Troth Wells

Indeholder "Forord", "Tak til", "Fra Chili til Safran - Indledning af Troth Wells", "Krydderiguide", "Noter til opskrifterne", "Forretter, snacks og supper", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Vegetariske hovedretter", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Hovedretter med fisk og kød", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Tilbehør og småretter", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Chutneyer og saucer", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Desserter og drikke", " Afrika", " Asien", " De Caribiske Øer og Latinamerika", " Mellemøsten", "Vigtige krydderier", " Kardemomme", " Kanel", " Chili", " Kryddernelliker", " Ingefær", " Muskat / muskatblomme", " Peber", " Safran", "Ordliste og næringsindhold", "Indeks", "Bibliografi".

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One World Vegetarian is not what I’d call a unique or especially fascinating cookbook. It doesn’t delve into an exotic cuisine, or bare the secrets of a reclusive master chef. It isn’t an adventure story or a culinary memoir. It isn’t a comprehensive reference or an encyclopedic look at a country or a culture through its food. The latest in a series of cookbooks focusing on global cuisine with a theme of sustainability and the value of local ingredients and communities, One World Vegetarian is made up mostly from recipes submitted by readers to the New Internationalist, a magazine, website, and publishing house committed to issues of social justice in what the organization calls the “Majority World.” The author, Troth Wells, has a shelf’s worth of books to her credit, including cookbooks like The World of Street Food: Quick and Easy Meals to Cook at Home, and more issue-oriented food books, such as The Bittersweet World of Chocolate, which peers at the dark side of the dark chocolate industry and promotes (with recipes) fair trade chocolate alternatives. In comparison to either of those, One World Vegetarian is breezy and casual, a gentle and smiling invitation to sit down and eat your vegetables.

What is surprising and extraordinary about the book isn’t immediately obvious—it’s what I didn’t have to do when I opened it. I didn’t have to make a shopping list. I didn’t have to go to the supermarket. Normally when I start with a new cookbook, this is exactly what I have to do. I look through it, mark the recipes I want to try, check my kitchen cabinets and make a shopping list, hunt through my less-than-cosmopolitan grocery store for what I need, and end up buying instead whatever actually looks good in the produce section, since when all is said and done it doesn’t matter how good a zucchini recipe sounds if the only zucchini to be had look like they have been tossed around by clumsy monkeys.

As it turned out, the dobi I was able to make on the spur of the moment with ingredients already on hand was not a fluke. Most of the recipes in One World Vegetarian are for familiar foods that are, seasonality taken into account, easy to find and likely to already be in the pantry. The bases are broths, oils and coconut milk. The spices are chili, ginger, garlic, and the usual array of things found in a McCormick spice rack. The herbs are parsley, thyme, rosemary and coriander. Even the occasional special ingredient (there is a potato/bean salad that calls for something called “sweet sauce” made from boiled pumpkin and grape must) is qualified with a list of acceptable substitutes (in this case, honey.) The recipes are for people like me, who think not in terms of menus, but of keeping the kitchen stocked. I don’t plan meals, but I also don’t run out of brown sugar or black beans, and I keep sweet potatoes on hand because really, why wouldn’t you? It is as if Wells took a look at my pantry and then decided to write a cookbook using only the things she found in it. As it turns out, there was quite a lot of potential in my pantry, even if I hadn’t been to the store recently. And although I am not a vegetarian or even particularly dedicated to eating healthy, the fact remains that even after several months I have yet to make a special trip to the supermarket when I decide to make something out of her book. I’ve almost become vegetarian in practice, just because the book is so convenient.

One World Vegetarian likes recipes that are one pot, one pan, one knife dishes—making the book useful for someone like me, who cooks for one person. Directions are sometimes laconic, so it does help, for example, to know something about how to clean beets before using them, since this book assumes you know. And it will sometimes skip over steps that would make the difference between a good dish and a great one, such as the recipe for ratatouille, which instructs the cook to throw all the vegetables into the pan at the same time. (Anyone who has met a Julia Child cookbook knows that the best thing to do is cook all the vegetables separately, and combine them at the end just before serving). But it is mostly its uncanny ability to anticipate what is likely to already be on my kitchen shelves or in the fridge that has me going back again and again to the book, especially when I get to that point where I know I need to go back to the grocery store soon, but I’m putting it off. (I have a rule that I won’t go grocery shopping until I run out of cat food. It’s actually the cat’s rule.) So it isn’t unusual to find myself looking at a nearly empty fridge, which only a few carrots or parsnips in the crisper and a couple apples in the bin, wondering how I can possibly get a meal out of what’s left. Last night, it turned out to be apple parsnip soup (from Britain) and a bread and walnut dip (Greece) with carrot sticks. It was pretty amazing.

Like most vegetarian cookbooks One World really comes into its own in the spring and summer, when things like tomatoes, summer squash and corn are in season. So it says something about the book that it has been so appealing and useful in my kitchen in the worst of the winter months. And despite its emphasis on sustainable farming and organic gardening, it isn’t what you’d call a “preachy” book that insists on taking the moral high ground, and it isn’t a stickler for authenticity either. Taste, ease, and an appreciation for what you have to hand seem to be the guiding principles. read full review… (meer)