Description
Introduction
Vegetables are the original ‘instant food’. Picked young and fresh from the garden they need barely any cooking to make them edible, nourishing and delightful to the taste. Market produce will not be quite so young nor quite so fresh, and so will require slightly more preparation, but all in all the vegetable world provides us with a remarkable proportion of our daily food in a very readily accessible form.
We have included in this book many of the more unusual vegetables and have selected recipes that may be used either as an accompaniment to a main dish, as a first course, or in some cases as an entremets – adjust your quantities accordingly. You can do anything with vegetables, but remember the biggest sin of all is overcooking. Young, fresh vegetables, lightly cooked, contain a high proportion of vitamins and minerals that are essential to a healthy diet. Old, stale vegetables, or those that are cooked too long, not only lose these valuable nutrients but become dull and tasteless as well.
In the days before deep freezing the first spring vegetables were hailed as a welcome relief after the winter monotony of roots and the occasional cabbage. They are still unsurpassed, but frozen vegetables will help you ring the changes if you use them with discretion and are careful to cook them according to the directions on the packet.
Cordon Bleu cooks should shy away from the Prize-winning giant vegetables shown with pride at horticultural shows – anything as big and old as these will never eat well, however attractive they look. But if you can persuade the kitchen gardening enthusiast in your family to let you gather the produce while it is young and tender, your meals will be the envy of your friends and the delight of your family.
Rosemary Hume
Muriel Downes
Hardcover, 143 pages. In very good to excellent pre-loved condition.