Marie-Claire Digby on new offerings for your kitchen bookshelves
Apples for Jam, by Tessa Kiros
The arrival in the office of Apples for Jam, the new book from Tessa Kiros, caused a bit of a stir. A beautifully-crafted pair of shoes can stop some women in their tracks at 50 paces, and this stunning volume elicited a similar reaction from the foodies in the vicinity. It was cooed over, the embossed cover was stroked appreciatively, the stunning photographs were admired, and the quirky typography was remarked upon.
This is the third offering from London-born, South Africa-raised Kiros, who now lives in Italy. She self-published her first book, Twelve: A Tuscan Cookbook, when it was turned down by every publisher she sent it to. But, having sold 1,500 copies of this diary of a year living, cooking and eating in the Tuscan countryside, she pitched up at the Frankfurt Book Fair with a copy under her arm, in search of a wider audience. Murdoch Books, an Australian-based international publisher, liked what they saw. It was reprinted, became a bestseller, and set in motion Kiros's career as a food writer.
Twelve was followed by Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes, and with this very personal collection of favourite recipes garnered from her Finnish mother, her Greek Cypriot father and her extensive travels, Kiros's reputation as a passionate and very individual cookery writer has soared.
Apples for Jam is a whimsical collection of recipes for family eating, bolstered by Kiros's beautifully written memories of her childhood, and comments on her family life with her husband and young daughters in Italy. "I will not force them to like the smell of boiled cauliflower, but I will paint better pictures in their bowls, let them make their own sandwiches, have apple bread when they come home from school, ratty and ravenous, and tell stories while we eat, and love them all the same whether they like meat or not." How could you not like this woman? And her recipes are pretty good, too.
Apples for Jam, by Tessa Kiros, is published by Murdoch Books (£25)
The Fish Store, by Lindsey Bareham
There's a trend in food writing nowadays to serve up a generous slice of storytelling alongside the recipes. Eagerly awaited books of this type include the forthcoming titles Made in Italy: Food and Stories, by Giorgio Locatelli, and A Year in My Kitchen, by Skye Gyngell.
The trend surfaced in some of last year's big reads: Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen (Fourth Estate, £25) documents almost every morsel that passes the author's lips throughout a 12-month period, and in the process reveals much about the man. In Jamie's Italy (Michael Joseph, £25), the cheeky chappie of the kitchen rediscovers his inspiration and his passion for food by heading off on a gastronomic tour of Italy in a temperamental camper van, giving us his thoughts on everyone he meets, everything he sees and everything he eats along the way.
There's a common thread here, apart from the TV tie-ins. It seems that a collection of recipes isn't enough any more. There is an appetite for cookery books that let us into the author's life, as well as their kitchen. The latest release in this mould, The Fish Store comes from Lindsey Bareham. Previously, Bareham collaborated with Simon Hopkinson on Roast Chicken and Other Stories, a cult book from 1994 that enjoyed a renaissance last year when it was voted the most useful cookery book of all time.
The Fish Store opens with an extended 35-page introduction, in which Bareham explains the relevance her former husband's family home in a small Cornish village - called the Fish Store - has had on her and her family's lives. It's a highly personal memoir: "All the grief and animosity that Ben and I went through in our different ways in the years following our separation and divorce has been put behind us. I wouldn't say the 'war zone' has been forgotten, but at least we are now able to be friends and friendly with each other's new partners. It is the Fish Store that made this possible . . . Whenever it fits in with the rest of our lives, both Ben and I, separately and sometimes together, hurry back to the Fish Store."
The recipes that follow are arranged into refreshingly straightforward and user-friendly chapters dealing with similar types of fish, varieties of meat, and families of vegetables, fleshed out with anecdotes and memories. This is a big book, in every sense - just about everything you could want to cook is in there. It could, however, have been made a little more exciting to look at - you won't be buying this book for its design.
The Fish Store, by Lindsey Bareham, is published by Michael Joseph (£20)
French, by Damien Pignolet
There can't be many French classical cookery manuals that call for "18 raw yabbies", but this stylish volume is set in Australia, where the freshwater shellfish are common. Here, you could use crayfish instead. Pignolet, a fourth-generation Australian of French descent, has been described as his country's "answer to Raymond Blanc", and has co-owned and run several well-known Sydney restaurants catering to Francophiles.
Unlike many other cookbooks, where stocks and sauces are something of an afterthought, tacked on at the end, they open this scholarly work, suggesting you'd better be up to speed on the basics before reading any further.
It's the eye-catching design and typography that make this book stand out on the shelf. You may not cook many recipes from it, but it is visually stimulating, and there are lots of very useful tips from a professional kitchen that help to demystify some of the more elaborate recipes. Desserts are a particular strength: don't miss the raspberry and butter toasted almond tart.
French, by Damien Pignolet, is published by Lantern (£25)
HONEY CAKE
- 150g butter115g dark brown sugar
- 175g honey
- 200g plain flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary leaves
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Lemon icing
- 250g icing sugar
- 100g butter, softened
- 1tsp grated lemon zest
- 2tbsp lemon juice
Grease and line the base of a 22cm springform tin. Put the butter, brown sugar and honey in a small saucepan and add one tablespoon of water. Heat gently, stirring once or twice, until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas four.
Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the rosemary. Add the honey mixture and eggs and beat until smooth.
Pour into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when you poke it into the centre. Leave in the tin to cool completely.
To make the lemon icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter, lemon zest and juice and a tablespoon of water and beat until smooth. You might like to add a few more drops of lemon juice after tasting it. Spread over the top and side of the cake. The cake softens as it sits and will keep well for up to a week in a cake tin.
• Recipe taken from Apples for Jam, by Tessa Kiros, published by Murdoch Books (£25)