Sunday 4 December 2011

Monday Morning Cooking Club, Review






Ever since I read the information about this book I was itching to get my hands on it! Monday Morning Cooking Club by Merelyn Frank Chalmers, Natanya Eskin, Lauren Fink, Lisa Goldberg, Paula Horwitz and Jacqui Israel, published in 2011 by Hardie Grant Publishers. With thanks to Caroline and Hardie Grant for my copy.



It was worth the wait too. I would have to start off by saying that I’m not Jewish, but for some time now I’ve been buying and looking at books searching for ‘the’ book on Jewish food. I don’t know exactly what I was looking for only that I had not managed to find it, but let me tell you, for me - this is it!



So what is the Monday Morning cooking club? Well it is a Monday morning meet up for the six authors of this book, where they have hunted out recipes, tried and ditched, or tried and kept the recipes. The recipes in the book are the keepers, all accredited to their family owners, and there is a little information about each family, and how they came to Australia – the country where they all now live. I love the little snippets of family history, particularly as I get older where recipes come from their provenance and how they have evolved is ever more important to me.



Chapters are: *Our Story* Who we are* The cooks, their stories, the recipes* plus a glossary. The book is nicely laid out, with lots and lots of pictures, and they in turn are very doable and look like they have been cooked in a family kitchen.



There are so many recipes I’d like to try over the next while like: Chocolate Almond Florentines, Bienenstich, Mediterranean Fish Stew with Couscous, Sophie’s Orange Cake, Mamoul, Chicken Persian Pilau, Lauren’s Tuna Salad, Almond Kifli, Israeli Couscous Soup and Mum’s Crumb Cookies (date bars), Gina’s Hair Raising Honey Cake – to name but a few.



A lovely book all round, worth keeping an eye out for - interesting for the cook, but also the cookbook reader too. Here are the three recipes I’ve tried so far:



My Own Red Chicken


This is an oven bound sort of sweet and sour chicken. It’s punchy and loud, but I loved this recipe.



Perogen


These are suggested as accompaniments to soup. Little yummy savoury beef puff pastry morsels, well actually not so very little! Beef mince cooked with red wine, tomatoes, kecap manis and Worcestershire sauce, then encased in puff pastry and baked. They would be nice for supper with a good salad too.



Ginger Snaps


I love ginger snaps, but have never got round to making them myself until now, very easy and results in a good crisp gingery biscuit. A lovely biccie to have in your cookie tin or jar.



Next Review Up: One of Nigella’s classics - How to Be a Domestic Goddess with one copy to give away.

5 comments:

Please Do Not Feed The Animals. said...

Am so in love with the idea of a group of friends meeting up on a Monday morning to cook together. Love this book for that alone. Must say the beef pastry things look very good.
Looking forward to your review of Domestic Goddess. A book I treasure and have used a lot. I think when it came out, it just really caught the mood at the right time for me and I knew I wanted to be someone who could rustle up some comforting bakes in my home.

Please Do Not Feed The Animals. said...

Hi. Not sure if you are interested or not but I have tagged you for food bloggers unplugged. Dinnae worry if you don't fancy it. Lou.

Brownieville Girl said...

Love the sound of this book - what a lovely way to spend a Monday morning!!

That chicken looks delicious!

Lisa G said...

Kellie Jane - hi! I am one of the authors of Monday Morning Cooking Club and I have just read your lovely review. Thanks so much - it is WONDERFUL - and we really hope that you find many more recipes that you love. The response from people has been overwhelming, they are cooking many many dishes from it with great success. Makes us happy!! I will definitely post a link to your blog - we are always SOOO excited when someone writes about our book and it is also nice for our FB followers to have other links to go and explore.
Thanks again!!!

Kelly-Jane said...

Hi Lisa G, Thank you very much for your comment! KJx