Harters
( Who put the dip in the dip da dip da dip. DEMAND ANSWERS)
221
This is an absolutely lovely read. Part personal memoir. Part social history of the British in India. And, of course, part cookbook. And there’s a wide variety of recipes - many feel quite Indian, others feel that an Indian spin has been put on otherwise British dishes and yet others feel very British - more at home in Morecambe than Mumbai. Well worth seeking out (AbeBooks has several listed)
It’s prompted me to see if I can do any research into an Indian connection in the family. My mother told me that my great aunt Jessie (of whom I have no recollection) and her husband spent time in India before independence. I’ve inherited from Mum a couple of pieces of silver - a holder for tiny candles or incense sticks and a napkin ring, engraved with Indian scenes and inscribed with Dad’s initials. So that tends to support it. I know this must have been sometime between the world wars as I know, from some previous research they were in the UK in 1911 when a census was taken and also in the 1939 census. But what were they doing there? Certainly not a high position as he was an engineers fitter or some such.
My birthday was Monday and my husband got me Snacking Bakes (Arefi) and Pizza Night (Stafford) and I can’t wait to dive in! If you have favorites from either book, I’d love to hear about them!
Took a ride to a 2nd hand bookstore and found a few collectibles. Very good condition. I looked them up online while shopping. $25. for the lot was a decent deal. I traded for a few hard cover fictions.
I loved the hatch chili pizza! I made the Neapolitan pizza dough and made a regular mozzarella tomato sauce pizza for a second pie, and focaccia with leftover dough. Outstanding.
Harters
( Who put the dip in the dip da dip da dip. DEMAND ANSWERS)
230
This was an interesting read - more for the stories of the author collecting the recipes than the actual recipes. She collected them during the 1940s and 50s, so felt quite dated. And you need to bear in mind that “How America Eats”, actually means how middle class, white America eats. There’s nothing of soul food, Southern BBQ or immigrants’ food (Italian excepted).
I apologize for posting here about something other than new cookbook acquisitions. Lately, I have spent a little time flipping through old but beloved cookbooks to refresh my ideas and knowledge. Big hits included Chez Panisse, Essentials of Italian Cooking, La Varenne Pratique, and Momofuku, Before being forced to add another bookshelf, there is still a lot left to explore in the older books. I am not ready to cook any of them or any other cover to cover, but revisiting things with the benefit of new ideas and approaches is fun.
I spent many happy hours there, including cutting classes in law school for a very enjoyable lunch. (I got a A in the class anyway ). Trust me, a long time ago.
It’s not complete (written long before Roy died and the restaurant closed) but I’m happy with this, even though it’s missing 2 of the sandwiches I liked and a recipe for Golden Sauce. As an aside, a poster on Reddit said he’d paid $80 for his copy. Mine was $14. And I didn’t get it from Amazon. Or eBay.
Luisa Weiss’ long-awaited “Classic German Cooking.”
This is my favorite kind of cookbook. It’s full of things I want to cook and eat, but it’s more than that. As she says in the introduction: “With this book, I … hope to illuminate German food culture, its rituals, rhythms, and traditions.” That’s my sweet spot, too.
I love the cover, the font, the photography and the food styling, which is restrained and beautiful. I’m so tired of the over-exposed, cartoonish food photos in vogue lately. These are unpretentious still lifes, relatable and aspirational at the same time.
Weiss literally wrote the book on German baking, so the sweets chapter is stuffed with everything else: stovetop puddings, sweet dumplings, baked fruit and molded desserts. The dessert photo that grabbed me instantly was Reis Trauttmansdorff, a stunning creamy molded rice pudding with raspberry sauce. I’ve never fancied rice pudding, but this might be the first thing I make from this book.
So excited to finally hold this one in my hands! Watching an author traverse the multi-year process of writing and publishing a book like this is so fascinating and (even from a distance) exhausting. Very grateful for the final product, though
). Trust me, a long time ago.
