Posted under Eco Christmas Gift Ideas up to £20
Country Kitchen by Jocasta Innes, signed and with personal dedication
From the author:
“Anyone who values my Pauper’s Cookbook might like to own its successor, the Country Kitchen, which takes the challenge to eat better for less a stage further. I wrote it during the 1970′s craze for self-sufficiency and can say hand on heart that every recipe and technique described here was tested and tried by my family – for example, we smoked meat in a converted fridge in our back garden! Country Kitchen recounts in detail the processes traditionally used to deal with seasonal gluts and occasional bounty such as meat, fish, game, fruit, vegetables, funghi – even milk – to ensure they lasted the winter, deliciously and safely.
So the book features how to’s for smoking fish, making rillettes and sausages, drying apples and mushrooms, making soft cheeses or country wines and ginger beer is all there and much more with a wealth of recipes. dried Argentine chorizo (a family recipe) is a winner, and the marmalade recipe I used is the best ever. This is the book professional foodies like Tom Jame rate most highly of all the ones I’ve written and the one I am proudest of.”
The RRP is £7.49 but we are offering it at just £5.50 plus delivery as an imaginative Christmas present for anyone who takes cooking seriously and has to cope with the overflow of a vegetable patch, orchard or allotment. Jocasta Innes was one of the leading self-sufficiency, cookery and interior design and home-making gurus of the 1970′s and 1980′s and I should know, I’m her daughter and a lot of these recipes and techniques were tested out on me! I remember wearing smocks, playing with papier-mache toys and helping to create a beautiful Christmas tree with decorations all made by my mother.
As a taster here is an appropriately festive recipe for brandy snaps, reproduced with the permission of the author:
“Brandy Snaps
These look impressive with their lacy texture, but they are easy to make. You don’t have to use brandy, they are tasty without – some people fill them with whipped cream.
50g (2 oz) butter
50g (2 oz) castor sugar
50g (2 oz) golden syrup
50g (2 oz) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon brandy (optional)
Melt the sugar, syrup and butter together in a pan, then stir the flour, ginger, lemon rind and brandy and mix well. Drop the mixture a teaspoon at a time onto a greased baking sheet, leaving a space of 7cm (3 in) between each. Bake in a cool oven (150 degrees Centigrade, 300 degrees Farenheit, Mark 2) for about 10 minutes. Leave on the sheet to ‘set’ for a few minutes, then detach and roll round the handle of a wooden spoon to make the characteristic tube shape. Cool before storing”.
Copyright Jocasta Innes, all rights reserved.
