FOODIE BOOKCASE - COOKBOOKS TO INSPIRE YOUR INNER chef
Shop Local, Eat Well - Kathryn Hawkins
There’s barely a chef in London, or elsewhere, who won’t bang on about how important it is for him/her to source locally and seasonally. It’s as fashionable as going into a restaurant and ordering tap water with a caring, concerned, look on your face. It is important though because tens thousands of miles are clocked up in airplanes and trucks by vegetables brought to us out of season. We all want to reduce our carbon footprint, even if it’s a drop in the polluted ocean compared to what the developing world is pumping out every hour. But that’s another matter.
And so here is Shop Local, Eat Well a timely book that reminds us that whilst we all like variety, far too many of the out of season vegetables that are flown in to our supermarkets have virtually no taste or texture. The fact is that locally grown vegetables in their season are something to savour. Who doesn’t enjoy English asparagus when it arrives, or look forward to the Purple sprouting broccoli in its all too brief February moment of glory? The anticipation is part of the taste.
Kathryn Hawkins book is divided into five chapters: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Preserves and Accompaniments with over 150 recipes in all. One of the book’s simplest and yet most useful features is a chart for each month that tells you what vegetables to look out for, at which particular time, and for how long. So in Spring leeks are good and local wild garlic is pushing up green spears. Together they make a brilliant warming soup. Spinach too is bang in season, its squeaky green leaves at their tenderest to make a superb Moroccan-style spinach and chicken pie.
Every recipe, from Salad of strawberries, smoked salmon and cucumber to a Three Bird Roast (not a footballing reference, I hasten to add) is decribed simply and clearly. Indeed the whole book is true to organic principles being unfussily presented with no expensive colour pictures and no excess gloss. It’s a refreshing change from so many OTT cheffy books and at just £9.99 a bit of a bargain too. All the recipes leap off the page as tasty and do-able. The usual Amazon link is below, but why not buy the book local? It all helps save the planet.
Find this book on Amazon.co.uk
