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| Lemony lentil and crisy kale soup, from A Modern Way to Eat by Anna Jones |
I do like a new cookery book and I got two of them for my
birthday. One is another by Anna Jones, her first, A Modern Way to Eat. Essentially it’s more of the same as the one I
already have and love, but from where I’m standing the moment that’s just fine.
Anna seems to have hit exactly the right note for me just now, to the extent
that I’ve just planted some chard seeds and I’m wondering about digging a bed
for some kale next year…
And so the particularly beautiful lemony lentil and crispy
kale soup form Anna’s book that you see at the top of the page was this week’s
triumph. I am pretty fond of lentil soup anyway. It is everything I want in a
soup, rich, filling, comforting, flavourful. This was a fabulous take on that,
the solidity of the kale making a good contrast with the smooth lentil texture
and the lemon giving it a surprising summeriness.
I’m not yet sold on the other book I got for my birthday.
This was Nigel Slater’s latest, Greenfeast.
He starts by describing how he likes to have lots of bowls of different things
on the table for people to help themselves from. I do love these kinds of
meals, but for everyday dinner I want to cook one thing, perhaps with some
accompanying vegetables or bread or salad. Because he’s writing with this
particular kind of meal in mind, nothing in the book is substantial enough to
put on the table on its own and a lot of what’s here would just look like a
side dish even if you multiplied the quantities. We had ‘Broad beans, new
potatoes, tomatoes’ (they’re all named after the main ingredients like this)
and it was a huge faff of skinning a mountain of broad beans and then realising
we’d have to get the cheese out because there was no way we’d be full. I want
to love this book. I do feel when I have the time to investigate some of the
recipes, when I take them on board so that I can rustle up two or three without
the attention required when you’re working with a new recipe, then I’ll find
some gems in there. We don’t have very many Nigel Slater books, but those we do
have have the wrinkled, food-spattered pages that show your true love for a
recipe book.
Oh, and another slight gripe about Greenfeast – it’s beautiful to look at, with a magenta fabric
cover, about the size of a paperback and fat as a blockbuster. But oh just try
cooking from it! You can’t lie it flat or prop it up in any way so that it
stays open on the page. I’m not even sure it would work on a cookery book stand
if I owned one. I managed to hold the pages open with another book but honestly,
what I want in a cookery book is practicality. I want the whole recipe – method
and ingredients – on one page. I want a picture of what it’s supposed to look
like and I don’t mind the odd arty lifestyle picture, but please don’t overdo
it. Ideally I’d like some suggestions about what to serve each recipe with and
I’m open to ways to make variations. There are too many recipe books that
really might just as well be coffee table books. I’m not putting Greenfeast in this league, as it
actually ticks most of the former boxes and also has an attached page marker.
It’s possible too that with use it will soften and lie open but I doubt it.
Anyway, enough.
You can find the complete menus from week twenty here.
Claire Watts and her family are cooking vegetarian for a year. You can find out why - and why 'cooking vegetarian' doesn't always necessarily mean 'eating vegetarian' here.
Claire Watts writes and edits books for children.
She's currently working on making something beautiful with fairy tales.
Find out about her Snippets project and how you can help on her Patreon page.
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