Tuesday, April 10, 2012

catching up on cookbooks

Judging by culinary literature the Brits know how to cherish their veggies. 
I ordered three new cookbooks and next to Simon Hopkinson's, Alice Hart's and Ottolenghi's book that I own, they all come from the isles.
Despite of a big interested audience (concerning the considerable vegetarian population in Germany) there is a market niche of likewise enigmatic cookbooks on this side of the channel. 


Two short notes and a long one:
  • "New Complete Vegetarian" by Rose Elliot (as I understand she is in the UK what Elisabeth Fischer is in Germany - the queen of vegetarian cookbooks): a compendium of more than 1000 recipes from mostly European cuisines, rarely pictured. Contains a healthy amount of vegan recipes, too.

  • "Tender, A cook and his vegetable patch" by Nigel Slater: a comprehensive, philosophical book on all things grown in the own garden. In almost each of the numerous personal notes of the author you will find words of wisdom. Besides, I have never seen such atmospheric food pictures before and photographer Jonathan Lovekin proves that dark pictures can be fine, too :) The only flaw in my view is that the recipes depend on massive amounts of dairies and eggs. It's not a light cuisine.

  • River Cottage Veg by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Normally books with an author's pic on the cover are daunting, especially when it is supposed to accompany you day by day. But now I am so delighted at HFW's mission and his recipes (which can be found here as well) that the blemish can be overlooked. This is the first book that I want to cook through entirely and I think, will do :) The correspondent television series are the best that I have seen on this subject (next to them all other cooking shows appear out-dated). It really embraces all aspects of a delightful and responsible way to live and feed on the natural resources around. Hard to say which scenes I liked most but the marrying couple tramping plums, the butcher scene, the boat fishing scene, the gardening according to Buddhist philosphy - all those scenes were unique, moving and always moderated by HWS's British humor.
Now that I have to check tons of new recipes, don't wonder when I hang around less here in the next weeks :)


6 comments:

  1. su, i've just finished 'reviewing' (as in: taking pic and editing) nigel slater's cookbook tender (vol. 1), too! AND i totally want that other one, the river cottage one. TWINS! lol

    sending you some sunshine along the way!
    ps: might be in berlin for a weekend within the next weeks, yays! any insider reco?
    xo
    scarlett

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    1. Scarlett, being considered a twin flatters me! :)

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  2. Zack...das ist ja ein Service....schon muss ich nicht mehr suchen, sondern nur noch schauen.
    Hab auch gerade bestellt:
    For the love of food "Denis Cotter"
    und
    La Tartine Gourmande und jetzt geh' ich mal youtuben :)

    Viel Saß beim Schmökern!

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    1. Denis Cotter hab ich auch bestellt! Ich vermute mal, dass wir beide bei Valentina gestöbert haben :)

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  3. Slater's Tender might be the best cookbook I've read so far. A few more of these wonderful pictures would've been great but other than that it's fantastic. Enjoy it. And since I don't know the other two, I'm going to check them out. Thanks for that.

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  4. dear su
    you are my conscience, haha. i really appreciated your insights and had to share it. glad you already saw my new post, would otherwise have sent it directly to you (for your credits).
    and thank you SO MUCH for the berlin tipps! must meet your city, and soon! my bf is there now, in fact. he went alone this time. next time we'll enjoy the city together.
    wishing you a fantastic week. can't wait for your next post!
    s

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