silverguide.site –

Summer star book

Istanbul
Özlem Warren (Quadrille, £28)

Istanbul is one of the most thrilling places I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating in: its location straddling two continents makes it a true feast of different cuisines, and its lively history, covered in the introduction to former resident Özlem Warren’s third book, didn’t hurt, either. Chapters are themed around different destinations within its ancient sprawl, from the workmen’s canteens serving up hearty, inexpensive casseroles and soups, to the seafood restaurants on the shores of the Bosphorus, with beautiful explanations that prove as hopelessly evocative as Sam Harris’ photography. Though my abiding memory of my visit is of the mesmerising scents of chargrilled meat and fried mackerel wafting in the warm air, over half of the recipes are vegetarian, reflecting the bounty of the pazar, or farmers’ markets, that Warren describes as some of her favourite spots in the city. (As a sample of its diversity, the pazar chapter includes recipes brought by White Russians fleeing the Bolshevik revolution, and popularised by the Sephardic Jews welcomed into the Ottoman Empire some half a millennium ago.) Every recipe in here has a history, whether ancient – Noah’s pudding which, according to legend, the world’s most famous boatman prepared to celebrate surviving the great flood – or personal, such as her mother’s yoghurt-spiked cheese and courgette pasta bake. I have bookmarked most of them to try.


The South African Cookbook
Nokx Majozi (Bloomsbury, £26)

Chef Nokx Majozi grew up in Dlangezwa township, KwaZulu-Natal, in a “typical, unapologetic and proud Zulu family where we talked loud, cracked wise and cooked large”. Describing herself as “incredibly fortunate” to have been born in the Rainbow Nation, though she’s been working in some of London’s best kitchens for the past two decades, it’s the culinary diversity of her homeland that Majozi returns to in her first book; a celebration of a cuisine that still largely slips under the international radar. There’s the curry her father, who worked on the harbour at Richards Bay, would make when he came home from work with fresh fish, and the boerewors rolls she and her siblings pestered her mama for on childhood shopping expeditions, plus a crowd-pleasing grilled corn salad with peri peri chicken, a very unusual Cape Malay potato pudding, and a milk tart that I can tell you from personal experience is truly exceptional. Stunning photographs, too.


La Trattoria
Dara Klein (Ebury Press, £30)

Born in Emilia-Romagna to a Pugliese mother and a father from New Jersey, Klein grew up in her parents’ trattoria in Wellington, New Zealand, but came of age as a chef in London, working in kitchens including Brawn, Trullo and Sager & Wilde before opening Tiella, initially as a residency at the Compton Arms, and now in permanent premises on Columbia Road. Should your head be spinning at this globetrotting CV, all you need to know is that the food in this book cleaves true to the trattoria ethos, where “traditional dishes are served in simple but always highly personable premises”, and “rich in the love the cook has inherited from their origins”, whether it’s a Puglian bitter green sauce, or a nod to Klein’s American heritage in the suggestion one might serve the pork and beef meatballs in a roll with scamorza cheese. As well as recipes, there’s advice on equipment, putting together a menu and maximising your efficiency in the kitchen; accessible yet stylish, if this book was a trattoria it would be your dream local dinner spot.


MEDesque
Georgina Hayden (Bloomsbury, £26)

You may think there was nothing new to be said about the Mediterranean diet that has fascinated northern Europeans for over half a century, but I defy even those whose veins run with olive oil not to find something fresh in this lovely collection inspired by the 20 or so countries around its coastline. I say inspired, because though it includes the likes of Mallorcan chopped salad and Lebanese fisherman’s rice, there are also playful riffs on the flavours of the region: a Greek take on Sichuan smacked cucumber salad, a caramelised shallot and black olive “pissaladière” pasta, and a gloriously green basil-flavoured homage to that British childhood favourite, the Viennetta. Fun, colourful and full of sunshine, this is a book you’ll want to cook your way through all summer long.


Dinner Time
Zena Kamgaing (Bloomsbury, £22)

I can be guilty of passing over books promising 15-minute meals and the like on the assumption that the recipes have been written to prioritise time, rather than results. As so often in life, I am wrong (in this case at least). Kamgaing describes herself as “obsessed with big, bold flavours” which is exactly what floats my boat, but unlike me, she has the imagination to put ingredients together in clever, unexpected ways that sound utterly irresistible: mascarpone and harissa in a pasta sauce, or turning shop-bought crumpets into a decadent prawn toast. The effort required ranges from a quarter of an hour to the full 60 minutes plus for things such as her Nigerian fried chicken or Massaman lamb shoulder, but nothing feels fussy, or faffy … or, indeed, like an afterthought, so I suppose I should eat my words, along with one of those crumpets.


5 Ingredient Indian
Chetna Makan (Octopus Publishing, £26)

Much as I love Indian food, it’s rarely the first thing I think of when I’m looking for something simple, so hats off to Chetna Makan for managing to streamline so many big hitters without flattening their flavour. Refreshingly, there’s no long list of complex “base recipes” to circumvent the five-ingredient limit, just five key five-spice blends (which she freely admits you can go out and buy if you prefer) with which she manages to produce a generous selection of snacks, dals, vegetable dishes, curries, breads and so on. On my immediate to-do list: potatoes with fresh fenugreek, crab curry, podi cauliflower rice and a green mango salad.


The Jewish Bakery
Jennifer Rinkoff (Quadrille, £28)

I first came across Rinkoffs bakery when I was training for a marathon a few years ago; the sign, declaring it to have been in business since 1911, literally stopped me in my tracks, tempting me in for a bagel (which might explain my eventual run time). Founded by a refugee from Russian pogroms in what is now Ukraine, and tucked away on a pedestrian parade in Stepney Green, London, it’s easy to miss even if you’re not in a hurry, but at a time when traditional high-street bakeries are losing out to supermarkets and newer, cooler competition alike, it’s a local gem, both because of its selection of challah, Hanukah doughnuts and other Jewish classics, and thanks to the effortless way that it’s evolved to cater to newer arrivals in the area looking for halal treats. What Hyman Rinkoff would think of his great-granddaughter publishing his challah and heimishe cheesecake recipes while keeping her own croissant-doughnut hybrid a trade secret will never be known, but I suspect he’d be delighted with this handsomely produced tribute to four generations of familial hard work.


Tramontana
Simon Bajada (Hardie Grant, £25)

I must declare an interest here: the food of Italy’s Alpine valleys is, in my opinion, outrageously underrated, which is what drew me to this book on the country’s northwestern cuisines, named for the wind that sweeps down from the other lands to the north, but also “a suggestion of something foreign, other, not-quite-Italian in the sun-drenched Napoli sauce way we often imagine”. The larders of Liguria, Piedmont and my beloved Aosta Valley are marked as much by their fondness for buckwheat, butter and mountain cheeses as they are for more typically southern ingredients including olive oil and basil, so though there are recipes for old favourites such as pesto alla genovese and focaccia, they’re outnumbered by the lesser-known likes of chestnut pasta with tomato and hazelnut sauce, fontina fondue and polenta and lemon cookies. Plus, the pictures – from the beaches of the Cinque Terra to the snowy peaks of Aosta – are as transporting as you’d imagine from a chef turned stylist turned photographer turned writer, making it a lovely thing to look at, as well as cook from.


The Spinster Cookbook
Eli Davies (The Indigo Press, £14.99)

The subtitle of this handsome book, with its vivid cover art of a female hand confidently scooping chilli oil on to a slice of pizza, is “Culture, politics and pleasure in the single woman’s kitchen” … by which you may understand that this is not a cookbook in quite the same sense as the others here. Nonetheless, it does contain a handful of recipes, along with a sharp and honest meditation on what it means to cook for one in a “society designed for couples and families”. And very practical, pleasing recipes they are too, from a quick garlic-rubbed toast with a fresh tomato topping to the kind of thing it’s actually much easier to make in single portions, including steak and a martini (hurrah for both of those things). There are sensible thoughts on how to shop, and equip a kitchen for one without spending a fortune, too. It’s an intelligent, thought-provoking read, best enjoyed solo, with or without a martini in hand.

Store-cupboard staple

The Gift of Southern Cooking
Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock (Knopf, £38)

First published in 2003 (and later named book of the decade on southern cooking by Atlanta magazine), this hymn to the richness of southern cuisine is the product of the deep collaborative friendship between the legendary then-87-year-old African American chef from Freetown, Virginia, who was the granddaughter of an emancipated slave, and a chef almost 50 years her junior from Alabama farming country. The words are largely Peacock’s, the recipes and techniques more often come from the long experience of Miss Lewis – as he refers to the woman he was to care for until her death three years later. And the book as a whole is a treasure trove, the distillation of a lifetime of wisdom and good eatin’. As well as classics such as buttermilk biscuits and banana pudding, fried chicken and tomato sandwiches, it celebrates the rich bounty of southern produce – grilled mountain trout and fried green corn, sugared raspberries and asparagus pie – all shared with a generosity of spirit that leaps off the page like a bullfrog from a hot pan. A delight to read, a gift to cook from.