I can’t believe it’s November! I love the Winter months. There’s nothing better than wrapping up warm and going on a winter walk then curling up in front of the fire. And to top it off it’s my birthday in November too, so it’s full of treats! Speaking of treats…what have we been enjoying in our kitchen this past month?
First up, another lovely couple of cookbooks:
Nikkei Cuisine by Luis Hara was released on 22nd October, published by Jacqui Small. This is an exquisite book, and so colourful. Nikkei cuisine is South American & Japanese Fusion food, a style I adore but is sadly lacking in Bimirngham. There’s so many recipes in there I want to try and some amazing sounding flavor combinations. So far I’ve tried a couple of the Ceviche recipes, both of which were spot on.
The recipes do use some ingredients that are a bit hard to source, so they probably aren’t for a last minute supper, but more recipes for when you are trying to impress.
On the other end of the scale was the book Lebanese Home Cooking by Kamal Mouzawak. This book is full of traditional Lebanese cooking with regional and religious variation There are over 50 gorgeous recipes including kebbeh, mehsheh, tabikh, mujadara and mouaa’janat. Comfort food and hearty recipes at their finest.
I can’t wait to try the eggplant in a spicy tomato sauce, pictured below.
The folks over at Pomora have sent over their seasonal olive oils for us to try. The flavours for this autumn and winter are Basil, Garlic and Truffle. I’ve started using them already and have a great recipe coming up soon using the basil oil so watch this space!
I love the packaging of the oils, and the way the colours of the tins match the flavours. I’ve found it to be excellent quality oil with really true flavours and they are fast becoming my go to olive oil.
Debbie & Andrews Sausages are not a brand that I’ve tried before. First of all, I like the packaging – its bright and vibrant and will stand out on a shelf, which is what you want. The big selling point of these sausages are that they are wheat, gluten and dairy free and are made with the best cuts of British pork.
These guys will also be at this years BBC Good Food Show in Bimirngham, with an exclusive Christmas range, and I’m really looking forward to meeting them and checking this out too.
So far we have only tried the ‘Perfect Pork’ straight up in a good old sausage sarnie to see how they compare and really found them to be a great sausage, so I’m looking forward to try out the Cumberland ones in a few recipes soon!
Lastly, I’ve been trying out this book from Omar Allibhoy of Tapas Revolution fame.
He has recently opened in Birmingham and on my last visit with was lucky enough for him to join me a few others for dinner to talk about his restaurant. He was kind enough to give us a copy of the book too – and so far I’m really liking the recipes!
Disclosure: Thanks to the brands for the above books and samples, which were complimentary. Was not required to write about them, and all views are my own.
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