Veganmofo 2009 – The Vegan Gourmet October 29, 2009

When I was in Denver, Colorado a few years ago, my brother in law had bought me a copy of Candle Cafe. As I already had it he took me to the bookshop to exchange it. I’d never seen so many vegan cookbooks in one shop before but since my suitcase was already full of dried chillies and liquid smoke, I needed to pick a small one! I’d never heard of or seen anything about this book before, and didn’t have too much time, but a quick flick made me think it looked quite interesting.

Here I sit, 2 years later, flicking through it, thinking that some of the dishes look interesting, yet only having made one thing from it!! The dish I made was alright, but coming back to the recipe later it had absolutely no salt in it at all and was just a bit odd. I think that put me off a bit.

There aren’t any pictures, and the chapters are quite straightforward – appetizers, salads, soups and stews, side dish vegetables, pasta dishes, grain dishes, sautes and stir fries, entrees from the oven, morning meals and sandwiches and wraps. There aren’t many strange ingredients, and the recipes look interesting yet not too difficult.

Some things I’ve ticked to try in future are:

Spicy chilli beans with tempeh and dried peaches
Curried spinach with tomatoes and pureed chickpeas
Potato, courgette and olive stew with garlic, jalapenos and tomatoes
Fettucine with courgettes, roasted peppers, almonds and mint
Lasagnette with spicy greens, aduki beans and shiitake mushrooms
Corn and potato cakes with Southwest seasonings
Oven braised tempeh and new potatoes with mustard and sauerkraut

Any recommendations?

Veganmofo 2009 – Vegan Recipes October 21, 2009

Try as hard as I might, I can’t find anything positive to say about this book. I was criticised from an author earlier on in my Mofo book reviews but I thought I was actually not too critical about that book. With this one, honestly I have nothing nice to say.

I should like it because it’s it’s a nice A4 slim book with lots of pictures. But there are aren’t any recipes in it at all which I’m inspired to cook. When I opened it I immediately recognised the layout, font etc of all the cheap recipe book series we find in the UK in cheap bookshops. You can spot them a mile off. I’ve thrown away at least 2 of the vegetarian books with this layout and publisher. The thing that REALLY annoys me about this book is the recipe for wholemeal sunflower bread. The picture is so obviously lifted from another book, that it shows the bread being served with a great big chunk of obviously dairy cheese, but because they’re too cheap to use a diffeent picture, the note says “serve this bread with a hunk of vegan cheese”! Ha!! I know vegan cheese is getting better but honestly would anyone ever cut off a chunk and serve it with freshly baked bread? Well, maybe I’m out of touch but I certainly wouldn’t and I don’t think many vegans would. I think this book is just cheaply cashing in; its a mix of recipes from other books and it clearly hasn’t been edited properly.

One to avoid. Have I got this wrong? Am I missing some gems from this book? Please do let me know!

Veganmofo 2009 – Nonna’s Italian Kitchen October 19, 2009

I totally want to love this book, and I’m sure that the recipes within it are really good, but I just can’t cope with the layout of it. There aren’t any pictures. It’s a small book and it’s so busy with information that I can’t take it all in. Each page has got a big margin with extra suggestions and variations which would be great for some people but is all a bit too much for me. I’m really sorry about this because I love Italian food and I know there are things I want to cook in it. Whenever I look through it I spot things I want to cook but for whatever reason I don’t come back to it.It doesn’t contain any odd ingredients, has lots of gluten and soya free options – in fact, too many! Please tell me what I should try first to get me into this book, which I’m sure is full of little gems.

Veganmofo 2009 – Vegan Feasts October 15, 2009

I’ve got a few other Rose Elliot vegetarian cookbooks and they all contain quite a good ratio of vegan recipes and ideas, but as far as I know this is the only vegan one. It was one of the first books I bought after I decided to become vegan and I’ll always be grateful to some of the inspiration it gave me, but to be honest I cook using her other books far more.  This is the only one I’ve got with no pictures and it’s also a lot more basic than the others. I suppose that’s for a reason, it’s supposed to be an introduction to vegan food after all.

All the recipes are for fairly simple dishes like pastas, spreads, sauces, cakes, soups, pulses etc. It uses both cups and weights so is suitable for whichever is your preferred method. It’s definitely aimed at novice cooks and most of the recipes are quick and easy. They use very simple ingredients too – you won’t need to be rushing out to specialist shops – but expect as a result basic flavour combinations. None of the dishes really come as a surprise for example, because they taste exactly of the ingredients in them.

I was very pleased I bought this book at the time but I think I’ve probably gone beyond using it much now. It’s still great for new vegans, novice cooks like my husband, or anyone who doesn’t have access to fancy ingredients or cookware – students, for example, or anyone in temporary accommodation.

Veganmofo 2009 – Candle Cafe Cookbook October 13, 2009

I’ve begun to realise as I work through my Mofo book reviews, that I’ve got an awful lot of vegan cookbooks that I like but haven’t made all that much from. I suppose that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I cook from magazines, TV programmes, blogs and websites as well as books, and I’ve done such a lot of testing that I haven’t needed to look at books much for ages. This book is typical of the many books where I look through now and wonder why on earth I haven’t made more from it.

There’s a few pictures in a chunk in the middle and there’s quite a range of recipes from simpler dishes to some which need a bit more attention. I made the lasagne a long time ago and remember it being rich but tasty. The rocket and pear salad with raspberry vinaigrette made a stunning looking starter with our Christmas dinner a few years back. There’s a lovely looking chapter on burgers, sandwiches and wraps and I can’t believe I haven’t tried the cornmeal-crusted tempeh or seitan piccata which both look divine.

Any favourites?

Veganmofo 2009 – A Vegan Taste of ….. October 10, 2009

There’s a whole series of these books, about 17 I think! They’re all quite thin, and also pretty cheap. I’ve got 5 of them – Mexico, Middle East, Eastern Europe, North Africa, and Dinner Parties. They’re written in English/European measurements so there’s not a cup in sight. There aren’t any pictures – they’re just simple paperbacks.

I haven’t cooked too much out of these books. In fact, I don’t think I’ve made anything at all from 3 of them. I don’t especially remember what I made from North Africa and Middle East (it was way before my blogging days), but they were fairly tasty and certainly straightforward. They do seem to rely heavily on vegan cheeses, milks and yoghurts, and that’s in countries which usually aren’t as heavy with dairy as some others. I’d be very interested to see what the France and Italy books are like. Clearly the author can’t possibly have a huge in depth knowledge or background in every cuisine, so it’s very much a brush of the surface. You couldn’t possibly compare the Mexican one, for example, with anything that I’ve tested for Terry’s Vegan Latina.

Again, looking through these books now I can see quite a few things I’d like to try and I don’t know why I’ve not tried more. I think these might be a decent introduction to a type of cuisine that you know very little about, but I imagine it get a bit frustrating if you’re an expert. And I wasn’t at all impressed with the Dinner Parties one.

Any recommendations, folks?

Veganmofo 2009: Get it Ripe October 8, 2009

I’m really not too sure what to say about this book. I know lots of people rave over it and it seems to crop up a lot on blogs and people talk about it as a favourite. I don’t like criticising anyone who’s taken the trouble and has the discipline to write a vegan book. But there’s no point doing book reviews if I’m not going to be honest and I have to say that I’m not too keen.

For a start, you don’t get your first recipe until page 105. 105?? I’m sure other people are interested in all the preamble about buying organic and not eating trans fats, but I’ve read all that before and know where to find it if I need it. I certainly don’t want it taking up over a third of my recipe book.

The nex thing that annoys me is that even after all that introduction, the recipes still feel the need to specify “non gm”, “non hydrogenated” “organic” “filtered water” and “wheat pasta if you can tolerate it”. So some people are allergic to wheat, but equally so are many people allergic to soya or nuts. Why single out wheat as being such a baddy? So I can’t make these recipes using tap water? It just starts to come across as preachy.

So maybe its because of this that I haven’t yet made anything from this book. Which is a great shame because there are some nice looking things in it. The first thing I look for in any cookbook is the main courses, and there aren’t too many in this book. I’m interested in the millet and mushroom tourtiere, the sesame kale soba, pesto white bean bowl and probably a few other things.

I know many people love this book, so please, give me some recommendations that’ll blow my tastebuds and help me change my mind.

Veganmofo 2009 – Yellow Rose Recipes October 6, 2009

This book definitely falls into the category of books I love. I had to get it from Amazon US. That was in the days of the pound being strong against the dollar and the exchange rate was so great that even including shipping it was cheaper to buy books from abroad than here. Let’s hope that day comes around again before we visit next year!

But I didn’t regret it for a minute. This is such a fun book. It’s got cute hand drawn pictures of the author, and some pictures of the food – they’re not all perfect stylized photos but they’re real pictures which show you what you’re aiming for without looking too unattainable.

The recipes are fairly straightforward, don’t rely on weird ingredients, and are actually fairly healthy and low fat without singing it from the rooftops and relying on nasty over healthy stuff. It’s easy, tasty comfort food that won’t break the bank, won’t have you scouring the internet for unusual ingredients and won’t pile on the pounds. Perfect.

It was a sad day when the author announced she wouldn’t be writing a second book, but I’ll certainly be getting a copy of her forthcoming cookzine.

These are some of the recipes I’ve loved, in case you want to try them:

Vegan Parmesan
Beer battered chicken seitan
Kasha Varnishkas
Twice stuffed potatoes
Sesame green beans
Mustard crusted seitan
Sloppy Joannas

and just last night I tried the tofu marsala. I served it with mashed potatoes and broccoli and it was a divine, warming, tasty comfort food which I highly recommend!

Veganmofo 2009: Vegan Italiano October 5, 2009

I’m not only going to blog about books I like this month. I’ve got loads of cookbooks, and I would split the vegan ones into 3 categories. Books I love and use a lot, books I don’t use much but like, and books I don’t like. Hopefully I’ll include some from each category during October.

This book, and the other Donna Klein book I own (Meditteranean Vegan Kitchen), both fall into the the middle category. I flick through them, spot things that look nice, and then never make anything from them. I don’t know why this should be. They don’t have pictures, but neither do many of my books, so it’s not that. They don’t contain any unusual ingredients – though again that normally doesn’t stop me. I think there are probably a couple of reasons. In a way I think they’re too easy. They are based on simple, good quality ingredients, but they don’t use much spice or seem to have too much depth of flavour. They’re also, as you’d expect, all quite summery, and we don’t have too much hot weather here. Finally, they don’t have many of what I’d call main course recipes. No stodge. They seem to be lots of small dishes that you’d put together to make a meal which isn’t the way I usually cook.

So, if you love this book or any of the dishes you’ve made from it, please let me know and I pledge to try something!