Cooking, Books & Holiday Gifts
One of the gifts I received this year was a cookbook by the woman behind 101cookbooks.com (and mightyfoods.com, which I didn’t know about until I got the cookbook), Heidi Swanson. I’ve occasionally shared my adventures trying recipes Heidi has shared on her blog and have been quite happy with every one I have tried. When I got the cookbook I was super excited and had to jump right in as soon as we returned home of course!
The book is Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways To Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking
and focuses on using foods as close to their natural state as possible. This means there is no white flour or refined sugars in the recipes. There is a chapter that includes info on how to stock your pantry in a natural way. The recipes are divided into four categories - grains, cooking by color, superfoods, and natural sweeteners and each of these chapters also includes more detailed info on ingredients to incorporate (or in some cases avoid) into your cooking. I’d guess if you ignore the gorgeous photography the amount of information is about equal to actual recipes.
I had already made one of the recipes in the cookbook that was quite good. For New Years Eve we decided to have a special meal and I tried the Chocolate Black Turtle Bean Tostadas with Chile de Arbol sauce (cut in half for just the two of us - and we’re still enjoying leftovers as garnish). The result was fantastic and refreshingly different. We did decide it was not a great choice as a main course (I served it with roasted garlic soup form The Border Cookbook : Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico
), but it was fantastic anyway and I am thinking of ways to incorporate it into portable appetizers we can take to potlucks or game nights etc. as I think many of our friends would enjoy and appreciate this rich and complex, yet meatless dish.
On New Years day I decided to jump right back into the cookbook and set about making the all natural Thin Mints. I was not disappointed. My results varied from the recipe, yielding double the amount of cookies despite 2/3 of the them being thicker than called for. Also, since the cookies were thicker and so dark I don’t think I baked them quite as long as I should have so they are not crisp, but the flavor balance is fantastic and you’d never know there is no white flour. Instead the recipe calls only for whole wheat pastry flour which Swanson says you can sub 1:1 for white AP flour in any recipe.
One cannot completely judge a cookbook by only three recipes. But I have read all the introductory info and through each and every recipe. Overall, I think this is a great cookbook for all natural foods that is not overly “granola” in taste if you know what I mean. Everything is vegetarian (though not vegan). I do think those of us in middle America might find it a bit challenging to be able to fully utilize the recipes as some of the ingredients will require mail ordering specialty ingredients such as teff or wild rice flour or pomegranate molasses. Swanson did anticipate that and included a pretty thorough list of sources for some of the hardest to source ingredients. From the three recipes that I’ve made I have to say I do not think this cookbook is for the faint of heart or those who prefer quick cooking. Lots of the complexities in the savory food is created through the use of special sauces or spice mixtures that need made in addition to the main portion of the recipe. Those extra steps can greatly increase the prep/cooking time. I do think it is worth the effort when you have the time and energy though.
Overall, I’m still quite glad I got this cookbook from SIL1 and her family and I am sure it will get used. I do think it will not be one to reside in the limited space of the kitchen with the other frequently used cookbooks due to the more obscure ingredients and increased effort required to make the dishes. However, if I’m in search of something vegetarian that will impress or is different from standard fare Super Natural Cooking will be one of the “go to” cookbooks for inspiration.
