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philippakmoore's review
4.0
Makes me want a patch of my own, quite desperately. Love Nigel Slater's writing, as always - it's as delicious as the food he cooks.
dray's review
5.0
Unique book, as it covers the grwing of vegetables as well as their use in the kitchen. A real life farm to table book. The organization is great, alphabetically going through veggies, with each one getting good exposure for what goes well with it in terms of flavor and some fantastic recepies.
beadeeh's review
Good for some fresh ideas for veg, but full of hard to find ingredients.
sira's review
4.0
Absolutely the most beautiful photos of vegetables I have ever seen. Great recipes, in alphabetical order by vegetable. The language is perhaps a little bit flowery, but I think it's inspiring to think of what Slater was able to grow in a tiny London garden.
rmtbray's review
2.0
I loved the first two Nigel Slater books I read/cooked from, but this just didn't feel quite as brilliant to me... It could be because, as a student, I don't have a garden and so half the waxing lyrical about the joy of growing your own was lost on me and my central London room. It could also be that my tastes just aren't as sophisticated as Nigel's, with his apparent love of having meals that totally focus on one veg (don't get me wrong, I love my veg, but not really in the way he is eating it here).
The recipes just weren't as appealing as those in [b:The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater|71955|The Kitchen Diaries A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater|Nigel Slater|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309200609s/71955.jpg|69663], or as quick yet delicious as the ones in [b:Real Fast Food: 350 Recipes Ready-To-Eat in 30 Minutes|71956|Real Fast Food 350 Recipes Ready-To-Eat in 30 Minutes|Nigel Slater|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541s/71956.jpg|69664], and some were just plain weird: I gamely gave the recipe for roasted veg with an aubergine sauce a try. You roast the veg along with the aubergine until the aubergine is crushable (no timing for that given) and then you mix the mashed aubergine with creamy yoghurt and some oil, then trickle it over the roasted veg.... I'm sorry, it was just odd, a plate of roasted veg with lumpy aubergine white goop over them :(
Oh and one more thing, the recipes just aren;t very well written - its more like he's saying to a friend who asked him how he made this delicious blipblipblip 'oh you just roast it and then do this and then a bit of that' - sometimes no cooking times or temperatures, pretty annoying! The order instructions were given also didn't make sense. In the aubergine recipe I was talking about above, he tells you everything to do with the aubergine, right up to and including making it into a sauce, then he says meanwhile roast all the other veg for 45 mins to an hour. I know a good chef reads the whole recipe before starting but it would really make more sense if he got the aubergine cooking, then added the veg to the oven, then did that sauce.
One thing that is useful is the list of seasonings that go well with each veg, at the beginning of each chapter - I'll be referring to that again. One thing Nigel and I still agree on, almost everything is great with mustard!
The recipes just weren't as appealing as those in [b:The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater|71955|The Kitchen Diaries A Year in the Kitchen with Nigel Slater|Nigel Slater|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309200609s/71955.jpg|69663], or as quick yet delicious as the ones in [b:Real Fast Food: 350 Recipes Ready-To-Eat in 30 Minutes|71956|Real Fast Food 350 Recipes Ready-To-Eat in 30 Minutes|Nigel Slater|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170797541s/71956.jpg|69664], and some were just plain weird: I gamely gave the recipe for roasted veg with an aubergine sauce a try. You roast the veg along with the aubergine until the aubergine is crushable (no timing for that given) and then you mix the mashed aubergine with creamy yoghurt and some oil, then trickle it over the roasted veg.... I'm sorry, it was just odd, a plate of roasted veg with lumpy aubergine white goop over them :(
Oh and one more thing, the recipes just aren;t very well written - its more like he's saying to a friend who asked him how he made this delicious blipblipblip 'oh you just roast it and then do this and then a bit of that' - sometimes no cooking times or temperatures, pretty annoying! The order instructions were given also didn't make sense. In the aubergine recipe I was talking about above, he tells you everything to do with the aubergine, right up to and including making it into a sauce, then he says meanwhile roast all the other veg for 45 mins to an hour. I know a good chef reads the whole recipe before starting but it would really make more sense if he got the aubergine cooking, then added the veg to the oven, then did that sauce.
One thing that is useful is the list of seasonings that go well with each veg, at the beginning of each chapter - I'll be referring to that again. One thing Nigel and I still agree on, almost everything is great with mustard!
megfang315's review
3.0
While none of the recipes seemed noteworthy enough to copy down for later, I did find the tidbits and tricks to be fascinating and informative.
spurlock's review
2.0
The prose was a huge turn off. I have cooked from his Food Diaries before and that went quite well, so bought both volumes online without reading up on them too much. I find his tone incredibly patronizing, for example when he talks about apples he never gives an introduction to different heritage varieties so a novice might be able to follow what is going on and what category an apple is in, but he just throws around names and more names, seemingly just to show that he knows more apple varieties then the common reader. So far I have only tried one recipe (roasted shallots) and that did not work even remotely as described. The real cooking time was double, the measures did not fit - I will give this another try in good time but for now it is more or less just clogging space on the shelf.
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