Features & Stories

A Spanish grandmother's recipes 🇪🇸 + stunning seafood 🦑

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Spanish cooking from the family kitchen

Food writer, cookbook author, and founding editor of Taste magazine, Pepita Aris is an authority on Spanish cuisine. During her decades long career, on television and radio, in her books and magazine articles, she has brought knowledge, understanding, and recipes from her beloved Spain to a wide audience.
In Recipes from my Spanish Grandmother, newly added to ckbk, that wealth of experience is distilled into one eminently readable and highly practical book. Spain, in culinary terms nestled between Europe and Africa, is a cook’s delight. Aris brings 150 classic recipes born of this rich heritage. In addition to her great insight, each recipe has step by step photography – the next best thing to watching a grandmother cooking in her own kitchen.
Start the day with a Breakfast Ensaimada, originally from Majorca these light pastries are now eaten throughout southern Spain. Try Lentils with Mushrooms and Anis, a great vegetarian meal or side dish. Then sweeten things up with a lemon and cinnamon infused Crema Catalana, possibly ‘the original of all the creme brûlées.’
If grandmotherly guidance in the kitchen is your thing – and there is no better – then you might also like to look at Grand Dishes: Time-Perfected Recipes and Stories from Grandmothers of the World, and In Nonna’s Kitchen: Recipes and Traditions from Italy’s Grandmothers.
Find all 150 recipes from Recipes from my Spanish Grandmother
Pictured above: Sopa de Mariscos from Recipes from My Spanish Grandmother by Pepita Aris

Spectacular seafood: A consuming passion for cephalopods 🦑

Australian food writer, cookbook author, culinary educator, and seafood specialist Roberta Muir is passionate about cephalopods. In our latest feature she shares her love for octopus, squid and cuttlefish which collectively make up this family of sea creatures. Abundant, fast-growing and therefore sustainable, these seafood stars are easier to cook and prepare than you might think.
They have been popular in cuisines around the world for millennia, are highly nutritious, and can be braised, slow-cooked, eaten raw, flash fried, or grilled. Muir details the differences between varieties and shares preparation methods and a wealth of tempting and diverse recipes – from Risotto Nero and Salt and Pepper Squid to Seared Cuttlefish with Preserved Lemon, Celery, Miso Ranch and Kombu, and beyond…

If you want to delve further into seafood, do explore more of our Seafood Books.


Raise your culinary game with a free 3 month trial of courses by the world's best chefs

ckbk has teamed up with Scoolinary, the leading online culinary school, to offer a free three month trial membership giving you access to more than 200 video courses from top chefs including Jordi Roca and Antonio Bachour.

You'll discover a range of world cuisines to develop your cooking skills and expand your culinary horizons. Courses offer in-depth guidance on specialist subjects: learn how to cook with octopus with Diego López, bake perfect croissants with Antonio Bachour, or have UK Masterchef winner David Rickett teach you how to plate your dishes like a professional.

Scoolinary's courses bring Michelin-star chefs right into your kitchen, and are a great way to build the skills that will help you get the most from ckbk!

Visit the Scoolinary website to claim your free three month trial membership.

Start your 3 month trial of Scoolinary today

Ingredient spotlight: savoy cabbage

Cabbage was the earliest brassica vegetable to be cultivated, although it didn’t cross the seas from Europe to America until the mid 1500s. There are many varieties, each of which have particular culinary uses, as well as being universally nutritious and good to eat.
Savoy cabbage, with its much-dimpled, tender leaves, and pale to dark green colouring, is full of flavor, and a particularly prized member of the brassica family.

It may be used less in raw form than its white and red, thicker-leaved cousins, but it is wonderful when steamed, grilled, roasted or braised.
 
Try Seared Savoy Cabbage with Spicy Fish Sauce, Vinaigrette and Crushed Peanuts or a Spectacular Russian Stuffed Cabbage Rose.

It is also a fine addition to soups – try this Savoy Cabbage, Bacon, Parsnip, Kumara and Chickpea Soup.

 
For more recipes that make the most of this king of cabbages explore these 12 Ways with Savoy Cabbage.

What our #ckbkclub have been making

Continuing the adventures of our cookbook of the month – The Science of Eating Well – our Facebook Group has been busy. Here’s what Jason had to say:

‘My daughter and I made some Maccheroni alla Bolognese… It's a long time since I've made fresh pasta and it seems I lost my pasta machine, so this was a very rustic and hand-rolled approach. But we wanted to see if a fairly humble dish was significantly better due to making the correct Arturi source, and pasta approach etc. And it certainly was. As long as you're not too bothered with appearance (this is our effort at the recommended “denti di cavallo”) the pasta making is easy and well worth it.’

That looks fantastic Jason! If you want to share recipes, chat about our cookbook of the month, or just watch what other people are making, join the fun in our #ckbkclub on Facebook.

of the best cheese recipes

Whoever invented cheese deserves several medals, a knighthood, a sainthood? One of the culinary wonders of the world, cheese we celebrate you – and January 20 is World Cheese Lovers Day.

Soufflé au Fromage

from French Brasserie Cookbook by Daniel Galmiche

Floyd’s Fondue

from The Best of Floyd

Crisp Parmesan Lace

from Vegetarian by Alice Hart

Stilton Baby Blue Cheesecakes

from The Baking Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Bacon and Potato Raclette

from The Bacon Bible by Peter Sherman

Cheeseburger Roly Poly

from Dirty by Mark Studley
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