Choosing cookbooks is tricky business. What is the point of buying a recipe book if there are fewer than 3 recipes that you will use/find interesting? The investment is not inconsiderable, so the question is a good one. All of the recipes in this book are vegetarian, and most of them are made really easily. A notable exception to a poached-egg-neophyte is the page long list of "simple" directions for making a poached egg. I truly had no idea.
This book introduced me to dishes featuring cabbage, garlic and chickpeas (such a perfect combination of flavors). There are dishes for every time of day, and they are intended for every day eating featuring ingredients that can be added to or found in a pantry with little strain on the budget. As a person who cooks for one, the portions took some getting used to, but the work was utterly worthwhile. It is also filled with lovely photographs.
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| Every flavor I want is in this dish right here |
I vividly remember making a soup of cabbage, garlic, chickpeas and grated parmesan cheese in a light broth one winter's night. I sat at a drop-leaf table with a broken leg in my set-of-boxes studio apartment and cried. It was the most perfect set of flavors I'd ever eaten, and it was food that I'd made for myself. Like falling in love or holding a purring cat - there just aren't words.
We live in a culture that is shamefully flippant about food. This book and the joy I found within it was the beginning of the most important relationship I think I've had in St. Louis - food. (sorry, bros, but, for real)
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