New year go veggie? Or just bring on the beer?
Two cookbooks to inspire you either way
Pure Vegetarian - Paul Gayler
Of course it’s a lazy cliché to describe vegetarian food as boring stews of lentils and quorn. Mind you, I once had a veggie girlfriend who solved the taste problem by deep-frying everything. It worked well if you didn’t notice that we both ballooned out to Mr Creosote size within weeks.
Paul Gayler’s book is a breath of veggie fresh air, full of more vibrant, exciting and tummy-rumbling recipes than many a meat recipe book that’s been through our hands recently. The cover subtitles it, ‘modern and stylish vegetarian cooking’ and that’s just what it is. This is cooking to get you out of the easy rut of meat every day, but which doesn’t force you into knotty recipes that strain the patience even while you’re straining the peas. And there is no proselytising. Paul has been writing vegetarian cookbooks for twenty years but is still an unashamed meat eater nonetheless, he just thinks that we could all do with more veg in our diet and that it needn’t be boring.
The first chapter on finger food includes steamed oriental buns, which are madly simple to make and enjoy, and little cream, cheese, beetroot and truffle tarts, which I reckon would be even easier if you bought the pastry cases ready made. Many of the dishes are beautifully photographed to tempt you to try your hand, and all come with clear instructions that are very easy to follow.
Paul recognises that much of what is exciting in vegetarian cooking comes from cultures where vegetarianism is a way of life and so dishes like halloumi tandoori with carrot pachadi are vibrant with spices, while Seaweed daikon wraps use a zingy dipping sauce with soy, rice wine vinegar, lemongrass and pickled ginger to lift them into the sublime. There are dishes to wow guests along with dishes to eat everyday and only two out of around ninety recipes feature lentils. Hooray!
Find this book on Amazon.co.uk
An appetite for ale. Fiona and Will Beckett
Fiona is a food writer, son Will runs a pub. Not any old pub mind you but the award winning The Marquess Tavern in, inevitably, Islington. There he turns out proper food that wows the locals and stocks a massive range of beers all designed to go with the different dishes he creates. This is the book of the pub.
From an initial discussion of types of beer, including explaining the often misunderstood ‘light and dark’ definitions, there follows a quick guide to what types of beer would replace what types of wine. This begins to make the whole beer/food matching concept make sense. Then it’s off to the recipes and a bumper chapter featuring soups, spreads and snacks. As they point out, carbohydrate high foods just cry out for beer to accompany them, so anything on bread is just fine. Oh and a kebab too. Nice.
Then come some fabulous seafood and beer pairings from the obvious, Guinness and oysters, to the esoteric, salmon burgers with goat’s cheese and sun-dried tomatoes with a nice chilled wiesbier to swig alongside. Can’t you just taste that already? If you’ve never tried beer can chicken, then here’s your chance although perhaps best to wait until the BBQ season is upon us again. In the meantime try a dish that has beer inside it a Belgian style chicken stew made with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale; a hearty dish to chase chills away.
There are also some useful short cut meals such as Rogan Josh, which they recommend shovelling down with a bottle of IPA (Indian Pale Ale) and what could be better? You don’t want to waste wine or the curry by putting the two together. The Italians get a look in with an aubergine parmigiana, a simple recipe that always gets enjoyed around these parts especially with an ice cold lager to combat that ‘our of the oven’ heat that burns your mouth every time,
Even desserts get a look in with a bakewell tart recipe chumming up to a bottle of raspberry flavoured beer and an apricot pancakes that packs a punch when consumed with a bottle of peach flavoured beer.
The book concludes with a very handy guide to giving a dinner based around beers and suggested beer menus. Oh and then some cocktails with beer. It’s a wonder Will gets any work done with all this beer boozing, but he’s clearly an expert. A great book to get you enjoying ales the way they deserve to be enjoyed – with food.
Find this book on Amazon.co.uk
