As the cold weather kicks in here in Scotland, we reflect on one of our very best-selling books Seasonal Soups by the delightful and charismatic Fraser Reid.
Fraser is very inspiring character who gave up his previous office job to open a fruit and veg store in our hometown of Dundee cunningly named Fraser’s Fruit & Veg.
His book Seasonal Soups was inspired by the popular soup packs he sells in the shop to customers based around the seasonal goods available and as a way of encouraging people to try out different vegetables and experiment with new flavours.
Over three editions this wee gem of a cookbook has grown into a phenomenon and we are so happy to have been a part of Fraser’s exciting journey.
Now back to the soup. To celebrate this journey and the joy it has brought to so many, we thought we would share one of our favourite winter warmers from his collection that will keep you busy in the kitchen and cosy at home, while tickling those tastebuds – Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple.
Now over to Fraser and as usual the beauty is in the simplicity of the recipe and a few choice ingredients.
Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple Soup
The apple in this soup acts as a sweetener and can easily be replaced by using a pear, peach or apricot.
Serves 4
1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
1 apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
2 stock cubes
1.5 tablespoons creamed coconut
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat a pot on a medium-low heat and add the oil or butter. Fry the onion, carrot and garam masala for 5–10 minutes.
Add the squash and apple and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Pour in 1.2 litres of boiling water, and add the stock cubes and the creamed coconut, stirring to make sure it dissolves.
Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Blend the soup until completely smooth, and then season to taste.
Thank you Fraser for another very tasty and heartening soup to keep us warm.
You can buy Seasonal Soups direct from us with free postage right here
https://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/KitchenPress_Soup_MAY_22_RAW0356-scaled.jpg25601930Bosshttps://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/KP-web-header-2.pngBoss2024-11-22 17:04:392024-11-22 17:04:40Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple Soup Recipe
As we shift into autumn, we thought it was a good time to remind you that salads are not just for summer time, and we decided to share this fabulous potato salad recipe from Gillian Veal’s recent publication Cafe Cooking.
So dig up the remaining tatties from your garden patch, or go buy some local ones and get cooking this delicious dish.
Recipe:
The east of Scotland is potato country and we grow loads of them at Cambo so we always have a potato salad on the menu. For salad you want a waxy variety of potato, not the larger floury ones a they won’t hold their shape. This is one of my favourite potato salads. When we have them in the garden, I add a few slices of radish.
Serves 4
500g baby potatoes or any waxy potato
1 tsp turmeric
2 sprigs fresh mint, leaves only, roughly chopped
150g spinach, rocket or mixed leaves, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, sliced lengthways in half, then diagonally into 2cm slices
1 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
3 heaped tbsp pickled red onion
salt and white pepper
for the dressing:
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp runny honey or maple syrup
6 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the potatoes in half and put them in a large pot. Fill the pot three-quarters full with water, plenty of salt and the turmeric, then bring the pot to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain them in a colander and set them aside to cool.
Put the warm potatoes in a large bowl and add the mint leaves and the spinach, rocket or mixed leaves. Add the sliced spring onions, the nigella seeds, if using, and the pickled red onions.
To make the salad dressing, put the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, mustard and honey or maple syrup into a bowl and whisk it together. Taste and add salt and pepper as you think it needs it, then pour in the olive oil and whisk until the dressing emulsifies.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss everything gently but firmly. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Voila! Thank you Gillian.
We hope you enjoy trying this delicious recipe out at home and for more why not grab a copy of Cafe Cooking by Gillian direct from us right here.
https://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/31-potato-salad-1-scaled.jpg25601967Bosshttps://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/KP-web-header-2.pngBoss2024-09-04 19:56:202024-09-04 20:07:07Spinach, Turmeric and Mint Potato Salad Recipe
From Catalogued Ideas And Random Thoughts by Stuart Ralston
Acclaimed chef Stuart Ralston is known as one of the most innovative and creative cooks working in the UK today. Catalogued Ideas and Random Thoughts – A Cookbook traces his evolution as a chef, and brings together the food that inspires him, from the finely crafted dishes that he creates in his restaurants to the food he likes to cook at home.
We are delighted to share one of his favourite recipes with you- Burrata, Romesco, Red Chilli.
Now over to Stuart!
Burrata, Romesco, Red Chilli
According to Jade Johnston, our Ops Manager and partner in everything we do, burrata is hands down the best cheese in the world. It is super versatile, great for sharing and easy to source. It’s also delicious paired with my ride-or-die sauce, romesco. We use a little gochujang chilli paste to give the romesco a slight change of direction from its native Spanish roots.
Seves 2 with plenty of sauce.
For the romesco:
75g flaked almonds, toasted
75g whole hazelnuts, toasted
250g shop-bought roasted peppers, drained and seeds removed
250g tinned tomatoes, drained overnight
30–60g gochujang chilli paste, depending on desired spiciness
45g olive oil
8 garlic cloves, finely grated
10g sherry vinegar
5g smoked paprika
8g salt
sugar to taste
To serve:
1 burrata
1 red chilli, sliced
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
Method:
For the romesco, pulse the almonds and hazelnuts together in a food processor to form coarse crumbs, then place in a large bowl.
Blend the roasted peppers and drained tomatoes together in the food processor until incorporated but not smooth. Add to the toasted nuts.
Blend the gochujang, olive oil, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika and salt to form a paste. Add this to the nut mixture and season as necessary with more salt, sugar and vinegar.
To serve, place the burrata onto a paper towel to drain any excess liquid. Spoon plenty of romesco onto a plate and put the burrata on top. Add a couple of slices of red chilli, season with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper and then drizzle over the olive oil.
Serve with toasted focaccia.
So tasty! We hope you enjoy this recipe at home.
You can buy Stuart’s book here and discover many more of his amazing recipes.
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Acclaimed chef Stuart Ralston is known as one of the most innovative, creative and hard-working cooks in the UK today. Stuart’s inspirations come from all around him, and throughout his career he has kept a notebook to jot down ideas for flavour combinations and recipes. He goes back to those ideas again and again, playing with taste and texture to create stunning and intriguing dishes.
We are so excited to publish his first cookbook Catalogued Ideas and Random Thoughts – A Cookbook. The book traces his evolution as a chef, and brings together the food that inspires him, the finely crafted dishes that he creates in his restaurants and the food he likes to cook at home.
Stuart grew up in Glenrothes in a family of chefs. From learning his trade in kitchens around Scotland, he moved to New York to work in Gordon Ramsay’s flagship 2 Michelin Star restaurant at the London Hotel.
He spent two years as the Chef de Cuisine at Sandy Lanes, Barbados cooking for the likes of Rihanna and Mark Wahlberg, before returning to Edinburgh to open several highly regarded and top quality restaurants – Aizle in 2016, followed by Noto in 2019 and most recently Tipo in 2023.
We caught up with Stuart and asked him a few questions to give us some insight into what he does and what lays behind his love of food and cooking.
Enjoy!
Was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
Many many cookbooks have given me something. The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, my first 3 star cookbook, was life changing. A timeless book now you look back at it. It’s a book that made me daydream about what life must have been like in a 3 Michelin star environment.
I love the David Chang Momofuku book. It was a book that was just so refreshing and cool. The food was so varied that you could have his fine dining dishes like his “ KO Egg” or move onto something causal you’d find at Ssam bar like spicy rice cakes and sausage, which felt like a very New York dish similar to a gnocchi with broccoli rabe and sausage meat.
2. What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
My Cast Iron pans, without a doubt. My pans were made by the Griswold Co in Pennsylvania in the 1850’s. They last a lifetime, and are always non stick and heavy as hell. They retain heat like no other and basically I use them every day.
3. Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
Tas Gaitanosand Alex Largeare old school-friends who set up the first Brother Marcus restaurant in 2016. Since then it has been called the ‘Best Brunch in London’ by Time Outand as having ‘Some of the best brunch options in the city’ by Harper’s. They now have outlets of their hip Eastern Mediterranean restaurant in Angel, Spitalfields Market, Borough Yards and South Kensington and are about to release their first cookbook Brunch With Brother Marcus.
Tas is of Cretan and Cypriot heritage and grew up working in his father’s restaurant. He was lured into the family trade by his love of the flavours of the Eastern Med. Alex is a trained actor so finds running front of house and developing the notorious Brother Marcus cocktail list a natural home. Both have travelled extensively in the Eastern Med and look to it constantly as a source of inspiration. Brunch at Brother Marcus is a weekend institution in London, and in their first cookbook you can find out why.
In the book, Tas and Alex take the flavours of the Eastern Med to make dishes really worth getting out of bed for, from simple favourites such as Menemen – a spicy scrambled eggs made with peppers and tomatoes – to the sublime: think Pulled Lamb Flatbreads or Rosti with Fried Chicken and Eggs.
Brunch with Brother Marcusalso features recipes to make your own yoghurt, pickles, salt beef and breads.
As well as a drinks chapter that delivers both smoothies and fortifying cocktails such as the Brother Mary, or the alcohol-free Pomegranate Ginger Beer (sure to put a skip in your step).
And there are sweets too, including traditional Baklavadika and a truly divine Portokalopita, an extraordinary orange filo pastry cake. You won’t want to brunch with anyone else.
We recently caught up with Tas and Alex and asked them a few questions to give us some insight into what they do and what lays behind their love of food and cooking.
Enjoy!
1. Was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
Our office and home shelves are full of cookbooks that we like and admire, but specifically for our book there were three that inspired us, Mazi, Palomar and Brunch The Sunday Way.
Specific brunch books aren’t as easy to come by as you might think so Brunch by Sunday’s was a real inspiration in terms of creating a book just for that one meal and seeing what they included and how they positioned it.
In terms of aesthetics, design and writing style, Palomar and Mazi have been books we’ve always liked and gravitated to.
2. What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
This was a hard one to answer as we have too many favourites, it depends what cuisine we’re cooking, the mood we’re in and who we are cooking for but we’ve gone for Aleppo chilli.
We use it in so many dishes at Brother Marcus it must subconsciously be our favourite, or maybe just very versatile! Aleppo is a variety of capsicum that is used a lot in Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish cooking. We sprinkle it on lots of dishes including in our fennel tzatziki but also make a delicious Aleppo butter that we use with our king prawns, adding a subtle kick to the dish.
We even use it in cocktails such as the Aleppo Margarita that’s in the book, it’s a very useful spice to have in the kitchen.
3. Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
If I’m on my own in the kitchen I normally put on whatever I’m currently watching on Netflix, at the moment it is a football documentary, but if my wife and baby are in the room it’s a different scenario altogether and football is definitely not on the cards! Normally we put music on as we listen to different podcasts and audiobooks so music is our mutual ground. Our favourite band is Fleetwood Mac.
4. If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
I was brought up in Elounda which is a town on the island of Crete. It has a pretty beach right in the town where I spent much of my childhood so I think I’d have to say the beach there.
It’s right across the road from my father’s restaurant where me and my siblings were able to play whilst my parents sat in the restaurant half watching us. I used to catch octopus just off the beach so I’d love to cook octopus, or local seafood, on an open fire on the Elounda beach.
5. If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
Don’t stop exploring, there are so many amazing cuisines, ingredients and produce so never get stuck in your ways and take the easy option with sticking to things you know. New ingredients and produce are always being discovered which is one of the most exciting parts about being a chef, experimenting with these and coming up with new flavour combinations and recipes is always fun.
Massive thanks to Tas and Alex for taking the time to share their thoughts with us. Their absolutely stunning new cookbook is now available in all good book stores and of course direct from us right HERE.
https://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Tas-Alex-scaled.jpg17402560Bosshttps://kitchenpressbooks.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/KP-web-header-2.pngBoss2023-05-18 14:48:052023-05-18 17:46:27Kitchen Quiz Episode 11 – Brother Marcus
Fi Buchanan is a food writer and chef who owned Glasgow’s legendary Heart Buchanan café and deli. Winner of a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award, she presented the BBC series TeenCanteen, has worked behind the scenes on many tv food shows and has given a TedX talk on courage. She lives in Glasgow and we think she is wonderful.
We asked Fi if she would write the companion volume Seasonal Salads to the best-selling Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid, which has sold over 10k copies, and Fi said yes!
‘Salads can be anything you want them to be’ says Fi and with Seasonal Salads she created a book that celebrates salads in all their seasonal glory.
What these recipes all have in common is Fi’s trademark inventive flair, her ability to combine flavours and textures in the cleverest of ways to make the most of what’s plentiful in each season.
If you thought salads were something you served on the side, it’s time to turn over a new leaf.
We recently caught up with the lovely Fi and asked her a few questions to give us some insight into her background and her love of food and cooking.
I poured over those books on my work breaks, on the bus, in the laundrette, and I truly loved them. The authors seemed as if they were speaking to me like a friend as I read and the recipes were irresistibly fresh and sparkling with flavour. I wanted in.
It was 80’s Edinburgh, I was vegetarian and sick to death of boiled potatoes and brown food. I remember the first day I ever tried fresh basil, the first day I ever tried a kiwi fruit, the first day I tried the Italian mountain cheese Taleggio … literally … I can remember where I was and what I was wearing. It was like getting the key to a door into a technicolour world from a black and white world.
Q: What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
A: Well for practicalities sake I’d be an idiot if I didn’t say my knife. A very plain – non designer – wooden handled, easy to sharpen, 20cm cooks knife.
After that I’d have to say the music and podcasts on my phone. They set the tempo for me – giving me energy, soothing my hot brain, educating me, talking me … or dancing me … through the solitary days and nights in the kitchen for the past few years.
Q: Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
A: My musical taste is eclectic, I make playlists all the time, and my son has caught the bug, and laughs at me for calling them tape-mixes. A good mix is a magical thing, very similar to a good dish, it has to match your mood and then find you and lift you a little. When you share what you’ve made it’s a deeply personal thing, and if someone you like appreciates it, it can generate deep joy in you.
I’ve made a tape mix for each of the 12 months of salads in the book. Here is the QR code for January’s playlist:
Q: If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
A: Hmm. Would I be cooking for my friends & family? If I could bring them with me there are some pretty nice beaches in the Virgin Islands I’d quite like to go back to.
I’ve always thought that a vineyard in Chile would be a great place to hang out and cook up a storm.
However, if the forces of magic were at work (oh please let them be), I’d conjure an amphitheatre of growing walls full of veggies and herbs, and wood fired ovens. I’d put it in every single school in the land and we’d make huge platters of salads, big vats of soup, and homemade bread everyday for lunch. I know it sounds a bit far out, but could you imagine?! It would be so good. That would be magic that’d make more magic.
5. If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
My one single piece of advice to you would be to cook the food you like. You can’t get your mojo from food you don’t like. Motivation is the unstoppable force. Be motivated by what you love. Do yourself proud, then share it with people you love.
Massive thanks to Fi for a truly inspiring chat. Her Seasonal Salads cookbook is now available in all good book stores and of course direct from us right HERE
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Urvashi Roe was brought up in a family who loved to snack. Any news of impending visitors would prompt a flurry of activity in the kitchen. Within 30 minutes her mother and aunties would have the ‘biting biting’ prepared – a spread of vegetarian and vegan snacks made with store cupboard ingredients and leftovers.
Her family are originally from Gujarat in India, but Urvashi grew up in Tanzania in East Africa, where she lived until she was a teenager. Their family tradition of ‘biting biting’ takes its roots from classic Gujaratifarsan– salty snacks served with tea or as street food – famous throughout the In- dian subcontinent. The recipes evolved to use East African ingredients like cassava, then again as the family moved to the UK.
Biting Biting the cookbook is a celebration of this delicious family custom, and of the food of the Gujarati diaspora in Africa and in the UK. Extremely tasty, quick and easy to prepare these snacks will set your tastebuds buzzing.
We recently caught up with the lovely Urvashi while she was holidaying in Greece and asked her a few questions to give us some insight into her background and her love of food and cooking. Her answers are as delightful as her book and her cooking.
Enjoy!
Q: Was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
A: Nigella Bites is the first cookbook I ever owned. My husband bought it for me for Christmas in our first home. We used to watch Nigella on TV cuddled up in a fluffy red throw with red wine and popcorn. We had very little furniture at the time and we’d watch with the odd exclamation now and then. “Ooooh let’s get spoons like that” or “I love the way she has those twinkly lights on the bookcase”. We totally did get those spoons and twinkly lights when payday came round.
We started writing the dates of when we made the recipes in the top corner of the page. If I had carried this tradition on til today then there are most certainly pages that would have run out of space.
A few highlights would be:
Breakfast Muffins – I remember one morning when we woke up to find our neighbour’s cash register in the back garden. We called the police and as they did their investigations I put on a batch of these and we had them with hot tea. My girls were little then and they enjoyed toddling out offering Mr Policeman a muffin.
Chocolate Fudge Cake – still the go to cake recipe for our birthdays. Over the years the decorations have changed from My Little Pony to Polly Pocket to Disney Princesses to Harry Potter most recently when my daughter turned 16 but the base is always this same delicious recipe. The memories that page in the book evokes are so special. It’s almost like the book holds them safely for us.
Stovetop Rice Pudding – when I had my flower shops the hardest season was always Christmas. Your hands are shredded with snips from the thorns of thousands of Grand Prix roses or spiky ivy wreaths. The phone is constantly ringing. There is never enough time to get warm. The first Christmas was especially hard as I had no experience of the madness. I’d been on my feet for nearly 15 hours, just shut the shop door and flipped the open sign to closed when one of my regular customers came in not looking his usual cheery self. His mum had passed. We sat in silence with hot tea. I held his shaking hand for about an hour before he was ready to make her funeral arrangements and then I drove him home. Tone had been taking care of the girls all day and I got back just as they were setting out their mince pies for Santa. He saw the tears in my face as I came in for a big hug. He bolted the door, led me to the spot in front of the fire and deposited Amber and Amy Sienna on my lap for cuddles. Over the next 20 minutes I lost myself in their happy chatter and then the intoxicating smell of vanilla and milky rice as he brought me a bowl of this pudding. It’s become a Christmas Eve ritual ever since.
It’s a very special book and I love the storytelling within. It’s her relaxed and open style that inspired me to do the same – capture moments in time within the pages.
Q: What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
A: My Velun. A Velun is a rolling pin. We use it for rotli and other flatbreads. It’s got a slightly thick bit in the middle and this is the part we use to flatten the ball of dough. The outer sides are thin and we apply a little pressure on the right then left and so on. This makes the disc of dough spin to get bigger. It’s very clever.
I’ve had mine since I was in primary school and it travels with me to demos and when I teach at Demuth’s. I have used a wine bottle at friends’ houses but it’s not the same. It’s also handy for smacking naughty husbands who try and steal hot off the pan rotli smothered in ghee before it’s dinner time.
Q: Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
A: I like a really quiet, calm kitchen to cook in. No music. I like just getting lost in the recipe I’m following or my own thoughts.
Sometimes if I’m making rotli I listen to a podcast. It’s a monotonous, step by step task that requires very little concentration. Roll the dough ball, flatten it, roll into a disc, flour it, roll out into a circle, toss it on the hot griddle, make another dough ball, flatten it, roll it into a disc, flip the rotli on the griddle, back to the disc of dough, flour it, roll it to a circle, flip the one on the griddle one more time and then off, plop the one you just made onto the griddle, put ghee on the hot one and then back to making another dough ball and so on.
A particular favourite is the one with Andi Oliver. That one made me cry and I got flour all over my face wiping the tears away. The one with Delia Smith is also great.
I wasn’t allowed to fail as a child. My father set high standards for my schoolwork and it wasn’t a happy conversation when I got less than As. It took me a LONG time to accept failing and understand that failure is what helps us grow. Elizabeth is exceptionally good at highlighting the learnings that come from her guests’ failures and is a constant reminder to me that in the grand scheme of things I am not a failure just because I slipped a few As at school.
Q: If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose and what would you cook?
A: Just after I finished filming for Series 2 of Bake Off we went on a holiday to India. Tone and I had been before but this was our first trip with the girls. We were driving from Jaipur to Udaipur when the first episode was aired and I was on Twitter and Facebook all the way to get an inkling of how it was. It was so stressful!
We arrived in Udaipur tired, hot and hungry. After freshening up we went down to the restaurant of the Shiv Nivas Palace Hotel. The one that was in Octopussy where the bad guy stays.
Unfortunately the restaurant was full with an event and their other restaurant was being renovated. Room service was also too busy to take more orders so the waiter sat us down in the courtyard with some drinks while he tried to find a solution. After what seemed like hours he came back and ushered us into the hotel again. We thought they’d sorted out room service but we went a different way. Down a long corridor, through a few sets of locked double doors. Elaborate, wooden doors with intricate carvings and brass handles. The girls were proper grumpy and we had to carry them.
Finally we arrived into a large banquet hall. The Maharaja was not happy that as guests of the hotel we were not able to eat and so had offered us his private kitchen and banqueting suite. Every table was masterfully laid with silver platters, brass goblets, crystal glasses and cutlery. The napkins were made of silk. There was a full kitchen staff to welcome us. They promptly lifted the girls out of our arms and into the kitchen. Ordinarily the girls would have objected but they were so tired they complied. Warm Nankathai biscuits and fresh sugarcane juice perked the girls up and abated my hunger. We were given a tour of the immaculate kitchen before sitting down wherever we wished in the banquet room. We chose middle middle. Dinner was Dhal Makhani, buttered Naan, a myriad of vegetable curries and the poshest pasta with tomato sauce we had ever seen. The waiters served us flamboyantly with flourishes and bows and trays under huge silver domes. It was magical.
I would go back to that kitchen and cook that Dhal. I’d make Naan in that tandoor and learn how to cook the giant prawns on skewers you see on TV. I’d bake those nankathai, simmer some chai to go with them and marvel at the magnificence of the room again.
Q: If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
A: If you are making a recipe for the first time always follow it precisely. Then it is much easier to adapt it and get creative. I’m sometimes in such a greedy rush to eat that I skip a step or miss a spice. I never get a good result with this impatient attitude!
Thank you so much Urvashi for sharing these wonderful stories with us.
You can order Biting Biting direct from KP here or in all good book stores.
Recipe taken from from Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-style By Urvashi Roe
Urvashi Roe was brought up in a family who loved to snack. Any news of impending visitors would prompt a flurry of activity in the kitchen. Within 30 minutes her mother and aunties would have the ‘biting biting’ prepared – a spread of vegetarian and vegan snacks made with store cupboard ingredients and leftovers.
Biting Biting is a celebration of this delicious family custom, and of the food of the Gujarati diaspora in Africa and in the UK.
Extremely tasty, quick and easy to prepare these snacks will set your tastebuds buzzing. Next time you have guests for tea or you need a little something that’s not quite lunch or dinner, you can simply reach for some Biting Biting inspiration.
We are extremely happy to be publishing this wonderful Biting Biting cook book in September 2022. So we thought we would give you a taste of what delights you can expect by sharing this tasty Onion and Tomato Curry recipe taken from the book with you to try out and enjoy over the summer.
Enjoy your Biting Biting!
A Brief Introduction To Shaak
In Sanskrit saka means ‘vegetable but in Gujarti it is the word we use for ‘curry’. Depending on which part of Gujarat you are from, you might say shaak or saak. My family all say shaak except for my friend Kavita who says saak. Shaak can be dry or with sauce, and it can feature a stuffed vegetable, single vegetable or combination of vegetables. It is often associated with certain rituals or functions – for example, at weddings you will often see potato shaak, mixed vegetable and dumpling shaak and some form of lilotri or green vegetable shaak.
Usually on weekdays we have one shaak with rotli. On a weekend or at family functions we may have a few more. When I first got married my husband always got three of four shaak at dinner as he was the Jamai (son-in-law) in favour. Nowadays he gets one unless my mum needs a job doing around the house or garden.
Onion And Tomato Curry (Shaak) Recipe By Urvashi Roe
When you literally have a bare fridge and are not in the mood for a complex cook, this is your recipe. It is guaranteed to fill the kitchen with a wonderful aroma and bring warmth and comfort at the end of a long, tiring day. It’s fast to make and you can eat it unceremoniously with your fingers on cold leftover rice, crusty day-old parotha or even on toast or in a sandwich. We like it with torn baguette too. You can omit the ghee but I find it adds a velvety, buttery sheen, making this dish one you’ll want to lick off your plate. Green tomatoes or tomatillos work exceptionally well.
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp ghee
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 large onions, thinly sliced
2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp amchur
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, grated (optional)
4 large tomatoes, halved and cut into 2cm slices
Method
Heat the vegetable oil and ghee in a wok or large saucepan until the ghee has completely melted and started sizzling. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow them to fizzle and pop for a few seconds. Quickly add the sliced onions and sauté them briefly so they are well coated. Add the chilli powder, turmeric, ground cumin, amchur and salt and then toss well so everything is thoroughly combined. Add a shot glass of water and the garlic if you are using it, cover and cook for five minutes on a medium heat until the onions are just starting to soften.
Take a moment here to inhale the aromas and commend yourself for making this epic dish.
Carefully fold in the tomatoes, then cover and cook for a further two minutes so the tomatoes are soft but still retain their shape. Eat immediately!
If for some crazy reason you have leftovers you can spoon the cold shaak over buttery toast and top with a fried or poached egg. Or this makes a great topping on hummus scattered over with toasted sunflower seeds and scooped up with pitta bread.
You can pre-order Biting Biting direct from us here
One of our favourite and most popular KP titles is Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid. This beautiful wee book is now in its second edition and has brought joy to readers around the world with its straightforward, healthy approach to soups.
Author Fraser Reid is an absolutely lovely chap with a strong community ethic. Having experienced a sudden personal nirvana moment with vegetables, Fraser transformed both his career and the local community in the West End of Dundee by opening his wee green fruit and veg corner shop.
The focus has always been on quality, local and international produce all provided with a smiling face and cheery personality. A simple yet powerful and infectious approach. The shop has also become a supplier of other quality deli goods such as Spanish black pudding, fresh baked bread and craft beers.
Fraser’s trademark is his warm and affable style. He really is a business owner who’s personality and passion are at the heart of everything he does. No one just pops into Fraser’s Fruit And Veg without a nice chat or learning something new.
It’s quite interesting that one of our most successful cookbooks is not written by a chef at all, but by someone passionate about produce and who had the courage to try out lots of soup recipes. The purpose being to make the menu at home more interesting, varied and packed full of vegetables. This is a philosophy we are 100% behind here at KP. Cooking is for everyone.
So we caught up with Fraser recently (which is always a pleasure) to ask him a few questions for our Kitchen Quiz series.
We hope you enjoy!
Now over to you Fraser.
Q: Hey Fraser, hope you are good. So was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
A: The cookbook that really inspired me was Jamie at home. We started growing veg in the garden before opening the shop and using the recipes in this book after harvesting. The broad beans fritters in there are amazing.
Q: What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
A: My favourite item in the kitchen would be the soup pot. We use it every week and its been the pot that’s tested all of the recipes in Seasonal Soups.
Q: Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
A: Music is always on in the kitchen. Depending on who’s in, that dictates the tunes.
If it’s my 4 year old then it’s I Like To Move It by will.i.am.
Q: If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
A: If I could cook anywhere in the world then it would be the simple beachside BBQ. The sound of the waves are mesmerising and feeling on the sun on your skin. I love cooking outdoors.
Q: If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
A: My advice on cooking would be not to stick to a recipe but use it as a guide that you can tailor for personal tastes. It also makes you a better cook, just being able to adjust things as you go. Also don’t be afraid of seasoning.
Great advice from a lovely man. Thank you Fraser!
You can order a copy of his wonderful soup book here.
Kitchen Quiz with Katerina Nitsou (author of Macedonia – Recipes & Stories From The Balkans)
Katerina Nitsou spent her childhood in the kitchen helping her grandmother, mother and aunts prepare family feasts using fresh herbs and vegetables from the family’s prized garden. Growing up in a large Macedonian-Canadian community in Toronto, she was immersed in Macedonian culture through language, dance and of course, food.
She began writing about traditional Macedonian cuisine long before she completed her training at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. She honed her recipe writing skills in the Los Angeles Times Test Kitchen and developed her cooking style working as a food stylist, caterer, and private chef in California. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two young children, whom she is teaching to cook.
We caught up with Katerina recently and asked her a few questions so we could all get to know this talented, enterprising and creative woman a little better.
Q: Hey Katerina, was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
A: It wasn’t any cookbook in particular that inspired me, it was actually the lack of Macedonian cookbooks in the market that inspired me. I will say however that when you love food and cooking, being surrounded by cookbooks is just a part of daily life and then it makes it hard to pick a favourite.
Q: What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
A: I had this tiny thin spatula with a watermelon print on it that I’ve probably had for 12 years. I had to toss it out recently because it was literally falling apart, and I’ve been trying to find the same one with the same shape and profile and sadly not succeeding.
Q: Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
A: I’m a big Spotify fan, I always have music on at home. These days I’m listening to Michael Kiwanuka and Federico Aubele’s radios, but I also am known to jam some old school 90’s and early 2000’s Hip Hop and R&B.
The podcasts I’ve loved most over the last year are “Second Life” with Hilary Kerr and “More Than One Thing” with Athena Calderone. For those that may not know this is about me, in addition to being a retired chef and cookbook author, after a journey of working in real estate for Sotheby’s and doing our own developments, I now work in interior design and property development as a professional renovator here in Melbourne. These podcasts that focus on featuring women who are not afraid to embark on new experiences and try new business helped me so much in my waves of doubt and transition in my recent move from Los Angeles California to Melbourne Australia this past year and enterprising and creative women are certainly the ones in the world I connect to.
Q: If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
A: Macedonia, I would love to spend time traveling around Macedonia, cooking and learning in all the villages and towns.
Q: If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
A: Trust yourself and your senses. Cooking is about sight, touch and smell just as much as taste and don’t over think it… Worst thing that can happen is you’ll have to order in.
Katerina’s delicious Braised Quail recipe from Macedonia– Recipes & Stories from the Balkans
Thank you so much for your lovely insights Katerina!
You can purchase the book direct from us here and begin your own journey into Macedonian food culture.
