This is not a traditional almanac in the sense of providing the reader with sun and moon charts and phases, tide tables, astrology and astronomy occurances and garden tending tasks; The Food Almanac by Miranda York, is a collaboration on the pure enjoyment of food. With a focus on seasonal ingredients, and a monthly menu to help, it is a good culinary companion in your kitchen. One that will change month to month and with the seasons, providing you good recipes with good things to eat and a celebration of good food. Each chapter has an introduction for the month ahead, seasonal highlights for the pantry, spotlight on ingredients and passages on food history. The chapters end with a menu, that are selected recipes to get the best of each season and a comparable reading list to help you extent and explore ingredients and stories.
The contributors range from celebrated food writers, chefs, poets and novelists, making it engaging and entertaining, that at times reads more like book than a cookbook. Shared stories, memoirs, recipes, tips, discussions on a single ingredient and a culinary book reading list to accompany each month is appreciative, something any food lover and home cook can appreciate. Although this was a gift, I do know that this volume was hard to get a hold of... and yes, there is a volume two, which seems less so with the second volume. I enjoyed this book exceedingly as it brought together a few of my favourite things besides recipes and food but poetry, stories, art and more books. This is definitely a cookbook to consider for yourself or to be gifted as such.
There are plenty of recipes too linger over and consider in a month or the months ahead. The recipe I am sharing from the book is one of the menu recipes for the month of February and is how it appears in the cookbook.
Braised Shiitake, Tofu and Chai Choi - by Lap-fai Lee
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"Chai Choi is a traditional braised vegetarian dish that's eaten on festival days by those practising Buddhism. This is delicious medley of ingredients, full of sweet umami and comforting flavours."
groundnut (peanut) or vegetable oil, for frying
2 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped, whites and greens separated
3 slices of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
6 large shiitake mushrooms, soaked until soft, stems removed and quartered, soaking liquor reserved
A splash of Shaoxing wine
2 sticks of tofu skin, soaked until soft, cut into 4 cm (1 1/2 in) pieces
Small handful of dried lily flowers, soaked until soft
8 small cubes of deep-fried tofu
2 fingers' worth black sea moss
2 small cubes of fermented tofu, mashed into paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
25g (1 oz) yellow miso paste
20g (3/4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
In a large frying pan (skillet), add the oil and fry the spring onion whites, ginger and garlic to release the aroma. Add the mushrooms and splash in the Shaoxing wine to sizzle off the alcohol. Add all of the other ingredients and top up with the soaking liquor from the mushrooms. There should be enough liquid to gently braise the ingredients together for 30 minutes. Garnish with the spring onion greens before serving.