Delicious Raw, Lightly Cured and Seared Dishes--from Sashimi and Ceviche to Carpaccio and Tartare
Book - 2017Artisan drinks
Lindy Wildsmith
Pixies Pocket
I know that they say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but as soon as I saw the cover of Artisan Drinks by Lindy Wildsmith, I knew I wanted to read it. I mean, just look at it! Luckily for us all, this book offers much more than just a pretty face.
My regular readers know that I am…ahem…quite keen on making cordials, meads, wines, teas, and all other sorts of yummy drinks. Most of them alcoholic!
Artisan Drinks covers techniques for making your own beverages at home. There are around 100 recipes for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks along with comprehensive, yet easy to follow, instructions. Lindy Wildsmith does a wonderful job of explaining her recipes and techniques so that even a beginner can start something tasty brewing on their counter top after reading chapter one. She also has some tips that are so good that I found myself taking notes and muttering “Why didn’t I think of that?!”
One portion of this book that particularly intrigued me was the idea of a non-alcoholic cordial. As far as I had understood the term, a cordial recipe generally contained alcohol of some kind or another in order to preserve the drink for storage. It turns out that you can made a cordial with no alcohol. What?! There are methods to preserve the alcohol-free cordials with pasteurization, something I’ve never done, but I will definitely give it a try.
Lindy is a masterful chef and educator of fine cuisine, but her writing is beyond accessible to any reader. She skillfully demonstrates the methods and techniques that typify each kind of drink and weaves it all together in a conversational tone that eases the mind and increases the confidence of someone just starting out in crafting their own homemade beverages. Once she covers everything from cordials, sparkling drinks, country wines, beers, ciders and perries, liqueurs and teas, Lindy leads you through using these delectable tipples in cocktails and “mocktails” suitable for any gathering.
@LindyWildsmith may be a masterful chef, but her writing is beyond accessible to any reader. Click To Tweet
I love this book, and it has definitely broadened my definitions and made me reconsider many of my standard (rather lazy) techniques. If you feel that you need a boost to get you going in crafting seasonal drinks in your home, please give Artisan Drinks a try!
Amber Shehan
Metro
Italian cookbook Cicchetti is finger food worth thumbing through
Pretending that Italian food is simple and easy to classify will result in nothing but dodgy pasta sauce. Lindy Wildsmith and Valentina Harris, both experts in this subject, know better than to try.
Their new book is called Cicchetti after the small plates that are unique to Venice, but also runs the gamut of their favourite finger food and snacks, found in different regional variations and christened spuntini, piccolo cibi and stuzzichini. Essentially, if you’ve got an Italian drink in one hand, you could do a lot worse than to have something cooked from it in the other.
Wildsmith takes on the Venetian specialities in the first half, which is divided by seafood; eggs, cheese and cured meat; fresh meat; vegetables and booze. Each chapter starts with notes on eating in Venice, and doesn’t shy away from some of the threats facing the stunning city.
Emma Sturgess
Telegraph on-lineCookbook of the week: Cicchetti
This week's featured cookbook is 'Cicchetti', a collection of Italian recipes from Lindy Wildsmith and Valentina Harris
You can find cicchetti – the Italian version of tapas – in tiny, non-touristy bars in Venice, and all over Italy in the form of spuntini, piccoli cibi and stuzzichini. It’s the civilised way to have a drink – each glass accompanied by some delicious savoury morsel. Why don’t we do it here in Britain? Well, now you can, aided by this user-friendly book compiled by the food writers Wildsmith and Harris. Cicchetti recipes are largely short and unfussy, and in this book range from fried black olives and arancini to crostini di bottarga, polpette nella foglia di limone (meatballs in lemon leaves) and panelle (chickpea fritters). Pancetta and rosemary pancakes come from Perugia, the regional capital of Umbria.Carolyn Heart
Cured
A volume of recipes, techniques and traditions for curing meat, fish and vegetables at home
Lindy Wildsmith
Lindy Wildsmith
• Lindy Wildsmith is an experienced food writer, author of many books.
• Cured covers salting, marinading, spicing, drying, smoking, raw, pickling and potting.
• There are recipes, serving suggestions and a directory of where and what to buy when you don’t make your own.
• Curing is part of the culinary zeitgeist, in tune with the ‘Slow Food’ movement.
• A global range of authentic methods and recipes from the almost instant to cures that take weeks to prepare.
Cured
by Lindy Wildsmith is published by Jacqui Small on 13th September 2010 at £30
Originally, curing was a necessity – the only way food could be preserved before the advent of refrigeration. Now, it’s a luxurious way to enjoy unique, intense flavours in foods ranging from meat and fish to, fruit and vegetables.
Seven sections – each dedicated to a different method of curing – de-mystify this ancient technique and show how every cook can create delicious cured food in their own kitchen.
A truly global celebration of deliciously preserved dishes, recipes range from New York Deli pastrami and Native American venison jerky to the Japanese pickled and marinated fish, Sashimi and Shimi Saba. From Europe come smoked salmon and salt beef, German Liverwurst Sausage, salt cod dishes of both the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, and Italian classic antipasti in the form of Venetian Carpaccio and ruby red Carne Salada.
Lindy Wildsmith covers cultures and cooking from around the world both modern and ancient. Cured details Native American, Japanese, historic Roman and Greek, and current European practices and includes ceviche and crudo.
Nurturing flavour over days, weeks or even months is a unique and addictive way to prepare food, producing mouth-watering results every time. Home-produced delicacies taste even better for having been patiently prepared and eagerly anticipated – truly great Slow Food, deeply infused with fantastic flavour.
Lindy Wildsmith is a food writer specialising in
Lindy Wildsmith has written many cookery books. Her specialist subjects are preserving and curing, English country and Italian regional food, fish and game.
Cured Her long awaited new book "CURED" - SALTED, SPICED, DRIED, SMOKED, POTTED, PICKLED AND RAW will be out on September 13th. This is an indispensable guide to traditional curing methods, a must for every modern kitchen.
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY:
Food and Travel Magazine
"A gift for the chef who has everything, this book enveils the delights of curing your own food. An enjoyable read of charming anecdotes and descriptions of regional specialities, the recipes go well beyond the familiar Parma ham and gravlax - think oriental herky or pickled oysters"
Great British Food
"Curing, salting, smoking and sousing in-house is a hot trend amongst gastropubs, and this inspiring book encourages home cooks to get in on the action. Its master stroke is to show that great things can be achieved in the domestic kitchen, whether a simple cerviche or confit, or more elaborate stove-top smoke. Enticing stuff for cooks of all levels."
Restaurant magazine
"As we regress into our culinary pasts we cannot fail to come face to face with the curers crafts - is how food writer Lindy Wildsmith introduces Cured, her 280-page tome on self preservation. Indeed the book takes a look at some of the earliest cooking methods, but is more about contemporary cooking than a genuflect to the good ol'days.
Neatly divided into seven sections - salted, spiced and marinated, dried, smoked. potted, pickled and raw - Cured gives an overview of each technique before attacking a wide range of dishes, from the basics (salt beef, kippers, etc) to more technically challenging (Chinese smoked guinea fowl and crepinette au marrons)."
Look out for Metro on Tuesday and the Telegraph and the Cardiff based Western Morning News on Saturday 20th November.
Two of her other books currently available are on eating and entertaining outdoors Sunny Days and Easy Living £10.99 and Eating Outdoors £16.99 both published by Rylands Peters and Small
