| When I heard about this book, I got really excited about it for several reasons. For one thing, my moral status as a "vegan" is approximately like being a pregnant nun. I believe in being a vegan and several times I have resolved to be one. But I don't do it very well. I'm a vegetarian with a guilty conscience. Delicious vegan recipes are a very welcome addition to my kitchen.
Second, my experience in life and as an activist has been a very white one. I'm one of those people who can't go on the site "Stuff White People Like" because it's too damn embarrassing - it totally describes me. And it bothers me. Because food issues so disproportionately affect minority ethnic groups, I think it's crucial that our food movement is multi-racial. That makes activists like Bryant Terry or Will Allen that much more important.
And last, I am absolutely thrilled to see somebody embracing and owning African-American culture and celebrating it in a book like this. I was so bothered and ashamed by the photoshopped images of the White House with a watermelon patch as its lawn recently - and here's Terry publishing a soul food cook book with an entire section of watermelon dishes. Really f*ing GOOD watermelon dishes! That just makes me so happy. Take your culture back from assholes who would like to make you ashamed of it! Hell yeah!
I'll admit, normally I'm not a cookbook person. I like to choose my recipes around the ingredients I already have in the house, not the other way around. That typically means opening the fridge and inventing very simple recipes (i.e. wash apple, slice, eat). And it's hard to deal with keep a book open to the right page and not getting it wet and dirty in the kitchen. But in this case, I think it's worth any amount of hassle. From what I've seen flipping through the book, the recipes are great.
Terry starts off with six "favorites" that he likes to make over and over and expects you will too. They are:
1. Citrus Collards with Raisin Redux (recipe below)
2. Agave-Sweetened Orange-Orange Pekoe Tea
3. Sweet Sweetback's Salad with Roasted Beet Vinaigrette
4. Uncle Don's Double Mustard Greens and Roasted Yam Soup
5. Cajun-Creole-Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits
6. Open-Faced BBQ Tempeh Sandwich with Carrot-Cayenne Coleslaw
Next up, he has a section on watermelon recipes, showing how you can use all parts of the fruit - including the rind in a very delicious looking Citrus and Spice Pickled Watermelon Rind (made with cinnamon and cloves). I am SO making that!
After that, the cookbook becomes a bit more "typical," with sections on soups & stews, greens, drinks, appetizers, desserts, etc. However, the cookbook can hardly be called typical. It has too much personality. Each recipe recommends a soundtrack to play while you cook it. The names of dishes are incredibly fun and creative. You can tell that Terry LOVES this food and has a LOT of fun cooking it. And, thankfully, the dishes aren't too complex and most don't have too ridiculous numbers of ingredients (a pet peeve of mine - no way I'm ever cooking anything if the recipe calls for 30 different ingredients).
Even though the dishes all look tasty, before giving the book a good review, I wanted to cook something to verify that the instructions are easy to follow. I chose the citrus collards recipe, mainly because I had the ingredients on hand. Sort of. I had some Bordeaux spinach (instead of collards), olive oil, really good farmers' market raisins, sea salt, and fresh oranges that I could juice. No garlic but oh well.
The recipe makes 4 servings (I was shooting for 1) and calls for:
Course sea salt
2 large bunches of collard greens, ribs removed, cut into a chiffonade, rinsed, and drained
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 c. raisins
1/3 c. freshly squeezed orange juice
My spinach
- In a large pot over high heat, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon salt. Add the collards and cook, uncovered, for 8 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare a large bowl of ice water to cool the collards.
- Remove the collards from the heat, drain, and plunge them into the bowl of ice water to stop cooking and set the color of the greens. Drain by gently pressing the greens against a collander.
- In a medium sized saute pan, combine the olive oil and the garlic and raise the heat to medium. Saute for 1 minute. Add the collards, raisins, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Saute for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
Obviously, without collards or garlic, I had to skip a lot of that. My spinach was very tender so I didn't think they'd need more than 3 minutes cooking in the saute pan. I picked up the recipe where it says to put the oil, raisins, collards, and salt in the saute pan.
Add orange juice and cook for an additional 15 seconds. Do not overcook (collards should be bright green). Season with additional salt to taste if needed and serve immediately. (This also makes a tasty filling for quesadillas.)
Yum
So there you have it. Easy to follow instructions, and a delicious meal for me. I realize I didn't make the recipe properly but for what it's worth, my version of it tasted GREAT. I was skeptical about the orange juice but it wasn't overpowering at all - just a little hint of citrus. The salt was perfect too - just enough, not too much. And the raisins were delicious. They made eating my greens taste like eating a treat. I have a hunch this would be even tastier with garlic (and with real collards) so I'll have to look for those things at the market this weekend and make it again.
All in all, I say this book totally rocks! (And don't hesitate to buy it even if you're not vegan. It wouldn't hurt any of us to eat some vegan food once in a while, and the recipes in this book are for "normal" food, not strange vegan concoctions like Tofurkey or Tofutti or any other processed foods with names starting with "tofu.") |
