasoning correctly, advice on what knife to use, how to be happy and some really delicious things to do with Vodka,   

He even gives #hashtags for each recipe in case you want to discuss them on Twitter plus his email and Twitter addresses – as I say; friendly.  In short I do very much recommend this book; it is interesting to me as a chef (resting!) but will also be great for home cooks and people learning to be home cooks.  The recipes are inspiring yet accessible and I think I shall try his Tomato & Goats Cheese Gratin first.

The book, like the others in the series, is an attractive cardboardback with photo by Steven Joyce, it was publishes by Quadrille Publishing Ltd last Jun, (ISBN-10: 1844009572, ISBN-13: 978-1844009572) and you can get it from Amazon here. 

Coincidentally James Ramsden has included a comforting note on making mistakes. 

Coincidentally because I have this very day had a bit of a cock up on the catering front.  I read somewhere that if one mixed together equal quantities of blue cheese and butter and munged in the same quantity of flour (ie. 33:33:33 – plus a rogue 1) the resulting dough made lovely blue cheese crisps.  Well mine didn’t, it made a tray of very delicious unconnected crunchy crumbs.  Well you know what I am for a leftover – I made myself Tagliatelle Alfredo with some black garlic in it and sprinkled on the totally yummy mistake.  All’s well that ends well – I think I might do it again.

We have an advent calendar each in our house (we’re dead posh) – so I had my piece of chocolate for lunch pudding.

Incidentally I do have the fourth book in the New Voices in Food series; Alice Hart’s “Alice’s Cook Book” and will try and get that reviewed asap.  She has a new book due out next year “Friends at my Table”, I know this because Quadrille recently sent me a load of blads!!!  I know, what a surprise!  

Apparently blad stands for basic layout and design and these ones also include a few samples from the books – there seem to be lots of good things coming up.  Stevie Parle also has a new book on the way “Dock Kitchen Cookbook” and exciting things, too, from Peggy Porschen, Sam Stern, Tamsin Day-Lewis and Nathan Outlaw.  There is also a book called “Drink Me” by Matt Walls about how to choose, taste and enjoy wine – as I am convinced that the only way to learn about wine is to experience it this is something I am looking forward to studying!

“Christmas Miniatures – finger food and tiny treats” by Australian Women’s Weekly – review

Quick – get this book!

Any minute now Australian Women’s Weekly are publishing a lovely little book “Christmas Miniatures – finger food and tiny treats” (thank you so much for my review copy) which I urge you to buy asap. The sooner you get it the sooner you can start planning what to make as gifts and what to cook for the upcoming festive season; there’s lots to choose from.

I used to collect Australian Women’s Weekly years ago and have cooked and sold many a fine dish based on their recipes.  Becoming nomadic I stopped collecting cookbooks (or anything really) but now, having settled down in order to practice for my dotage, I’ve started again and am glad to see that AWW are as good as ever and to add this book to my budding new collection.

“Christmas Miniatures” gives over 50 recipes for nibbly treats divided between …

~   Cocktail Food with a subsection entitled No Fuss Finger food.  This section concerns savoury nibbles such as Vodka-Cured Gravlax, Sticky Glazed Pork with Pineapple and so on and so forth – lovely stuff!

~   Little Pies and Tarts

~   Little Cakes & Pudding

~   Biscuits and Slices

~   Chocolates and Sweets including a subsection on sweet gifts.

There are, of course, some of the things one would expect in such a book; miniature Christmas puds, a few weeny versions of mince pies, including an Eccles cake version, and chocolatey delights but there are surprises too; Stained Glass Biscotti being one and Gingerbread Christmas Trees another – lovely presentation.  In fact quite a few of these tiny treats are not only good enough to eat they are pretty enough to hang on the tree first.

The book is illustrated with some great photos, one per recipe, so you know what you are aiming for and in the back are some conversion charts and a useful glossary.  The relevant details are “Christmas Miniatures” is published (on Monday!) by Octopus Books through their imprint Australian Women’s Weekly and is available here from Amazon, the ISBN numbers are ISBN-10: 1742450881, ISBN-13: 978-1742450889

"The Gentle Art of Cookery" ~ a Review

~ Menu ~

Oeufs Mollets à la Robert

Sippets of Toast

A Whole Cherry in Brandy enrobed in Dark Chocolate!

Coffee

Please read more about lunch towards the end of the post because I have something else I want to write about first..

The Gentle Art of Cookery

Quadrille have sent me this bloody lovely book by Mrs. C.F. Leyel and Miss Olga Hartley which is one of their new series; Classic Voices in Food. It is a strange delight and I am grateful for it.

On the back cover of this edition is a quote by Skye Gyngell with which I entirely agree …

… every time I go into the bedroom I sit down, read a little more and do a happy grin.

Miss Hartley is not mentioned in the preface or anywhere else and my research has revealed that she was the first lady’s assistant, and nothing wrong with that, but I think Mrs. L is the brains behind the work.   The recipes are not for a completely novice cook, they are however very much after my own natural style of cooking; “some …”, “a bit of …”, etc. and are fine with me. 

The 20 chapters are quite diverse; some are devoted to a general food group such as meat or vegetables or to a specific ingredient such as the interesting section on chestnuts.  Other chapters are much more “out there”,  there’s a tantalizing chapter called “Dishes from the Arabian Nights”, a fascinating section of Flower Recipes,  and another on cooking with children (as fellow cooks, not as ingredients) in which she advocated having the little darlings join you in the kitchen.

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that pleases me so much about reading The Gentle Art of Cookery, a mix of several things I think.  The writing is funny,  poetic – “sprigs of parsley freed from their stalks”, informative, opinionated, enticing, modern – using chilli vinegar for instance – and yet also redolent of the past; she asserts that a silver spoon should be used when making mayonnaise and there is much passing of stuff through sieves and stoning of raisins. 

Much more butter is used than would be considered healthy these days and Harvey’s sauce is a common ingredient.  I googled this and found it to be a little like Worcestershire sauce with anchovies, soy, cayenne, walnut pickle, garlic and vinegar.  Apparently it is still available so if I see some I’ll try it.  (I am still on the hunt for Marmite chocolate by the way, I haven’t wimped out!).

As I read through the book I fluctuate from “yuk” (Lemon Cream Pie using potatoes and an unusual spinach dessert), “hmm interesting” as in savoury custards and Yummy! It is from the latter section that I have decided to cook my lunch – there I’ve mentioned it, read on!

Oeufs Mollets à la Robert

Which are soft boiled eggs (she gives no instructions on how to mollet one’s oeufs but I lowered mine gently into boiling water and cooked them at a gentle boil, or a violent simmer, for 6½ minutes) peeled and served whole in a creamy onion sauce to which one has added “a wineglassful of white wine”.   Mrs. L said the dish could be served “with or without a wall of mashed potato round the dish” and I plumped for without, serving instead some sippets of toasted bread.

This was an excellent dish, rich and delicious, which I thoroughly enjoyed in a guilty pleasure sort of way.  If I was still cooking brunch in the sun I would definitely put this on the menu.

Incidentally and by the way, I had a little leftover onion sauce so added it to this evening’s mashed potato.  This went down very well with my darling who doesn’t usually go for “fancy food”!

There are many other dishes I want to try but not many of them lend themselves to suddenness, no worries – the book is a keeper, I’ll get round to them.

Quadrille’s new edition of The Gentle Art of Cookery  is attractively presented as a sturdy, solid, reliable sort of hardback book, it isn’t illustrated, it just gets down to the lovely nitty gritty.  If you are interested in food and cooking, and presumably you must be, I urge you to buy this book!

Quadrille publish The Gentle Art of Cookery on 5^th September 2011 ISBN-10: 1844009823

ISBN-13: 978-1844009824.  It is one of a series of four books; the first two Madame Prunier’s Fish Cookery Book and Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery for Private Families were published on 4^th April.  Xavier Marcel Boulestin’s Simple French Cookery for English Homes will also be published on 5^th September and I hope to review it long before that.