first, a bit of blog business. what follows could be traditionally categorized as a cookbook review. i have shied away from providing reviews up to this point because many seem so bossy and biased. that's no fun. even worse, a review can detail how awful something is without being constructive. i very much think a successful restaurant or cookbook review should point you toward fresh, bright food. period. so if i review something, it will be in that spirit. unless i get food poisoning somewhere. that i will tell you about. onward: something voluptuously delightful.
sophie dahl's new cookbook, miss dahl's voluptuous delights: recipes for every season, mood, and appetite, is lovely. you may recognize her famous last name (roald dahl is sophie's grandfather), or her face from previous stints as a model. i will warn you--there is a lot of her face in this book. i am not a huge fan of gratuitous shots of an author throughout a cookbook a la giada de laurentis (okay, you're totally smoking hot, i get it. show me the food). once i got past that, there was a lot to love within the pages.
take, for instance, her recipe for a warm winter vegetable salad. i will post it tomorrow as a bit of a sneak preview, and hopefully you will see what i am talking about better than i can explain. like many of her recipes, this one is quite simple to execute, rustic and beautiful on the plate, and boldly flavored. it is rare that a cookbook can accomplish being both whimsical and practical, but miss dahl pulls it off. recipes for buttermilk chicken with smashed sweet potatoes and pan-fried orange halibut with watercress puree both have less than eight ingredients and even fewer steps. plus, there is a real sense of playfulness. i cannot wait to get to the bottom of eaton mess with rhubarb--indeed, a very voluptuous pile of meringue spooned over with pretty pink rhubarb compote and rose water. there is also her recipe for hangover eggs, for when nothing but a fry-up will do. she advises that "a can of coke completes the bacchanalia, as does some bad television and a lie-down." such things make me actually welcome her graceful gaze over grilled artichokes that follows on the next page.
the real clincher is this--miss dahl is a good read. this is essential. how often do we actually cook the things in a cookbook? be honest. i, for one, buy cookbooks for the pleasure of reading them in addition to the fact that i will cook from them. that is why all of my cookbooks are in my bedroom and not my kitchen. they provide sustenance for dreams. and when i wake, a solid recipe for lemon & ricotta spelt pancakes is not bad to have, either.
notes
* miss dahl's voluptuous delights can be purchased here