Our Verdict: How to Eat a Peach

Maureen: This is less of a cookbook and more a memoir about food.

Kirstin: It’s a lovely book to own about food, but it’s not a cookbook.

Maureen: I liked the way she organised things by menu, which is great if you’re planning a big multi-course meal for friends and family, but it’s less good when you’re looking to make something on a Wednesday night.

Kirstin: Preferably with fennel. She really loves fennel.

Maureen: She’s a beautiful writer, to be sure.

Kirstin: And the pictures were beaiutiful

Maureen: I liked the peach-like cover– that was pretty clever and it felt nice, too.

Kirstin: I loved the cover, too. The writing was good, but again it’s not a book you can cook from.

Maureen: We knew that going in, though. We didn’t think it would be a very useful book, but we thought it would be a nice one to have.

Kirstin: Exactly.

Maureen: She’s still one of my favourite food writers, I just don’t think this is a very useful book.

Kirstin: Completely.

“How to Eat a Peach”
Overall Grade (A- F):  C (Maureen) C (Kirstin)
Best recipes: Maureen: I’m not really sure it’s that kind of book, but I can’t think of one I would make again. Kirstin: The pork I made was really good.
Grade for Photography (A-F):  A. I love Laura Edwards.
Any disasters? Kirstin: No. Maureen: No disasters, but the broad bean crostini was huge faff.
Bookshelf or Charity Shop Donation? Kirstin: Bookshelf, for the photography. Maureen: Charity Shop Donation because I don’t see ever using it again.                                              Would You Give This Book to a Friend?: Unfortunately, no.

A Summer Sunday Lunch from “How to Eat a Peach”

That’s not what the lovely Diana Henry called it, but that’s what I’m calling it because that’s what it was. On this particular Sunday, I made “Crostini with Crushed Broad Beans & Nduja” along with “Roast Sea Bass with Fennl & Anise Aïoli” and “Tomatoes Provençales aux Anchois.”

It’s been an unusually hot summer here in London, which has been lovely, for the most part. I mean, it did start to get a bit old when all of our grass died and I had to wake up every morning at 7 a.m. to walk our dog before the heat of the day set in. But by and large, it’s been nice. However, living in such unusual heat did have its fair share of cooking challenges because often I just couldn’t face cooking because that would only make me hotter.

As Kirstin said before, this cookbook is unusual in that it’s organised by menu rather than courses. This does make it difficult to find something to make for, say, a hot Wednesday night. But if you’re planning on spending some time on a meal, which is often the case for me on Sundays, this would be a good book for that. She also helpfully organises the book by “Spring and Summer” and “Autumn and Winter,” which meant I kept to the first half of the book this time of year.

Roasting a whole sea bass is certainly a treat because it’s definitely more expensive than our usual meals. But it looks impressive when you bring it to the table, and once it’s all said and done, it’s a pretty easy dish to make, which would be perfect for a dinner party. We loved the fish.

Half of the family liked the the tomatoes provençales– the half of the family that loves tomatoes. The other half wasn’t so keen, but I don’t think that was a failure of the recipe, but instead a failure of their taste buds (I am in the half of the family that LOVES tomatoes). For what it’s worth, I cut up one of the leftover ones and added it to scrambled eggs the next morning for breakfast and it was delicious too.

Unfortunately, given that everything else was so good, the crostini was a total faff and definitely more trouble than it was worth. Cooking, podding and mashing the beans took a ridiculously long time. Crostini, which is just fancy toast, really is delicious but I’m not going to spend an hour getting the ingredient that goes on top ready. Next time I’ll follow her alternative suggestion and use peas instead and use the time I saved reading a good book.

But all in all, a delicious summer Sunday lunch.

 

“Braised Pork with Ginger and Star Anise” from “How to Eat a Peach”

I’ve very much enjoyed reading this book, but its menu-based format means that choosing a single recipe to cook from it can be a bit of a challenge. But then I invited our friend Viv for dinner, and Viv always loves a good pork recipe. So that made my choice for me! And buried deep in one of Diana Henry’s menus, I found this little gem. I made sure to read through the directions before setting off for a pub lunch, noting that it took a minimum of THREE HOURS to cook. I also managed to source the Indonesian kecap for the sauce. What I had not factored in however, was the time I spent gardening after lunch. I got so absorbed that what felt like one hour turned out, in reality, to be three or four. So I ended up starting this recipe a little later than I had expected to, with the garden looking much better! Anyway. I digress. Thankfully my guest and family were very forgiving, especially as this smelled heavenly as it cooked. For all three hours of cooking.

And it helped that when we finally ate, that it tasted AMAZING. The sauce was divine; a glorious sticky combination of ginger, garlic and chilli. The pork was also exquisitely tender after all those hours on the hob. Tom has already asked if I will only cook pork this way in future. I might well agree. I’ll just make sure to stay away from the gardening beforehand next time!

“Marcella Hazan’s Roast Chicken with Lemon” from “How to Eat a Peach”

If you haven’t already seen this book, it is organised into menus. For instance “Take me back to Istanbul” and “A perfect lunch”. Or what about “A thousand chillies” or “Darkness and light”. This is a great idea, unless you’re having a “Shitty rainy Friday”. Or maybe a “Crappy Wednesday at work”. Or how about “A day in August which should be sunny, but instead can’t decide whether to rain or not all day so you don’t put the washing out… and then finally it decides to rain.” Because that’s the menu I needed today.

So. This recipe is originally from Marcella Hazan and is included in the “Summer begins with apricot tart” menu. Which might be a thing. If it weren’t August and the weather was unable to decide whether to rain or not all day. Before raining.

I love Marcella Hazan. I dug out my original copy of her classic “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” because it’s where I started on my Italian cooking adventure and it’s from 1995. WHICH IS TWENTY THREE YEARS AGO! How can that be? When did all that time pass? What happened? I must have been sucked into a space-time continuum vortex because I don’t feel like it was that long ago. Gah!

And Marcella Hazan still gets it completely right. This chicken was gloriously tender. Full of lemony goodness. And perfect with a salad and potatoes, just the way Diana Henry recommends. So it’s an old recipe, and it’s a new recipe. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. How did that happen? Well, at least we’ll always have roast chicken.

“Spatchcocked Chicken” from “How to Eat a Peach”

The full title to this should be, “Spatchcocked Chicken with Chilli, Garlic, Parsley and Almond Pangrattato.” In the introduction, Diana Henry admits that there’s nothing more to this than roast chicken with yummy stuff scattered over the top when it’s done roasting.

That’s absolutely true, but it’s also absolutely delicious. And frankly, what’s wrong with a roast chicken with chilli, garlic, parsley and almond pangrattato scattered over the top? Nothing at all.

Also, here’s a top tip from our friendly butcher at Dring’s: while it is relatively easy to spatchcock a chicken yourself, it’s better to get someone else to do it because it might ruin your knives if you do it. Good to know. (Also, I’m pretty lazy and when any task can be done by my butcher– deboning, deskinning, de-anything– I’ll have them do it.)

This one was a winner. We’ve been having an unusually scorching summer in London, so this was also a good one to make in the heat because I could bang the chicken in the oven, and then leave the hot kitchen to go read out back. But this would work any time of year, frankly.

Cookbook of the Month, August 2018: How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry

Kirstin: Have you felt the book yet?

Maureen: Oh, yes! It’s all soft and suede-like.

Kirstin: It’s meant to feel like a peach. So even in the depths of winter, you’ll be able to stroke a peach.

Maureen: That is pretty cool. Saying that, having paged through it, I worry that this is going to be a more aspirational cookbook than one I’ll actually cook from regularly, but we’ll see.

Kirstin: I love Diana Henry. I love her writing and I love her. But people always rave about her cookbooks and I always find them somewhat disappointing.

Maureen: There’s good weekend menus in the book, the sorts of things that you’ll make when you have an entire afternoon set aside to make them.

Kirstin: I like the premise and the photography. Laura Edwards is one of my favourite photographers. And I too have kept menus (yes, those from Chez Panisse are in the folder).

Maureen: The thing I already don’t like about this book is how there’s no main listing of all the recipes in either the back or the front. We’ve had that for the last few books, and it does make it so much easier when you’re trying to plan for a meal. Maybe I got spoiled by that sort of layout.

Kirstin: I know what you mean. It’s an old style, with only the index in the back. “Dining In” is going to be a difficult book to follow. I’m still cooking Alison Roman on the side because I completely adore her, and that book.

M: Talk about cooking other things, I should tell you that I tore my kitchen up trying to find the piece of paper where I wrote down a recipe for pulled pork to make in the pressure cooker. I’ve made it dozens of times but when I went to go make it yesterday, I couldn’t find it anywhere. I had hoped I had saved it on my laptop, but no dice, there either. I looked in every conceivable place.

K: Did you find it?

Maureen: No. I thought I found a recipe on the Internet which was a close copy, but apparently not. The feedback from the table was that the one I always make is better. So if any readers happen to know where I put that oh-so-important piece of paper, please let me know. I’ll be back in my kitchen, looking in other random places.

Kirstin: Good luck!

Maureen: Thank you. The moral of the story is obviously when you find a recipe that your family loves, WRITE IT DOWN in the special cookbook you have for that express purpose. Live and learn, I suppose.