The Food Almanac: Recipes and Stories for a Year at the Table

Contents

Good Things

Anyone who likes to eat, can soon learn to cook well, begins Jane Grigsons Good Things, a stylish collection of cookery articles and recipes from one of the great pioneers of 20th-century food writing. Ive always believed this: that a fascination with food, with how to make it delicious and how to get the most pleasure from it, is all thats needed to cook and eat well. Its easy to get distracted by flashy new techniques or the latest superfood, but, as the chef and restaurateur Fergus Henderson observes: Trends are a tragedy in food they condemn the sublime to the realm of the temporary, or they elevate the flimsy beyond its merit. Good things should be a constant and cooked with conviction.

And so, to put it very simply, this is a book about good things to eat. Its also a collection of brilliant writing by some of the most talented cooks and scribes, from legendary food writers and lauded chefs to up-and-coming poets and debut novelists. Youll find memoirs, essays, short stories and poems alongside recipes, menus and monthly reading lists, presented within the framework of a seasonal food almanac: a month-by-month guide to the culinary year. Each chapter begins with an introduction to the month ahead, followed by seasonal highlights for the larder, spotlights on ingredients and passages on food history. The chapters end with a menu, each recipe carefully chosen to show off the best of the season, and a reading list, should you wish to delve deeper into the ingredients explored and the stories told.

As you may have guessed, this is not a traditional almanac. It wont tell you about the tides and the phases of the moon, list the times for sunrise and sunset, or suggest when to sow seeds and harvest crops. It will tell you the best time to eat each harvest, though, and I hope the following pages will spark ideas and intrigue and inspire, weaving practical advice and recipes through stories that are at once universal and intensely personal. This is not a manual, dictating and reprimanding, but a book about enjoying food. Its about cooking in harmony with the seasons: how it can be a pleasure, not a chore, to follow the rhythms of the growing year. Theres a sense of anticipation as the landscape changes around us, and theres joy to be found in the bounty it brings.

As well as looking to contemporary writers for their thoughts on food, Ive borrowed from the great cookery writers of the past, in particular Jane Grigson, M.F.K. Fisher, Elizabeth David and Margaret Costa, their wise and witty words a constant companion as I write. I admire their attitude to cooking and eating, their appetite for both food and knowledge. They have written books to live with and learn from, books to keep among the pots and pans, or scatter across the kitchen table, well-thumbed and reassuringly familiar. No one who cooks cooks alone, said the American novelist Laurie Colwin. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past. I look to these writers for guidance, and perhaps also because of a niggling feeling that weve lost something of our food culture over the years our connection to the land and the seasons, and to our culinary heritage. To reclaim it, we must look to the past and the future. This is not nostalgia, but a practical way to fill in the blanks though theres always room for a little romance in the kitchen, too.

Although this book is rooted in the British seasons, theres an openness to the influences of the constantly shifting world around us. No cookery belongs exclusively to its country, or its region, said Jane Grigson. Cooks borrow and always have borrowed and adapt through the centuries. Its therefore difficult to be purist about British cookery, or any countrys cooking for that matter. And as individuals, we each draw on our own experiences and history to form our personal repertoire. So yes, youll find notes and stories on whisky, wild garlic, apples and quinces, the joy of toast and the comfort of puddings, picnics and English seaside snacks, but also pieces about Malaysian durian, Caribbean Carnival, Chinese New Year, Australian Anzac biscuits, Nigerian efo riro, Venetian cichti, Canadian maple syrup, Middle Eastern maamoul and Californian Meyer lemons.

I hope this volume will be both a companion in the kitchen and a book to curl up with; that youll enjoy the literary musings on food, cook recipes from the carefully curated menus and perhaps learn something new along the way. Food can be a portal to other worlds and a tool to illuminate broader subjects; it can embody the anthropology of a culture. But Ill refrain from grandiose statements and look once more to my favourite food writers. Diana Henry simplifies it wonderfully: Cooking and eating is about taking pleasure in the things that are quite ordinary in a way. And in the end, its about appetite. As M.F.K. Fisher once said, First we eat. Then we do everything else.

MIRANDA YORK

A Note on Seasonality

The seasons cannot be rigidly defined; they are unpredictable and ever-changing. Apply a similar attitude to the way you use and interpret this book, flicking to the chapters either side of your chosen month for recipes and culinary inspiration.

In each chapter youll find a cooks larder on the opening page, followed by a spotlight on a seasonal ingredient. These lists draw attention to some of the highlights of the season, a quick reference to provide instant ideas when youre shopping for your supper. The lists lean towards British produce, although there are specialities from our neighbours, too. With the exception of forced produce (such as rhubarb, radicchio and sea kale), the lists refer to fruit and vegetables that mature outdoors without artificial heat or shelter. Youll also discover wild foods to forage from the fields, woods and hedgerows, followed by game whose quality or availability varies significantly with the seasons. Finally, a small and highly subjective selection of cheeses, which are surprisingly seasonal despite their year-round availability (flick to May and December to find out why). The recommendations come from two excellent cheese shops: Paxton & Whitfield and La Fromagerie.

Most fruit and vegetables are now available all year round, whether its because weve found clever ways of extending the seasons or because produce is shipped to us from the other side of the world. The edges have blurred and the idea of seasonality has been all but forgotten. Yet theres still something special about dipping spears of crisp asparagus into soft yolks in spring, biting into the perfect peach in summer, gently moving wild mushrooms around a pan frothing with salted butter in autumn, and peeling a jewel-like blood orange, its citrus mist thrilling the senses, on a grey winters day. Eating with the seasons brings a rich variety to our lives and is, of course, more sustainable. But most satisfying of all, it tastes better. Flavour should always win.