Cookbook Challenge Part 10
I’ve taken a break from blogging over the school summer holidays, although I’ve still been posting on Instagram. I have done a bit of cooking though, in between a few trips away so I have some cookbook challenges to write about. I can’t believe I’m on part ten – that’s ten cookbooks pulled off the shelf and used instead of sticking to the same meals.
It occurred to me that as this is supposed to be a Spring and Summer book I should hurry up and post this while we’re still (just) in August. Here’s the book – it’s a very pretty colour although quite difficult to take a photo that includes the title.
You can just about read the title down the side. There is a section in the back of the book which explains the brushstrokes used on the cover and throughout the book and also a couple of paragraphs about the type. It’s interesting to think about all the work that goes into designing a book like this. There are plenty of tempting pictures of all the recipes and it took me a while to decide what to make.
As I was cooking for all four of us I wanted something quite substantial, so I chose a warm dish plus a salad for the main course.
Freekeh, Peaches, Feta with Tomato, Beans, Bread. You really need to read the recipe and look at the pictures to understand what the dishes will actually be like, but the Freekeh is served warm with baked cheese and peaches and the other dish is a tomato and bread salad with olives and crunchy beans.
Freekeh is a young green wheat which has been roasted and polished. You cook it in a similar way to rice. We had never tried it before, but all of us liked it and preferred it to bulgur wheat or cous cous. It was delicious with the salty cheese and sweet peaches. I used herbs from the garden so I’m not sure if I had quite as much as the recipe says, but it seemed like a lot. I would definitely have this again. It doesn’t really look as good as it tasted. I think the feta fell apart more than it was supposed to, but that meant it mixed in with the grains easily.
The tomato salad used more oil than I would usually add to a salad as you had to drizzle the bread with oil before toasting, as well as making a dressing that the pices of bread were dipped in. It was worth it though, the oil balanced out the tangy tomatoes and vinegar and even though this made a large quantity it disappeared very quickly.
I wanted a light dessert after all the strong flavours, so I chose a really simple dish with only three ingredients
It’s a watermelon and Prosecco granita, sweetened with elderflower cordial. For once I remembered to start this early in the day so it had time to freeze, although it probably would have been even better if I’d left it overnight as it was still quite slushy in the middle of the tub.
This was very refreshing on a warm evening. It’s contains alcohol of course, so my sons just had a little bit and ate the rest of the watermelon. The recipe suggests using pink grapefruit juice if you don’t want to use Prosecco.
I’m really enjoying seeing all the vegetarian cookbooks that have come out recently and I think we’re going to be using this one regularly. Although it’s a spring and summer book there are quite a few mushroom recipes that would work well into autumn, as well as some curries that would be good at any time of year. I’m looking forward to the autumn, winter edition that comes out in October – I’m sure I’ll want to add that to my collection.
Apricots In Manchester 