There have been many goals set and pressure put on ourselves, by ourselves, during lockdown. Constantly oscillating between ‘am I doing enough to come out of this better than we came in?’ and ‘we should use this time to relax and slow down’. One of the main things that we’ve cherished in lockdown is sitting down for a full-on home cooked dinner every night before Netflix ensues. Always keen to optimise all dining experiences regardless of any pandemic, yet what this crisis has afforded us is time: time to look through recipe books, time to ponder over weekly shopping lists. it’s a luxury - we are well aware - but one we have appreciated fully.
Here are two cookbooks we are turning to regularly, alongside our favourite foraging book.
Fresh India by Meera Sodha has been joyfully devoured since we first laid our hands on it upon its original release. There’s no other cookbook in which the dishes come out exactly as you’d expect, based on the image and the description. The recipes are simple but truly delicious with some easy substitutions to make vegan instead of vegetarian, if you so wish. We’ve eagerly consumed the blackened raisin and cauliflower korma as well as the black eyed bean and squash curry.
The Forager’s Calendar by John Wright is a great resource when it comes to finding food in the land. It’s very informative, well written and in chronological order with some brilliant and handy pics. It even has a chapter on wild invertebrates if you fancy some extra protein!
The Modern Cook’s Year by Anna Jones is a beautiful book full of mouth-watering recipes categorised by the season. It’s nice to be encouraged to cook based on what’s available at the time of year - something we try to stick to heavily in order to avoid any muddy carbon footprints. Anna Jones leads the way in ‘modern vegetarianism’ - something we’re great believers in. Some of our favourite dishes so far are the vegetable shawarmas (inc homemade flatbreads), the pink pasta and the chocolate truffles because - not sure about you but - our snacking habits have gone up tenfold since being at home.
If there are any books getting you through lockdown, let us know in the comments below.
