FoodReference.com (since 1999)
BOOK REVIEW SECTION

 You are here > Home > 

Next

Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul

by Diana Henry

Description
Cold weather cooking comes with its own unique pleasures. Shutting the door on the rain, snow and cold outside, to gather around the stove and cook for friends and family brings an all-encompassing feeling of warmth. In Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Winter Food to Warm the Soul Diana Henry has put together an irresistible collection of enchanting winter dishes from the Northern Hemisphere that celebrate the magical and evocative nature of winter foods.

Food has as much to do with the imagination as it does with flavor. A dish is more than a collection of ingredients. Diana's quest for foods from the colder climates was inspired by the memory of 'sugar snow' from her childhood reading of Little House in the Big Woods. Here was a magical food that you could get from inside a tree and make into sweets.

This book isn't just about ingredients. It's also about weather and the seasons, and the kind of food we want to want to eat and cook in colder months. Life slows down and so does cooking. Diana Henry spent five years travelling, and eating in search of the tastiest dishes from the snowiest climates exploring, among others, Vermont, Quebec, Russia, Switzerland, Scandinavia and northern Italy, and collecting recipes as she went.

Diana lets us taste and experience this traditional home-cooking from all over the snowy world, from the potato and cheese dishes of Italy's skiing slopes, to the luscious pastries served at coffee houses in Vienna and Budapest, to the zakuski that have been eaten at Russian celebrations since the days of Tsar. Classic ingredients such as nutty-fleshed pumpkins, earthy wild mushrooms and pungent cheeses sit alongside less commonly used foods such as quinces and juniper berries.

Illustrated with stunning photographs by Jason Lowe that capture the spectacular beauty of the cold seasons. Henry's collection is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.

About the author:
Diana Henry is food columnist for the Sunday Telegraph magazine, Stella, and co-presenter for UKTV's Market Kitchen. She was awarded Cookery Journalist of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers in 2007 and 2008. She is also the author of three critically acclaimed cookbooks. The 'Gastropub Cookbook', 'Pure Simple Cooking', and the Glenfiddich- shortlisted 'Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons'. She lives in London with her children.