“Caramelized Onion and Beef Stew” from “Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound”

I have never been a fan of beef stew. Never, ever, ever. Every year on our birthdays, my mom would let us pick our favourite meal. Every year my brother Tom always picked stew. I always thought he was wasting his choice, because to my mind beef stew was disgusting and shouldn’t been consumed on any day of the year, let alone your birthday. (My choice, if you’re wondering, was lasagna. Yum.)

Fast forward a few decades. Needless to say, my palate and food choices have become much wider. I’ve eaten things I would have never dreamed possible in suburban New Jersey in the 1980s. Since I got married, my husband, who likes stew, kept telling me I would like it. I’d look at the component parts in the recipe and figured I’d give it another go. Given that I didn’t mind the component parts, surely as an older and wiser woman I would like beef stew.

As I’ve tried a variety of recipes, both here on Cookbook A Month and on my own, the results have been mixed. While I certainly have moved away from the “I Hate All Beef Stew” opinion, it’s never a sure bet that I’ll like it.

I’ll spare you the suspense: I liked this one! It made the house smell nice on a cold February afternoon, it was from the long-and-slow school of cooking, which I love, and it was delicious. Kudos to the fine butchers at Dring’s who not only helped me pick out the correct beef, but also gave me the most excellent tip to make dumplings for the top, which were fantastic.

However– and there’s always a however to ruin the fun– while I liked it, the other two-thirds of my family did not. For this stew, you add some lemon peel for the slow cook. They thought the lemon taste was too overwhelming and didn’t fit in with beef stew. I disagreed, saying that it made the dish lighter and more interesting. Regardless, it was not a 100 percent success, so I don’t know if I’ll be making it again.

Too bad.

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“Seared Tuna with Tomato, Bean and Avocado Relish” from “Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound”

This dish comes from the “Appearance” section of the book, where she suggests how something looks influences how people taste. This theory held out when I brought this dish to the table, when all assembled gasped and said, “Wow– that looks delicious.”

I’m happy to report that this tasted as good as it looked.

There were lots of things to like about this dish, too. It was good for you (loads of vegetables), it was relatively easy to make (I’ll get to that in a minute) and it was super yummy (pretty sure that’s a technical term). I will definitely be making this again.

I’ve got a few notes, though. Sybil Kapoor wants you to peel all of the cherry tomatoes– all 1 pound of them. I’m not really sure it was worth the time, because that was definitely the most time-consuming part of the whole dish. Did all the effort make the dish substantially better? I’d say no. I would deseed the tomatoes, though, because it helped my tomato-hating husband like the dish even more.

One of the good things about this dish was that you don’t need a lot of tuna, since you slice the tuna steak and put it over the whole platter. I didn’t think I had enough tuna, but it turned out there was plenty for everyone. It’s a classic trip of making a little go a long way.

Finally, I think this relish would work with a lot of other fish too (like salmon or trout), so I can see this being a repeat guest star for our Fish Fridays.

This dish definitely was For The Win (FTW).

“Cheat’s Nasi Goreng? Add an egg!” from “Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound”

Kirstin: Just a quiet evening in. Me and the boy. And you know there are evenings when a stir fry is the last thing you want to cook because of all the preparation, right. And there are evenings when you are completely on board with it. This was the latter kind of an evening. Possibly because I had just finished watching this beautifully sad film, I wouldn’t like to say.  So I probably took longer than I should because I was so relaxed and in the zone. Within the book, this recipe is featured in the  Appearance Section of the book. Something to do with Instagrammers and eggs. I will take that, because yes. It did look pretty. But it also tasted incredible. And I made enough for leftovers; I might even take my microwave egg poacher into work so I can add the egg too.

“Spiced Sweetcorn and Lime Soup” from “Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound”

Time for some Real Truth about this cookbook: The way it is organised is maddening.

I know we’re only 11 days in the month, and maybe we just got off on the wrong foot, but it’s just a really frustrating cookbook to use. It is organised by the title: with one section each for sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. OK, fine, I can work with that. But only if the index is robust. It is not. Alternatively, there is a list in the front of all the sections with the recipes therein, but finding out what those are means paging through to those specific pages.

Needless to say, it takes a fair amount of time to find specific recipes. So when we want to celebrate Meat Free Monday, for example, it’s a long slog through the index or flipping back and forth to the front of each section. It is frustrating to see the least.

So this is what I finally decided to make. I thought it would go well with the Green Chilli & Avocado Dip from “Together” (it did) along with some Doritos, which everyone loves. Unfortunately, my two dining companions– Nicholas, the teenager, and Tim, the husband, filled up on all the fun stuff and thought the corn soup was just Meh.

I liked it, despite the fact that it doesn’t photograph well (pureed corn soup always looks like sick, no matter what you do), but if the other two-thirds of the family didn’t like it, I don’t see making this again any time soon.

Now don’t mind me. I’ll be over here in a corner for a few hours trying to figure out what to make next.

” Honey Chilli Chicken in Lettuce Leaves” from “Sigh, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound”

Tom: Hmmmmm.
Miles: Oh my God. The chicken!
Tom: Yummm… The cashew nuts!

Kirstin: And that was the most I got out of them while we ate dinner. It was THAT delicious.
Also perfect for Chinese New Year! As with a lot of Chinese food, it’s all about the preparation beforehand. The actual cooking took only a short time so it’s a perfect kind of meal to make during the week. Although as far as I can tell from my audience, they would be happy to have this ANY night of the week.

Cookbook of the Month, February 2019: Sight Smell Touch Taste Sound by Sybil Kapoor

Kirstin: There’s no cookbooks out at the moment!

Maureen: Tell me about it. January is absolutely the bleakest month for new cookbooks. It’s all diet books, vegan books, healthy eating books. It’s so awful, and completely uninspiring.

Kirstin: This looks excellent, though.

Maureen: It came out in September, but I think it’s very much adjacent to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, (or Salt, Blah, Blah, Blah, as we call it) which we loved. It’s got a lot of lengthy essays and explanations about different aspects of cooking, which should be interesting.

Kirstin: Those sorts of things make you a better cook because you start thinking about how and why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Maureen: This is definitely going to be another book where we have to do a lot of reading…

Kirstin: I’m completely up for that.

Maureen: At least it’s not a diet book.

Our Verdict: Together: Our Community Cookbook

Kirstin: I liked it!

Maureen: I did too. It wasn’t long or comprehensive, but it was a lovely book full of recipes that I wouldn’t ordinarily make.

Kirstin: Yes

Maureen: It was like a very expensively produced Women’s Institute or Junior League community cookbook on shiny paper…

Kirstin: ….WIth a duchess thrown in there for good measure…

Maureen: …And with much better photography than you’d get in your standard community cookbook.

Kirstin: You know what I’d like? Guidance at the top on how long it’s going to take to make each recipe because some of the recipes were quite long. I usually try to not cook food that takes longer than an hour.

Maureen: Certianly not on a weeknight. Who has the time? Saying that, I’ll occasionally make something that takes a few hours on a weekday, but I have to be super organised to do that and it’s one of the perks of working from home.

Kirstin: Sometimes, I found it quite frustrating how the steps of the recipe were organised.

Maureen: I don’t know, but maybe I’ve been testing these cookbooks wrong all this time, but I always read a recipe and then do it in whatever way makes the most sense to me.

Kirstin: I completely agree with you and I do that too, but I just wish they had done written some of the recipes differently. Maybe it’s just me. Like with curry, I like to get everything chopped and ready in advance, and then clean up as I go along.

Maureen: [Laughing] I never clean up as I go along. That’s my life philosophy. Just ask Tim.

Kirstin: I was trying to give you the benefit the doubt. But I loved the curry recipes because we don’t do a lot of cookbooks with good curry recipes in it.

Maureen: I loved the different regions they had on offer. I don’t often get to see recipes from Persia or Ethiopia, so I liked giving those a try. I wonder if there’s going to sequel to this. They’ve made loads of money for the Hubb Community Kitchen for this, which is such a great thing.

Kirstin: We’ll wait and see.

 

“Together: Our Community Cookbook”
Overall Grade (A- F):  B* (Maureen) B (Kirstin) (*Maureen included the caveat, “For a community cookbook, it’s an A, for a professional cookbook compared against others, it’s a B.)
Best recipes: Maureen: Green rice. Kirstin: Coconut Chicken Curry.
Grade for Photography (A-F): A It’s got slightly weird toning, but all the smiles made up for it.
Any disasters? Kirstin: I didn’t have any disasters, but the aubergine takes way too long. Maureen: No. It was all good.
Bookshelf or Charity Shop Donation? Low-rotation bookshelf.                                                                      Would You Give This Book to a Friend?: It would have to be the right friend, but yes.