Synopses & Reviews
This delectable cookbook centers on plants and spices from six continents. Recipes are gathered by region, and range from healthy salads (sesame prawn and sour green mango salad) to hearty main dishes (grilled quail in rose petal sauce) and sumptuous desserts (blueberry and lavender ice cream). and#160;Accessible to novice cooks as well as experts, the recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, with ingredients that are readily available in stores or farmers' markets. A foldout conversion table is included for reference and an appendix of herbs details their flavors and uses.
This unique cookbook also touches on historical, botanical, and economic themes. Each featured plant comes to life through beautiful botanic illustrations from Kewand#8217;s archives, and tales of travel and adventure reveal the plantand#8217;s role in culinary history. We learn how Europeand#8217;s fortunes turned on peppercorn and that a Turkish ambassador once made the most sought-after coffee in town. With a dash of history, a splash of travel, and a healthy serving of foolproof recipes, Kewand#8217;s Global Kitchen Cookbook is the perfect gift for anyone who loves a good story served up with great food.
Review
"A delicious adventure." A Mummy Too
Review
Editor's Choice The Telegraph
Synopsis
Kewand#8217;s Global Kitchen Cookbook is a visual celebration of the amazing variety of edible plants and how we can use them. The range of edible plants is far broader than we may suppose, with huge variety, from all corners of the world, and continually changing in how they are used and perceived. Some now regarded as familiar were once exotic, such as tea, grapes and chillies, and the source of fortunes for those who and#145;discoveredand#8217; and transported them, such as the staples of the Dutch East Indies spice trade - nutmeg, cinnamon and black peppercorns.
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A narrative main introduction gives context to the plants that provide the ingredients for the bookand#8217;s 101 recipes, sourced from past issues ofand#160;Kewand#160;magazine. Featuring plants from around the world, the recipes range from healthy and unusual salads and soups to hearty main dishes and sumptuous desserts, including parsnip tart, truffle crepes, Cincinnati chilli, orange vacherin, Kashmiri fish curry, plantation smoothie, sweetcorn and crab fritters and pineapple cheesecake with chilli. A further section features the herbs of Europe and the Mediterranean and spices from the East, with details on their origins and tips on how to use and combine different flavours to the best effect.
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Each plant has its own story of travel and adventure, and historical, botanical and economic themes are brought to life through the text and beautiful botanical illustrations from Kewand#8217;s archives. Relishing edible plants today needs to go hand in hand with acknowledging how lucky we are to have access to so much diversity, and how we need to preserve that for the future.
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Weights and measurements are given in imperial and metric, with an expanded conversion table on the inside back flap, which can sit alongside the book when using a recipe.
About the Author
For more than 250 years, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has fostered the study of plant diversity and economic botany.
Table of Contents
From Kazakhstan to Kent: The journey of plants to our plate
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Plants from Europe
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Plants from West Asia
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Plants from Central and South Asia
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Plants from East and South East Asia
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Plants from Africa
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Plants from the Americas
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The Worldand#8217;s Herb Garden
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Spices of Exploration
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Index
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Conversion tables
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Further reading