Recipes
Techniques
Tools
Blog
Contribute
Book review: "D.I.Y. Delicious" by Vanessa Barrington
Shortly after I posted the giveaway of Vanessa Barrington's new book, D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch, I received a package from Chronicle Books. Excitedly, I tore open the padded envelope and pulled out my very own copy of the book. I was immediately impressed, even before cracking the spine.
Perhaps one cannot judge a book by its cover, but certainly one can be charmed by it. The eye dances around Sara Remington's gorgeously styled shot of a potato-radish salad, accompanied by a bowl of grainy-mustard vinaigrette and a hunk of rustic bread slathered richly with butter. A spent lemon half and a sprig of cilantro curled just so fill in the composition. It isn't until you get deeper into the book that you realize that everything on the cover -- the mustard, the vinagrette, the salad, the bread and the butter -- are not just to pique the palate; they are projects you can undertake.
The book is pleasingly hefty, printed on heavy stock and peppered throughout with more of Remington's lovely images. Barrington breaks the book sensibly into groupings of projects, bundling things like dairy products and pickles into their own chapters. But first, she reveals a bit about her own voyage of discovery into food preservation.
Like me, Barrington grew up in an era of convenience. Prefabricated foods were de rigueur, and the very notion of making elemental foods in the home was hopelessly out of fashion. During a visit to her Aunt Mil's house, she became entranced by her shelves of jewel-like jams, pickles and tomatoes. From that point on, she became aware of both the remarkable bounty of food around her, such as plums from a friend's tree, as well as the astonishing amount of waste involved in buying things she could make herself, like yogurt.
This resonates with me. In the years since I've begun to undertake my own DIY projects, we've seen waste, both food waste and packaging waste, reduced greatly. We benefit from the generosity of friends and neighbors, who relegate us with the bounties of their backyard trees or spontaneous roadside purchases. And it is with great joy that we circulate the spoils of our efforts out to our friends.
Barrington goes well beyond the scope of most DIY books in that she doesn't just leave you with the skills and knowledge (and desire!) to rack up your shelves with jars of things. She offers ideas and inspiration on how to use them. Creation and preservation are, after all, just the first half of the cycle. This is food, and it's meant to be eaten. Once you've made your crème fraîche, for example, put it to use in a creamy artichoke soup. As you get deeper into the book, recipes begin to combine multiple techniques: Sourdough Buckwheat Pancakes with Caramelized Apples and Crème Fraîche, for example, builds on earlier techniques for crème fraîche, butter, jam and sourdough starter.
Some techniques, such as fermentation, have become so foreign to the average home cook that they instill fear. Barrington aims to dispel that by reminding that fermentation is an ancient process designed to preserve food, not to spoil it. Humanity survived for millennia before refrigeration. Have faith.
Barrington serves up simple, plain-English and practical recipes for foods that you can -- and will -- consume every day. Often, these require almost no active cooking time, and just an ounce of patience while nature takes its own course. A perfect example is the home-brewed ginger beer.
Ginger Beer
Excerpted from D.I.Y. Delicious: Recipes and Ideas for Simple Food from Scratch by Vanessa Barrington with permission from Chronicle Books
Time required: 15 minutes active; 1 to 2 days passive
Yield: 1-1/2 liters
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon brewing yeast
Pour 1-1/2 liters water into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes or so. Turn off the heat and add 1/3 cup sugar and the ginger. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Taste, add extra sugar if desired, and then pour through a strainer lined with a coffee filter. Let cool to slightly warmer than body temperature. Stir in the yeast until it dissolves. Pour the strained mixture through a funnel into a plastic bottle, without leaving any head room. If the liquid doesn't fill the bottle, you probably lost some to the strainer. Simply fill to the top with plain warm water. Fasten the cap and let it sit out in a warm place in your kitchen for 24 to 48 hours. When the bottle feels hard to the touch and begins to bulge, refrigerate it. The carbonation should last at least 1 week after opening.
So you want a copy, right? Of course you do. But I'm keeping mine, because I intend to cook from it with great frequency. However, you can still win a copy by signing up for the newsletter via the form below, but hurry: Deadline is this Monday, August 31.
Already signed up, or don't want to receive what will surely be the most scintillating newsletter ever? (It's OK, I don't take it personally AT ALL.) Here's a second chance: Leave a comment on this blog post explaining your DIY discovery moment. What got you started? What compelled you to can, jam, pickle or otherwise? I'm dying to know! One lucky commenter between now and September 15 will will!
Leave a comment below telling me all about your DIY discovery by September 15 for a chance to win a copy of DIY Delicious. Go on, spill the beans.
[Disclosure: The review copy was comped by Chronicle Books. The giveaway books are provided by Vanessa Barrington herself.]
preserving
I was just talking to someone about learning to can jam last night at the (new) Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm fundraiser. The week before I saw an ad for a canning class. Now here's a retro trend I can get into!
My DIY discovery moment was a flat of peaches!
My neighbor went to the farmer's market and came home with a flat of "seconds" peaches. These had a few bruises and marks, and were dead ripe RIGHT THIS MINUTE. They weren't going to last another day, so immediate action was needed. I hadn't really canned anything before, I but I understood the basic concept and I could follow a recipe, so I made peach jam. I even improvised by adding a snitch of vanilla and almond extracts (almond goes so well with stone fruits). It was transcendent peach jam -- the best I ever ate! That convinced me that canning wasn't hard, that I could do it, and that the rewards of canning were delicious and could be appreciated many months after the project was done. --Dorothy at www.shockinglydelicious.com
My family has always been DIY
My family has always been DIY if you can, and if you can't, learn how. I think we have a very prominent curiosity gene :) My new DIY skills this summer have been in the form of fermenting, sauerkraut, pineapple vinegar, Asian pear vinegar, beets. I LOVE home made sauerkraut.
diy discovery
i discovered the most amazing bruschetta style topping when making tomato sauce - i took the skins, etc that remained after putting tomatoes through food mill, added chopped olives, garlic, s&p and wee bit of olive oil. what would have been composted became an amazing treat. yum!
diy discovery
i discovered the most amazing bruschetta style topping when making tomato sauce - i took the skins, etc that remained after putting tomatoes through food mill, added chopped olives, garlic, s&p and wee bit of olive oil. what would have been composted became an amazing treat. yum!
I think domestic DIY started
I think domestic DIY started for me with making granola bars. Easy to take on the train to work, delicious, and waaay cheaper then store bought brands!
DIY Delicious book
It's on several of my Wish Lists....pick me, pick me!
apple magic
Okay, my DIY discovery moment was definitely apple butter. I love apple picking, but I always get carried away and come home with a whole fridge full of apples. I knew how to make applesauce, but--alas--I don't love applesauce. I *do* love apple butter, though, and so the day that I learned that you can cook all those apples right on through the applesauce stage and all the way through to apple butter--and then you can can it!!--was a great day indeed.
DIY Discovery
My DIY discovery is short and sweet. Not to put to fine a point on it, my grandmother was a genius and I should have listened more. All the things I'm relearning, from pickling to jamming to smoking game she could do with her eyes closed and the results would make a gourmet chef weep in gratitude. DIY is the way to go, our foremothers paved the way with recipes and techniques that simply blow away anything that is pre-fabbed. So, as I pickle, can and jam my way through the kitchen I really hope my daughter is paying attention and will have many DIY discoveries of her own.
I think my diy moment was
I think my diy moment was when I realized it wasn't as hard as I made it out to be originally and the quality of the food was leagues ahead of the pre-fab food. It was also mostly due to the fact that I wanted to carry on the legacy of my grandmother's generation, which seemed to have skipped my mother's generation.
Punk Domestics is so
Punk Domestics is so inspiring, especially for myself in that I love spend time creating in my kitchen
MY DIY Moment
As a life long gardener, my desire to preserve something I've personally nurtured from seed to harvest, so that I could enjoy it later, is what drove me to preserve. It's awesome.
DIY Discovery
I got interested in canning when I started reading about the need to stock up a pantry for survival in the event of disaster. Initially I was buying store bought shelf stable items. Then I started reading about home preserving. I was intimidated at first because I had never been taught these skills. I am so glad I found webpages like this one..that make it easy to understand and actually make me feel empowered to stock up and provide for my family. That's my DIY moment...otherwise known as a "aha" moment!
Spiced peaches!
I just made some spiced peaches, and they ROCK! Fresh peaches, spiced pickling liquid, a few days in refrig and wow!
DIY discovery?
I'm going to try to make my own bacon this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Growing up on a small farm we
Growing up on a small farm we thought of all the picking, canning, harvesting, butchering etc. as unpleasant chores we had to do to survive. 20 years later & 1500 miles away, I decided to do something with the muscadines in my backyard, and was astounded at how people responded to the gift of homemade grape jelly! Also surprising was how many people had never had homemade anything, let alone know how to do it. Now I'm always searching for new ways to use locally grown produce and products, and introduce friends to the results. Best of all, I feel really fortunate for my rural upbringing. Love it!
Jamming
I grew up eating home made apple sauce and tomato sauce, but never learned how to make these things myself -- my mom died before I was old enough to *want* to learn. Two years ago my partner's mom taught me how to make jam and also gave me her old pressure canner. I bought a water bath canner and each spring/summer/fall I put up enough jam, tomato sauce, apple sauce, etc to last until the next season. My kids love it -- "mommy, you make the best jam ever!" We always have enough to share with friends, family and teachers...
I NEED this book. I make my
I NEED this book. I make my own sourdough starter (from the air), tempeh, tofu, and much more. To have a good reference would be fantastic! A specific DIY moment...my first homebrew! You can do it yourself!
My first real DIY moment was
My first real DIY moment was successfully making a real roux but turning it into a béchamel... it was like culinary magic, and from there I figured I could do just about anything! Jam making was always one of those intimidating things that i finally got enough courage to try... Have already made 2 jams and a pickle, and am all set to can some tomatoes in a few weeks!!
DIY
Cheese! I got a cheesemaking kit as a thank-you from a friend, and made mozzarella. It was magical.
Post new comment