I am a self taught cook. I never entered a kitchen before getting married. With my mom and grandma being excellent cooks, I had never learnt any skills related to cooking and early on my cooking journey I had felt immense pressure to live up to them. I learnt to cook from youtube when I realised that otherwise I would have to live on tea and maggi. Now, I can cook quite a few kind of cuisines but I do miss the days when we had home made ketchup, jams, jellies and pickles thanks to my grandma and mom.
When I received a review request for this book, I jumped up at the chance to get my hands on it. Here was my chance to learn the nitty-gritties of preserving food, and the key to making sauces and jams at home. It turned out that the book had much more to offer.
The book is sectioned off under main topics that cover the basics of gardening and preservation. The book also offers recipes and covers the simple mistakes that beginners make, busting a few myths and suitable utensils required. The gardening section is helpful in pointing out not only the right times to plant and harvest, but also how to water them and what signs to look out for. For instance, did you know that you should only water the soil and never the plant while growing tomatoes?
I found the other chapters more interesting as I am someone who has a really bad black thumb and wouldn't risk anymore plants by trying to grow them. The chapter on cider vinegar was absolute gem. I also loved the sauces and jelly chapters as I prepare to try them out. Then come the final section with 10 recipes each for each season. I have already picked out the ones that I would like to try first - muffins with blueberries and banana, zucchini salad with shrimps, duck breast with porcini mushrooms and strawberry sorbet.
Overall, the book was a treasure for someone like me and I enjoyed the little tricks that it revealed. My only gripe with it is that it had no photos. Food related books are incomplete with those mouth watering photos that puts you in a frenzy to try out the recipes.
No comments:
Post a Comment