The book is about the same hight as my mobile phone
What a title! This book from 1852, is filled with some joyful and simple recipies from how to cook rice to baked cod’s head and toast water. It takes many aspects of a healthy diet into consideration, including cost and the social value of making something a little more special that normal.
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Quinces in a glass dish
The name, the form and the texture all go back to the days of still life paintings. The colour of Vermeer’s blues, khaki and bright electric yellows all summed up in a Quince. The furry almost fake, flocked surface can be stroked away to reveal it’s firm knobbly yellow cheeks beneath.
A stunning fruit that has obsessed me this autumn.
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Looks like a prison
It was an early morning adventure to New Covent Garden market. Most of it was shut off, leaving long empty halls lit by fluorescent tubes, soundless and lifeless. For £4 you can get up at 4am and visit the market and join the market stall holders, restaurateurs, and us…
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cooking
What a taste! Juta used bright orange palm oil, shrimp powder and ground pumpkin to make a rich spinach stew. It was strong slightly bitter-sweet tasting and very moreish. we had it poured over yams and plantains.
My plate
There are a few more pictures here.
Chicken of the woods
We chanced upon a feast in a tree – finding sorrel and chicken of the woods lying before us during our walk. We had left with only cheese and bread to fill us for the over night journey and ended up with a mighty and magical feast before us hanging from this tree.
Oak laden with orange fungi
The dinner was made from the fungi, some spec, fresh peas, cheddar cheese rinds and sorrel and was the most fulfilling I have eaten – full of satisfaction. There are some more pictures here.
Dinner
What’s cooking grandma is a great site by Human Beans for those of us without grandparents. I’m not sure everyone else’s family has the same taste as mine, I think tradition can be an acquired taste.
There are some great quotes from each cook that hint at how the stories were passed on, 50 year old books and grand children helping out in the kitchen. It’s like story telling I suppose, you just have to be there to watch and learn through osmosis. The site has lots of traditional recipes, but not so many to overwhelm you.
Every chef has been named by their grandmum names: nana, grandmother, grandma, gran… They have a very relaxed approach to making their dishes, not worrying to much about its presentation but more on the satisfaction of the food. They lead you through each recipe with those soothing, wise voices.
It’s great to see the family’s appreciation afterwards. Yum.
http://whatscookinggrandma.humanbeans.net/