Bloke by Jason Comins

My New Penguin English Dictionary says : Bloke /blohk/ noun chiefly British, informal a man. [perhaps from Shelta, a secret language based on Gaelic and English used by some travelling people in the British Isles.]

I liked this book when I reviewed it for the Sunday Times last December 12th.  Like Jamie Oliver on TV taught blokes to cook some ten or more years ago, here is a cook book for boys.  And it is beautifully put together by Jason Comins, a product of a family which is into food in a major way, and is the sort of guy who could fix your fishing rod, your tractor, your hair dryer, cater for your daughter’s wedding, take you salmon fishing in Norway.  Jason trained as a chef at the well-known Ballymaloe Cookery school in County Cork Ireland.  His mother Colette Comins, again with Russel Wasserfall, produced a sensational story of a family’s food in The Farm Kitchen published by Struik in 2006 to which he and his sister Camilla made a great contribution.

Quote: “When it comes to food, it’s no longer cool for men to stare in confusion at pots and other kitchen stuff, meekly offering to wash the dishes in exchange for meals.  Social acceptance hinges on having a few killer recipes up your sleeve and a passing knowledge of what does what in the kitchen.”

It is filled to brimming with great recipes, no fuss about the names – no filet de beouf Mamselle Fifi de la Bonbon, just plain old easy to understand Whole fillet, Lamb Chops and Apple Pork chops and the like. Blokey kinda recipes.

There is not one recipe which contains either difficult manoeuvres you have to practice fifteen years to perfect, or ingredients you are not able to procure from your local Pick n Pay or a specialist food shop.

Cleverly headed chapters like, Built for Comfort, Dough Nation, Fire Mission and Slow burn, mean that no bloke would ever need another cook book.

Russel Wasserfall has produced six cookery books.  He is recognized as one of South Africa’s leading food photographers, what he does to chocolate is nothing short of amazing.  He has worked in Europe, North America and the Middle East.  Being a photographic journalist he is well known for fabulously illustrated articles in any number of magazines.  He’s a lovely bloke too.

Concept and photography Russel Wasserfall
Food styling by Camilla Comins
Publisher Jacana and available at R185.00
ISBN 9781770097711

She has written such wonderful books, living in the countries involved and getting under the skin of the national cuisines.

Twelve [twelve months in the life of a Tuscan kitchen, where she met and lives with her husband Giovanni] Falling Cloudberries, Apples for Jam, Piri Piri Starfish [which taught me so much about Portuguese food before my visit there this year] and Venezia [well, Venice!] are all the most beautiful books to look at and to feel in your hand.

BUT – they are also great in the kitchen when you are wanting something a little out of the ordinary.

Her latest book Food from many Greek Kitchens is going to save you a lot of money as you will be able to prepare all those fabulous Greek dishes at home – no travel costs!

The Greek Salad is an authentic one with no lettuce, all those wonderful lamb dishes, ouzo, feta and and and…….the honey soaked desserts and and and….the seafood!

You are going to have a lot of fun with this one.

Yotam Ottolenghi is a London Restaurant Legend.

I have been following him for ages on line in The Guardian where he has a fabulous column called The New Vegetarian.

Initially Guardian readers were not happy with the fact that he was not a vegetarian at all – he would offer a salad recipe to serve with lamb chops!

John and Lynne Ford ran a shop Main Ingredient in Sea Point I went in one morning and a customer came in and asked for an unusual spice mixture called za’atar.  Lynne said: ”Oh you’re cooking from Ottolenghi are you?”  “Yes!” was the reply and Lynne told me that since Ottolenghi: The Cookbook appeared their sales of Middle Eastern Spices had gone through the roof.  She could spot them a mile off!

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi is the sort of book that will make you cry that at last you have found it!  Fabulous, pretty food!  It will make you want to go into the kitchen and start cooking this amazing man’s even more amazing food.

It is visually beautiful, the flavours are so zingy.  The photos in the book make you reach for a napkin to control the mouth juices running

A gift at R415 as it is going to change your life in your kitchen.  From your favourite bookshop

The closest you’ll get to the Ottolenghi magic is at The Kitchen in Main Road, Salt River, Karen Dudley’s emporium where you may kneel before the altar of some of the most exciting food in town.  Serve yourself stuff with workers from surrounding offices and warehouses popping in for fabulous sandwiches – ask for the Love Sandwich – and take away containers of flavourful food.  Go to Karen’s Website here.

If you want the spices, contact John and Lynne at Main Ingredient on 021 439 5169.

Vefa's Kitchen

One should be thankful that Vefa’s Kitchen is not delivered like the newspaper, over the front wall for it would surely break down part of the verandah and land with a hell of a thud.

Vefa’s Kitchen is the bible of Greek food.  Greece regards itself as the mother of Mediterranean food, and is a great exporter of its dishes all over the world too.

What middle of the road family restaurant anywhere in the world does not have a “Greek Salad” on its menu?

Where does one find a supermarket without feta cheese, a Mom’s Recipe Book without a Moussaka recipe, a good bakery with a tray of Baklava pastries or Spinakopita, slow cooked lamb with yoghurt?

There are Greek communities all over the world who for the past thirty years and more have been using the recipes of Vefa Alexiadou to bring into their kitchens the flavour of the homeland.

This is a book you don’t want to drop on your toe, but one which you could happily use as a doorstop in your kitchen so it will be there and constantly make you pick it up when you are looking for something colourful, flavourful and exotic yet easy for supper.

And my goodness, not only do the photos look fabulous, the recipes are easy to prepare and just packed with flavour and reminders of that last holiday on the Greek Isles.

Available at your favourite book shop or click on the cover to buy online.

Gizzi's Kitchen Magic

Gizzi Erskine may not be that well known in South Africa, but she is a household name in the UK where she is known as a cook and presenter of the Channel 4 TV series, Cook Yourself Thin and author of the eponymous book.

Gizzi trained at the Leith’s School of Food and Wine and landed up working for BBC Good Food magazine.

London based, she is now a regular chef on GMTV and This Morning.  She is a food columnist and writes for Marie Claire, Elle and others.

There’s nothing about cooking yourself thin in her magical book Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic.

Really cleverly put together with masses of tip and tricks, beautifully photography, stunning food packed with colour and flavour.

Such a joy to have in my kitchen.

R330 at your favourite bookshop or click on the cover to buy now.

Tastes of Africa - click on cover to buy now

Lovely when a totally fresh name in food pops up out of the blue like this and produces a gem.  Justice Kamanga takes you on a safari through this amazing continent of ours.

All the tastes and textures of Africa, from the north to the south.

What I like is that the ingredients are all readily available and the dishes are so easy to prepare.  So you can plan your African themed supper for the World Cup!

Plenty interesting stuff there, vegetarian food too which is always a bonus.

Nice breads, lovely puds.

Nice gift for overseas visitors.  Beautiful pics by Ryno and excellent design by Beverly Dodd.

Well priced at R230 in your favourite bookshop now.

It’s also a book you will want to keep on your kitchen shelf rather than the coffee table, there are some quick and easy last minute store cupboard dishes to fill a last minute gap.

Julis Child's Best Book

Mastering the art of French cooking – Julia Child, Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle

As old as the hills, my copy, a faded Penguin paperback was printed in 1966. Written for those who love to cook “the servantless cook who can be unconcerned on occasion with budgets, waistlines, timetables, children’s meals or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat.” Currently the theme of a movie featuring Meryl Streep as Julia Child, I heard recently that this book is in its 47th printing!

What I like about it is that you can go to it for the basics in French cooking and then do you own thing with the variations, like a super Navarin de Mouton I made this week. A delicious lamb stew with tomato and white beans.

Wine to go with this book. It’s so French, so I must choose French and what better than a French Champagne. Inke Gouws, Champagne Ambassador invited me to lunch this week to taste a range of bubblies from Maison Giraud-Hemart of Ay – in the presence of Emmanuelle Giraud. The Espirit de Giraud Blancs de Blancs would be the perfect wine to sip while rustling up a little Tarte aux Cerises Flambée now that cherries are in season.

Be my Guest - Fay Lewis

Lewis is a modern day Mrs Beeton, Hildegonda Duckitt, Constance Spry and Sannie Smit all rolled into one and dipped into the Royal Hostess.

This should be the book made for compulsory reading by every couple embarking on a life together. From picnics to hoity toity dinner parties, Fay tells you how to do it with such style. She has won a regional Gourmand award for this book. She should be in Buckingham Palace kneeling before the Queen being tapped on both shoulders for services to the Commonwealth in Food and Wine.

Fay is a bright eyed sparky person and the wine for this book needs to be Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel, a bright sparkler MCC. The first Champagne style wine made in the country by another pioneer Frans Malan also had bright sparkly eyes!

First big crush – Eric Arnold

A hugely entertaining book – perhaps unlike any other wine book I have ever read. A romp through a vintage in New Zealand with a charming young American writer. Brilliant and very funny way of writing – there are just so many people about whom he talks which have mirror images here in the Cape. He’s threatening to visit here next year and I hope he gets to have his knees under my table.

Wine for this book – something innovative, racy and different, yet making a great point. Barista – Bertus Fourie’s coffee Pinotage.

The girl with the dragon tattoo - Stieg Larsson

This is actually part of a trilogy. Followed by The Girl who played with fire and The girl who kicked the hornet’s nest. The author died of a heart attack before the books were published. I think it was self-inflicted! I almost had one in the closing stages of the second book. I just knew the third book would not match up to the excitement of book two, but it did, more so. Andrew Marjoribanks, owner of Wordsworth told me he went into mourning when he finished Hornet’s Nest – so did I.

Wine for these books – something with lots of character and flavour. A well matured Grangehurst Pinotage. Jeremy Walker releases his wines when they are so ready for drinking, on the path to perfection. Delicious classical Pinotage with a dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon for extra dignity.

The Food and Wine Pairing Guide – Katinka van Niekerk & Brian Burke

I have known Katinka for a couple of years. She is an elegant, educated, amusing lady who spent some years in the diplomatic service in Europe. She knows so much about food and wine and how best to pair the two. This is a book I will keep on my bedside and when I am dreaming up dishes to cook at home, I will refer to it in order to ensure maximum pleasure.

If you love food, if you love wine, this will help you put the two together, so perfectly. The price R135, is not much more than a good bottle of wine and just think how many more bottles it will help you enjoy.

Sadly the book lacks descriptive information about Brian Burke and does Katinka little justice too.

Wine for Katinka? A classical Cape Cabernet like Morgenhof. Breathing elegance, dignity and always perfectly turned out.

Tortoises & Tumbleweeds - Lannice Snyman

Lannice is one of my favourite Cape cooks. She is a prolific writer and each time a book appears, I think, “this is the one!” She proves me wrong every time.

Beautifully nostalgic with lovely photography and simply great food. It’s the sort of book you want to keep in the kitchen rather than on the coffee table.

Out of the can, her most recent little book is about using canned fish and there are some delights to be had there too. At under R90 a pop it makes a great stocking stuffer.

Wine for Lannice? Lannice and Michael have a house down near Cape Agulhas so a beach wine would be a good choice. Cape Point Splattered Toad – a quirky fabulous new Sauvignon blanc with a great sense of humour. Duncan Savage turns amusing!

A farm in my heart – Emilia le Roux & Francois Smuts

Nostalgia deluxe for a farm boy like me. A story of Emilia’s family in De Rust on their family farm Doornkraal. Emelia’s mother Ann is a cook of great style and all the family’s food secrets are spilled in this book. It’s a fabulous read, and will be in the tottering pile on my bedside table for months to come as I dip into it frequently when I want to get my mouthjuices running.

The wine has to be a Muscadel; Emilia’s father Swepie is Ambassador for Muscadel. De Wetshof Cape Muscadel. Sweet like honeyed apricots, some lemon drops present, Danie de Wet doing his superb thing yet again.

South Africa Eats – Philippa Cheifitz

Iconic would not be too much of a word to describe Philippa Cheifitz. One of the Cape’s consummate cooks and food writers, and a prolific one two, Philippa has been a friend for over 30 years, and she has not changed one jot in all that time, always the same, always wonderful to be with. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of food and shares it in the most accessible way.

This is a book where Philippa takes the foods of immigrants, Jewish, Portuguese, Indians and through descendants presents dishes as used in their homes today.

Philippa’s wine should be dependable, always enjoyable and leave you wanting more. Klein Constantia Riesling, dry with a delicious acidity, mouthwatering roast pineapple and poached cape gooseberries with some riverstone flintiness too.

Drinking from the Dragon’s Well – Alexandra Smith

Alexandra Smith’s story of a year in China makes fascinating reading. I could not imagine going somewhere where no-one speaks your language, you cant read any street signs, shop signs, food packaging. Yet this little slip of a woman proves her metal by going there and doing it. And then writes the story. Hard to put down and the sort of book I want to go and tell everyone to buy and read NOW.

Alex needs a wine with backbone yet is very feminine. Peter Finlayson’s Bouchard Finlayson Pinot Noir. Beautifully constructed, elegant, slightly savoury, sweet sweet fruit and will develop well. As Alex has as a writer.

Sumptuous – Marlene van der Westhuizen

If you want proof that dynamite comes in small packages – here it is. Marlene might be height challenged, but her personality and style would fill a large hall. That she is a great cook goes almost without saying, style ditto. Her first book Delicious is also a wonderful story about her fabulous food. Sumptuous tells of the things that could not fit into Delicious. Marlene has a house in France and many of the brilliant photographs show the little village and its shops and streets. Again the sort of book you want to keep in the kitchen, as you just want to eat her wonderful food. I have been fortunate in eating her wonderful food at her studio in Sea Point – often and I always come away so excited.

Marlene’s wine needs to be a powerhouse of flavour and it needs to be white and “French”. So a Viognier from Eagle’s Nest on Constantia would hit the mark. Packed with the flavour of fresh white peaches, wonderfully floral – white flowers like frangipani, star jasmine and honeysuckle, and a flavour of those wonderful soft-dried apricot.

Click on the cover to buy now

Tina Bester runs the cutest little restaurant called the Queen of Tarts in Observatory.  Just down the road from Val Elder’s The Real Cheese – two excuses to visit coffee or lunch and them cheese to take home.

Tina Bester doesn’t mind if her pastry’s slightly wonky – in fact this self-proclaimed ‘no rules girl’ prefers it that way. At her delightfully whimsical store, she’s created a vintage-inspired, playful escape from reality where you can order a decadent slice of gooey chocolate cake for breakfast and nobody bats an eyelid.

Bake is about Tina’s travels from a ‘no bake’ cook to a passionate purveyor of home baked treats, made the old-fashioned way but with a Queen of Tarts contemporary twist.

The book is divided into six sweet and savoury sections and includes recipes for biscuits to fill up the cookie jar, the perfect flaky pastry roast chicken pie, an extensive selection of sweet tarts, cakes and meringue creations (including some of Queen of Tarts most famous bakes) and breads and buns. Each is crammed with mouthwatering imagery thanks to Tina’s creative eye and an integral belief that making pretty is part of the fun.   The recipes and instructions in Bake are uncomplicated and oh-so-easy to achieve, and Tina offers plenty of no-nonsense advice on how to ensure your baked creations are a success. Inspiring imagery and ideas to create your own foodie fantasies are very much part of the package and are bound to stir up a desire to get out the mixing bowls and to get baking.

Bake takes the fear factor out of this timeless tradition and celebrates the joy that a pretty iced cupcake or still-warm savoury tart can bring.

Beautifully designed, photographed and published by Craig Fraser and Libby Doyle of Quivertree Publications www.quivertree.co.za, with writing by the very talented Vicky Sleet, this is one for the kitchen shelf where it will be used – and often!

Click on the cover to buy this book now

I was fortunate to meet Alex Boraine and his wife Jenny shortly after he entered Parliament in 1974.  A child of the Great Depression, Alex rose from lowly beginnings in a working-class family to become head of the Methodist Church, an MP for the oppositional Progressive Federal Party and deputy chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In this candid memoir, Alex deals with the sacrifices made by Jenny and  his family, his battle against cancer, and the challenges, hopes and achievements of South Africa as well as other countries in transition from dictatorship to democracy.

I really enjoyed this book which is a window into not only a great South African but the workings of politics in South Africa before and after 1994.

Coco

“Coco” is an exciting, unprecedented guide to the most exceptional talent in the international restaurant world.

“Coco” presents 100 of the best emerging chefs from around the world selected by 10 superstar chefs: Ferran Adria (Spain), Mario Batali (US), Rene Redzepi (Denmark), Alice Waters (US), Jacky Yu (Hong Kong), Gordon Ramsay (UK), Ferguson Henderson (UK), Shannon Bennett (Australia), Alain Ducasse (France) and Yoshihiro Murata (Japan).

The selected 100 chefs are creating the most innovative cuisine today. From Singapore to New York, Stockholm to Surrey, Hong Kong to Paris, these chefs are pushing their craft to new heights and have just begun to receive attention for their cooking.

Arranged alphabetically by chef, the book presents each chef over two pages. The first page is a presentation by the Chef who chose him pr her, a sample menu by the chef, and two to three of the chef’s signature recipes.

The second page includes photographs of each recipe, of he chosen chef’s restaurant, the chef at work, and the chef’s environment, including farmers’ markets and favorite ingredients.

In the back of the book, each chef-curator discusses one specific dish that has had a particular significance throughout his/her life or career, accompanied by a recipe and photograph of the dish.

Part cookbook, part guide to the world’s best new restaurants, and part who’s who of the international food scene, “Coco” showcases the cooking of today’s best new chefs, as chosen by today’s culinary icons.

Coco is available from good bookshops.