How does one define the complexity of love on a single plate? N. M. Kelby brings us the sensuality of food and love amid a world on the verge of war in this work that shimmers with beauty and longing.

White Truffles in Winter imagines the world of the remarkable French chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), who changed how we eat through his legendary restaurants at the Savoy and the Ritz. A man of contradictions – kind yet imperious, food-obsessed yet rarely hungry – Escoffier was also torn between two women: the famous, beautiful, and reckless actress Sarah Bernhardt and his wife, the in­dependent and sublime poet Delphine Daffis, who refused ever to leave Monte Carlo. In the last year of Escoffier’s life, in the middle of writing his memoirs, he has returned to Delphine, who requests a dish in her name as he has honored Bernhardt, Queen Victoria, and many others.

N. M. Kelby(Nicole Mary Kelby) has been translated into several languages and offered by The Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club. She is the recipient of a Bush Art­ist Fellowship in Literature, an NEA Inter-Arts grant, the Heekin Group Foundation’s James Fellowship for the Novel, both a Florida and Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in fiction, two Jerome Travel Study Grants, and a Jewish Arts Endowment Fellowship. She is the critically acclaimed author of In the Company of Angels, Whale Season and the Florida Book Award win­ner A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, among others. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The BBC are doing a documentary about Escoffier.

To Win: Comment or Email the answer to this question: “Which chef is the subject of this book?”

As is typical of Donna Hay, this book has impeccable styling, chorizo, and canned caramel.

I made her cheat’s chocolate and salted caramel tarts which were very sweet but a quick win.

Donna has some really great ideas that are simple to make and seem pretty tasty.  I like it better than her last book Fast Fresh and Simple (review here). It also avoids some of the dreadful editing mistakes from that book.  I also like this better than Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals (review here).

This book is perfect for the busy or lazy cook. They are pretty much pantry ready and if not, then the ingredients are easily found at a supermarket. Unless you want thin chocolate biscuits! (see below)

Above: Miso Grilled Fish, Salmon and Dill Pie

Above: Pork and Sweet Potato Curry, Asian Pork Spare Ribs

Above: Caramelised Chilli Pork Neck

Above: Spiced Lamb Pies

Above: Caramelised Onion and Potato Frittata, Soft egg and crispy pancetta pasta

Cheat’s chocolate and salted caramel tarts

• 12 thin plain round chocolate biscuits
• 1/4 cup store-bought caramel filling or dulce de leche
• sea salt flakes, to serve
• dark chocolate filling
• 200 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) single pouring cream

Preheat over to 140C 275F.  Place the biscuits into a 12 x 30 ml capacity lightly greased shallow patty tin.  Bake for 5 mins or until soft.  Using a clean tea towel, press the biscuits into the tin to form a shell and allow to cool.

To make the chocolate filling, place the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth.  Spoon filling into the biscuit shells and refrigerate until firm.  Top the tarts with the caramel and sprinkle with a little sea salt to serve.  Makes 12.

Call me ignorant but I couldn’t find really thin chocolate biscuits so I used chocolate ripple biscuits.

Tons of leftover chocolate filling (Tip: Freeze it and use it later as a sauce). Also tons of leftover caramel which I made into icecream.

This book isn’t high on originality. In fact its really the better version of Fast Fresh and Simple.

Nevertheless this is good modern Australian cuisine done in a simple beautiful way.

My rating 4 stars.

Shop at fishpond:

Simple Dinners

In a desperate search for “great british food”, I came across this title and had to press buy.
To my suprise its a small, beautiful volume. Very small.

The styling reflects tongue in cheek school boys paying homage to an idyllic 60s British youth.

I really love the retro styling and the addition of animals adds a touch of whimsy. That said, I really hate mice and just the thought of little mice poos falling into the crevices on a face of cheese made me dry retch.

So styling wise I think this book is pretty special. There aren’t a lot of photos in the book but I think thats ok as most of the recipes are somewhat familiar and there aren’t many flashy techniques.

The book comes from the owners of CANTEEN. Canteen are a London based retaurant which offers “reasonably priced, high quality, modern British cooking. Apparently its a smash hit and Canteen has become a chain.

Pies are supposedly their signature dishes and they are “unapoligetically nostalgic when it comes to desserts and cakes”.

Things I want to eat

Scotch eggs, sausage rolls, potted duck and picalilli, cauliflower soup, duck chestnut and prune pie

Victoria Sponge by Canteen

• 250 g soft butter
• 250 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250 g plain white flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 20g icing sugar for dusting

Filling

• 80 g raspberry or strawberry jam
• 150ml double cream whipped

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Beat the butter with the caster sugar until pale and fluffy.

2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs just to mix. Slowly add the eggs to the butter and sugar mix, making sure each addition is well mixed in before adding more.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder, then gently fold into the egg mix with a spatula.

4. Use baking parchment to line the bottom of a 25 cm round cake tin with a removable bottom. Line the side of the tin with a separate strip of parchment. Pour in the cake mixture.

5. Bake for 30-35 min until a skewer instered into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

6. Remove the cake from the tin and split into two equal layers using a bread knife.

7. Spread jam on the cut surface of one layer and whipped cream on the other cut surface. Sandwich togheter.Dust the tope of the cake with icing sugar.

The cake was dry and heavy. I was surprised that it was made with butter and not just eggs. In fact the recipe seems to be a butter cake. It wasn’t the sponge I was expecting. It certainly wasn’t light and fluffy. Is this what a Victoria Sponge is supposed to be like?

Overall this is a cute book. I wanted to make the pies but getting suet was a bit of a challenge for me. Overall a good book for a hipster as it has some really unique styling.

My rating: 3 1/2 stars.

Shopping:Australia: 

Wow, I can’t believe I’ve reviewed 30 books over the last 12 months! (hug to self… hmm arms have to stretch a bit harder now…)

Even though I’ve fed my friends and family over the course of the year, its time for me to keep on gifting.

Here are my top Christmas gifts for the silly season.

My top 5 books for 2011 (in no particular order)

• Poh’s Kitchen (review)

• Two Asian Kitchens (review)

• Delicious (review)

• Jeni’s Spendid Ice-cream (review)

• Momofuku Milk Bar (review)

MY GIFT IDEAS

• Book for the guy addicted to Bunnings

• Adrian’ Richardson’s The Good Life (Review)

• Book for those that count chocolate as a vegetable
• PS desserts (review)

• Book for the guy that thinks he can cook but can’t

• Manu’s Kitchen (review)

• Book for the chick who wears Campers and makes her own cool clothes
  

• Sweet Treats (review)

• Book for the princess brat moving out of home

• Donna Hay’s Fast Fresh Simple (review)

• Book for the self righteous hipster

• South East Asian Food (review)

• I wear Birkenstocks and remember Woodstock

• Food Safari (review)

• Best group present that everyone will be happy with
  

• Delicious by Valli Little (review)

• Book for the awesome teacher or kindly Aunt that you actually like
  

• Around my French Table (review)

• Best coffee table book – if George Clooney was a book….

• Gingerboy (review pending)

Let me know what you give this Christmas!

• Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking [Hardcover] Nathan Myhrvold (Author), Chris Young (Author), Maxime Bilet (Author)

• Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef [Hardcover] Gabrielle Hamilton (Author)

• Essential Pepin: More Than 700 All-Time Favorites from My Life in Food [Hardcover] Jacques Pepin (Author)

• Momofuku Milk Bar [Hardcover] Christina Tosi (Author), David Chang (Foreword)
• See my review here.

My rating: 4 1/2 stars

The best celebration of the Vegetable I’ve ever read. A must for carnivores wanting to eat more veg and compulsory for every vegetarian.

As a committed and rather ignorant carnivore I was reluctant to like this book. After reading it and cooking from it I have crossed to the other side. I love vegetables now thanks to Hugh’s delicious non-low fat, non- dogmatic and non- pious approach to vegetarian food.

Hugh (a committed carnivore himself) keeps the politics out and really commits to providing tasty vegetable recipes (over 200) suitable for main meals.

Thankfully this is not a health food cookbook and Hugh uses butter, cheese and pastry in sensible proportions.

These are vegetable dishes so tasty that you won’t miss meat at all.

The only gripe is that there are very few dessert recipes and I wish there was a beetroot chocolate or carrot cake.

Nevertheless, this cookbook is approachable, delicious, easy to make and uses familiar ingredients.

So how does this book cook?

Spinach, penne and cheese spouffle

Serves 4

• 300 ml whole milk
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ onion
• A few black peppercorns
• 100g penne or similar shaped pasta
• A little rapeseed or olive oil
• 250 g spinach, any tough stalks removed
• 50 g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
• 50 g plain flour
• 75 g mature Cheddar, finely grated
• A little fresh grated nutmeg
• 3 large eggs, separated, plus 1 extra egg white
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/Gas mark 5 and put a baking sheet in to heat up. Liberally butter a 1.5 litre soufflé dish or fairly deep ovenproof dish of similar capacity.

Put the milk, bay leaf, onion and pepper corns into a small pan and bring to just below a simmer. Turn off the heat and leave to infuse.

Bring a pan of well salted water to the boil. Add the penne to the boiling water and cook until al dente. Drain well, and then toss in a tiny bit of oil to stop it sticking together.

Cook the spinach with just the water clinging to it after washing, in a large covered pan over a medium heat until wilted – just a few minutes. Drain well. When cool enough to handle, squeeze out the liquid with your hands, then roughly chop the spinach.

Heat the butter in a pan over a medium heat, stir in the flour to form a roux and cook for a few minutes. Reheat the infused milk, then strain. Off the heat, add the milk to the roux, a third at a time, beating well; you will end up with a very thick béchamel sauce. Cook, stirring for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the nutmeg, chopped spinach and some salt and pepper – it should be well seasoned. Beat in the egg yolks then fold in the cooked penne.

In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm peaks. Stir in a spoonful into the béchamel mix to loosen it, and then carefully fold in the rest. Tip into the buttered dish and place on the hot baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 25-30 mins until well risen and golden. Serve straight away.

This taste delicious, rich, filling and light at the same time.  There were lots of other recipes I was keen to try including:

Below: Aubergine parmegiana; Kale and mushrrom lasagne, Spinach cheese pasta spouffle; Lettuce spring onion and cheese tart

Below: Mushroom ragout with soft polenta; Chilli cheese and rosemary polenta with tomato sauce; Potato dauphinoise; Tahini-dressed courgette and green bean salad

Below: Cucumber and lettuce vichyssoise; Creamy mushroom soup; River Cottage garlicky flatbreads; Upside down onion tart

Below: Spring onion galette; Dhal; Vegetable biryani; Vegeree

Below: Cauliflower pakoras with tamarind raita; Honey roasted cherry tomatoes; Roasted tomato ketchup

 

 Shopping:

I received my copy gratis but found the best online prices at:

• www.bookdepository.co.uk/River Cottage Veg
• www.fishpond.com.au/River Cottage Veg Every Day!
• www.amazon.co.uk/ Amazon.co.uk/River Cottage Veg
• www.amazon.com/Amazon.com/River Cottage Veg

Perfect for the person who hates to cook and hates the taste of food.

This book has fantastic ideas but it clearly hasn’t been through proper recipe testing so the timing temperature and instructions are a really off.

I can imagine the author sitting down at her laptop thinking up these great ideas but using guestimates for the recipe and leaving it up to the stylist to cook the food properly for the photos.

The book is designed for the really inexperienced cook which is a noble purpose BUT leaves out so many basic steps that these kinds of cooks can only end up with a disaster.

I was really looking forward to this book and was quite disappointed.

Sweet Pumpkin Gillette  by 4 Ingredients for Xmas by Kim McCosker

Here is the picture from the book:

• 2 sheets puff pastry cut in half
• 1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeded, cut into 6cm pieces  (what does this mean? Lengthways, across? The photo looks like 1 cm slices lengthways!!)
• 1 cup (320g) sour cream
• 1 cup (320g) sweet chilli sauce (This is nearly a whole bottle!!)

Preheat oven to 200C. Place pumpkin wedges on a baking tray and bake for 15 mins. (There is no way pumpkin is going to cook or even get warm in 15 mins!) Remove from oven.

Join two halves of pastry together to create a long rectangle shape and roll in 1 cm of pastry to create a lip around the edges.

Place each length on a paper lined baking tray.

Spread sour cream over the bases.

Lay pumpkin on top, season with sea salt and cracked pepper then drizzle with sweet chilli sauce.  (Note: placing hot food on puff pastry melts the butter and causes the pastry to become a soggy mess! The recipe fails to recommend cooling the pumpkin.)

Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry edges are puffed and golden. (The pastry packet recommends 25-30 minutes to ensure pastry is cooked! I had to cook to 30 minutes to get the photo)

Pumpkin is not going to cook in 30 minutes total oven time.

This tasted ok near the crispy edges. I had to throw the rest of the soggy pastry/hard pumpkin mess into the bin.

It’s actually a terrific idea and would work with other vegetables. I just wish more care had been taken in drafting the recipe.

Other interesting ideas are below:

Below: Almond bread; Chocolate crepes; Pancakes with caramelised bananas; Decadent salmon stacks

Below: Christmas cake, Plum pudding, Roly Poly trifle, Choc cherry fudge

Shopping

I received my copy gratis, you can buy it online at

www.fishpond.com.au/4 Ingredients Christmas

My rating: 3 ½  stars

(3 for taste, 4 for trying)

An epic tome dedicated to that oxymoron -  “British Cuisine”

Jamie’s done a tremendous job of compiling Great Britain’s signature dishes into one giant book. The problem is, the food tastes pretty crap.

Is it the book or the cuisine?… Is it you or is it me?… She’s just not that into you… Just saying….

Now because of the Christmas season, Mum demanded I make shortbread. She wanted to package it in her new Costco faux Tupperware and give the whole package as a gift to our Anglo relatives.  Where better to go for a recipe that Jamie’s Great Britain!

The shortbread recipe gave a plain recipe and three variations. Problem is they were so dry that both types sent my mum into a hacking fit and she sprayed me with part digested cookie crumbs (shudder).

They were also crying out for salt – “SALT!”   There were also some errors in the recipe that really annoyed me (grumble, hacking cough)…

Tell me what you think of the recipe.

SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD from Jamie’s Great Britain by Jamie Oliver

• Regular shortbread.
• Makes 12 pieces of shortbread
• 200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50 g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling over
• 125 g unsalted butter

Chocolate Orange and Caraway

• Zest of 1 orange
• 30 g good quality dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids (Note: annoyingly Jamie doesn’t say what to do with it so I just chopped it)
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

Preheat the oven to 170C 325F gas 3. Mix the flour and sugar together in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter with your thumb and forefinger, then add your chosen flavourings (if you’re using chocolate or seeds you might want to push these into the dough at the end after you’ve rolled it out) and squash, pat and push it into a dough. Don’t knead it, you just want to pat it down flat. Push or roll it out until its 1 cm thick – do this directly on to a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper so you don’t have to move it. Once it’s in the shape you like – which could be square round or a few small finger shapes – feel free to thumb or pinch the edges. If it splits or tears, just press it back together  but remember, the less you work the dough the shorter and better the biscuits will be.

[Note Annoyingly Jamie doesn’t recommend resting of chilling the dough so it’s a sandy mess to handle. If I were you I would wrap and chill the dough prior to baking]

If you want to score lines on the shortbread so that you can click the business off into pieces later, you can. Sprinkle over some caster sugar, then pop the baking sheet into the oven and cook for 20-30 mins. Keep an eye on it- you want a lovely light golden colour. Leave to cool then put away in a tin or serve. These will be delicious for two or three days and make a lovely present for someone special.

These were just ok.  I thought perhaps I should make another recipe but I failed to feel inspired. The book is printed on matt paper with very busy dark photos. All the food looks the one shade of brown – even the vegetables and desserts.

Is this the best of Britain? I hope not.

Here are some snaps for the book. If you love British food and feel rather sentimental about it then this book is for you. You can read it while you watch your Blu-Ray copy of Dad’s Army.  The rest of you, this book is for Jamie fans only.

Below: 1.Glasgow potato scones with best scrambled egg and smoked salmon; 2. Humble Pea & Ham Soup with a dozen fluffy little dumplings; 3.Mighty Mulligatawny; 4.Baby Yorkshire Puds with creamy smoked trout and horseradish pate

Below: 1.Wee Scotch Eggs, 2.Toad in the Hole, 3. Easy Essex Haggis Neeps & Tatties Shepherd’s Pie Style,  4. My Nan’s St Clement’s Cake.

Below: 1.Queen Victoria Sponge, 2. Scottish Shortbread, 3. Charming Eccles Cakes, 4. Kate & Will’s Wedding Pie with Beeef and Beer Filling and Unbelievablt Pastry

Below: 1.Ecclefechan Tart with dollop of whisky and ginger cream, 2. Joyful Trifles, 3. Chocolate Orange Steamed Pud

Shopping: I parted with my hard earned dosh on this book. You can as well at these links. I’ve done the research and at the time of post these are the best prices.

• www.fishpond.com.au/Jamie’s Great Britain
• www.amazon.co.uk / Jamie’s Great Britain

My rating: 4 ½ stars

This is a book for serious dessert lovers, budding pastry chefs and domestic cooks ready for training from a generous and kindly master.

Philippa Sibley is one of Australia’s most famous pastry chefs. Despite her lofty accolades she has given us an ego free, extremely helpful book that demystifies the art behind restaurant quality pastry dishes. She includes her very famous Snickers Bar as seen on Masterchef season2.

The first 200 pages are dedicated to teaching the basic building blocks of any plated dessert – pastries, cakes, creams, fruits and chocolate work. The book provides a step by step photographed guide to making these dessert staples. For example 10 pages are dedicated to showing you how to make puff pastry. The last 60 pages are dedicated to recipes.

Below: How to make puff pastry, How to temper chocolate, How to make chocolate plaques, How to make crystallised rose petals

This is a book with coffee table production values but surprisingly little food porn. While there are over 200 step by step photos of how to make sablee, puff pastry, gingerbread etc, the book tends to omit the money shot from some of the basics portion.

For example there is no photo for the chocolate sponge or the chocolate brownie. : ( This is a small gripe though as the book is so abundantly generous with photos on how to make the item. The final product usually appears in some form in the final signature dishes (albeit somewhat obscured by a giant glob of ice-cream).

Photos for the final product of the 7 classic and 10 signature dishes are given.

Below Classic Recipes: Lemon Tart, Creme Brulee or Creme Casonade, Bread n Butter Pudding, Fruit Tartletts, Rice Pudding with Poached Dried Fruit, Tiramisu, Summer Pudding

Below Signature Dishes: Peach Melba for Oprah, Poire Belle-Helene, Snow White and Rose Red, Pain Perdu with Blood Plum and Blackberry and Yoghurt Sorbet,

Sable Breton with Roasted Figs, White Chocoalte Mousse and Port, PS Snickers, Mille-feuille with Citrus Fruits and Basil, Raspberry and Choclate Delice with Gingerbread Ice-cream,

Pineapple Doughnuts with Gingerbread Ice-cream,  Sauternes Creme Caramel Thyme Roasted Apricots and Almond Roly-Poly

But how does this book cook?

Brownies from PS Desserts by Philippa Sibley

• 300 g best quality dark couverture chocolate finely chopped or grated
• 200g unsalted butter cubed
• 4 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
•  200g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 80g best quality dark couveture chocolate, extra, roughly chopped or substitute with nuts or a combination of both

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (Gas4). Line a 30cm x 20 cm brownie tin with baking paper.
2. Finely chop or grate the chocolate and melt before you give it a stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
3. When the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat and add the butter. Stir to combine and keep warm.
4. In the meantime, place the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and lightly whisk.
5. Add both the sugars and whisk until pale and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and fold through
6.  Fold the egg mixture into the warm chocolate mixture.
7. Sift over the flour and baking powder and fold through. Stir through the roughly chopped chocolate (I used nuts).
8. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 15-20 mins or until slightly puffed and springy to the touch. The brownie should be shiny and slightly cracked on the surface. Allow to cool in the in before turning out.

The brownie tasted divine. But I wish there was a photo in the book to compare it to. I’m not sure if my brownie was too runny. My chocaholic sister in law loved it. I kinda love the fact Philippa gives us recipes for just the basics. Can you imagine making her version of a creme brulee?! Awesome!!

This is a really beautiful book that is extremely instructive. I can’t wait to make Philippa Sibley’s lemon tart and Snickers bar! I received this book gratis but at time of post I found great prices at

• Fishpond.com.au/PS Desserts
• Amazon.com/PS Desserts