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The cover image for ” For the Love of Food ” is shown. For about six months a year celebrated vegetarian chef Denis Cotter of Cork, Ireland, spends his time in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, HarperCollinsCanada
For about six months a year celebrated vegetarian chef Denis Cotter of Cork, Ireland, spends his time in Canada.
The author of a number of cookbooks focusing on what must be considered gourmet vegetarian fare and owner of the famous Cafe Paradiso in Cork stays in Stratford, Ont.
“In 2006 I spent about 10 days as a visiting chef instructor at the Stratford Chefs School and it was then I met my girlfriend Maureen and thus my crisscrossing the Atlantic quite often,� says Cotter, 51.
When interviewed about his latest book “For the Love of Food: Vegetarian Recipes from the Heart� (HarperCollins, $39.95, hardcover), he had just arrived back in Canada for the spring and summer season.
“This book contains nice things to eat,� he says. The 120 recipes focus on home cooking and the pleasures of preparing and sharing meals.
Cotter approaches his craft with reverence for his belief that love and food have something to do with each other.
“The love of the act of cooking itself, something that is discouraged from feeling when the media is full of ideas on how to make dinner in five, 10 or 20 minutes,� he writes in his introduction.
Cotter adds that “when you cook for someone, you are saying — here eat this, I hope you will love it.�
Each chapter of recipes from breakfast with risottos and polenta to one-dish creations and desserts, is preceded by his sometimes humorous essays about the subjects ahead.
And for those who like the challenge of preparing unusual but fantastic vegetarian meals, this book is just for you.
“Once you put the time and effort in creating delicious food, you are deliberately trying to create truly complex rich flavours and textures which are really enjoyable,� says Cotter.
This intriguing recipe from the book is the chef’s tribute to those wintry snowy days he has spent in Stratford.
“Check the ingredient list for these miraculous little cakes … snow and corn,â€? he writes. “That’s about as primitive as it gets.â€?
And Cotter adds: “May you never find yourself in a situation where you have to eat snow out of necessity rather than the fun of baking it.�
Snow Cakes
You might want to clip and save this recipe to try next winter. It would be a fun project with children.
Butter, for greasing, plus extra to serve
250 ml (1 cup) fine yellow cornmeal
Pinch of salt
1 to 1.25 l (4 to 5 cups) fresh fluffy snow
Maple syrup, for serving
Preheat oven to 200 C (400 F). Grease a muffin tray. In a bowl, place cornmeal and salt. Go outside and collect cupfuls of clean snow. Gently fold this into cornmeal and spoon mixture into muffin tray indents.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove tray from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before lifting the snow cakes out on to a plate. Serve with butter and maple syrup.
Makes 12 small cakes.
Article source: http://www.brandonsun.com/lifestyles/breaking-news/122058704.html?thx=y
