Customer Reviews

The Joy of Organics - By: , 06 Jan 2000
This is an excellent book: informative about the principles of organic food production without being pious, & well illutrated with lots of beautiful photographs. Carol Charlton writes interestingly & simply; she includes engaging personal touches, but without straying into the self-indulgent waffle which seems to be increasingly prevalentin cookery tomes these days. Most important of course, are the recipes , which will form a superb collection of ideas & inspirations for any cook, whether novice or expert. This book is outstanding for a number of reasons. Being a vegetarian with a carnivorous partner, one of my main gripes with many cookery books is that I find they tend to focus mainly on either meat or vegetarian recipes; this book focusses equally on both. The vegetarian recipes here (and I have read many veggie cookbooksin my time!) are all wonderfulin their innovativeness (if such a word exists) focussing on seasonal combinations of fresh ingredients. Unlike many veggie recipes these thankfully do not call for obscure or expensive ingredients, the recipes are easy to follow & assemble, yet the results are delicious & often sophisticated. Good examples of the Organic Café's new twist on old favourites are: roast onion soup with herb & cheese dumplings; roast squash with chilli satay sauce; carrot mushroom sesame & ginger oven roast. There are some of the more well-known favourites: mushroom stroganoff, a good sensible version of imam bayeldi; a straightforward but delicious veggie moussaka. Indeed, part of the joy of this cookbook is that it does not strive to be achingly hip, trying to include all the latest sun-dried-quails-egg type trends, nor are the recipes over-elaborate. (how many times have you read through recipes which seem to call for 10 differents pots & pans, & a veritable culinary assualt course of instructions; frying one thing, whisking another, blending, scraping, rolling-out, refrigerating, chopping, marinading, & so on?). These recipes are veggie cuisine at its best: neither contrived & fiddly, nor dull & stodgy. The recipes for meat I found equally inspirational; again, all the recipes are based on relatively simple ingredients, with the emphasis on fresh, quality organic produce. There are traditional favourites: lamb stew, steak & kidney pie; as well as new & unusual dishes such as beef stewed with juniper berries & orange zest, lamb shanks braisedin cider with glazed onions & beetroot. In addition to the wonderful poultry, lamb, pork, beef & fish recipes, there is also a very good short good section on game. In addition to these, there are sections on breads (I have made the foccacia: it was mercifully simple to make, & a great success!) & cakes & puddings. At the end of the book is a very interesting section on preserving, with recipes for jams & chutneys, etc. as well as advice on bottling & drying. I received this book as a christmas gift, & have been browsing through it ever since. Even though i already embrace the principles of organic eating & living as much as possible, I still found this book to be interesting & informativein this respect, & I can't think of a more effective way of persuading anyone to Go Organic than to give them a copy of this book!