Book Review: The Art of Eating Well by Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley

Hi friends, thanks for joining me again. I have decided to stop apologising for the infrequency of my posting of late. Life happens, and it's mostly due to mental exhaustion that I haven't written a post for a couple of weeks. I realise that sounds rather extreme, so let me assure you that it's just the norm for a mother of two very active little Tonjus. This is a post I've been wanting to write for months and months though, and I must admit it's been intimidating me a little as the last book review I wrote took two evenings to complete and was pretty comprehensive. If you follow my Facebook page or follow me on Instagram, you'll know how much this book has inspired me. I have never, ever cooked so many recipes from one book which have been consistently so absolutely delicious, exciting and which everyone in the family have loved. The book in question is, of course, The Art of Eating well by Jasmine and Melissa Hemsley, or Hemsley and Hemsley, as it says on the cover, and by which I believe the sisters are collectively known.

I actually bought this book unintentionally, whilst looking for another cookbook. The one I wanted wasn't in stock but this caught my eye. I turned to the first page and was immediately hooked by the sisters' story, how they began to look at food from a new point of view with regard to how different foods affect the body, and the foods they avoid and why. This may shock many people, but the foods they avoid are not those traditionally viewed as high in fat, or sweet tasting. They look at food from the point of view of how it can benefit the body; whether something you eat will have a positive or negative effect on your body as a whole, both inside and out. To quote from the sisters themselves,

"The H+H way is to keep it simple and as close to nature as possible. In essence, this means we eat meat and vegetables, taking the best ingredients and foods from the plant and animal kingdoms as humans have always done. 

H+H food is free from gluten, grains and refined sugars, and focuses on nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods, good fats and bone broth. 

We enjoy high quality dairy, and a whole range of natural fats, including butter, unrefined oils and animal fat. We avoid processed foods, refined carbohydrates and sugar, and chemical sweeteners. Instead we stick to pseudocereals such as quinoa and amaranth, seasonal fruit and naturally sweet ingredients such as raw honey and maple syrup that have nutritional value."

In all my years of loving food and cooking, I'd never, unbelievably, looked at food in this way. Obviously I had a basic knowedge of what is good and bad for the body and what will make someone put on weight an give them health problems, and I've always enjoyed savoury food as much as sweet, but this book really set me thinking about something which is actually incredibly important and which I can't believe I hadn't, and others don't seem to, properly consider.

Now don't get me wrong, I haven't changed my diet to become gluten free, but I have started to consider how much bread and other wheat-based foods I eat (as well as my free use of olive oil as a cooking fat, amongst other things). As an aside, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall also considers this in River Cottage: Light and Easy, in which all the recipes are gluten free. In neither book is this decision taken on a whim, but through careful consideration of what an inherent ingredient of many natural foodstuffs can do to the body through constant and frequent consumption. I am a great believer in moderation, and although I have not taken a decision to become gluten free, I have been greatly influenced to consider the things I eat and whether they have any nourishing benefit to my body or not. In fact, it's started to make my stomach feel rather uncomfortable when I eat something particularly rich and un-nourishing because I've been eating so much "good stuff" lately.

But I don't want to terrify you as a prospective reader of the book if all that information doesn't sound up your street, because you'd be depriving yourself of some of the most delicious meals I've ever tasted! H+H introduced me to cooking with coconut oil, which I would not now be without, as well as new and exciting uses for vegetables which may fall on the dull side, such as cauliflower. Their cauliflower pilaf is fantastic, and an exceptional rice replacement for serving with curry. Much less filling and much more nourishing.

They have a recipe for simple cauliflower rice as well, without the additional ingredients to make it into a pilaf, but I love the sweet nuttiness of the pilaf so always go for that version when I make the incredible Malaysian Squash and Lentil Curry. In fact, I think the curry was the first H+H recipe I made, and I could not believe the explosion of taste in my mouth on the first forkfull. Absolutely incredible! And of course, I had all the spices on my spice shelf already, my spice collecton being rather extensive...

As you know, I really enjoy meat-free meals, and this has become somewhat of my go-to curry recipe, since we do like to have a curry of some description in our family reasonably regularly (read, I choose to cook one rather regularly) and this is just perfect. Coconut oil is really the most incredible ingredient, bringing out the flavours of the other ingredients whist imbuing them with a subtle sweetness and richness which intensifies the eating experience.

Another great thing about this book is that the recipes are really everyday. The next one I want to share with you is the Beef Ragu with Courgetti. What a fantastic way to include a nourishing though somewhat overlooked vegetable in a traditional recipe, but with a difference. Courgetti are strips of courgette made either with a contraption called a spiraliser, or by using a swivel peeler to peel strips of flesh from the courgette then cutting them in half along the length if they are too wide. These are used in place of pasta, and, like cauliflower rice, are a fantastic and healthy substitute. For non-lovers of courgette, it can barely be tasted because the flavour of the ragu overpowers it, though for those of us who do like courgette, the subtlety of the flavour still comes through. Everyone wins.

Once again, this recipe does not disappoint. I've made it several times, and now make it instead of traditional spaghetti bolognaise, it's so good, and everyone loves it.

I have to tell you that I made one minute adaptation to this recipe; I added a tablespoon of maple syrup, just to make it a little richer. That single tablespoon really did the job.

I think my absolute favourite recipe from this book has to be the Papaya, Halloumi, and Watercress Salad. Seriously, my mouth is actually watering as I'm writing this, with the book open beside me and my remembrance of eating it last only a week ago. As the recipe is just a salad, I add shredded chicken breast, and serve it with boiled new or Charlotte potatoes, crushed with a fork and with butter, full-fat cream cheese and seasoning mixed in. It just complements the salad perfectly and makes it a more substantial meal. The colours and vibrancy of this dish just shout at you to dive in and taste everything. I say everything because the plate of food one is presented with is very exciting! It's also great for children as a lot of the parts can be served as finger food and each part is full of taste and yumminess.

Perfect for picking up!

Should you wish to serve the salad with chicken and the potato mixture, simply roast one or two chicken breasts half an hour before you want to serve the meal, and boil some new or Charlotte potatoes until tender. Once cooked, crush with a fork then add equal amounts of butter and full-fat soft cheese (approximately one heaped tablespoon of each) plus seasoning to your taste. Once the chicken is cooked, shred and add to the salad, whilst serving the potato on the side.

 A fantastic recipe for times when you are feeling like something a little lighter, yet filling enough for you not to want to eat anything after dinner, is the Quinoa and Roasted Vegetable Salad with Brazil Nut Pesto. Goodness, I really cannot emphasise enough the intensity of taste in these recipes. As I'm looking at each recipe I want to share with you in the book, the taste of each one comes back to me. This is a beautiful recipe, almost thrown together, especially with the first instruction of, "roughly chop any vegetables you like, the more colours the better." This is super easy yet you can serve it to look impressive, and once again, it looks really vibrant on the plate.

 The Brazil nut pesto is genius. It's so simple to make, although you do need a food processor to grind down the nuts, yet it is so effective, both visually, and in the perfect way it complements the rest of the dish.

I could just carry on sharing and sharing with you from this incredible book, as I have multitudinous photos of the recipes I've cooked from it. I'm going to finish, however, with not a meal, but a loaf of bread. The absolutely incredible Multiseed Loaf. This bread is made from sweet potato and buckwheat flour as well as mixture of seeds and raisins. Talk about a bread that needs nothing but butter to serve (and we all know I love bread served only with butter)! The taste of this beautiful, rustic-looking loaf is quite astonishing. I actually made it to take out for lunch on a family day we went to with our church, and everyone sitting adjacent to us was utterly intrigued by it. It went around a fair few people and everyone who tried it absolutely loved it and were utterly astonished when I revealed the secret ingredient of sweet potato. I love that about cooking slightly out-of-the-ordinary recipes; seeing peoples' reactions when they cannot believe what they are eating. Here is the lovely loaf before baking...

...and fresh from the oven.

In fact, looking at these photos makes me think I will cook this loaf again at the weekend...

So there you have it. I hope this review has shed some light on the content of this cookbook if you've seen it on the shelves and have been intrigued and wondering whether to buy it. And I hope that, if you've never heard of it, you'll be inspired to seek it out, whether in your local library or in a bookshop (or supermarket - I bought my copy in Tesco). It has entirely changed the way I think about food. The taste of an ingredient can be enhanced so easily, and ingredients which are deemed common and dull are given a new lease of life. Well known ingredients are mixed with some less well known but easy enough to obtain, and cooking with butter, ghee and coconut oil is just a revelation. This really is the absolute best cookbook I own. It is interesting, informative and inspiring, as well as being presented in a really fresh and attractive way, yet maintaining simplicity and accessibility. The meal photographs are presented in such a way as to make them look casual and everyday, yet somehow special at the same time. There is no pretence, only honest, delicious and nourishing meals with exciting flavours and new methods to try, not forgetting the stunning sweet recipes such as Tahini Bliss Balls, which are quite something else. They are certainly bliss!

I want this book to change how you cook too! If you get a copy, I'd love to hear how you get on with it and if it affects you in the same way.

xxx Sam

Book Review: Sesame and Spice by Anne Shooter

Hi readers! I'm pretty excited because tonight I'm debuting a new type of post: a book review. Now obviously I am not a book or even recipe critic of any sort, other than the type who buys cookbooks and makes the recipes found therein. I suppose though, that that must be the best sort to give an opinion on the recipes to be found in a cookbook, the instructions and the outcomes, so there you go. I'm hoping these review posts which I'm planning to publish from time to time will encourage you to go out and buy a new cookbook, perhaps one you've had your eye on for a while, or a spontaneous purchase. The reviews will always be backed up by my actually having cooked a sample of the recipes from the relevant cookbook, and photographs of those dishes, plus my honest opinion on whether a book is worth (in my opinion) investing in.

The first lucky (!) book to be reviewed is the very beautiful Sesame and Spice by Anne Shooter. I know I had my eye on this particular book for a few weeks before I decided to buy it, but I must say I'm glad I did. It is a feast for the eyes, from the vibrant front cover to the beautifully documented recipes inside.

I find this book particularly interesting because the author is Jewish, and I'm really interested in the way many of the recipes and ingredients are ingrained in Jewish tradition, whereas many others came to be so, through the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world. There is even a section entitled Baking for Passover, which is fascinating, as often, when reading the account of the first Passover in the Bible, one tends to think of the Hebrews as depriving themselves of certain foods. But the feasts God instituted, particularly after the crossing of the Red Sea, were full of celebration and the eating of delicious foods. In this chapter, I love the look of the Chocolate, Almond and Pear Cake, and the Flourless Chocolate, Pistachio and Walnut Brownies.

Before I share the recipes I made from this book with you, I just want to quote the last paragraph of the author's introduction, as I utterly concur with it and just think it's really lovely.

"This book has come about not only out of my pride and love for my heritage but also from a desire to share. My recipes are aimed at the home cook, not necessarily the experienced baker, and take into account that we have busy lives and that making a cake or a loaf of bread is an indulgence rather than a necessity. Just as I like to bake for friends and family, I want everyone to know and use these recipes. If I can't come round with a basket of goodies for you, I hope this is the next best thing."

So, in order to give a balanced review of this book, I picked four recipes to bake, each quite different: some biscuits; a loaf of bread; a cake and a savoury pie. First up, Tahini and Honey Cookies.

I wanted to bake these from the moment I set eyes on this recipe, as I absolutely adore tahini, and putting it in a biscuit seemed like the obvious thing to do. They also contain cardamom; a delicious and fragrant ingredient in baking. The recipe was really easy to follow, simple and coherently written.

The dough came together really nicely and rolled very pleasingly into lovely smooth balls, ready to be rolled in sesame seeds and pressed into biscuits.

Oh. My. Goodness. It takes a veeeery long time to make 30 biscuits. The recipe says it makes 40, and I could have stretched the dough easily enough, but thought it would be nice to have slightly larger than average biscuits.

Now in my opinion, these were delicious, and if you like the ingredients, you will love them too. As you know, I like to surprise people with unexpected ingredients, and when I took them to church on a Sunday evening, people willingly took them from the plate, only to be surprised at the taste. This of course amused me greatly, as it was exactly what I was expecting. I found they tasted exactly how I expected them to and once others became accustomed to the taste, they generally liked them too, and of course, some people loved them immediately. I like that they aren't really sweet yet they are somehow rich. I still have some left and I made them quite some weeks ago. They have kept extremely well in an air-tight container.

The next recipe is for the Challah Loaf. Wow! We had this at lunchtime on a Saturday and it was guzzled up by the four of us (two big ones and two little ones) in one sitting! I served it with a bowl of Strawberries and Blueberries in Raspberry Sauce, the simplest of recipes from River Cottage Light and Easy. I wanted to serve the bread with nothing but butter to fully appreciate the taste, but didn't want to have just bread and butter for lunch. They complemented each other perfectly.

I have to say, I have never, ever worked with such a sticky dough. I needed to use so much flour to enable me to knead it, but Shooter does describe the final dough as silky and I can't disagree. It is actually rather beautiful with a somewhat pearlescent quality. I also used a couple of new techniques (I'm all about the new techniques!) one of them being plaiting a loaf. This is harder than it sounds, and not at all like plaiting hair!

Pre-rise

Post-rise

 I had to follow Shooter's advice and cover the loaf with foil for the last 20 minutes or so

All gone

This bread really is delicious. It was also really good to just eat bread without any additions other than butter to the bread itself, such as sweet chilli Philadelphia for instance, a favourite of mine. I can see why Shooter's family loves the fact she bakes it almost every week. 

Next up was a main course: Moroccan Chicken and Almond Filo Pie. I've made plenty of filo pies over the years; there are a couple of delicious Greek-style filo pie recipes on BBCGoodFood which I've added ingredients to and chopped and changed. This pie isn't actually just a filo pie, however, but a bastilla, the difference between it and the filo pie appearing to be that a filo pie's sides are folded over the ingredients on the top of the pie, whereas a bastilla has a separate top. Due to time constraints, I decided to make this filo pie style and just fold the tops over one another, rather than fiddle with cutting and fitting separate lids. I say lids plural, because as it is made with filo, several layers are necessary. I have made mini bastillas in the past however, using a muffin tin, and the separate tops do create a beautiful effect, so I'm not negating them, just being realistic for that particular evening. 

The reason I was so drawn to this recipe is the incredibly interesting melding of ingredients. Chicken, onion and garlic, check, but combined with ground almonds, orange flower water, ras-el-hanout and eggs - surely worthy of experimentation! 

The first few steps are pretty generic, involving softening the onion and garlic, adding the chicken to the pan with the ras-el-hanout and other spices, and poaching. Ras-el-hanout (think French pronounciation, not hanowt, like a Philistine Briton would typically pronounce it haha) is a Moroccan spice mix, which can apparently be made up of over 100 different spices. Each mixture is different, as the truly authentic blends are made by the stall traders to be found in the souks of Morocco, and each trader seems to have his own recipe. Monsieur Tesco Finest made mine, and I'm sure it wouldn't stand up against an authentic recipe, but it did the job. 

I chopped and changed quite a lot of the order whilst making this, as it made more sense to attend to some parts of the recipe before others. One part which I found particularly exciting was frying ground almonds, definitely not something I'd done before. This was a very pleasing process, and as long as they are watched carefully, they will acheive a beautiful golden tint.

The other very fascinating stage was adding egg to the reduced chicken cooking liquid once the chicken was cooked and had been removed.

 

I know, this photo would not make me want to cook this meal either!

It was interesting to see the texture of the whole mixture change in the pan. 

Returning to the almonds, the recipe instructs to add icing sugar and orange flower water to it, before the construction of the pie can begin. I think this is one of the things which really attracted me to this recipe; the subtle addition of sweet ingredients into a savoury meal. 

I purchased the orange flower water in the delightful and so very welcoming Penylan Pantry. I spotted it on the shelf just when I wasn't looking for it, but was having a (not very) relaxing coffee with my mum and little Tonju.

The construction of this type of pie is ingenius and super simple. It is made in a cake tin, so as to afford support to the pastry whilst adding the fillings, which are added in layers.

Apologies to Anne Shooter for making her Moroccan pie Greek-style

I do love how this looks; as though it will be a sweet pie, perhaps a Baklava type thing, but is actually quite savoury. 

Lovely layers

I decided to serve this pie with a fairly simple salad of leaves, plus some fire-roasted beetroot which I happened upon whilst doing the shopping, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Now I admit, perhaps balsamic was not the kindest taste to team with the fragrance of this recipe; it was rather too harsh and certainly not gentle enough. But the pie itself- what can I say? I've made a note next to the recipe which says, simply, "interesting." 

I loved the idea of those flavours together. I was excited at the prospect of the first mouthful, those tastes combining and making a delicious explosion in the mouth, of richness and texture. I am sorry to say I did not have that experience. In fact, as I'm sitting to write this review, I still struggle to elucidate my thoughts even now, several weeks after eating it. I am puzzled and bewildered, because the explosion of taste I was anticipating did not occur, and the flavours, in my opinion, didn't actually fully complement each other. The sweetness was not quite right, and richness somehow misplaced. I'm not sure if this is because the ingredients the author used were so far superior to mine (as in, not bought in Tesco) or if I just made some sort of unnoticed-by-me mistake. The pie was by no means disgusting; it was perfectly edible. For me, the issue is misplaced expectation, especially since there are quite a few steps in the recipe, and that I was just so excited about eating this pie!

Finally readers, let me congratulate you because you've come so far and there is only one recipe left, and I promise you it's worth reading, because it is the documentation of a disaster! I decided, rather on the spur of the moment, to bake the stunning cake from which the book takes its name: the Sesame and Spice Cake. Now if you want ingredients, this has ingredients! Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, tahini (YES!) sesame seeds, orange and lemon. OOOHHHH my mouth is watering just typing out that list! And the photo of the cake is really beautiful. I find lately that I'm much more drawn to cakes of the non-chocolate variety, and would much rather experiment with unexpected ingredients, seeking out a different kind of sweetness than that afforded by chocolate. This list would surely fulfill the wildest flavour dreams! I'm not going to dwell on this recipe, other than to say it's enjoyable to make, and really simple. I will also tell you that I forgot to add the sesame seeds and realised, five minutes into it having gone into the oven, so I removed it and hastily stirred said seeds into the mix as best I could.

Now readers, please prepare yourselves, because this odyssey of a post is going out with a bang. Please observe carefully the turning out of this cake, because it was one of those moments in baking when there really are no words.

Ok, well it certainly looks ready! It's in a bundt tin, it'll look awesome once it's turned out, right?

Oh dear, the top seems to have fallen off...

...oh dear, in fact the whole cake has fallen apart!

Yes lovely readers, the cake fell spectacularly apart. Not only did the top fall off, but it pretty much came out in bits. There was no beautiful, bundt ripple effect on the surface, only a little, slightly overcooked colour and a load of what can only be described as, pieces of cake. Absolutely gutted, but not to be daunted by a dismantled cake, I gritted my teeth and had a taste. It really was delicious, and it really did taste exactly how I expected it to. Fragrant, aromatic, lightly spiced and moist. It may not have looked the part, but it definitely tasted it! And I in no way attribute the collapse to the recipe. It was probably due to my having removed the cake from the oven to add the sesame seeds or not having oiled the tin sufficiently.

The best photo I was able to get...

It was also very sad because I'd just bought these very pretty glass plates in that store of wonder, Ikea, and I had wanted to grace them with something rather more... impressive. C'est la vie. 

Well, I hope you didn't have to refill your mug too many times whilst poring over this post. I also hope I've given a fair and realistic representation of my experiences making the recipes in this really lovely cookbook. There are plenty more I want to make, many more inspiring combinations of flavour, and I can honetly say that I recommend this cookbook. If you are inspired by exotic flavours, fragrant but (reasonably) accessible foods, richness and sweetness but not over the top, then this book is for you. It's also for you if you want to try something really different but don't know what that something could be. If you want to introduce yourself to some out of the ordinary flavours, or spices which can't be found in the herbs and spices section of your local metro mini-market! To be honest, it's worth it just for the Challah recipe!

Farewell, and I hope you return; I promise the next post will be considerably shorter ;)

xxx Sam