T-Veg The story of a carrot-crunching dinosaur

One of my recent best buys has been this children's book: T-Veg The story of a carrot-crunching dinosaur by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, Illustrated by Katherina Manolessou. What a nice book with beautiful colourful illustrations, an adventure and a strong vegetarian and anti-bullying messages. Find more info about the book through this link.

My partner and I find the book quite endearing. Of course we are also big fans of dinosaurs so it just ticks all the boxes. I don't think there's anything wrong with adults reading children's books, but if you have kids, vegetarian or not, this would be a wonderful book to read to them.

My summary of the review: Vegetarian propaganda at its best! And this is meant in the nicest possible way.

My Cookbooks Part IV – The French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier

Today I want to write about a nice little cookbook: The French Market Cookbook – Vegetarian Recipes from My Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier. Clotilde also has this nice blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, which isn't a vegetarian blog, but there are many nice and innovative vegetarian recipes as well.

The book is divided into the four seasons and the dishes are obviously seasonal, which is a very clever way to arrange a cookbook. Clotilde has a pleasant writing style and she writes a story to each recipe, including some French market flair. I find that to be a nice touch, and as a friend of French food markets, I love reading anything about them.

I adore this book especially for its wonderful spring recipes made with beautiful ingredients, some of which I have posted here on the blog, like: Very Green Salad (p. 18-19), Crunchy Lentil and Watercress Salad (p. 20-22) and Radish-Top Pasta (p. 26-28). I loved cooking all of those dishes and they were packed with good flavours. I'm sure I will regularly look into this book for ideas and good recipes.

These are my previous posts in My Cookbooks series:

Part I 

Part II 

Part III 

 

My Cookbooks Part III – The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit

Today I want to introduce a book that has been a kitchen essential for me for a while now, ever since I purchased it. It's The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit.

This book is a life saver for creating new recipes or getting inspiration for which ingredients to mix together. It contains an extensive list of ingredients and suggestions to good flavour combinations. 

There are facts and descriptions about the flavours of vegetables, fruits, herbs and spices, so the book makes an interesting reading even without a plan to cook anything. I think this book is a wonderful tool and help for creative cooks and food bloggers of all sorts.

Of course I need to point out that this book lists 99 flavours in total and 14 of those are meat flavours. As this is not a recipe book I can live with the fact that also animal based flavours have been listed. Over the years as a vegetarian I have learned how to ignore these things pretty well anyway. I hope that you can too, as the book is really useful.

This book is also great, if you have a vegetable that you want to cook, but are unsure what flavours compliment it. There are so many flavours listed in the book that you can find a pairing almost every time. Sometimes I've had an idea of what to cook and have double checked with the “Flavoursaurus”, if all the ingredients really go together.

Here you can find the previous posts of My Cookbooks series:

Part I 

Part II 

My Cookbooks Part II – New Feast by Greg & Lucy Malouf

Happy New Year everyone! It's a New Feast for the New Year. I haven't made any resolutions as such, but I would like to be able to continue cooking and blogging as thus far and lead a healthy and balanced life. Hopefully that's not too much to ask.

Now after Christmas I haven't been cooking much anything that takes an effort, therefore the first post for this year won't be a recipe. However I am planning to make a vegetarian roast dinner today, which might appear here later. I started My Cookbooks series in November last year and Part I can be found here. Now I wanted to continue the series with a book that I got for Christmas: New Feast, Modern Middle Eastern Vegetarian, by Greg and Lucy Malouf.

I haven't had time to cook anything from this book yet, but it is showing promise and I can't wait to try some of the recipes and learn new techniques and ways of spicing. In general there are so many very good Middle Eastern veggie dishes and I enjoy the seasoning and choice of ingredients in that style of cuisine. This book has a massive choice on different recipes and suggestions for menu ideas for different occasions.

I'm particularly keen on trying to make some of the breads, such as the griddled flatbreads (p. 36) or Middle Eastern pizzas (p. 46-49), and the flavoured butters would make a wonderful addition to those (p. 52-57).

I'm also very interested in making some of those vegetarian dips and spreads, as there can never be enough in your selection. These could go so well with different fritters, and for those there is also a whole chapter in the book.

The roasted tomato and chickpea curry with coconut and coriander (p. 208-209) looks and sounds so tasty that it might be one of the first dishes I try to cook from here. Or then it will be the tomato and bean soup with harissa and honey (p. 94-95), as I do like the sound of that as a good winter dish.

And how about this wedding couscous with herbs and flowers (p. 218-219) – it just looks so great!

I will make sure I'll post any cooking attempts from this book in the blog and refer to the book as always. I can't wait to get started!

Your VegHog

My Cookbooks Part I – Modern Art Desserts by Caitlin Freeman

Today I'm starting a new series introducing my cookbooks. I love books and reading in general, so it's no surprise that I have also collected a few cookbooks. One day I will have a flat or house big enough for a library room.

The first one I want to write about is one of the more quirky ones, it's Caitlin Freeman's Modern Art Desserts. Unless I'm mistaken, it's my only dessert cookbook, but it's a very special one indeed. It's more like an ode to creativity in the kitchen. I am an art lover and visit galleries and exhibitions frequently. That was also a reason to buy this book, and I purchased it at Tate Modern's gift shop. I think that everyone who likes art or cooking or both, should read this book. It makes such a wonderful read, there is a fascinating story behind each of these creations.

Caitlin Freeman is an American art student turned pastry chef, business woman and author, and her journey is told in the book as well. She has created these art dessert recipes for her husband's company the Blue Bottle Coffee and their coffee shops, some of which are in large art galleries. 

So far I have been too intimidated to cook anything from the book, but I'm always dreaming of one day making the Mondrian cake. I'm not the best pastry cook, I do like my savoury stuff, but maybe one day I will give it a go. The recipes are written very clearly and even the equipment and ingredients are introduced in detail, but most of the desserts are really time consuming so you need to be really committed.

If I was to create my own art work influenced dish, I think I would choose something made by my favourite artist, the Belgian surrealist, René Magritte. By the way I had a Magritte moment the other day when a pigeon flew past me just in front of my face! What about you, has art inspired you in creating recipes? Any masterpieces you would want to share here?

The joys of balcony gardening

A part of The VegHog's balcony garden 30th June 2013

I have told you before of my passion for homegrown produce and mentioned my limited growing space. It has been extremely satisfying in the few last weeks to watch my balcony plants grow. I've harvested plenty of radish, some courgettes and of course diverse herbs. The sweet peas have started flowering and blooming tomatoes and beans have attracted bees to visit.

I will soon give you a more detailed update of my own urban garden, but first of all today I would like to talk about two books that have enthused and supported me with my gardening lately. These are not really sufficient book reviews, so please check out the links below if you want to know more, or are interested in purchasing the books.

The Urban Kitchen Gardener Growing and Cooking in the City by Tom Moggach

What struck me first in this book is the exquisite art work. The veg illustrations look so endearing and tasty that reading alone made me hungry, and the vibrant photos didn't let down either.

If you have been thinking that your growing space is too limited, this book will make you think again and help you to find creative solutions. There are no excuses anymore for not growing anything in your home even if it's only a small flat, there's always enough space for something.

This book contains some very valuable growing and storing tips and even recipes.

I can highly recommend this book to all urban and rural gardeners alike. I'm sure you would enjoy reading it!

The Medieval Flower Book by Celia Fisher

Some time ago I purchased The Medieval Flower Book. In the first instance again the lovely illustrations caught my eye but once I started reading the book I couldn't put it down.

The VegHog is interested in Medieval art and literature anyway, so this book ticks several boxes for it. It's full of beautiful flower illustrations from medieval herbals and manuscripts including interesting facts about the flowers' symbolism and history.

Obviously I also highly recommend this book to all plant lovers.

Your VegHog