My Favorite Cookbook

Introduction

This cookbook came into my possession via my ex-vegan not-ex-wife, whose parents were vegetarian in the 90's, before it was cool. My wife went cold-turkey vegan in college and stayed that way for 10 years, until shortly after she met me (a coincidence! I swear!), and in that time she collected a bunch of relevant cookbooks from family and friends, including this one. I discovered it once we moved in together and merged our libraries, and I've been obsessed with it ever since. I don't think I'll ever allow it out of our possession, despite never cooking from it. (I've made one of its recipes, and it got a mediocre reaction.) I'm here to share its wonders with the world.

Valuable Information

This is a small value add from this book to my quality of life, but I like that it has some useful information in the beginning, like the various fruits and vegetables that are in season throughout the year.

That's always something I forget and want to know about, and I absolutely love a reference page. This is an inherited trait from my mother, whose fridge always has a rotating set of print-outs of topics she's been interested in, for example:

But after that first section on seasonality, how to use various types of lentils, and the different qualities of various cheese, the book takes a turn.

The Egg Obsession

It totally makes sense to me that as one of the main sources of animal protein in a vegetarian diet, a vegetarian cookbook would take advantage of egg-based recipes as much as possible. It doesn't totally make sense to me why it would manifest quite like this:

Images like this are really the core of why I love this cookbook so much. This had to go through approvals! Someone had to make it to take the picture of it! And it looks so goofy! To be honest, I would eat the corn toast and I'm sure the vegetable curry also tastes fine. But the way they look so carefully prepared despite being such a bizarre serving suggestion just cracks me up. Especially the Indian curry with eggs -- there are famously many vegetarians in India who are eating curry all the time and not like this! (Open to correction on that. Maybe they just don't put the egg curry on the restaurant menus for the Americans to make fun of.)

I feel like it tells such a story, too. Like, I'm cutting the crusts off my rye bread and carefully piling my corn mixture and egg on, and adding slices of lime (which is actually in the recipe, it's not just a plating decision by whoever was taking photos) just for a "light appetizer or lunch"? Clearly these are not "30 minute or less" quick and easy recipes. I like to imagine the cookbook author is expecting these to be served at tea or whatever people in the UK do, and all your friends go "Oho! Vegetarianism isn't so bad after all, now is it?"

Britishisms

Half of the delight of this cookbook is that it comes from the UK, so there are many little foreign oddities. You really don't notice the water you swim in when it comes to food, and even beyond the measurements being in metric, I like the little differences in terminology. For instance, there are quite a few "parcels" in the book:

I'm also charmed by this mug:

British people are so into baked beans! And I think the Heinz beans in a can is like the prototypical baked bean to them -- I don't even know if we have those in America. To me, Heinz Meanz Ketzup. This is just one of those things that's intended as a cute little jolt of recognition for the reader, but to me it's a symbol of a whole other world.

Kid's Korner

There's a full section on kid's food in this cookbook, which I find endearing. Something they emphasize in the introduction to this section is that it's important for children's food to look visually appealing, which to be honest reveals a bias towards the visual in both children's and adult's food throughout this cookbook. But who wouldn't love a bean raft? A chunk of bread with a dollop of baked beans and some cheese sticks? Anyone?

If it's not clear from the image, this food is supposed to look like a raft, where the cheese are oars and the beans are...people on the raft? Cargo? I guess it's all up to your child's imagination.

I thought I would also include some lunchbox recipes for kids, including a "spicy bean roll" with nothing spicy in it...except black pepper, I guess? And a munchy crunch sandwich with the unholy combination of peanut butter, cream cheese, carrot, and celery. I've vaguely heard of peanut butter and cream cheese, but I just don't think I'd eat this.

Bonus in that screenshot is an example of some of the dialect variation I was mentioning earlier, although personally I would have known that cling film is the same as Saran wrap, and in my opinion "greaseproof paper" is a roundabout way of saying wax paper and is another example of the British being pretentious.

What Is Going On Here

Here are some of my favorite crazy-looking food images from this cookbook. It kills me how much effort was put into making objectively insane food look appetizing.

The British do not understand pizza. It's the wrong cheese, the wrong type of olives, and way too much real estate given to the least popular pizza topping. Also, are anchovies VEGETARIAN? I don't think so.

What can I say, it's a loaf of cheese. I don't have the cookbook at hand as I'm writing this, but I think this is supposed to be a main dish. I also don't know what kind of cheese it is. I'm honestly afraid to check. I would probably gag if this was served to me.

The CARE that must have been taken to cut the jagged edge out of that tomato half without smushing it to death is truly inspirational. This recipe has taken a standard -- something easy to eat, delicious, full of vegetarian protein -- and copy-pasted a tomato full of beans on top. I just can't tell you why they chose this for the double-page spread.

Pleasing Layouts

One of the very 90's aspects of the book that I appreciate is the larger spreads of food at the beginning of the chapters. They're decorated with such a cute little tablecloth with a small colorful pattern. I fear these photos I chose don't actually do the best spreads justice, but you can get a sense from the other images in this post how cheerfully 90's the decor is. (I suppose technically late 80's, since the book was first published in 1991.)

One For the Road

I figured I would include one recipe from the book, and since I've only tried a single one, that will have to be the winner. The name suggests this is a quick weeknight meal, but I found that with the need for a pot to cook the lentils, a pan to cook the other vegetables, a dish to cook the whole pie in, AND the fact that the mashed potato labor is cleverly hidden in the ingredients list, it ended up much more work and creating far more dishes than I prefer for a mid-week meal. But it doesn't taste bad (just a bit bland) and it's easily made vegan, and it does produce a good quantity of food, so I would theoretically make it again. I'll transcribe the recipe below the photo.

Mid-week lentil and corn pie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red lentils
• 1 TBSP oil
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 green pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
• 14oz can peeled tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 11.8oz can sweetcorn kernels, drained
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1lb potatoes, peeled, boiled, and mashed
• 2 TBSP milk

Rinse and place the lentils in a pan. Cover with cold water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until tender, about 20-30 minutes. Drain thoroughly.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion, carrot, and green pepper and fry gently for 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and sweetcorn kernels, blending well. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add the lentils and salt and pepper to taste, blending well. Place in an ovenproof dish.

Mix the potatoes with the milk, then spoon or pipe attractively on top of the lentil mixture. Cook under a preheated broiler until golden. Serve hot. Serves 4

Conclusion

What can I say. It's a great cookbook. I think it's worth the investment, and it provides me endless joy. Newer cookbooks aren't as ambitious or daring with their fare, and I think it's a shame when we have treasures like this languishing in the archives. Of course, nowadays we know that the perpetually-on-clearance cookbooks at the box stores are sloppily made and created to make a quick buck. But I get such a sense of earnestness from this book that it warms my heart and keeps me coming back for more (though not in terms of its food). I'll be sure to update if another recipe ever manages to make it into my repertoire, but I think it will remain mostly a picture book for me for the time being.