Angela Hartnett’s “A Taste of Home” offers an ample taste of good veg, too

We asked vegetarian Great British Chefs’ guest blogger Monica Shaw to review Michelin starred chef, Angela Hartnett’s cookery book “A Taste of Home” (Ebury Press, 2011).  It’s not a vegetarian cookbook, but we figured if it had 200 recipes in it, surely some would be “OK for veggies”. How did Monica fare? 

Photography by Monica Shaw

A Taste of Home’s subtitle, “200 Quick and Easy Recipes” belies what this book is all about: beautiful, simple, honest food, cooked well, with quality British ingredients, many of which turn out to be vegetables. Swiss chard, artichokes, broad beans, peas, beetroot, squash… the index reads like an encyclopedia of the best of British produce, and the recipes she creates with them are inviting in their straightforwardness. And, well, they just sound good.

Pear, chicory and blue cheese salad. Fusilli with sprouting broccoli, chilli and garlic. Polenta with poached egg and mushrooms. Onion tart with rocket and cheddar. But the pictures, oh the pictures: that’s what really makes you want to put on your apron. Good photography is paramount to a cookbook, and one look at Angela’s braised fennel makes you think two things: one, “I want that” and two, “I could make that.”

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, or the salad in the vegetarian’s case. I made Angela’s puy lentils, spinach and goats’ curd salad, lightly dressed with her “classic” vinaigrette, fragrant with the scent of chopped tarragon. I loved this: beautiful, filling, and much-needed proof that a salad can be so much more satisfying than a pile of lettuce.

As I said, this is not a vegetarian cookbook, so alongside courgette and carrot fritters, you’ll also find roast pork with spinach and spring onions,  sweet potato and chorizo salad,  and grilled salmon with pak choi and ginger.

But here the book is another vegetable win, by demonstrating dishes and techniques that make meat less of a main event, and more of a faithful compliment to gorgeous vegetables. Might eating more veg be more appealing and inspiring if served alongside a beautifully prepared piece of meat or fish?

As a vegetarian, I can’t say. But I do know that I’m far more likely to braise a fennel bulb or roast some squash if I’m given a clear, simple recipe with readily available ingredients and drool-worthy photos that demand I make the dish. In that way, “A Taste of Home” might be one of the best non-vegetarian vegetarian cookbooks to come out this year.

Blog post for Great British Chefs by Monica Shaw

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Defends Eating Puppy meat?

We know know that River Cottage TV Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has eaten some strange things in his life, but is his latest statement just a publicity stunt to promote his new book? He spent more than five months being a vegetarian for the  latest series of his River Cottage TV show and has penned non-meat recipes for a new cookbook, River Cottage Veg Every Day!

Cookery Book Sales October 2011 - Infographic by Great British Chefs

Fearnley-Whittingstall has eaten placenta pate, curried fruit bat, giraffe and calf testicles in the past.  Asked whether he would try loin of Labrador or cat liver, he told the Radio Times: “Not unless I was on the point of starvation. In principle, but not in practice, I have no objection to a high-welfare organic puppy farm.”

From our infographic above you can see that Hugh’s book is currently number two in the charts for cookey book sales. So, like others, we couldn’t help but wonder if his vegetarianism was a gimmick to write another book as part of a £1.9 million publishing deal. However he told Radio Times: “That money is for a series of eight or nine River Cottage handbooks, which I don’t write, so the money is shared.

“But I don’t think we’re gimmicky. I started by looking at where food came from, rearing our animals and growing our food.”

Back to the subject of  puppies as food, he said “You can’t object, unless you also object to the farming of pigs. It’s an artificial construct of our society, a cultural decision, to make pets out of dogs and meat out of pigs.

“Both animals could be used the other way round, although pigs probably do make better meat than dogs and dogs better pets than pigs, but it’s not a foregone conclusion.”

Hugh, has campaigned for sustainable fish and has highlighted issues surrounding the mass production of chickens,  and said: “That’s what we’re still doing. I hope we have an influence and like to think we’re driving the agenda.”

For the full story see The Press Association.

What do you think?  Is this all a publicity stunt?  Or should we think of it as a way of looking at how we eat meat?  After all many farmers name pigs, chickens and other lifestock and almost treat them as pets before they are killed.  Or has Fearnley-Whittingstall gone a step too far by suggesting that puppy farms in principle are OK?  We’re discussing this over on Facebook.

What’s the Future for Cookery Books?

Many thanks to i Newspaper (The Independent’s tabloid) for the lovely review of our app “Forget about all those unloved & outdated cookbooks and check out the new Great British Chefs app”.

However, do you think that websites and apps are where the “future” of recipes & cookery books is heading?

Will there still always be a place for the printed cookbook?

We’re discussing this over on Facebook