Guest blogger, Liv, gives this cookbook a whirl…
I was almost scared to turn one of the knobs on our new induction oven after
my husband retired the BBQ from service for the winter. The BBQ had served
us well for the 6 (looooooooong) months we had been without a kitchen. But I
had lost my fondness for Chimichurri Chicken wraps, chargrilled eggplant, and
salad, more salad, and…. more salad. And, it turns out, I had lost my culinary
creativity and kitchen confidence. How do I cook again?!
The opportunity to read, relish and review Jess Daniell’s recipe book, “My
Underground Kitchen” couldn’t have been more timely. Let me tell you about it.
About Jess’ Underground Kitchen
Firstly, having been living under a rock for sometime, I confess I hadn’t heard of
Jess’ Underground Kitchen. So it was something of a bittersweet revelation to
read that, right under my nose, while we have been a kitchen-less couple with a
new baby (arrrgh!!), Jess has been making home-cooked meals that you can
order and pick up from different collection points around Auckland.
For those who are hopelessly indecisive when it comes to selecting from a
menu, Jess’ menu largely eliminates the risk of selection error that results in the
dreaded Food Envy. The Underground Kitchen offers one main meal option per
day, which you can have “Regular”, “Paleo”, or “Vegan”. You can select a
single serve, double, triple or family. And you can add on other offerings, like a
soup, a dessert, a healthy snack. Or, instead of ordering a fresh meal, you can
order frozen options.
About Jess’ book
With this concept proving a big hit with the time-poor but health conscious, and
those who like their food generally, Jess has produced a beautiful recipe book
where she “shares the secrets behind the recipes, [and] to show how easy and
enjoyable it can be to make them at home”.
The book is helpfully divided into seasonal chapters, which is a helpful way of
directing home cooks to base their meals around produce that is freshly
available (and probably more reasonably priced as a result). Just reading the
menu boards for each season makes the mouth water. And, happily, the
recipes are accessible. Even the Moroccan Slow-Roasted Lamb, which I kindly
asked (or made?) my lovely husband make on the weekend, wasn’t over-
complicated and didn’t call for any ingredients that we don’t routinely stock.
And it was DELICIOUS. I had always viewed a lamb roast as a reasonably
sacred don’t-mess-with-it-as-a-roast-is-a-roast-and-yummy-just-the-way-it-is
kind of meal. Eh-er. So wrong! Jess’ recipe made the humble roast a gourmet
sensation, and one that will feature regularly on our winter weekend menu.
Depending on your pantry and/or fridge, it may be worth thumbing through the
recipes and picking up a few ingredient outliers so that you have them on hand
when you come to try some of the recipes. For instance, and at the risk of
showing myself to be a basic home-cook (oh well, it’s probably true!), we don’t
currently have shrimp paste on hand. And, in all honesty, I am not often to be
found bruising cardamom pods or throwing the odd star anise in my dishes.
BUT, stocking up on your herbs and spices is worth the outlay as they tend to
make a good dish great, and do last a wee while if stored well.
The Underground Kitchen is not only packed full of scrummy mains, sides, and
desserts; it is an album of gorgeous food imagery, captured by the talented
photographer, Lottie Hedley (also once a lawyer like me, and responsible for
the charming photography in The Great New Zealand Cookbook, and Little
Bird’s “The Unbakery”). I am a fan of natural, uncontrived photography (if there
is such a thing), and there are only a few of the dinner-party-with-friends shots.
Here, we also get to see Jess in her floral cap busy in her commercial kitchen,
at a produce market, out in the garden, or leaning in a hallway among the
cardboard boxes with a cuppa. It may not be real, but it looks more like it.
Obviously some degree of food styling is required: we all want to eat something
that looks amazing! And my goodness, the Black Rice Pudding with Salted
Coconut Cream on page 175 is so pretty, I’m tempted to rip the page out and
frame it. But the balance here is right. And someone has paid careful attention
to both the page composition and the flow of colours from one page to the next.
For $49.99, it’s a reasonable investment. But its 256 pages are beautifully
produced, and offering over 80 recipes, it makes a special addition to one’s
recipe book collection (or a pretty neat gift!) and a refreshing change from
Jamie Oliver’s nano-second recipes, or some of the hunting-shooting-fishing-
how-to-skin-the-wild-pig-you-caught style books that imply you aren’t a ‘real’
cook unless you can do any of the latter. This book doesn’t scare – it builds
confidence and achieves exactly what Jess hoped for: “to encourage people to
follow their own path to delicious home-cooking”.
About the Author
The post Book Review: My Underground Kitchen by Jess Daniell appeared first on Oh Natural.