Off The Shelf - 'Nothing Fancy' by Alison Roman

Bought at: it was gifted to me for Christmas in 2019.

Recipes Made: Perfect Herby Salad p.86, Roasted Pumpkin with Yoghurt and Spiced Buttered Pistachio p.148, Spicy Pork Meatballs in Brothy Tomatoes and Toasted Fennel p.187-8, Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes p.189, One Pot Chicken with Dates and Caramelised Lemon p.194-5 and Buttered Salmon with Red Onion and Dill p.247

The Perfect Herby Salad, sounds simple - it’s a leafy salad with herbs and an olive oil and lemon juice dressing. But somehow this combination of simple ingredients becomes one of the best salads I’ve ever tasted. It goes well with so many things, but I particularly like it with something hearty like lasagna as the freshness of the salad compliments it so well. 

The Roasted Pumpkin with Yoghurt and Spiced Buttered Pistachios is the only recipe in this book we haven’t made more than once. It was nice, and I wouldn’t not make it ever again, but it wasn’t something that was a serious stand out like the rest of the recipes from ‘Nothing Fancy’ that I have tried.

The Spicy Pork Meatballs in Brothy Tomatoes have become a bit of a family favourite. We love pork and anything that uses lots of tomatoes, so this dish is a winner. Its a really warming dish, perfect for a cooler Winter evening. The Brothy tomatoes end up being like full flavoured brothy tomato soup, perfect for dipping bread into. The whole dish also tastes even better the next day as the flavours develop so leftovers are always delicious. 

Speaking of family favourites and lots of tomatoes, the Slow-Roasted Oregano Chicken with Buttered Tomatoes, probably is the family favourite dish since I got this book. Slow roasting a chicken, again seems like such a simple thing, but it is a complete revelation. While you of course have to get the dinner prep started a little earlier than you might otherwise, you end up with the most perfectly cooked, tender, falling off the bone chicken you’ve probably ever made or eaten. And with gorgeous super tasty slow roasted tomatoes to go with it. You can add anchovies to the tomatoes - which is like a running joke in the book as Alison uses them so often and suggests you could use them as an addition so often - but for once (and yes I’m a little shocked too - as I love anchovies and Alison Roman’s cooking advice is always spot on), I don’t think you actually need them. Red wine vinegar is added to the cooked tomatoes before serving, and honestly flavour wise I find that more than enough as it’s so tasty in its own right. Despite the numerous times we’ve made this dish, I couldn’t find a half decent photo of it (except the one on the cover of the book!), only this one of it having just gone in the oven. Apologies for the general lack of images of the food in this Off the Shelf post, but you’ll just have to take my word for it this time. 

I love dates and lemon, so the One Pot Chicken with Dates and Caramelised Onion was always going to be a winner. The ingredient list is simple, and not very long, and I did have my reservations about how tasty the final dish could really be with so few ingredients. I was wrong to have reservations, as Alison is queen of flavour and despite the numerous times she’d already proved that to me in this book, I doubted her. Well, never again will that happen. However, I will make this One Pot Chicken again as for me, it was one of those dishes that really hit the spot so to speak, and made me look forward to the next day when I could eat some leftovers. Alison has featured this recipe on her YouTube series ‘Home Movies’, so you can check it out even if you don’t have ‘Nothing Fancy’ (yet). 

The Buttered Salmon with Red Onion and Dill, was a recipe I saw Alison make on her YouTube series ‘Home Movies’ and it looked so good, I was surprised it hadn’t stood out to me already from the book. Sometimes you’ve got to see someone make a recipe to realise you need it in your life, and this was one of those times. Alison uses capers in this dish, which I love, and really related to her adding even more to the dish than her original recipe states when she made it on ‘Home Movies’. From memory we had the Prefect Herby Salad as a side to this Salmon and it was really was perfect. 

Favourite Things About the Book: Alison. Honestly, Alison is my favourite part of this book (and everything she does). She is relatable, funny, honest and her food is always flavourful yet fairly simple. She is someone who has that kind of personality you just can’t help but think you’d get on well if you ever met, because there is a relatability to Alison and the way she cooks. Her recipes aren’t chef-y, they are practical, intuitive and fun. Plus, I love someone who unapologetically uses anchovies, herbs, capers, vinegars and lemon to make a dish sing. I couldn’t live without those things in my life, I get the feeling Alison couldn’t either. 

I highly recommend this book, but also definitely recommend Alison’s newsletter called ‘A Newsletter’ and checking out her YouTube series ‘Home Movies’. You can really get a sense of Alison’s way of cooking and use of ingredients from these, plus she shares fantastic recipes, some of which have also become family favourites for me. 

Bookmarked Recipes (to make later!): Crispy Halloumi with Honey and Pistachio p.49, Seeded Breadsticks with Parmesan p.66-7, Overnight Focaccia, Tonight p.70-1, A Better Garlic Bread/Caramelised Garlic on Toast with Anchovies, Tomatoes Dressed in Toasted Fennel and Anchovy p.112 and Tiny Creamy Pasta with Black Pepper and Pecorino p.176.

New Cookbooks on My Shelf

This year is shaping up to be a great one for cookbooks. 

There are many new releases for 2021 worth waiting for as I’ve mentioned a couple of months ago. Since I wrote that list a few cookbooks have been added to my collection, both new releases from that list and other new-ish titles, so I thought I’d give you the run down on them since its been an age since I last did an ‘Off the Shelf’ post on my blog. 

I also added a new cookbook ‘bookcase’ to my collection earlier in the year, as I had completely run out of space to store more cookbooks. I ended up buying a locker from Mustard, and left off the doors (see above image) so the shelves are exposed. It has turned out to be a great substitute for a proper bookcase, and I love the pink colour too. 

Anyway, back to what’s on those shelves: 

1. In Good Company by Sophie Hansen - this book arrived last week and it is as comforting and joyful as I had expected. I am looking forward to making the pistachio thumbprint cookies and the marinated olives, and as always I absolutely love Sophie’s warm and inviting photography throughout this book. 

2. Coming Together by Clementine Day - Clementine (aka. @somethingsiliketocook) created this self published book last year, and it chronicles some of the meals she made during Melbourne’s lockdowns. It is bright, inviting and the print quality is amazing. First on my list to make is the beetroot and goats cheese dip! I hesitated to add this to the list as the book is now sold out, but it might be worth checking the stockists listed on this page to see if they have any copies available. 

3. Summer Kitchens by Olia Hercules- I kept seeing people mention this book on Instagram last year, and finally saw it in a bookstore a couple of weeks ago. All about Ukrainian food and cooking, this book is unlike many others I own in terms of the kinds of recipes it contains. It is also beautifully photographed.

4. Jew-ish by Jake Cohen - I included this book on my initial 2021 cookbooks list, and it has recently been published. It is such a fun book, with so many great recipes, and so much information. We tried the Iraqi Roasted Salmon with Tomato and Lemon on Good Friday and it was a tasty meal that was fairly simple to make.

What new cookbooks have you added to your shelf recently?

Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.

Cookbooks Worth Waiting for in 2021

I know I posted a list of cookbooks a couple of weeks or so ago, but as a cookbook lover (or obsessive depending on your opinion), I felt it would be remiss of me to leave it too long into 2021 to discuss the cookbook releases we are waiting for this year. 

If we’ve learnt anything from last year, it’s good to have small things to look forward to. Books, with their physical assuredness and dependability can lift us into moments of joy and can continue to do so each time we open them.

And the prospect of new titles being released from my favourite cookbook authors and by some I don’t know so well, have definitely been added to my list of things to look forward to. In fact, they make up most of that list if I’m honest!

Here are the top five books I feel will be worth waiting for this year (a.ka. My cookbook wishlist for 2021!):

1. In Good Company by Sophie Hansen - I doubt I am alone in being excited about Sophie’s next book! I know many of us love her last cookbook ‘A Basket by the Door’, and I have a feeling we will all like this next one just as much! I also heard Sophie talk about the next book she is working on after ‘In Good Company’, which I hope she shares more about soon!

2. Chasing Smoke by Sarit Packer & Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co - The restaurant Honey & Co was on my London restaurants to visit list (honestly, I know there is no point in this list anymore!), however a new book from Sarit and Itamar is the next best thing to visiting their restaurants. Check out this Instagram Story Highlight from Honey & Co which explains what this new book is about, it is certainly on my wish list now. 

3. Ripe Figs by Yasmin Khan - I love Yasmin’s books, and I was really excited to hear she had been working on another. Yasmin’s books focus on one country/geographic region and not only does she seek out all the amazing recipes, but all the amazing stories behind the food and the people who make it. This third book is set in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus and I just know the recipes will be delicious.

4. Jew-ish by Jake Cohen - This book is described as “an innovative take on classic Jewish recipes that was created with the modern millennial in mind.” By the sounds of it, this book is right up my alley. If you don’t follow Jake on Instagram, go check him out, it will give you a pretty good idea about this book and his cooking style.

5. Simply Julia by Julia Turshen - If you have any of Julia’s previous books, you will know this one is worth waiting for. Julia’s books always have such a comforting feel to them and she really guides you through each recipe with such care. The subtitle of this book is ‘110 Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food’ and while I wouldn’t usually buy books that claim to contain ‘healthy’ recipes, I think I will be in good hands with Julia.

Links to books on Booktopia removed 15/07/2024.

The Best Cookbooks of 2020

While it does seem strange to have a list of anything that could be the best from 2020, the cookbook releases during that difficult year I dare say kept many of us going. Here are the ones I particularly enjoyed, and continue to do so.

What would you add to the list?

In Praise of Veg by Alice Zaslavsky

And here was me thinking I probably didn’t need another cookbook purely devoted to vegetables. How wrong I was! This book really surprised me in the best kind of way. It is vibrant, informative and really engaging. I like how Alice has divided, up the sections of the book into vegetable colours, it really is a completely new take on the world of veg.

Now for Something Sweet by Monday Morning Cooking Club

I love everything the Monday Morning Cooking Club does, and their most recent book has been no exception. I have really enjoyed the Coconut and Passionfruit Cake from this book, as judging by social media many others have too. This is definitely one to add to your collection, experienced baker or new to the game (or kitchen).

Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull

This cookbook is equal parts cosy and informative. Natalie’s way of writing a recipe means that, even though many of these bakes wouldn’t be considered simple recipes, she holds your hand and walks you through it all in a way that makes everything manageable. Even letting you know what to do when you have a bake-fail or what adaptations you could make to her recipes. Plus, for most of us it was the closest we could get to Melbourne’s famous bakery Beatrix in 2020, and it was a pretty good substitute.

A Year of Simple Family Food by Julia Busuttil Nishimura

I was slightly hesitant to get this book, I really haven’t made an awful lot from Julia’s first book ‘Ostro’, and wasn’t sure I should add this one to the collection. However, I am glad I did. This cookbook is completely different to ‘Ostro’, and I really like the recipe’s emphasis on the seasons. There are many recipes I want to make from this book, and they all look fairly simple to make yet very flavoursome.

Saturday Night Pasta by Elizabeth Hewson

I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday night than being at home cooking a good meal. And the idea that this practice, done regularly could become some kind of cooking therapy, just adds a magical touch. While the premise of the book is to make your own pasta, even if you didn’t, the recipes and sauces to go along with the pasta are lovely and well worth making even if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own pasta every time.

Off The Shelf - 'The Jewish Cookbook' by Leah Koenig

Bought at: it was gifted to me for Christmas. 

Recipes Made: Jewelled Rice p.174, Chicken and Quince Tagine p.269, Babka p.324, Yeasted Hamantaschen p.342, Candied Quince p.404, Charoset pp.406-409 and Lekvar p.410.

I made the Jewelled Rice on the same night I made the Chicken and Quince Tagine, and wow did I use a lot of pots of pans that night! This is no simple rice dish, but it is very tasty and beautiful. For a more simple version in the future, I would probably make the baked rice with salsa from ‘Simple’ by Ottolenghi as I definitely found it hard to co-ordinate all the pots and pans on the stove and the cooking times to have everything ready along with the Chicken and Quince Tagine. 

Chicken and Quince Tagine + Jewelled Rice

The Chicken and Quince Tagine was a big hit, and after the quince are candied it’s not a difficult dish to make you just need a little time. I’d never had quince with chicken and of course it was a great pairing. I did use the recipe for Candied Quince from the book as the recipe says, but I think if you already had some poached quince you could definitely use that. I am hoping to make this again whilst quince are still about, I liked it so much! 

Babka

When I was making Babka a few months ago, I consulted a few recipes one of which was the Babka recipe in this book. Comparing recipes was really helpful, and the recipe I ended up with can be found here. The recipe in this book was for a Cinnamon-Golden Raisin Babka which I definitely need to go back and try without making any of my own adaptations!

Yeasted Hamantaschen

I had been wanting to try Yeasted Hamantaschen for a while, only ever having made the more shortcrust biscuit like version before. I was delighted when I saw Leah had a recipe for Yeasted Hamantaschen in her book, and I made my own version with Quince Lekvar. I altered the quantities of flour a little from the original recipe, check out my blog post on this recipe for more if you want to try making them (and for more information on what hamantaschen are and when they are traditionally made see this post!).

Making Candied Quince

I was intrigued by the Candied Quince in this book, and I wasn’t sure what the end result would be. I was sort of imagining candied fruit like you would candy orange slices etc, but this actually ended up being more a quicker version of poaching quince. I didn’t find my quince turned a deep ruby red (I’m not sure if this was to do with the variety of quince I used), but once added to the Chicken and Quince Tagine the colour really didn’t matter as the taste was so good!

My version of Charoset

In the lead up to the Jewish holiday of Passover I decided I wanted to play around and create my own version of Charoset. Charoset is traditionally eaten as part of the Passover Seder, and comprises fruit (dried and often fresh apple too) and sweet wine. Leah has six different Charoset recipes in this book, all from different parts of the Jewish diaspora. They all have some things in common but also differ slightly in other ways too. I took the parts of each I really liked - rolling Charoset into balls like the Kurdish version and using a combination of dates, figs and a variety of spices like the Yemenite version - to create my own. 

Quince Lekvar

Lekvar was something I had never heard of before. It is a fruit paste used in Central and Eastern European sweets made using dried friut and fruit juice. Prune and apricot are popular versions, but this got me thinking about other dried fruits I could use. I love dried quince, and decided to give making Lekvar a go with it, and it worked so well. I used my Lekvar to fill the Yeasted Hamantaschen I made and used the remainder to fill some untraditional rugelach made with cream cheese dough from the book ‘Beatrix Bakes’ (which were delicious!).

Beatrix Bakes Rugelach with Quince Lekvar

Favourite Things About the Book: My favourite thing about this book is how comprehensive it is. This really could be the one cookbook you own on Jewish food and you would have enough recipes to keep you going forever. And it covers the foods of the wider Jewish diaspora, not just the more common recipes from Eastern Europe (as good as those are!). There are recipes from Jews native to Italy, India, Georgia, Iraq and South Africa. There are even a few recipes which are relics from Jewish life in pre-Inquisition Spain and Spanish occupied Italy.

This book feels so well researched and collated, Leah has done such a great job of providing really interesting recipes and insights about their history, without the book tipping over into a reference book or making the reader feel overwhelmed with information. It remains firmly in the cookbook category, and even despite the lack of food photography (the book is 431 pages so images for each recipe isn’t possible), I find Leah’s writing and the information she is sharing through these recipes so engaging. Each time I pick this book up a different recipe stands out to me, and another post it note goes in to mark it’s importance. And as you can see in the photos of my copy, I have used a LOT of post it notes in this book - which is purely a testament to how many great recipes there are in this book. 

Leah really highlights and champions the diversity within Jewish cuisine, showing those of us who are still learning about the world’s Jewish communities and their food, how much more there is to discover outside of bagels and babka (though naturally recipes for both these carb filled delights that we all know and love are in the book too!). 

Bookmarked Recipes (to make later!): Caponata alla Giudia p.116, Vegetarian Cholent p.144, Jewish-Style Braised Fennel p.158, Potato Laktes p.184, Eggplant and Tomato Stew p.249, Mandelbrot p.334, Almond Cardamom Cookies p.348.

Off The Shelf - 'Now & Again' by Julia Turshen

Bought at: it was a Christmas gift in 2018. 

Recipes Made: Garlic and Anchovy Butter Toasts p.31, Arugula Salad with Lemon, Pine Nutes and Pecorino p.35, Celebration Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Dates p.54 and Baked Saffron Rice p.55. 

I made the Garlic and Anchovy Butter Toasts in a whim recently, and they were divine. I ended up using a whole tin of anchovies, as I couldn’t bare to waste them (and my family and I love them! A lot!). I would make this again in a heartbeat, and will anytime I want to have a super tasty bread based side dish. Though having said that, I could definitely eat this as a main. Most definitely!

For Christmas lunch last year, we were looking for a nice simple yet tasty salad to go with out main meal of ham, hot smoked salmon and a baked rice dish (the Ottolenghi one I have made from ‘Simple’ many times). I was looking through some of my cookbooks, came across Julia’s Arugula (Rocket!) Salad with Lemon, Pine Nuts and Pecorino. It was just the simple yet tasty salad we were looking for. We have made it a few times since, and often use grana padano instead of pecorino as that is a cheese we always have at home. 

Arugula Salad with Lemon, Pine Nuts and Pecorino

Julia’s Celebration Chicken is a riff of a recipe, Chicken Marbella, that many cookbook authors seem to take inspiration from. I adore Ottolenghi’s version of this (see my Off the Shelf post on ‘Simple’), so I knew I had to give this version a go. I liked Julia’s version, however it did lack that intense moorish tastiness that Ottolenghi’s version has. I always find recipes that ask for water, instead of something more tasty like wine or chicken stock, are always a little underwhelming. I now see a red flag when I read recipes that ask for water in this way, as I always find them lacking in flavour. Despite this, I did make Julia’s Celebration Chicken as the recipe says, with water, and when I make it again I will definitely be adding 1/4 cup of white wine or chicken stock instead. 

I also made the Baked Saffron Rice to serve with the chicken, which is an adaptation of the Ottolenghi recipe I mentioned above. I really like baking rice this way, it cooks really evenly and is very stress free. I didn’t find this version nearly as tasty as Ottolenghi’s, but that would probably be because his recipe has a delicious green olive salsa that would make anything taste good. If I made this recipe again, I think I would cook the saffron with the rice, rather than adding the saffron infused water at the end before serving. The saffron was really lost on me in this recipe, and I think the flavour would be more obvious if it had time to cook in with the rice. 

Favourite Things About the Book: Similar to Julia’s first book ‘Small Victories’, ‘Now & Again’ contains Julia’s genuinely lovely writing, and very thoughtful recipes. This book is based on the premise that many aspects or leftover ingredients of the recipes can be used for something else, and Julia gives some great suggestions. I also really like how the book is organised. The book is divided by the seasons, then within that into menus such as, ‘Red-Checkered Tablecloth Late Saturday Lunch’, ‘Rosh Hashanah Dinner’ and ‘A Not-Kosher Jewish Christmas’.

Bookmarked Recipes (to make later!): Italian Flag Baked Pasta p.33-34, Applesauce Cake with Cream Cheese and Honey Frosting p.58-60, Striped Bass with Butter Verde p.142, Pistachio Mandelbrot Cookies p.148, Best Matzo Ball Soup p.166-167 and Hikers’ Cookies p.220.