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

The Library Project

Good evening lovely readers, I hope you've had a pleasant week or so. I promised at the end of my last post that I would have far more material for you now that the summer holidays are over and big Tonju has gone back to school. However, there was one more thing to be attended to before I could really say I had time to give more again to the blog. You'll have noticed in the last few posts that I've made reference several times to a project with which I'm involved. Well, we had a big event on Monday evening and I now feel ready and raring to share this really exciting venture with you, which actually came about through a playgroup conversation and my talking about my blog and cooking to another mum there. It really is incredible that a chat in a place one has been visiting for a significant amount of time can lead to tremendously exciting things which one had not previously considered.

To give you a little background, the current Cardiff Council have been threatening to close seven of the local branch libraries, which is really a disaster for so many people and communities, and on so many levels. As a mum of small children, I visit our local library fairly frequently, to borrow books and also to attend the rhymetime and storytime sessions run there. The librarians are so lovely, and one of them has worked there for 40 years. She is the sweetest and kindest lady and her and her colleagues are simply devastated that this building which has been so much more than a place of employment for them has just been swept from under their feet by the decree of somebody unseen and clearly unaffected by such a decision. As in the many parts of Cardiff where library closure was threatened, some Rumney residents set up an action group to try to oppose the plans and keep the library open. I was not involved in this myself, although I was fully supportive of its intentions. To cut a long story short, the group were able to negotiate with the council to retain a library provision, although not on the same site, but in a far less convenient location away from the centre of Rumney.

In the mean time, I had extensive conversations at playgroup with a fellow mum who was heavily involved in the action group for the retention of the original library, and with the pastor of the Chapel in which playgroup is held. I expressed my great disappointment that the library was due to close, and it was a topic which kept coming up over the weeks, along with the usual getting to know you type chats (I've known Mike the pastor for nearly five years, but Becky was a mum who had only recently started coming to playgroup) in which I talked about the blog and cooking, as well as the other stuff I love to do but have less time for currently (knitting, spinning, sewing etc) university degrees which seem a world away; that kind of thing. As we continued to talk week after week, Mike and Becky divulged to me that they had new ideas of how to proceed with the library issue now the council had decided to move it. They wanted to set up a committee of trustees to put together a project to retain the library building for the use of the community, which would include a coffee shop and cafe, as well as community spaces which could be hired by people to run courses, peer to peer support groups could be run, and other really exciting ideas such as a "library of things" where people are able to borrow things they don't need to use every day, in the same way that they would borrow a library book. The opportunities and ideas are pretty much infinite, and I was very excited about the idea. We even joked about my getting involved. I was not prepared, however, when I was asked by Becky if I would seriously be involved with the project. I'd never done anything like it before and it was a formidible prospect, as well as tremendously exciting. I was asked to come aboard particularly from the perspective of the cafe and food provision, and I was asked to design a sample menu. After really careful consideration, I decided to go for it. The opportunity to be involved with something like this, which could be such a beneficial project, from the start, and the great privilege of what I was asked to do, just stuck in my head, and I prayed for guidance, and here I am!

After a number of meetings in which we formalised our group and dealt with various planning applications and all the background details (of which there are many to come) we decided, once we reached a point where it was clear we had the council's support and the project looked like it was really going to get off the ground, that it would be an excellent idea to hold an open evening in the library, to which local residents and businesses, as well as the relevant councillors would be invited, and members of greater Rumney Forum (resident members as opposed to trustees). There we would present our ideas, ask for feedback and ideas from residents, and also serve a taster menu of the types of food which we hope to serve in the cafe. Somehow I managed to volunteer myself, without actually any qualm or forethought of what a mammoth undertaking for an individual it was, to provide (as in, cook) the entire taster menu myself, going on an estimate of 100 visitors to the event. We had a couple of months prepartaion time, but as the day grew closer I did begin to think it was rather a large task for myself alone. I never once though, thought I couldn't do it, it was merely a matter of being completely and utterly organised, which I love to be, and getting help with the Tonjus for a couple of days, as I could not even have contemplated it if they were going to be in the house.

I went through my sample menu and selected a couple of dishes for each type of meal:

Breakfast
Natural yoghurt with seasonal fruit compote
American style pancakes served with locally picked blackberries and maple syrup

The seasonal fruit compote contained raspberries, and Bramley apples from our apple tree - you can't get more local than that! And for the acquisition of blackberries, we arranged a blackberry picking session which resulted much red staining and thorn scratching!

The Bramley apples and raspberries bubbling happily away next to the soup ingredients

All the food was presented in servings so people could easily help themselves, and we had tables manned by volunteers while we (the Rumney Forum trustees) mingled with the guests to answer question and talk about the project and the food.

Snack

As a snack I decided to make a quick recipe I invented a while ago which is on my Facebook page; the Sweet and Sesame Banavo Thickie. I thought it would be an interesting option for people to try rather than a generic smoothie, but in retrospect, it wasn't the best choice since both bananas and avocados discolour when peeled. It is definitely a dish which needs to be made and served immediately. People were definitely put off by the unfortunate dull grey it went after a while, rather than the vibrant green it should be.

I also decided to make houmous with toasted pitta slices, sliced carrot and courgette, and my absolute favourite type of chips, smoked paprika sweet potato wedges. The houmous was made to a recipe I found on Jamie Oliver's website, and the sweet potato wedges were my own recipe, although par-boiling some sweet potato wedges, slathering them with olive oil and seasoning them with salt, pepper and smoked paprika before roasting them for 45 minutes can hardly be called a recipe! They went down well though.

The sweet potatoes went next to the houmous, but I was waiting 'til the last minute to bring them out so as to keep them warm and crisp for as long as possible, so unfortunately I don't have a photo of them. In fact, as you've very likely noticed, all the photos of the food and the evening have been taken on my phone as I had no time at all to photograph the cooking procedure, and no space for my camera, so apologies that they're all a bit rubbish.

Lunches
This was definitely the most labour intensive part of the preparation, since I had to make nine Herby Ham and Sweetcorn Tarts, which involved making the pastry the day before, ready to roll out later on on the Monday (which was the day we held the open evening) for the filling to be added. I also made one of my favourite soups, Butternut Squash Soup with Chilli and Creme Fraiche from BBCGoodFood. I made bread rolls to go with it; 100 to be precise. As you'll see from the photos, I had no issues with getting the dough to rise! I also made little Goats' Cheese Salads which entailed for the purpose of the open evening, a caramelised walnut, placed on a little crumbled goats' cheese, placed upon a small bed of rocket leaves on a crispy miniature bread roll, finished off with a drizzle of fig balsamic dressing. I also made a roasted vegetable and couscous salad, the vegetables in which comprised aubergine, courgette, red peppers and red onion.

This is my own recipe, slightly adapted from another, and perhaps I could reduce the amount of yeast, maybe..?!

I'm a little gutted as I don't have a photo of either the tart or the goats' cheese salad, but I can share a tart photo from my last post when I published the recipe, so fear not!

There were nine of these, each cut into 12. 

Cakes
Thankfully I had a little help with the cakes. One of the Rumney Forum trustees' mum made cupcakes, a beautiful carrot cake and chocolate cake, so I only had to make a Coffee and Walnut cake, for which I used, in my opinion, the best c&w cake recipe there is; Nigel Slater's in The Guardian. I've made this so many times and it is sublime. I also made a Bara Brith, so I was definitely not trying to make things easy for myself.

One of the Trustees trying to pounce on the cakes

I did remove the c&w from the lid of the cake box and display it on a cake stand, fear not.

 It was a really enjoyable evening after an incredibly intense couple of days. In fact, it took Tuesday for me to reacclimatise into real life again. It's been so long since I've done anything where it's just been me, without a little person somewhere, constantly requiring my attention, that it was quite a peculiar feeling of liberty coupled with a feeling of how strange life is without someone needing you. I know those are part of the feelings a stay at home mum is very likely to experience. My oldest is nearly five, and it's been that long since I've really done something so entirely myself, without babies and children in tow, that it felt, actually, it felt inexplicable. I loved it though, the experience, the pressure, and the absolutely necessary organisation. It was a really fantastic experience.

Sadly, the numbers we catered for were rather an overestimate, and we did end up with a fair amount of food which we had to distribute after the event. Obviously it wasn't possible to save some foods at all, such as the thickie, but I took home a tart, a box of couscous and a tub of bread rolls, which actually sustained us for lunch and dinner for the last two days. For dinner I roasted and shredded a chicken breast which I placed on top of the roasted veg couscous, topped with half a sliced leftover avocado, some Tahini Goddess Drizzle from Half-Baked Harvest, for which I had ingredients in the fridge, and topped it all with a handful of caramelised walnuts. I gave the boys some couscous salad, tart and avocado. And for lunch we've been eating the bread rolls with soup.

I cannot finish this post however, without mentioning the fantastic Handlebar Barista we hired for the event. Since we'll be a coffee shop too, we really wanted to serve some fantastic coffee which would be a representation of the type of coffee we plan to serve in the cafe. One of the trustees had come into contact with the owners of a really exciting and innovative new business locally, Handlebar Barista, who are hireable for events, as well as setting up their beautiful adapted trike at various locations around Cardiff, serving excellent quality coffee for people on the go. We were really excited to be able to hire them for our event. Their delightful trike was in the foyer of the library, in a fantastic location, and they were really lovely, friendly and genuine guys. They also had a good look around at the end and were really encouraging about the food and the project in general. Here's a photo of their beautiful trike; it really helped bring a little atmosphere to our evening, since the library is not the most atmospheric of buildings!

So that is what I've been doing, and why the posts have been a little sparse lately. I really hope to step them up again now, but please follow me on Instagram for general photos of the food I'm making and other things I'm getting up to. There was even a bit of spinning in my Instagram feed the other week, though again, I need to make time to get back into that too. Like everything else really. Search @cookingforsanity on Instagram as I need to get my link on the right fixed.

There is a lot more to say about the Library Project. As you can see, I've focussed particularly on the food aspect and my personal involvement, but as you can imagine, that is a very small side of what's going on. I will endeavour to write further once we have some more information to share, but in the mean time, I hope to go back to giving you more recipes and making you aware of the incredible talent there is available online and the delicious recipes you, yes, you, can cook!

Thanks so much for reading, especially if you made it to here :-)

xxx Sam