What's Cooking Newsletter – August 2008

Welcome to the latest edition of What's Cooking - the winter edition! Winter has shown its true self with plenty of rain, gales, frosts, storms and snow! Being forced indoors does provide the ideal chance to enjoy the cookbooks you’ve not had time to read and to try new recipes - particularly those hearty soups and slow-cooked stews that warm hungry tummies!

On the Shelves…..

Recent releases –
Ottolenhgi – Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi - $80
The owners of the famed Notting Hill shop, Ottolenghi. take simple, everyday ingredients - broccoli, chilli, garlic and olive oil, for example - and transform them into something magical. For food that is modern, light and fresh and draws on the Middle Eastern side of the Mediterranean, this is the book for you. Gorgeous recipes and stunning presentation.

Italian Local – Tobie Puttock - $55
Italian Local celebrates the joys of Italian cooking and local produce. Tobie Puttock gathers together 100 of his favourite Italian-inspired recipes, and shows us how to achieve authentic Italian flavours wherever we live.

Table in the Tarn - Orlando Murrin - $60
This book tells the story of setting up a boutique B&B in the South West of France. It charts the discovery of the property, the acquisition and renovation and along the way, we learn about the local food scene, with its astonishingly rich heritage of ingredients and dishes, about working in France and coping with the famous French bureaucracy, and about the unforeseen delight of working with the locals, as well as over 100 amazing recipes. ……….. See Jonathan’s story below about his stay at this wonderful B & B.

Web Site….
We have just launched our new look website and invite you to visit http://www.cookthebooks.co.nz/. You can now shop online from a small selection of titles and while there is still some fine tuning to be done and more titles to be added (please bear with us), we welcome your comments and feedback. Thanks to Christie and the team at http://www.datumconnect.co.nz/.

Kitchen Gardening….
With the ground so sodden it’s better to leave it alone and instead read gardening adventures and tales!
Using the Plot - Paul Merrett - $50
Michelin-starred chef and family man Paul Merrett swaps his shopping trolley for a wheelbarrow in this tale of self-sufficiency and 21st century urban survival. Having become tired of poor-quality supermarket food and disillusioned with the dubious ethics of large corporations, Paul takes an allotment to see if he and his family can live off the fruit and vegetables they are able to grow. Part recipe book with over 85 allotment-inspired recipes, part memoir, Using the Plot is an engaging, informative and humorous read.

You will also find much inspiration and great ideas in the two NZ Gardener special collector’s edition magazines – Homegrown: from your plot to your pantry and Homegrown: live off your land for less, both in stock and only $14.90 each. Don’t forget to join the get growing campaign to receive a free vege gardening e-newsletter packed with hints, tips and weekend tasks, plus seasonal recipes for pickling & preserving. To sign up, simply email: getgrowing@nzgardener.co.nz.

Le Manoir de Raynaudes….
Inspired by the imminent release of the book A Table in the Tarn and the fact that I was to be in that neck of the woods in June, we decided to spend a couple of nights at the Manoir and see what it was all about. We were certainly not disappointed. Orlando and Peter our hosts, have converted this old manor into an elegant boutique lodge that sits in 10 acres of farmland and offers every possible luxury and some of the best food in the South West of France.

Orlando is a self-taught chef, but as the ex-editor of BBC Good Food magazine, was well prepared for the task. We ate communally (6 of us) at a lovely circular table overlooking the meadows and we were treated to Spiced pork belly with onion confit, absolutely brilliantly prepared and served.
After a day of sight-seeing around the countryside dotted with medieval hill-top villages and forts we wondered, over an early evening glass of pastis, how Orlando would top last nights meal or even match it. Well he managed with a sublime Saddle of lamb with agen prunes and rosemary.
A truly remarkable experience and one I would recommend to any of our customers travelling this region of France. Take a look at the book and you will be half way there!

Keep dry, keep cooking!!

Adele and Jonathan
COOK THE BOOKS

The Cookbook Store

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Email:books@cookthebooks.co.nz

Web-site: http://www.cookthebooks.co.nz/