Yesterday was all about cooking. It was so lovely to have a day recipe testing - both my own recipes and recipes from some wonderful books I've been sent to review - all of which would make excellent Christmas presents for the food and drink lovers in your lives.
The first book I looked at was one I didn't actually make a recipe from, as it's more of an info book than a recipe book, but is absolutely fascinating, and so informative. I spent a couple of hours totally immersed in it, before realising I needed to crack on with making recipes from the other books! TASTE - The Infographic Book of Food, by Laura Rowe is a must read. TASTE takes you through every type of food, with beautiful illustrations telling the story of each food/drink group. It covers food facts, recipe ideas, trends, history and much more. This really is a book you can get lost in for hours, and one I can't wait to read over and over again.
Sometimes I get invites to events that I don't have to think twice about attending - like the recent launch party for cake maker and decorator extraordinaire, Juliet Sear's new book, Cakeology. Sadly though my plans changed and I wasn't actually able to make the party, though saw photos of mini burger cakes, and a whole tree made out of cake that she'd created for the event. And though I'd missed out on the actual party I was sent a copy of her beautiful book to review instead.
A few weeks ago I received a very special delivery - Rosie Birkett's new cookbook, A Lot on her Plate. Rosie is a food writer and stylist and has written for The Guardian, Olive Magazine, Grazia, The Sunday Times and loads more top publications, as well as her own blog, but this is her first solo book. And what a book it is. A Lot on her Plate is full of incredible recipes and beautiful images shot by Helen Cathcart. The book has chapters on breakfasts and brunches, starters, small plates, bigger plates and super suppers, feasts for friends, salads, desserts and drink, and essentials. The majority of the recipes are of course Rosie's but she's also included family recipes and a couple from some of my favourite restaurants, including Dishoom.
I've been reading through the book and wanted to pick out some star recipes to mention here but I had such a hard time narrowing it down - I honestly could've listed every single recipe. Favourites include a breakfast recipe of cod's roe and sweetcorn fritters with avocado and Sriracha (wow!); bavette carpaccio with crispy capers and mustard mayo; chipotle roast chicken; salted butterscotch popcorn cheesecake (it's a girl after my own hear who puts salted butterscotch in a cheesecake); and cumin brioche buns which I'll be making this weekend. Rosie is passionate about seasonal ingredients and buying good quality produce, and this shines through the book. One of my sweetest parts of the book is in the intro, where she recommends kitchen equipment, ranging from the necessary to the nice-to-have, all with wonderful illustrations.
I've already cooked 1 recipe from A Lot on her Plate, and want to share it with you here - a beautiful chicken, tarragon and mushroom cassoulet that the housemates and I devoured on a week night recently. Make this for you housemates and they'll love you forever!
Serves 4
1 large handful cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
25g butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 small shallots, finely chopped
Handful fresh tarragon
100g chanterelles
2 large Portobello mushrooms, sliced
50g chestnut or button mushrooms
Bunch parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp white wine or tarragon vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
8 free range chicken thighs, skin on (I used a mixture of thighs and drumsticks)
150ml white wine
80g kamalata olives, stones removed
500-700ml chicken stock or water
400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the tomatoes in a roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 mins or until they're concentrated and aromatic.
While the tomatoes are roasting heat a heavy based frying pan and add the butter, garlic and half the shallots and cook for 2 minutes, until they start to soften. Add the tarragon, mushrooms, a pinch of salt and some pepper. Sauté for around 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are tinged golden and start to release their moisture. Transfer to a bowl, stirring in the vinegar and chopped parsley, and remove the tomatoes from the oven.
Return the pan to the heat with 1 tbsp. olive oil. Add the chicken, skin side down, and fry until golden - turning once they are. Once all sides of the chicken are golden, transfer to a plate, add the remaining shallots to the pan and fry for around 4 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the white wine, making sure you scrape up the crispy bits from the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken back in the pan, with the olives. Pour in the water or stock until it's covering the chicken and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 30-35 minutes.
Add the roasted tomatoes to the chicken pan and stir, then add the cannellini beans. Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms and simmer for another 7-10 minutes. Garnish with tarragon leaves and serve with crusty bread and a nice green salad.
I love a good salad. It doesn't matter if it's on the beach in the Mediterranean or at home in London in the middle of the winter. Sometimes the freshness of a good salad is all I really crave. Salads are so versatile - they can be warm or cold and can include pretty much whichever ingredients you choose to put in them. Harry Eastwood came to our tv screens about 8 years ago with Cook Yourself Thin and now she's back with her new book A Salad For All Seasons. I got sent a copy to have a look at and I really like it - it's a great book full of delicious sounding salad recipes to follow, but it's also a really good source of inspiration if you've got some salad leaves at home and want to make something with whatever you've got in the fridge. Particular salad recipes that I'm looking forward to making from the book are hot smoked salmon, edamame and cucumber with a wasabi cream dressing; iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon (which I think will be even better if I griddle the iceberg wedge); southern salad with root beer brisket; and pan fried bananas with rum butterscotch.
Today though it was Harry's Squash salad with pomegranate and prosciutto that really caught my eye. I didn't follow the recipe as it was, so here's what I did, and to see Harry's version get her book here.
Serves 2
1 butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp nigella seeds
100g prosciutto (I used pata negra iberica, which is pricey buy truly wonderful)
1 avocado
Juice of 1 lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Handful of lamb's lettuce - you can use the Florette duo of lamb's lettuce and wild rocket
1 tbsp capers
1 egg
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel the butternut squash and chop into 1.5cm chunks. Toss is the olive oil and sprinkle with nigella seeds and a little salt. Lay the chunks of butternut squash in one layer on a baking tray and roast for around 30 minutes, turning once during cooking.
Puree the avocado, lemon juice and olive oil in with the magi mix or in the blender, until a smooth paste. Swipe some of the avocado on the plate, and top with the washed lamb's lettuce. Put the butternut squash chunks on the plate and add curls of the prosciutto. Sprinkle with capers.
A couple of years ago I did a food writing course at Leith's cookery school. There were about 15 of us on the course, from all walks of life, each with our own food writing ambitions. Mine was to improve my blog, learn some writing techniques and brush up my skills in the hope of one day writing my own cookbook. 2 years down the line and I still hope to publish my own book, part of which is written, part of which is safely stored in my head!!!! But something exciting popped up on my facebook feed a few weeks ago - one of the ladies on the course, April Carter, has now written her 3rd book (!!), which has been published by Hardie Grant and is now on sale! Her name emblazoned across her book, full of her own recipes - that has to be the dream come true? I was thrilled when April said yes to me previewing one of her recipes from the book for my blog, in the hope that you might want to buy the book yourselves, either to further your own baking, or as a perfect Christmas present for a loved one.
April Carter's 'Decorated - Sublimely crafted cakes for every occasion' book is absolutely beautiful. A collection of recipes for cakes and sweet treats for all occasions and skill levels, the book finishes with a chapter dedicated to how to decorate your own cakes, going into great detail about icing techniques, how to melt chocolate and tips for that extra special finishing touch, all shown via gorgeous photos, taken by Danielle Wood. I know already that April's book is going to be my go-to book for cake making and decorating, and as I'm known as the world's worst cake decorator I can see myself learning a LOT from the last chapter of 'Decorated'. So when an email came into my inbox at work last week asking if I'd bake a cake for a bake sale in aid of Children with Cancer and St John's Hospice (for who they ended up raising over £400), I thought it the ideal time to give one of April's recipes a go, though as you'll see later, I've still got a way to go on the decorating side of things!! Looks aside, it was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten, and April's recipes are a dream to follow - step by step, absolutely perfect instructions.
