Books to shake, move and caress your soul

I found the first 5 of these books, including the photos, blurb and prices on the Green Harvest website. Most are Australian. I am going to keep adding to this myself, so soon there will be a list of my favourite food related books. (Why does blogger have to make things so difficult? I would love to have this as a link at the top of the blog but...... it is soooooooo hard to add to it after its been published!)

Wild Sourdough - The Natural Way to Bake

Yoke Mardewi, 2009, Western Australia

This is a hands-on and highly practical guide to sourdough bread-making at home.

There’s a comprehensive list of equipment needed and a discussion of flours, grains and other ingredients. The whole process is explained step-by-step, including time taken for each stage. There’s also an alternative method for time-strapped people “how to fit sourdough into your life”. You’ll learn how easy it is to make your own starter.

Enjoy an excellent, diverse range of recipes accompanied by mouth-watering photographs. The recipes are divided into White, Wheat grain, Wheat-free, Savoury, and Sweet sourdough breads as well as sourdough pizza, pastry, flat breads, crackers, cakes and pastry. You could be turning out Black Rice Sourdough Ciabatta; Quinoa Spelt Sourdough; Beetroot and Feta Sourdough Loaf; or Bitter Chocolate, Cranberry and Pistachio Spelt sourdough. Irresistible!    

The author runs a successful sourdough bread-making school in Perth and her passion for sourdough bread-making is evident in this beautiful book.

224pp $30.00 

A Year in a Bottle: How To Make Your Own Delicious Preserves All Year Round

Sally Wise,  2008, Tasmania

Sally Wise has been a passionate preserver of fruits and vegetables for over three decades. In this concise and practical book she explains the methods and basic chemistry of preserving and goes on to share more than 100 recipes for jams, jellies, chutneys, pickles, cordials and spreads.

There is clear advice on techniques, with straightforward explanations of basic preserving methods. Also included: a helpful trouble-shooting chart; a chapter on drying; sugar-free recipes and tables on preparing fruit and vegetables for freezing. These recipes, emphasizing temperate Australia, will help you make the most of your excess of apricots, apples, crab-apples, pears, plums, blackberries, cherries, rhubarb, tomatoes, tamarilloes, lilly pillies, passionfruit, strawberries, raspberries and roses. 

Sally has written several cookbooks and can regularly be heard on radio 936 Hobart on Saturdays, after Peter Cundall's gardening talk back (9am).

255pp  $25.00

Preserving the Italian Way

Pietro Demaio 2008, Australia

Reading this Australian book is like stepping into a gorgeous Italian delicatessen! The impressive range of old-style recipes from regional Italy provides easy-to-follow instructions for preserving fruit, vegetables, fish and meat, accompanied by engaging anecdotes of childhood and travel. There are dozens of recipes for pickles, sauces, syrups, wine, cheese, salami, prosciutto, liqueurs, pesto and sauces. Easy minimal tool methods include using salt and weights, preserving in oil and pickling. Recipes for rustic breads are accompanied by instructions for building a bread and pizza oven. While many books focus on what to do with a glut of fruit and vegetables this book addresses and targets those who aim to produce their own meat and dairy.

247pp full colour pictures $40.00

 

Wood Oven Recipes: Volume One

Pizzas, Roasts, Entrees, Desserts and more…

In this companion volume to the bestseller Back Yard Ovens, inspired and creative back yard oven owners share their stories, hot tips for using their oven and recipes. Learn how to make the most of your back yard oven: produce the perfect pizza; bake bush tucker bread; roast a whole fish or turn out a tempting Tarte Tatin. You may never go back into the kitchen! More than 30 recipes covering entrees, mains (meat or veg) desserts and baking with over 14 pages dedicated to pizza, with delicious-looking colour photos throughout.

80pp $20.00

The Perfect Pickle Book (how could I resist a book about Pickle!)

David Mabey and David Collison 2007 (UK)

Armed with this book, you could pickle just about everything in your garden, and then some! Originating as an accompaniment to the British TV show “The Perfect Pickle Program”, this book includes some very useful, delicious-sounding, tried and tested recipes, none of which is too complex.

Recipes are grouped according to country or area of origin – you can dip into “The British Tradition”, “North & South America”, “The Caribbean”, “Scandinavia & Northern Europe”,  “Eastern Europe”, “The Mediterranean” or “The Middle East” for your pickling inspiration.  Whether you’re looking to pickle vegetables, fruit, fish, or meat, you’ll find an answer here.

Here’s a few examples: Pickled Okra, Pickled Nasturtium Seeds, Pickled Elder Shoots, Pickled Water Chestnuts, Tofu Pickled in Miso, Gravlax, Pumpkin Chutney.

204pp $25.00

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Spice Travels

Ian Hemphill 2002, NSW, Australia

A beautiful book for anyone interested in where and how the spices we use every day in the kitchen are grown. A tale of one of Australia's best known and much loved spice merchants, Ian Hemphill. Ian shares his passion and knowledge for everything to do with spices as he travels the farthest reaches of the world in his research.

I bought it quite recently at a second hand book shop in Moonta, SA, for $9.

 

 Herbs for the Kitchen

Irma Goodrich Mazza, 1979, USA

Amongst the cookbooks I have had forever, is a little gem published first in 1939 in the USA called "Herbs for the Kitchen". It was one of my first books on herbs and I have some great memories of discovery the joys of cooking with herbs, in my early 20's. My version was published in 1979. The language is delightful and it makes a good read now, as well as being full of ideas, suggestions and recipes for satisfying a husband like her's, who was "a Latin".

 

The price inside the front cover when I bought it new, says $2.95.... shows my age!