The Flavour Thesaurus -~ plus A Bowl of Cherries

"The Flavour Thesaurus" by Niki Segnit 

Book review first - its a goodie!

The other day I went really crazy and bought myself a copy of "The Flavour Thesaurus" by Niki Segnit which I have wanted to read for a while now.  It’s a brilliant book and rather on the unusual side. It has no pictures and what recipes it has (200 or so really unusual ones) are hidden in the body of the text making it even more fascinating to read.

Ms Segnit has taken 99 different foods and sorted them into 16 groups according to similarity of flavours. The groupings themselves are interesting, not as one would expect salty, sweet, bitter etc. but rather Marine which runs into Brine & Salt, or Woodland leading on to Fresh Fruity. The groups themselves are arranged in a wheel and therefore go full circle. Tricky to explain actually so here’s the wheel- work it out for yourself!

The book starts on a very pleasing note; chocolate which is under the heading Roasted along with coffee and peanut. She pairs chocolate not only with the usual complimentary tastes such vanilla, orange, ginger and chilli (bugger! – now I’m craving some Lindt Chilli Choc) but also with black pudding (citing an Italian blood sausage containing chocolate and cream) or with goat’s cheese.  She even suggests adding a few squares if chocolate to a cheese-board and who I am to say her nay?  It’s all very interesting and thought provoking.

The book itself is a thick hardback more suited to reading in bed than using in the kitchen but this is not a criticism, rather the contrary; it is difficult to put down in fact.  Niki Sengit’s writing is easy going and conversational peppered (no pun intended but I’m pleased to see it here) with fascinating facts and yummy sounding recipes.  

The recipe for Coffee Orange Liqueur *** is really tempting although as it is supposed to rest for 44 days before drinking I cannot report on it now. In fact there are so many ideas I want to try I’ve started a list …

~   Peanut and Carrot Slaw
~   An inauthentic (her word, not mine) Pork and Peanut noodly recipe
~   Chicken and Bell Peppers which sounds Very Interesting Indeed, not to mention simple
~   Scotch eggs made with black pudding

… and so on and on, the above are just from the first few pages!

“The Flavour Thesaurus” by Niki Segnit which I thoroughly recommend was published in hardcover by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in June 2010 and here are the relevant numbers … ISBN-10: 0747599777, ISBN-13: 978-0747599777

So this has been my bedtime reading for a few days now; it is fascinating and so full of interest and humour it will probably merit a second read. When I do get round to taking the book into the kitchen (who am I kidding – it’s all of 2 feet from the bed!) and cooking from it I’ll let you know how it goes.

In Other News ...

My darling brought home a bag of half price cherries yesterday and they were perfect. So perfect that we ate almost all of them after dinner - just like that!

I made a Cherry Clafouti with the leftover cherries based on my Apple Clafouti recipe.  See here for Roasted Windfall Clafouti plus some other ideas for sweetened batter.

*** Which reminds me that I have both Rumptopf and Cherry Bounce maturing somewhere in the cellar of this very caravan.