Original Flava: Caribbean Recipes from Home

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While I am no sun-worshipper, I do find the gloomy greyness of a long British winter slightly less than cheering. So I prescribe myself the Kitchen Cure, which is to say I lose myself in cooking and eating good things full of bright flavour. (True, there’s an argument for the blanketing stodge of Beige Food, too, but it’s not a case of either/or). One of my aids in fighting the grimness outside has been this persuasively upbeat book by Craig and Shaun McAnuff who are brothers from South London of Jamaican heritage. As with their first book, Original Flava, it draws on the generous tradition of Caribbean food, though its focus — or perhaps it would be more accurate to say its inspiration — is Ital cooking; the “ital” derives from “vital” and denotes the Rastafarian approach to eating, with its emphasis on fresh, unprocessed food and and its celebration of the earth’s bounty. Natural Flava is, you could say, a natural progression, in that it is entirely plant-based. Some of the recipes are veganised versions of predominantly Jamaican classics; others are Caribbean-inflected reworkings of foods they love and have grown up eating.

But in removing those trigger foods like garlic and onion from recipes, another issue comes up: how do you build flavour? "I've been a cookery writer now for four years, we're told to build a recipe's flavour with garlic and onion, we've had to flip of the idea of cookery, and what we know about recipe writing on its head," says Riley. "So, we've eliminated all of those trigger foods from the recipes to make them what is known as 'safe food' and then we've added all of the principles that we use in Life Kitchen to try and elevate those safe foods to be absolutely delicious." Now! Alexa, please play a gospel playlist while we attempt to recreate our dream Shoreditch Sunday brunch plans at home. With a book called Flavor, it’s clear from the outset what you’re getting into. And with Ottolenghi’s name attached to it, you know it’s going to be special. “— National Post

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For our plant-based foodies, Ella Woodword’s eponymous brand is here for you. The Deliciously Ella deli is the perfect pitstop for an Oxford Street shopping break, and there’s no reason you can’t recreate the calming, zen vibe she promotes in your own home. Ok, ok, so first thing’s first: we’re well aware that Red Rooster is a Harlem staple, and calling it a London restaurant is somewhat of a stretch. Yes, they have a Shoreditch location, but its heart and soul is purely New York. Having said that: we love that Red Rooster has introduced American-style soul food to our fellow Londoners, and its nearly instant status as a London icon really represents just how open to outsiders London truly is.

Jamaican food is already influenced by so many other cultures, so it makes sense to mix up a shepherd’s pie and cook it with veg and Caribbean spices.” Shaun and Craig McAnuff: ‘We’ve had a lot of fun doing plant-based recipes’ (Photo: Matt Russell) While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. When hot, add the mushrooms and pepper and fry for five to six minutes, until the mushrooms are golden brown. Add the lemon zest and juice and cook for a further one minute to allow the mushrooms to absorb some of the juice. Add the béchamel sauce and cheese, then stir occasionally, until the cheese has melted.

Well, put a cape on Yotam Ottolenghi, because he is a superhero for vegetarian and vegan cooks. He is doing everything he can think of to add interest and flavor to vegetables. His cookbooks are a love letter to the taste and texture of vegetables, and his latest, Flavor, is his strongest missive to date. Get The Monocle Guide to Drinking & Dining cookbook at Waterstones and Books a Million Deliciously Ella Add the drained pasta to the sauce and combine well to coat. Add a sprinkling of parsley and enjoy. In this stunning cookbook Yotam and co-writer Ixta Belfrage break down the three factors that create flavour and offer innovative vegetable dishes that deliver brand-new ingredient combinations to excite and inspire.

Get the Monica’s Kitchen cookbook at Waterstones The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem Intros to the chapters feels very comparable to Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat but without so much of a clear direction, so probably unlikely to reuse these for reference. We're Craig and Shaun, two brothers from South London, but with Jamaica in our hearts and souls. Our Mum and Nanny taught us to cook, and Original Flava is all about meals that are vibrant, lively, exciting, and full of the influences from different cultures that make the Caribbean island of Jamaica so wonderful. That's why we've travelled to Jamaica to bring you its authentic and fresh FLAVAs!I want to cook almost everything in this book - it's rare for me to want to make such a high proportion of the dishes.

Produce shows the way to bring out the best in your vegetables, by adding the umami of mushrooms, the magic of onions and garlic, the texture of nuts and seeds, and the sugar in fruit and alcohol. The Spicy Mushroom Lasagne, Dirty Rice, Radish and Cucumber Salad with Chipotle Peanuts, or Tangerine and Ancho Chile Flan can demonstrate this with ease. It’s around the corner,” says Shaun. “Obviously we love it. There’s a lot more to Jamaican food. It’s broad and diverse and centred on family. That’s what we wanted to demonstrate to people. It’s cool there was so much interest.” The star of this book is, somewhat expectedly, the chapter that highlights 10 different ceviche recipes, each revolving around a different main ingredient. But you’ll also find stunning photography, personal tales from Morales himself, and a general desire to zip off to Peru ASAP. (After your trip to London, of course). Grouping together multiple recipes steps in one bullet point is a real bugbear of mine - I don't like one step in a recipe to be a dozen lines long with a dozen substeps and taking several hours to complete. Feels like a case of trying to hide the complexity when the recipe could also afford to be a little simpler.

Mushroom and blue cheese mac 'n' cheese

At Life Kitchen, Riley uses five elements: aroma, umami, texture, layering, and trigeminal food sensations (the tingling, burning, and cooling feeling you get from spices). They used these five basic tastes when creating recipes for Taste and Flavour. Get Nadya’s British Food Adventure cookbook at Waterstones and Books a Million Honourable mention: Original Flava We spent years working on taste and smell loss for cancer so everyone kind of assumed, naturally, we'd be the right people for this. And so did I in many ways, but actually, it's been a completely different process to what we thought it would be," says Riley. When Life Kitchen co-founder Kimberly Duke and Riley set to work, they discovered that COVID taste and smell loss has key differences to what they usually work with. Opinion | Beyond Meat's decline represents a failing in vegan food – it's not tasty or nutritious enough 08 August, 2023 I gave up veganism after five years - because of a fried egg 12 January, 2023 Double McPlant: When McDonald’s vegan burger launches in UK and ingredients explained 30 December, 2022 I love Ottolenghi’s previous cookbooks, but I thought he had more or less exhausted what he could do. As he says, “how many ways can there be to roast an eggplant?” But this cookbook is an evolution from his previous work. Where most of his previous recipes have been focused in Middle Eastern cuisine, this cookbooks is… not “fusion,” which to me implies a mixing of different cuisines, but rather post-national cuisine. With the help of Ixta Belfrage, Ottolenghi is now into using ingredients with big, bold flavors. Sometimes this is in context of the cuisine they come from, other times, like with the cascabel chile oil with butter beans, it’s just because that’s the big flavor they want to play with for the dish.