Gardening books for children

Here’s a round of some great books for encouraging your kids to get outside and enjoy gardening.

I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature – by Jennifer Ward

Kids in the Garden – Mary Moody

Oudoor Kids, A Practical Guide for Kids in the Garden by Jamie Durie

Kitchen Garden Cooking for Kids by Stephanie Alexander who began the Kitchen Garden Foundation

Book review: Madlands – by Anna Rose

A fascinating insight into climate change campaigning and a well-researched summary of the major arguments.

“I suspect that for my friends who aren’t active in climate change campaigning, their inaction is not because they don’t understand or don’t care. Instead it stems from doubts that there’s anything they can do to change the course the world is heading in.  It’s the ‘small cog is a big wheel’ syndrome. People focus on the wheel and how big it is without remembering that even a little cog, when connected to other cogs, has the ability to change the wheel’s direction.”

I particularly liked the beginning where Anna chronicled her experiences in campaigning.

“The whole experience taught me a fundamental truth that I carry with me to this day. I learned that in Australia change comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up. Change can happen even when you’re up against one of the world’s biggest mining companies. Change can happen in spite of a pro-developer state government. Change can come when people join together and don’t give up until they’ve made a difference.”

The youth of today are going to start asking their parents and older generations – why were they so greedy and selfish? Why did they squander and waste the earth’s precious resources so recklessly?

And when that tipping point happens they might get mad.

Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic – by Anna Rose
Australian Youth Climate Coalition
@annarose

Brisbane Times Good Food Guide Queensland 2012

I was excited to get my hands on the very first edition of the Brisbane Times Queensland Good Food Guide.

With more than 450 reviews of eateries in Brisbane and covering the top of Queensland right down to Northern New South Wales.

Each review includes price range, opening hours and a score.

The 208 page full colour book is edited by Queensland food writer Natascha Mirosch. She has dispatched more than 25 reviewers all over Brisbane and up to Port Douglas and down to Coolangatta to seek the best places to dine in Queensland. Find out which dining establishments were dished up a coveted Good Food Guide Award chef hat.

The book is available in newsagents and book stores for $24.95.

An online version of the book is available, with access to all of the reviews. For a limited time the website only subscription for Brisbane Times Good Food Guide is only $4.50!!!

This is a RocketFuel sponsored post.

Book review: The Starter Kitchen

The Starter Kitchen by Callum Hann (2010 runner up of Masterchef Australia) is surprisingly a solid beginners cook book. It goes beyond most first cookbooks with over 60 inspiring recipes. It features typical classics like scrambled eggs, the perfect steak, roast chicken, spag bol, shepherd’s pie, chips, and vanilla panna cotta.

The book includes the basics of setting up a kitchen and developing key cooking skills. He provides useful and accessible information about purchasing fresh produce, buying and using the right equipment and shopping on a budget.

But then it takes it to a new level and advanced recipes, such as ‘chilli jam mussels steamed with beer’ and ‘mushroom and goat’s cheese risotto’, are things I would never have cooked in my university days.

I was tempted by the ‘Three Pigs Pizza’, ‘Pulled Pork Buns with no-mayo slaw’, ‘Cookies ‘n’ Cream Ice Cream’, ‘No-bake Chocolate Cake’, and ‘Peanut Butter Brownies’.

I like the A5 size and the fresh youthful design with full colour illustrations.

Recommended for a cook in their twenties.

The Starter Kitchen
- by Callum Hann
@callumskitchen
@murdochbooks

Book review: Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide

 

The Australian Marine Conservation Society has released a handy little booklet on choosing seafood wisely called ‘Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide‘. Sustainably sourced fish allow the species to repopulate and live a good life. It is a beautifully illustrated and informative guide.

Here’s a quick run down of your options:

The best choices

• Blue swimmer crab, sand crab
• Calamari, squid, octopus, cuttlefish
• Mussels, blue mussels
• Oysters, native, Sydney rock and Pacific oysters
• Salmon
• Sardine, pilchard
• Trevally, black, giant, golden, bluefin and bluespotted trevally
• Whiting, trumpeter, stout, sand, eastern school, western school, king george whiting

Think twice – heavily targeted or caught using fishing methods that damage natural habitat

• Basa, Pacific dory, mekong catfish
• Barramundi, barra
• Blue-eye trevalla, blue-eye cod
• Flathead, Bluespotted, dusky, tiger and southern sand flathead
• Nile perch, Lake Victoria perch
• Ocean perch, blue-eye, reef ocean perch
• Prawns, banana, king and tiger prawns

Say no – over-fished, threatened or vulnerable

• Atlantic salmon, Tasmanian, Smoked salmon
• Blue Grenadier, Hoki
• Blue Warehou, Black travally, sea bream
• Gemfish, hake
• Hake, Cape hake, Pacific hake, South Atlantic hake,
• Orange roughy, deep sea perch
• Shark, flake
• Southern Bluefin tuna, tuna
• Tuna, Skipjack, albacore, yellowfin tuna

You can download a free copy of the mini seafood guide (PDF) on the website.

A Generous Helping – Treasured Recipes from the People of Queensland

A Generous Helping: Treasured Recipes from the People of Queensland By Alison Alexander and Madonna King went on sale on Friday.

“…This cookbook is about more than 150 recipes. It′s about rebuilding what we had, sharing something form our own homes, and knowing we′re doing that with big lashings of love.”
- Madonna King, Presenter, ABC 612 Brisbane mornings

Many listeners contacted Alison Alexander, resident foodie and cook at Madonna King′s Morning Show on ABC Radio to tell her they had lost their treasured recipe collections, that were handed down through the generations.

Madonna and Alison decided to do a call out to listeners and ask them to send in recipes and they were amazed by the response as everything from mutton stew to chocolate pudding came in. And with them, stories of what those recipes meant to families.

This collection of 150 recipes attempts to regain what was lost in the floods, offering a treasure chest of dishes as diverse and interesting as Queenslanders themselves, and demonstrates once more, their resilience and creativity in the face of disaster.

All royalties from the book will go to the Premier′s Disaster Relief Appeal. Available from the ABC Shop.

Peko Peko Charity Cookbook for Japan

Peko Peko: A Charity Cookbook for Japan is a collection of nearly 50 family friendly Japanese and Japanese-inspired recipes published by Blurb, 100% of the profits of which will be donated to charity relief in Japan.

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake shook the ground underwater off of the coast of Japan. The earthquake, one of the most powerful on recorded history, rocked North-eastern Honshu, the main island of Japan, and triggered a deadly tsunami. Close to 10,000 people lost their lives. Many more thousands are missing.

The self-published book is a joint effort between Stacie Billis of One Hungry Mama, Rachael Hutchings of La Fuji Mama and Marc Matsumoto of No Recipes, and a team of contributors that includes some of the most influential food bloggers and cookbook authors of this time,  Peko Peko is a celebration of the Japanese people, their food and culture.

All profits from sales of Peko Peko will be donated to the GlobalGiving Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

Review: Two Asian Kitchens by Adam Liaw

Two Asian Kitchens is the first cookbook written by Adam Liaw, who was Australia’s MasterChef winner for 2010. It covers dishes from Japan, Malaysia, China, and Thailand, reflecting his heritage and where he has lived.

The book is divided into four clear sections. The first section is the Pantry, which includes recipes for basic Asian style sauces, stock and pastes. The second section is techniques, which includes detailed instructions on making donburi, dumplings, sushi, stir-frying, fruit liquours and tempura.

The bulk of the book then breaks into traditional recipes for the Old Kitchen, and more modern fusion style recipes in the New Kitchen. Nearly every recipe has a full page colour illustration. The Old Kitchen section includes recipes for Hainanese Chicken rice; Yakitori moriawase; Katsudon; Char Siew pork neck; and Lemon Chicken. The New Kichen will tempt you with recipes for Laksa fried chicken; Rum and lemongrass roast pork belly; Green tea and pea corquettes; Farmers Union iced coffee pudding with tea smoked chocolate and five spice tenkasu.

The highlight of the book is the awe-inspiring  and imaginative Seven Lucky Gods (Shichifukujin), which drew generous commendations from the MasterChef judges. It is a collection of skewers where each one represents a specific Japanese god and their attributes and influences.

We cooked two dishes from the book – an authentic aromatic Pho soup; and deliciously naughty but nice Fennel and black pepper pork belly with pork condiment.The first was time consuming but worthwhile, the second I got lost in the instructions but it still tasted divine.

You may need access to a specialist Asian grocery store to source some of the ingredients.

Two Asian Kitchens by Adam Liaw
@adamliaw
@randomhouseau

Review: The Urban Cook by Mark Jensen

The Urban Cook by Red Lantern chef, Mark Jensen focuses on cooking and eating for a sustainable future. You may be familiar with him from the television show Ready Steady Cook. The book features over 100 modern seasonal recipes, often with an Asian bent.

There is a generous proportion of vegetable based recipes and I would have liked this section split into sides and mains. It features recipes for Eggplant and mozzarella bake; Zucchini, tomato, olive and feta gratin (using Poor Man’s Parmasen); and Chinese cabbage, fried noodle and black pepper salad. A sample recipe is available for Marinated summer radishes with currants, mint and chive dressing (PDF).

The Meat and Seafood sections contains recipes such as Yabbies cooked in tomato, chilli and black pepper sauce; and Lamb breast rolled and stuffed with mince, pine nuts and coriander. Mark Jensen says: “Yabbies are a great sustainable alternative to prawns. They are farmed in inland ponds, and any waste they produce can be filtered from the water and used to fertilise the land.”

He recommends using The Australian Sustainable Seafood Guide to help you make a wise shopping choice.

Mark also encourages us to use all parts of the animal, and uses secondary cuts of meat in recipes such as Beef cheeks braised in beer with aromatic spices; and Gremolata crumbed deep fried lamb’s brains.

Finish in the Dessert section and be tempted by Chocolate roulade with hazelnut cream; or an Asian fruit salad with agar agar jellies and coconut cream.

The Urban Cook – Mark Jensen
Red Lantern
@markredlantern
@murdochbooks

Only one cookbook?

Zeralda’s Diary is running a challenge asking us to post on “if you were limited for the rest of your life to one cookbook only, which would be your choice?”

My immediate answer would be The Cook’s Companion by Stephanie Alexander. It’s Australia’s answer to The Joy of Cooking. The book stop tome is hard to miss with its rainbow of carnival stripes on the cover. Even though there are no illustrations, the recipes work and they range from the classics to different cuisines, hard to easy.  The book is divided into over 100 chapters based on a type of ingredients. The index is easy to use and comprehensive. An ideal housewarming or wedding present.

It’s often mentioned as the favourite cookbook of many famous and not-so famous Australian chefs. Which one would you choose?