Kitchen Garden Experts

We love kitchen garden books.  That being said, Kitchen Garden Experts is quite extraordinary. We came upon this very British book by way of the photographer, Jason Ingram.  We love, love, love him.  He photographed our favorite cookbook of recent memory, The Ethicurean.  So now we have kitchen gardens and Jason Ingram!  Add in Cinead McTernan, the editor of The Simple Things magazine, who manages to corral gardeners, chefs, recipes and dynamic photos to pull it all together and you have a great book.  In the old stereotype, the English were great gardeners but rather lousy cooks.  This book proves that they are both. 

Raymond Blanc's 27 acre Le Manoir garden

 To start with, this is not your raised bed in the backyard type of kitchen garden.  These are farms, educational centers, walled ecosystems, and plots with elaborate greenhouses.  There are a few gardening tips, but the biggest tip is to hire a full time gardener!  As for the recipes, don't think just because these guys grow their own peas that the menu will feature a nice bowl of mushy peas.  These chefs haven't gone to the expense of hiring passionate gardeners and fussing over ingredients to simply toss them in a salad. 

The recipes are often long, with several preparations to achieve the final dish.  There is Chef Duncan Barham's whose dish, Beetroot Textures, requires eight different preparations to pull off  his beet salad.  Then we have the ever elegant, yet simple Ruth Rogers of River Cafe with a Sorrel Frittata. 

The book features venerable names like Jekka McVicar and Sir Terrance Conran along with new kids on the block like the Pennington brothers and Mark Cox at the Ethicurean.  Some of the gardens were gardens in past centuries, some only a few years old.  The mix is intoxicating. 

David Kennedy and Ken Holland in "The Pod" bringing the kitchen to the garden.

One of our favorites, Skye Gyngell, who spent many years cooking in a small kitchen behind Petersham's Nurseries, has moved to a larger canvas, but retains a desire for home grown produce.  Here is her recipe for a simple syrup that transforms a plain, soft cheese into an elegant dessert.

Rose Hip Syrup

1kg/2lb 3oz rose hips
350ml/12fl oz water
750g/1 1/2lb caster sugar

1. Wash the roe hips and remove their stalks.  Pulse the hips in a food processor to chop coarsely.  Quickly place the hip pieces in a saucepan of 175ml/6fl oz boiling water.  Once the water has come back to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and let it stand for 15 minutes.  Then strain, reserving the liquid.  In another 175ml/6fl oz boiling water, repeat the boiling process and strain once more. Having strained off the liquid, this time discard the rose hips.

2. Measure the strained liquid, then put back in the saucepan on the heat.  For each 1 liter/1 3/4 pints of strained liquid add 750g/1 1/2 lb caster sugar.  Stir to help dissolve the sugar.  once it has boiled and the sugar dissolved, remove from the heat and pour the sugar into sterilized jars to cool. 

Kitchen Garden Experts is a must have.  The biggest problem is where to shelve it.  Maybe we should get two copies, one for the cookbooks and one for the gardening books!  Not a bad idea.

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The Forgotten Art of Flower Cookery

I know you think there was never a cookbook I didn't lust after. I must admit a certain fascination with flower cookbooks. There is something I just adore about cooking with flowers as an elemental ingredient. Maybe, and I the first to admit it, there is a profoundly prissy element to flowers as an ingredient. while nothing makes me happier than a side of beef, I also love a nice cold soup sprinkled with a "mystery" ingredient that came from the flower garden.

The Forgotten Art of Flower Cookery by Leona Smith is from the early 1970's. Smith was considered the leading authority on flower cookery. Truth be told, in many of the recipes, the flower element seems to be just a garnish, but in this day and age of cooks all trying to trump each other in the exotic ingredient department, some nice pickled carnations might be just the ticket to one-upsmanship.

Every Thanksgiving, tables across America are laden with sweet potatoes. Here is a recipe that will make you the talk of Thanksgiving or even The Fourth of July!

Confucius Sweet Potatoes

1 pound sweet potatoes or 1 seventeen-ounce can
1 cup orange juice
1 three-ounce package of orange gelatin
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup yellow chrysanthemum petals

While the sweet potatoes are cooking (if using raw potatoes) combine all other ingredients except petals. Simmer and stir for 5 minutes.

Place sweet potatoes in the syrup ad let stand over the lowest possible heat for 15-20 minutes. Baste occasionally. Turn off heat, add petals, and baste until petals are glazed.

Once I found myself in an unfamiliar kitchen. I was making some carrots, but there was nothing interesting to flavor them with, so I was facing a bowl of steamed carrot. (OK, not the worst thing in the world.) I noticed a package of orange Jello on the shelf. I added the Jello and some butter to the carrot circles and turned out a truly tasty and interesting carrot dish.

Confucius says: When in doubt check the larder and the flower garden!

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