Gifts to get you cooking

04 December 2014 - 02:16 By Andrea Burgener
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Andrea Burgener
Andrea Burgener
Image: Supplied

Pro cook or not, anyone treated to these food-related Christmas gifts will surely be ecstatic.

Books

Well-known local author Erica Platter's Durban Curry - So Much of Flavour is her best book yet. This is a joyful book, but also an important one. It's amazing that it has taken this long for a proper recording of the curries of Durban to be made. The clear love of the dishes, their history, their makers - all had me wanting to move to Durban post-haste.

Every South African needs to have this on their cookbook shelf. (Paw Paw Press, R295).

A book that has only four recipes but which will probably teach you more about food and cooking than 100 other recipe books combined is Michael Pollen's Cooked. This is a big, fat, serious, almost-scientific but never-dry tome in which the act of cooking is explored through the four elements (fire, water, etc). His writing is beautiful, his pages crammed with astounding facts. It's compelling stuff (Penguin Books, R180).

Hardware

Why are most restaurant kitchens stacked with de Buyer French steel pans? Because they're the bomb, and no home kitchen should be without them either. They're about the same price as mediocre non-sticks and built to outlive your great-grandchildren.

On the splurge level - still in the French zone - a seamless Mauviel pot, featuring walls almost as thick as its base, cooks like nothing else on earth. The bestowing of said pot will lend the giver god-like status. Both items (and much more) available from Culinary Equipment Company.www.culinary.co.za

Homemade

There is no point in making edible Christmas presents unless they're indecently delicious. The thought counts, no doubt, but, really, the taste counts more.

These flourless German cinnamon stars are the answer. 3 egg whites / 375g icing sugar / 400g ground unpeeled almonds, ground until fine in spice grinder, with 75g of the icing sugar / generous pinch of salt / juice of one medium-sized lemon / 1 teaspoon cinnamon / ½ teaspoon ground cardamom.

How: Preheat oven to 140 C. Beat whites until soft peaks. Sift in the remaining sugar really gradually - spoon by spoon - while beating in between additions. Put aside of the mix in a small bowl. This will form the topping/icing later on. Gently mix remainder of the whites with the lemon juice, ground almonds, spices and the salt. Roll out mixture lightly to about 1.3cm-thickness. Punch out stars (or other shapes). Place carefully onto greased baking paper and coat each thinly with the egg white sugar mix you set aside. Bake at 140C for around 25 minutes. Leave on the baking tray until cool. They keep well for many weeks. Put them into little bags or jars.

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