Recipe searches on the internet might be convenient, but they simply cannot substitute the pleasure one derives from a recipe book.
If you’re searching for some culinary inspiration, I’ve sourced a few local recipe books – new releases – which would make great Christmas gifts:
Everyday Delicious – inspired by the West Coast
Christine Capendale
Seafood, cold water, bracingly acidic white wine and an unforgiving coastline are synonymous with the West Coast.
At Langebaan, renowned for its Die Strandloper restaurant on the beach, crayfish, and big, fat oysters, Christine Capendale offered West Coast-inspired cooking courses for years. Now, she runs a cooking school from her home in Plattekloof.
Capendale believes food should not be complicated and must look fresh because “we don’t have time for it with our busy schedules, not even of the West Coast!”
I’d like to think things are a bit easier away from city life and that this has translated into a cooler, fuss-free approach to food.
Her recipes are quick to prepare and accessible. I love the fact Capendale places emphasis on beautiful presentation: “Make every meal and dish special – everyday delicious – fit for a king!” Effortlessly chic dishes range from triple chocolate and almond muffins with berries and mascarpone (a “breakfast dessert”) to smoked snoek and olive frittata.
But the ultimate West Coast thrill has to be the creamy mussel soup, enhanced with saffron, white wine and dill. It’s the recipe and cover star and epitomises the region: fresh, delicious, honest and wholesome.
Everyday Delicious uses a few staples found on the West Coast, with a twist. It’s a hodgepodge of recipes, with a Mediterranean bent.
New ideas with old favourites strike a chord, with examples being lemon and ginger cordial, lemon-flavoured malva pudding (what could be better, a combination of the buttery brandy flavours of a malva and the tart lemoniness of lemon sponge?) or smoked snoek smoor with fresh coriander and salsa.
It’s just the thing when you want to take it easy.
A breath of fresh West Coast air. Also available in Afrikaans. R230
Cook from the Heart
Alida Ryder
Emotional eating has kept psychologists busy for more than a century, but we won’t expand on oral fixations and or feeding the inner child. Sometimes, eating emotionally, to soothe the soul, is just what the doctor ordered.
Feeding the soul has become far more acceptable ever since books such as Chicken Soup for the Soul and other nurturing works hit the mainstream.
Many of us have moments in which we are guided by a desire for something “nice”. An ice lolly on a hot summer’s day speaks of beaches, braais and parties. For its restorative abilities, nothing beats a bowl of chicken soup. Or a cup of strong English tea with speculaas when you’re feeling blue.
There are many reasons for eating emotionally, although not many manage to strike a particularly healthy balance. Alida Ryder, in her second book, Cook from the Heart, wants to help you prepare food for every mood. Or when you’re just plain hungry.
Not many of these boerekos recipes are particularly healthy – but who expects that comfort food should be? There are eight chapters, themed according to mood, so whether you’re feeling happy, sad, lazy, calm, angry, jovial, in love or nostalgic, you should be able to find something calorific to feed the soul and body.
Alida’s blog www.simplydelicious.co.za is aimed at the ordinary cook, with fresh ideas and beautifully styled images. And you don’t need to be greatly skilled – her recipes are easy to follow, using easily accessible ingredients, but promise a feast. Recipes that I relate to are the blueberry flapjacks (nothing spells weekend quite as much as a buttery flapjack), yellowtail ceviche with radish and cucumber, lamb vindaloo, and a chocolate peanut butter cake – intensely rich, sweet and nutty.
If you’re in the mood for a late-night snack or a pick-me-up, you might want to reach for this. It has everything from mom’s chicken soup to a lemon sponge cake. Also available in Afrikaans. R250.
For the fans
Food Jamming with Jade
Jade de Waal
Gourmet Sisters – sharing food and friendship
Sue-Ann Allen and Ilse Fourie
The first MasterChef SA reality cooking competition gave the winner a restaurant and also-ran contestants some artificial celebrity.
Whatever anyone might believe, the reality show’s success does seem to defy logic – it’s hugely popular, with South Africa likely to see a third series.
Jade de Waal’s and Sue-Ann Allen and Ilse Fourie’s recipe books ride on their “celebrity” status, so these books would make great gifts for fans of MasterChef SA.
But Jade’s “Food Jams” started out years prior to her MCSA stint – her pop-up dinners were hits in her Mother Ship – sorry, Mother City – well before she achieved fame for her stint on the show.
Each chapter of Food Jamming revisits one of her “jams”, from the early days of experimenting in her parents’ kitchen.
The book is young and quite sweet – reminiscent of varsity days and youthful culinary experimentation – and a few recipes, like “killer coleslaw”, chilli con carne, and Ghanaian love soup read like the stuff you might just have made as a 20-year-old.
It’s nicely styled – but very indulgently, so there are lots and lots of (very) posy pictures interspersed with a few decent recipes described colloquially. R240
I didn’t watch many MasterChef episodes – before PVR, and with a baby at home, it wasn’t on my horizon – and I wasn’t aware of the “Gourmet Sisters” until I saw this book.
The Gourmet Sisters, aka Sue-Ann Allen and Ilse Fourie, apparently got to know each other when the top 50 contestants had to cook off in Joburg.
They became roommates and supported each other during the show.
In the foreword Allen says, Pollyanna-ish: “From fellow food competitor, to roommate, to friend. Food brought us together, food made this book possible and food is the glue that will ensure we remain friends for life. Food is just edible love, after all.”
Fourie adds that they are “the yin and yang of cooking,” saying “this varied approach is what makes this book so special”. So, two apparently different cooking styles.
The styling is attractive but again, far too indulgent – every second page has a picture of one or both of them, posed cheesily. Which is a pity because you get the sense that a) the book is contrived and b) their recipes are secondary to their sweet faces.
Two pretty heads certainly help matters though – the recipes are diverse, fresh and easy to follow. I do like the sound of the creamy goat’s cheese and pear cupcakes with toasted walnut icing, lemon cupcakes with lemon icing, peanut butter peri-peri prawns and tempura cauliflower with garlic mayonnaise. R245 - Saturday Star