I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
There are a few standard types of cookbooks. There are the ones that offer recipes for soups, salads, mains, and desserts. Then, there are ones focused on particular topics like sweets or appetizers or grilling. I just read a review copy of Plum Gorgeous by Romney Steele, and this cookbook doesn't fit any of the standard moulds. Instead, this book is a stroll through an orchard from season to season with memories, quotes, and recipes for fruits at their peak of ripeness. The chapters move from citrus to berries followed by stone fruits and fall fruits. There are recipes for preserving fruits, turning them into lovely desserts, and using them in savory dishes too. So, among the citrus recipes, you'll find orange marmalade and preserved lemons and ideas for using them along with kumquats and toasted couscous with halloumi and a rangpur lime mascarpone tart. I was taken with the idea of making a sweet, savory chutney, and I had a mango from my CSA waiting to be used. There's an apricot mango chutney in the stone fruit chapter, but since it's peach season here, I went with what was available. Local peaches, onion, and chiles with my mango from south Texas and a few other spices became an aromatic, spicy condiment. There are suggestions for serving the chutney with cheese and bread or stirring it into a rice dish with chicken. I've used it two ways so far. First, I topped some little pieces of homemade sourdough with Pure Luck chevre and dollops of the chutney. Then, I stirred some into whole wheat couscous with toasted pine nuts, parsley, spinach, and pulled pieces of roasted chicken. Both were sweet, savory bliss.
Making the chutney was actually easier than I expected even though it does simmer for about an hour and then sit overnight. A pound of peaches was pitted and chopped but not peeled, and the mango was peeled, pitted, and diced. The recipe also calls for dried apricots, and even though I was using fresh peaches instead of fresh apricots, I added a few chopped, dried apricots for the texture. Onion, garlic, a few chopped hot chiles, lime zest, grated ginger, a cinnamon stick, coriander seed, mustard seed, cloves, black pepper, raw sugar, and champagne vinegar were also included. Everything was combined in a stock pot and cooked until the liquid evaporated and the flavors came together. In the recipe you're instructed to leave the chutney covered in the stock pot overnight. I leave almost nothing out in my kitchen since I fear the house is too warm in the summer. So, I refrigerated the chutney overnight. The next day, it was cooked again to deepen the flavors, and I added a little salt and more black pepper. The finished chutney can be kept in the refrigerator for several months, but I don't think it will last that long.
This book is both a guide to each season's fruits and a collection of fond memories centered on food. It's a great resource for using what's available now at the markets, or in your own orchard if you're lucky enough to have one, and for daydreaming about next season. I've already tried the fig relish recipe as well, and I'll be mentioning that soon.
Now, regarding that giveaway, Back to the Roots has offered to send a grow-it-at-home mushroom garden to one lucky commenter. I recently received a mushroom garden of my own, and it's an amazing way to easily grow food on your kitchen counter. The garden is contained in a small box with recycled coffee grounds for soil inside it. You just mist the open sides of the box each day, and oyster mushrooms begin to grow after about a week. Read more about the mushroom gardens here, and you can receive a 10% discount on purchases with the code mushrooms4me10. All you have to do to win a garden is leave a comment on this post before Monday August 8, 2011 at noon CST. Include your email address with the comment so I can contact you. The winner must provide a US mailing address. Good luck!
UPDATE: The winner of the mushroom garden is Lola Lobato.
I somehow managed to take what was supposed to have been a quick and simple stir fry and turn it into a two-day preparation. This meal is from the book Modern Spice, and the focus of this book is on updated, doable dishes that bring forth the great flavors of Indian cuisine without extreme effort. And, I completely ruined that concept when I went and made my own chutney. After calling around town in an attempt to locate prepared tamarind-date chutney, I learned it was available at one market. When I arrived at that market, there were several other chutneys from various brands and some wonderful, natural, preservative-free options. However, there was only one brand of tamarind-date chutney, and it was not so free of preservatives. A quick online search led me to a simple recipe for making my own, and so instead of purchasing a jar, I bought jaggery, tamarind paste, and dates. I exaggerated a bit when I said I stretched this into a two-day process because making the chutney takes about 15 minutes total, and the stir fry comes together in not much longer. I just made the chutney in advance so the meal itself would be an especially quick one. I’m happy to have my homemade chutney and plenty of it because it’s also used in recipes for peanut tikkis, tamarind-glazed honey shrimp, catfish curry, and the tamarita which is a tamarind-flavored margarita.
You can use brown sugar instead of jaggery, but since I was going to the trouble of making a homemade chutney, I wanted it to have the flavor of jaggery. That flavor is like molasses with a hint of smokiness. I bought enough that I can use some for cookies, and I can’t wait to taste them. Chunks of jaggery are very firm, and the best way to make them usable is to whack them with a hammer. I put a big chunk in a plastic bag, covered that with a towel so the plastic wouldn’t rip, and gave it a few wollops. It crumbled into a powdery pile after just a couple of hits. The jaggery was combined with pitted dates and water in a saucepan, and that was simmered for about eight minutes. Tamarind paste was added, it was blended until smooth, and then it went back into the saucepan with hot chile powder, ground ginger, garam masala, and salt. It simmered again until thick, and then I refrigerated it until the next day. Making the stir fry was as simple as can be. Chicken was cut into cubes, serrano chiles were halved, garlic was sliced, and shallots were chopped. The shallots, chiles, and garlic cooked for a bit in vegetable oil, and then the chicken was added. Once the chicken was cooked through, turmeric, red chile flakes, and salt were added, followed by the tamarind-date chutney. All the while, basmati rice was cooking.
I sliced a piece of serrano to use as garnish, but I should mention that those slices were not needed for any added spice. The halved serranos that cooked in the oil along with the red chile flakes gave the dish a very good level of heat which I enjoyed. The chutney was a nice, sweet, sour counterpoint to that heat giving the dish exciting, varied flavor. This is a meal that will be repeated often, and next time I’ll think to mix up some tamaritas while the rice starts cooking.
by Romney Steele, and this cookbook doesn't fit any of the standard moulds. Instead, this book is a stroll through an orchard from season to season with memories, quotes, and recipes for fruits at their peak of ripeness. The chapters move from citrus to berries followed by stone fruits and fall fruits. There are recipes for preserving fruits, turning them into lovely desserts, and using them in savory dishes too. So, among the citrus recipes, you'll find orange marmalade and preserved lemons and ideas for using them along with kumquats and toasted couscous with halloumi and a rangpur lime mascarpone tart. I was taken with the idea of making a sweet, savory chutney, and I had a mango from my CSA waiting to be used. There's an apricot mango chutney in the stone fruit chapter, but since it's peach season here, I went with what was available. Local peaches, onion, and chiles with my mango from south Texas and a few other spices became an aromatic, spicy condiment. There are suggestions for serving the chutney with cheese and bread or stirring it into a rice dish with chicken. I've used it two ways so far. First, I topped some little pieces of homemade sourdough with Pure Luck chevre and dollops of the chutney. Then, I stirred some into whole wheat couscous with toasted pine nuts, parsley, spinach, and pulled pieces of roasted chicken. Both were sweet, savory bliss. 
, and the focus of this book is on updated, doable dishes that bring forth the great flavors of Indian cuisine without extreme effort. And, I completely ruined that concept when I went and made my own chutney. After calling around town in an attempt to locate prepared tamarind-date chutney, I learned it was available at one market. When I arrived at that market, there were several other chutneys from various brands and some wonderful, natural, preservative-free options. However, there was only one brand of tamarind-date chutney, and it was not so free of preservatives. A quick online search led me to 
