Use different coloured ribbons to tie up sets of single and double sheets so you know whether you are Arthur or Martha when you open the cupboard. 'Is this a book about making limoncello and doing the laundry?,' my Peter asked when he saw Limoncello and Linen Water on the kitchen table. 'Actually, it's only a few pages in the first chapter that are dedicated to the linen cupboard,' I replied. 'There are words of wisdom, Italian recipes and households hints too. The author says the book is "an ode to the matriarchal figures in [her] life".'
Limoncello and Linen Water is a beautifully written and presented, and very feminine book from cover to cover. Ms Kiros reminds us: 'Many years ago, a mother would teach her daughter how to keep a home using a doll's house as an example. The daughter would learn how to make sense of it all and keep order through the various rooms. ... To make a home that looks and smells and feels like a home ... How to make the most of what the seasons give by preserving things. That busting feeling through the days of the week with the various chores of washing, ironing and baking, and the harmony her know-how would bring'. Chapters are divided into The Linen Cupboard, The Pantry, The Bread Oven, The Snack Box, The Vegetable Patch, The Pasta Pot, The Dining Room, The Sugar Bin and The Ice Box. The recipe selection is inspired, whimsical and delicious: basil liqueur, celery marmalade, omelette with blossoms; prawns with lardo and insalata di campo; (beef) fillet with rose salt; lemon biscuits with violets, coffee and cassia ice cream and cantuccini. Limoncello and Linen Water by Tessa Kiros (Murdoch Books) $59.95 goes into the Christmas stocking for the special lady in your life. Thank you to Murdoch Books and Tessa Kiros for giving me the opportunity to review this title. Note: Tessa Kiros is in Australlia for the World Chef Showcase at the Crave International Food Festival in Sydney on 6-7 October and will also talk at a literary lunch on 9 October at Stefano Manfredi's Balla.
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A chef's signature dish is his (or her) piece de resistance. It's a recipe that defines them and tells the world about their tastes and their true passion in cooking. A signature dish can be a restaurant's best selling dish, thereby is created by customer demand. It can be a dish that reflects a chef's passion for a particular ingredient (as simple as pork, or as exotic as eel); or produce available during a chef's favourite season.
In Signature Dishes,writer and photographer, Michelle Tchea, has gathered together more than 80 recipes from leading chefs and restaurateurs across Australia. Guy Grossi, Mark Jensen, Jacques Reymond, Jane Tibble, Michael Moore and Toby Puttock are just a few of the 35 chefs interviewed for the book. Each is introduced and then asked a series of questions, such as 'Where did you get the inspiration for your signature dish' and 'What ingredients can be substituted in [the] dish' and 'What would you do with a jar of tomato sauce'. The answers are interesting and varied, and I particularly liked reading about the 'Weapon of Choice' for each chef. Responses range from an electric spray gun to a good kitchen hand (!) and to 'suddenly stop talking, laughing and having fun in the kitchen and follow the silence for a few minutes.' Similarly, the signature dishes are varied and range from the simple to the complex, so the book would suit novice cooks as well more adventurous cooking enthusiasts or young chefs. As the recipes are broken down into elements, readers are given the opportunity to cook a dish in its entirety, or experiment with one component or another. Signature Dishes, compiled by Michelle Tchea (New Holland) is a bargain at $29.95 and full of inspiring lessons from the culinary greats. Thank you to New Holland and Michelle Tchea for giving me the opportunity to review this title. After a long and rather bitter Winter here in Canberra, I am inclined to step outside and perform the Salute to Sun as a gesture of thanks to some warm, sunny days. With the start of the new season, my vegetable garden needs some attention, so Growing Your Own Fruit & Vegetables, a new book by Alison Chivers and Mary Canning, arrived on my doorstep at just the right time.
Alison Chivers says she grew up in a family of three generations of Australian gardeners, and she and her siblings inherited 'a love of the natural world and a generational history of how things grow in Australia'. She documented this information in journals over the years and has now compiled it into this starting out guide in the hope that it will give readers the skills to grow their own food. At the risk of using a cliche, the book really does cover everything you need to know about creating and nurturing your own fruit and vegetable garden. Chapters explore planning your vegetable patch: assessing your space, things to consider and how to build a garden. Before you start, a look at soil, fertilisers, mulching, compost, worm farms, irrigation and watering. Setting up costs, tools and equipment needed, preparation of the garden for planting. There's information on the principles of organic gardening, crop rotation and companion planting, seed saving, bees and pollination. And how and when to sow seeds. There is an A to Z (Asian greens to zucchini) of growing vegetables, as well as information on growing herbs and a variety of fruit, such as apples, berries, citrus, figs, mangoes, melons, passionfruit, rhubarb and strawberries. Pests and diseases are also explained, together with suggestions for natural remedies. A comprehensive gardening calendar explains what to sow and when in each of the cool, temperate, tropical and subtropical regions of Australia. Common gardening terms are also explained. I love the gems of information in this book, such as spraying foliage with espresso coffee as a snail killer; and the sage reminder that conventionally grown strawberries are among the most chemically contaminated crops. And did you know that San Pedro and Smyrna figs require pollination by a fig wasp from the Capri fig?! Growing Your Own Fruit & Vegetables by Alison Chivers and photography by Mary Canning (New Holland Publishers) $40.00. Many thanks to Alison Chivers, Mary Canning and New Holland for giving me the opportunity to review this title. Under the Walnut Tree: great recipes from our kitchen by Anna Bergenström and Fanny Bergenström15/9/2012 Cookbooks can sometimes be equated to old fashioned LP vinyl albums, I feel. Allow me to elaborate. There were times when you would buy an album, only to discover there were just a handful of songs on it that you really liked and wanted to play over and over. Similarly, with some cookbooks, (unless you happen to be blogging your way through a particular book),
you add only a few of the recipes to your repertoire, while the rest hold little or no interest to your tastebuds. This cannot be said for a beautiful new book titled Under the Walnut Tree: great recipes from our kitchen, compiled by Swedish born mother and daughter team, Anna and Fanny Bergenström. With 400 recipes spread over seventeen chapters, the book embraces a wide variety of recipes based on ingredients that come with the changing seasons. Avocado, tomatoes, leafy greens, herbs, chillies, horseradish, ginger, citrus, nuts and seeds, coconut, cardamom, pears, mango, raspberries, vanilla, tea, and chocolate are the chapter headings. How's that for a refreshing and interesting range of topics!? The writers explain this diversity in the introduction: 'Since most of the ingredients can be used in so many different ways, you will find recipes for savoury dishes, desserts and baked goods within the same chapter. You may also find a recipe from Provence on one page and something from India on the next, or a hint of Sweden alongside South American flavours; all reflecting our family's culinary influences and the way we like to cook.' There's also the philosophy of enjoying the seasons and cooking with newly harvested fruits and vegetables; and choosing organically grown 'mainly sustainable' produce, and free range meat and poultry from animals that have been raised with care. 'Using beautiful, seasonal ingredients inspires our cooking and gives us a more rewarding overall experience', they say. The recipes are inspiring and easy to follow, and cover everything from simple avocado or tomato soup, to fresh mint labneh, through to lentil salad from Arlesin France, mojo rojo from the Canary Islands and berbere from Ethiopia, and pad Thai. There's also renklämma wraps made with smoked reindeer meat (Ikea, perhaps?), Swedish cardamom tea ring, pear marmalade, and chocolate cake with walnuts. Definitely an eclectic assortment and something for every cook. The final chapter is devoted to menu ideas for all kinds of occasions and the book is embellished with deliciously styled photography by Fanny Bergenström. Under the Walnut Tree by Anna Bergenström and Fanny Bergenström (Hardie Grant Books) $49.95. A splendid book, copies of which will be going into my loved ones' Christmas stockings. Sssh! With sincere thanks to Anna and Fanny Bergenström and Hardie Grant for giving me the opportunity to review this title. |
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