Cookbooks to Learn From

I believe you can always learn something from a cookbook, but there are some out there that are designed to really teach you something or be an authority on a particular topic, cooking style, region etc. 

I love cookbooks that add to my knowledge on a particular area of cooking, or those I can use to refer back to when I need help with a particular technique or flavour pairing. Below is a list of some I find most useful.

What would you add to the list?

1. The Flavour Thesaurus and Lateral Cooking by Niki Segnit - Niki's books are the product of immense amounts of research and are so useful to have. The Flavour Thesaurus uses a flavour wheel to categorise different ingredients and then shows what combinations work and why. Lateral Cooking shows the links between cooking techniques and uses research from other cookbooks to explain how modifications can be made. There is a great interview with Niki on the Honey and Co Podcast where she explains the premise and work behind each book really well. These two books are probably the most used of my cooking reference books, they are filled with the answers to my questions and Lateral Cooking in particular is super useful for basic recipes and adapting recipes.

2. Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat - This list wouldn't be complete without Samin's super popular book! Samin shows us how salt, fat, acid and heat are the four main elements of cooking. This is a really worthwhile book to have, and there are some great interviews with Samin where she discusses her book on Radio Cherry Bombe and the Honey and Co Podcast. 

3. I also really love books like Citrus by Catherine Phipps, where one category of ingredient is the theme of the whole book. In Citrus, Catherine gives information about well and lesser known citrus and a whole variety of recipes in which they can be used. These types of books are great if you want to know more about a particular ingredient or often have an abundance of that ingredient. 

4. Books such as Pasta by Antonio Carluccio and Patisserie by Dupius and Cazor are great for getting an in depth look at a particular cooking technique or style. I love Antonio Carluccio's book Pasta, as it has some great tips for making pasta, different recipes and accompaniments for the pasta you've made. Books like Patisserie are great when you want to perfect skills that you may not use regularly in the kitchen. Both books have great step by step photos, and Patisserie has excellent illustrations of each dessert showing the layers and elements of each.

5. Finally, I love books such as Gastronomy of Italy by Anne Del Conte, Maggie's Harvest by Maggie Beer and How to Eat by Nigella Lawson as they are the kind of book you can use as a thesaurus to explain how to use particular ingredient or cook a particular type of dish. None of these books have many photos as they are heavy on useful information and I often use them when I have come across a particular ingredient and need some ideas as to how to cook it. I have found Maggie’s Harvest particularly useful when I am searching for ideas on how to cook a slightly less common ingredient such as duck eggs or zucchini flowers and Nigella’s book is really useful for those simple yet endlessly useful recipes like homemade stocks.

A Cirtus Tart & Surviving the 9-5

I found this recipe in Catherine Phipps' book ‘Citrus’ and found the book, via the podcast ‘Stir the Pot’ by Edd Kimber. I have really taken to listening to podcasts in the past year, after my initial introduction to Cherry Bombe magazine’s ‘Radio Cherry Bombe’, my list of favourites has grown. At first these podcasts, were my way of doing something for myself on my commute to and from a job I really didn’t want to be doing anymore. My emotional health was suffering a lot because of this job, and having something that was just for me on a topic I am obsessed with made each working day a little easier. I had a little bit of a walk from the train station to my old work, and I will always remember the sense of dread I felt once I got closer to work. I would turn the corner and the knowledge that my time was up, until 5pm, would hit me. The following 7-8 hours were all about spending time in an often toxic environment, doing a job that was literally going nowhere.

The highlights of those work days mostly involved food. Apart from the podcasts, what I planned to eat at lunch, what ingredients I would buy on my lunch break or having a quiet lunch with other like minded colleagues were the moments that kept me going. I also stress purchased many a cookbook from the couple of bookstores in the area, which is where I found ‘Citrus’. I had listened to Edd Kimber’s interview with Catherine on his podcast, and had made a mental note to keep an eye out for Catherine’s book. During the interview they had discussed cooking with citrus, and to my delight, cooking with bergamots (see more on my bergamot obsession here). When I found a copy of the book, I instantly knew I had to buy it. I hadn’t been expecting to find it so easily, and being so unhappy in my job made my weakness for buying cookbooks all the more feeble. 

There are so many good recipes in ‘Citrus’, covering all types of food and occasions. This tart comes from the Desserts section, which also includes recipes for a Blood Orange and Rhubarb Meringue Pie, Bergamot and Rose Turkish Delight Pavlova (be still my heart) and a Earl Grey and Rose Parfait (was this book actually written just for me?!). I love Catherine’s flavour combinations, and the information on how to use particular and less common citrus. 

You don’t need a food processor for the pastry in this recipe, which I loved as we no longer have one (we weren’t using it so gave it away!). I used a selection of citrus for the filling, lemon, lemonades and bergamots. You could just use one type of citrus, it just depends what you feel like. However as a guide, the original recipe stipulates the zest of 2 lemons and the juice of 3 lemons for the filling - use this as a guide re the quantities of juice in particular as for example, a large orange will hold more juice than a lemon. 

Winter Citrus - Lemons, Bergamots & Lemonades

Citrus by Catherine Phipps

Making the Pastry

Cooked Tart Shell & Making the Filling

Citrus Tart

Ingredients for the Pastry: 

200g plain flour

pinch of salt

125g unsalted butter, cold & cubed 

50g icing sugar

2 egg yolks 

Ingredients for the Filling:

6 eggs

300g caster sugar

250ml heavy cream

finely grated zest of 2 citrus (lemons, lemonades, bergamots etc) and the juice of three citrus (lemons, lemonades, bergamots, small/medium oranges etc)

Method: 

To make the pastry, put the flour and salt in a bowl, and rub in the butter until it looks like almond meal. Stir in the icing sugar, then add the egg yolks and mixing it all together with your hands. If the dough is too crumbly at this stage, add a small amount of ice cold water to help bring it together. Shape into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap, and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lightly flour a work surface. Roll out the pastry, dusting with extra flour if necessary. Roll it fairly thinly, however don’t go so thin that it will easily break when you are placing it into the tart tin. The pastry needs to have the circumference to line a 24cm tart tin (approx.). Gently place the pastry over the tart tin, and gently push it in to the sides of the tin, trimming the edges that hang over the sides. Keep some of the left over raw pastry for later in case you need to patch up your tart case after the blind baking process.

Put the raw pastry case in the freezer for 10 minutes, then prick the pastry all over with a fork. Crumple up a piece of baking paper, then place it over the tart and fill with pastry weights. Bake the tart for 15 minutes, then remove the pastry weights and the baking paper and bake again for about 5 minutes. At this stage you don’t want any of your tart shell to be raw. Leave the tart shell to cool while you make the filling, and turn down the oven to 150 degrees Celsius. 

To make the filling whisk the eggs and caster sugar together until they are well combined, then whisk in the cream and citrus zest and juice. To fill the pastry case, place on a lined baking sheet and pull out one of the oven racks and place it on the rack. Gently pour the filling into the case from here (best to use a jug for this), then gently push the oven rack back in and bake for 30-40 minutes until the tart filling is just set (it will still wobble slightly). Leave the tart to cool before serving, and store in the fridge if there are leftovers! 

Citrus Tart

Reference: Citrus by Catherine Phipps (Quadrille, 2017), p.168. 

Citrus Tart

If you are struggling at work…

I would highly recommend one or more of these books/podcasts. While I am no longer working in the environment I mentioned in this post, I still find these resources immensely valuable.

1. Not Just Lucky by Jamila Rizvi

2. The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**k by Sarah Knight

3. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k by Mark Manson

4. What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles

5. Little Black Book by Otegha Uwagba

6. Thrive by Arianna Huffington

7. Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett

8. Pursuit with Purpose Podcast with Melyssa Griffin

9. One Girl Band Podcast with Lola Hoad

10. The Mindful Kind Podcast with Rachael Kable

Winter Citrus