Cooking the Books

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Mountain Goat
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Re: Cooking the Books

Post by Mountain Goat »

I only just saw this! I just came here to see if there were any book recommendations that I could add into my current Amazon order while I'm at it. Abs, that sounds excellent. I've not done or even particularly noticed the aubergine and black garlic dish in Nopi, which is odd because I thought I was aware of everything in that book. :) I absolutely love that burnt spring onion dip (and haven't made it for ages either).

As a non pudding person, I really like the sound of your pudding, contrarily. I don't have Honey & Co though.

Have you done much more smoking? I smoked some burnt spring onions on Saturday (burnt in the style of the above dip, and oomphed with hickory smoke) and I loved them. They were to add to a dish that had a few sweeter notes and really worked.

I am about to purchase the hardcover version of Alison Roman. :love2:. The tablet version is useful but irritating to navigate and I want the proper one to be able flick through. I really like it; it's not groundbreaking, most recipes are quite quick and simple but they're all packed with flavour and there's a pleasing gusto about the whole thing. No hairshirts here. It has the infectious enthusiasm of Momofuku without the three days of prep and years of honing technique. :) I'm doing the crispy chickpeas and lamb for tea tonight from there. In other news, I've done a few things from Fresh India ( charred cabbage with coconut and tomato thoran stands out) and the cauliflower rice with green chutney and eggs from Anna Jones; however my green chutney split (I think my blender was too violent) and I had to separate it into green liquid, and pale green flavoured coconut cream and use the latter, less visibly than intended. :)) I have basically mostly had disasters this past week or so.
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emma_p
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Alison Roman is in London at the moment - I’m stalking her on instagram.

I live the burnt spring onions too. I am really suffering without having my cookery books. I think I need to buy a couple more...
Mountain Goat
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Oh, I sort of saw that she was (I follow her on FB; there's a terrible man that mansplains cooking at her with most posts eg "nice, but your eggs are a little overdone" that makes me snort coffee through my nose) but didn't really absorb the information. Do you know why? I mean whether she's here doing something like being on telly that we should look out for, or whether she's just minding her own business on holiday?

I've put Kaukasis ( by the same person as Mamushka) in my basket due to planning to go to Georgia later this year. :disco: I am breaking all my own rules.
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emma_p
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Re: Cooking the Books

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She’s not doing any events that I know of, otherwise we could have fan girl stalked her in person :weewee:
Mountain Goat
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I bet she'd be thrilled and not at all scared. Especially seeing as you have stalked her globally. No-one minds that.

This is my favourite mansplain comment.
you need to work on cooking the egg, butter the pan and lower the heat a little otherwise it looks great :)
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Ella77
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Re: Cooking the Books

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No fucking way!
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I know!

Naturally she has blanked him but I'd like to know what she'd like to write. :))
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I am excited by the Kaukasis book. It's because I read it and I have no clue how most things will taste as, while there are a lot of commonalities with Middle Eastern and Balkan dishes, most things centre around a group of ingredients I've never tasted and therefore can't really imagine. I have done a shopping spree of Georgian ingredients and now I need to decide what to try to cook first. :disco: Although they won't arrive for 3-5 days.
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Cosmopolitan
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I am really really intrigued by Georgian food. Please do post pictures.

Because I have no will power, I ordered the Sourdough Book. The Sourdough School: The ground-breaking guide to making gut-friendly bread https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857833669/ ... ZAb6EBVGH0

It arrives tomorrow and my starter is looking good so more bread is on its way.
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I’m so excited about the Mowgli book. It’s coming in about a week.
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Ooh. That's Indian street food, right?

And lovely sourdough. :love2: I toyed with the Tartine Bakery book but managed to get a grip on myself. :))

I will post pictures. :disco: I love that I just don't know what these tastes will be.
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Yes, I’ve loved the restaurant when I’ve been.
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absley
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Re: Cooking the Books

Post by absley »

Mountain Goat wrote: Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:11 pm I have done a shopping spree of Georgian ingredients
What have you bought? And do you have Mamushka? I cooked from it yesterday for the first time and was impressed with the savoury dishes but had a pudding disaster:

* azerbaijani roast chicken with walnuts & prunes - loved this but had way too much stuffing (so delicious- toasted walnuts, lemon zest/juice and prunes) so I'm gonna freeze the leftovers and use them in another roast chicken at some point
* armenian roasted vegetables - these were amazingly good considering it was just veg tossed with oo, s&p. The combination of flavours was v good and the mix of charring/textures worked well. I added radishes to her selection of white cabbage, carrots, celery, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, red pepper.
* georgian kidney bean salad - LOVED this! The beans are mixed with caramelised onions and a mix of coriander, fenugreek and fennel seeds plus various fresh herbs. so delicious and not at all what I expected
* bulgarian apple & kohlrabi salad - this was my least fave as a dish in its own right and is actually from a blog not the book, but it was good as a fresh zingy contrast to the other dishes
* apple sponge - just no. the apples needed to be cooked for longer and the topping was a horrid dairy-free cake which tasted like sponge fingers.

The veggies and cake are here and the beans and chicken recipes are on various blogs.

eta. no I haven't done any more smoking, Goat, but should
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Ooh, Mamushka also covers that area! I thought it was more Ukraine than Caucasis. Dammit, maybe I need that too. :)) Your dishes sound lovely, apart from the horrible apple sponge, but I am most intrigued by how things that sound simple turn out to be special, which is my gut feeling about the Kaukasis book too. I haven't got much a sense of how the dishes should flow together yet so your menu is useful; I wish the book talked a bit more about what would typically be served with what as it's quite hard to figure out when you can't always imagine how things are going to taste.

I bought:

blue fenugreek
dried marigold flowers
dry red adjika salt
khemeli-suneli ( a spice mix)
tkemali (the plum sauce that is in everything. There is a recipe for it but as it's not plum season yet I can't make it, so...)
svaneti salt
jonjoli (which are pickled buds similar to capers but apparently taste quite different)

Are lots of these featured in Mamushka too?
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absley
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Re: Cooking the Books

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She doesn't mention any of those as far as I have seen- some sound amazing and like you say, good to be so unknown. There is a useful ingredients page which lists gherkins, kefir, horseradish leaves/blackcurrant leaves/dill heads/sour cherry leaves, margarine, parsley root, smetana, syr and unrefined sunflower oil. That seems to be it.

Maybe Kaukasis is a step up/more hardcore whereas Mamushka was dipping a toe in to gauge reception?
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Re: Cooking the Books

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It sounds like it. I had a look on Amazon via the lookinside thing and it showed that page of ingredients and yes, it's not as specialist as the Kaukasis ones.

It's got me really excited about going to Georgia/Armenia later in the year, not that I've made any actual plans for that yet. I can play around with things in the book, and then get to taste how they are actually supposed to be. :))
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absley
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Re: Cooking the Books

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:))
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Re: Cooking the Books

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Oh, Goat, it's the wrong Turkish border but you might like the book I'm reading atm - Border: a journey to the edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova.
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absley
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Re: Cooking the Books

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How are you getting on with Kaukasis, Goat? There were some Georgian stalls at a recent fest and it was the best food and drink available. I've also spotted a new Georgian restaurant, which I want to try.

And can I have some Dining In recs, please, from those who're keen - am not taken by it atm.

I bought Fuchsia Dunlop's fish book this week, as I'm still all over EGOR. Again, would love any recs.
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Re: Cooking the Books

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I actually haven't cooked anything from it for ages, I need to change that. It's sitting right there on the kitchen counter too. I love the tkemali - the sour plum sauce - and there is a traditional dish that pairs this with beetroot, and the book also plays on this pairing and takes it in a few different directions. So beetroot and sour plums is something I've messed about with a bit. I'm going to be using it more in the winter I think - a lot of the dishes that most appeal, things like khachapuri and other carby dishes, and various slow cooked meats, have not excited me during the heatwave. :))

I've made a fair few things from Dining In and they have all been lovely but none of them, as far as I recall, have been unexpectedly wonderful, or more than the sum of their parts. They taste mostly like you'd expect. So I can't think of any recipes to say, try this, it's so much more than it sounds. However, everything has been tasty and punchy and I like it on a night where I've been out the previous night and I'm tired. I like her approach. I've done her radishes with zatar, the apple and endive salad with parsley and salted almonds, the spelt with sausage, the pasta with brown butter mushrooms, a take on the seafood stew (I made a stew of peas, new potatoes, tarragon and had a piece of crispy skinned fish on the top), and the fennel rubbed pork chops. I really liked the stew that I completely bastardised ( :lol: ), the pork chops were delicious. I like the egg and buckwheat with the mushroom pasta, I like the salted almonds added to the classic apple and endive.

I just got the Great British Chefs (crowdfunded, but I think you can buy it now too) cookbook. I use that website all the bleeding time and I got the book on Thursday and already the pages are stuck together. :lol: I did the sole grenobloise; Frances Atkins pea and potato terrine; Galton Blackiston's slow roasted pork belly with apple sauce, port jus and garlic puree - actually that might be it, I did some other stuff at the weekend too but from the website.

Is that Land of Fish and Rice? I don't have that one, though I keep meaning to get it.
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