Kim Knight looks through the culinary offerings for 2018
TOPP COUNTRY A culinary journey through New Zealand with the Topp Twins
by Jules and Lynda Topp (Diva Books, $50)
In which the country’s best-loved identical musical activists pay homage to the people of the land and sea. Go for the brined pork roast, barbecued venison backstraps and cod and cockles in a kelp bag — stay for Ken’s poetry.
WILD DELICIOUS
by Amber Rose (Random House NZ, $55)
Cooking for Gwyneth (Paltrow) and Jude (Law) gives you a certain kind of cred. Amber Rose literally comes back to earth with this collection inspired by her return to New Zealand and a free-spirited Kiwi childhood. There’s an obligatory green juice but also instructions for making your own butter. Fresh and simple but not in the least bit sanctimonious.
MEAT & THREE The ultimate New Zealand beef and lamb cookbook
by Kathy Paterson ($50)
Don’t be fooled by the titular reference to our dull gastronomic past. Paterson (who dedicates this book to the country’s farmers and growers) cleverly updates some classics you might have forgotten about. Colonial goose, for example, is paired with flowering zucchini. The end papers are reminiscent of old-school butcher shop wrappings and you will want to cook a roast just for the “leftovers and more” (think layered lamb, eggplant and ku¯ mara).
LATERAL COOKING
by Niki Segnit (Bloomsbury, $50)
Get your gastronomic geek on with this book that promises to teach you to “cook sideways”. The author of The Flavour Thesaurus introduces a kind of culinary genealogy aimed at reducing your reliance on recipes. Take custard, for example: start with a tart, move to the cremes (caramel, brulee and anglaise) and before you know it, you’ve mastered icecream, pastry cream and — ultimately — crema fritta. It’s a big and serious book but it’s also seriously (and unexpectedly) funny and full of useful tips — push your scone dough cutter straight down. If you twist it, your scones won’t rise as high.
HOW TO EAT A PEACH Menus, stories and places
by Diana Henry (Hachette, $45)
The cover is, literally, a fuzzy peach. Inside, the recipes are simple but sumptuous and presented as a series of perfectly formed menus. Serve “my Spanish cupboard” in summer and “a thousand chillies” in autumn. Henry claims she doesn’t do entertaining — “I just have friends around.” Lucky, lucky, friends.
MY INDIAN KITCHEN
by Ashia Ismail-Singer (Potton & Burton, $50)
They’re called “kebab pastry twists” but you might know them as sausage rolls. Ashia Ismail Singer (raised in Malawi and the United Kingdom by a family from Gujarat, India) brings a very Kiwi sensibility to these recipes written specifically for New Zealand kitchens. Onion and potato bhajias? She likes them cold the next day with tamarillo chutney. Add paneer to your barbecue repertoire and make brunch a masala omelette. (Save the step-by-step instructions for flaky, buttery paratha for the weekends).
‘‘ Push your scone dough cutter straight down. If you twist it, your scones won’t rise as high.
NZ RUGBY STARS COOKBOOK Cooking from the heart
Photography by Keiran Scott and Tam West (Allen & Unwin, $40)
Fundraising cookbooks can be an exercise in fast bucks and bad recipes but this one is a delight. Its multiple easy recipes will suit those with less confidence in the kitchen and there really is something for everyone. Sir Graham Henry’s apple and blackcurrant sponge pudding is oldschool magic; modern palates might prefer Tim Bateman’s vegan ramen. Royalties go to the New Zealand Rugby Foundation, which looks after catastrophically injured players.