Serif Books

Serif Books
is an independent British publishing house
which is famous for its beautiful and intricate
designs of books on cookery, travel and
history. It is a publishing house which has
been founded for the love of literature and
the wish to present it in the most interesting
and alluring form. Innovative cover designs
of its books can be attributed to the
http://www.serifbooks.co.uk
cooperation with a famous Berlin design
studio Pentagram. Thanks to its original
approach, it turns the publications real into
works of art.
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959442
pub date: January 2007
PB, 232 pages, black&white illus.
Using flowers in the kitchen is growing massively in popularity, and Frances
Bissell's new book allows readers to move beyond scattering a few petals on a
salad to enjoy the scents and flavours of both wild and garden flowers such as
lavender, elderflower, fennel and roses.
Her recipes include the simple – and highly effective – flavouring of basic
ingredients that allows the cook to transform other dishes. Elderflower Vinegar,
for example, lifts an ordinary green salad to a subtly perfumed treat, while
Lavender-Flavoured Honey is as delicious on toast as it is when cooked with
Roast Duck and Sesame Seeds.
Other highly original recipes include Braised Lamb Shanks with Carnation
Sauce, Orange and Fennel Flower Sorbet, Mussels in Cider and Saffron, and
Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Roses and Cucumber. And, just in case those
toiling in the kitchen are in need of a pick-me-up, Frances also offers Frozen
Elderflower Margarita, Lavender Julep and other flower-scented cocktails.
Sample Recepis – Lemon and Lavender Curd
4 large lemons with good skins
8 egg yolks or 4 whole eggs
150 g / 5 oz unsalted butter
350 g / 12 oz golden granulated sugar
6 lavender heads
Lemon and lavender combine superbly and this curd makes a fabulous filling
for tarts. Grate the rinds and squeeze the juice from the lemons, then put them
both in a double saucepan. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the
pan with the lightly beaten eggs and the sugar and lavender. Stir until the sugar
has dissolved and continue cooking on a low heat, stirring the mixture until it
thickens. Remove the lavender heads and pot in small, clean, dry jars that you
have warmed in the oven. Cover immediately, label, refrigerate and use within
3 to 4 weeks. If you want a stronger flavour, you can add a sprig of fresh
lavender to each jar just before potting.
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959411
pub date: January 2005
PB, 192 pages, black&white illus.
The Parsis are descendants of the Zoroastrians who left Persia 1,300 years
ago and settled along India's western coast. Their aromatic cuisine, which
combines the sophistication of Persian and Middle Eastern cooking with the
heat and spice of the subcontinent's, is one of Asia's last great culinary
enigmas.
"Fire and Spice" is the first ever book on Parsi cooking to be published outside
India and introduces the reader to a delicious array of recipes, ranging from
simple, everyday dishes that can be prepared in a matter of minutes to
elaborate dhansaks and biryanis normally served at weddings and other
special occasions.
With its unusual, tastebud-tantalising combinations – Coconut-Flavoured Fish
with Aubergine, Baked Eggs with Spicy Bananas, and Orange-Flavoured Rice
with Dates – and numerous recipes suitable for vegetarians, including Sweet
and Sour Pumpkin, Omelette with Ginger and Coriander, and Spinach Pilau,
"Fire and Spice" offers a broad, mouth-watering range of authentic recipes from
this little known cuisine.
About author
Joyce Westrip was born in southern India in 1929, moved to England in 1947
and now lives in Perth, Western Australia. Fascinated by Indian history and
culture, she is a regular visitor to the subcontinent and a collector of rare Indian
cookbooks. She has presented radio and television programmes on Indian
cooking as well as giving talks and classes on the subject. She is the author of
"Fire and Spice: Parsi Cookery", "Moghul Cooking: India's Courtly Cuisine" and
"An ABC of Indian Food", and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
in 2000 for her work promoting cultural links between India and Australia.
Reviews
"Exquisite" – The Bookseller
"Inspiring recipes – written with knowledge, experience and love" – Sri Owen
price: £ 12,99
ISBN: 9781897959640
pub date: January 2009
PB, 272 pages
"To prepare dinner for a friend is to put into the cooking pot all one's affection
and good will, all one's gaiety and zest, so that after three hours' cooking a waft
of happiness escapes from beneath the lid" – Edouard de Pomiane
Serif's new edition of "Cooking with Pomiane", which deserves to be on the
shelves of every serious cook and every unserious lover of humorous writing, is
now available again.
Witty, original and always mouth-watering, the recipes in this acclaimed
collection offer classic dishes prepared by the most innovative of French chefs.
A highly-respected scientist at the Institut Pastuer in Paris as well as a muchloved radio chef, Pomiane celebrates the joy of being in the kitchen, inspiring
confidence in cooks of all abilities. As Elizabeth David noted, he "takes the
mystique out of cookery processes and still contrives to leave us with the
magic".
About author
Edouard de Pomiane was born in Paris, the son of Polish émigrés. One of the
twentieth century's greatest cookery writers, he lectured at the Institut Pasteur
and wrote a number of classic books including "Cooking with Pomiane",
"Cooking in Ten Minutes" and "The Jews of Poland: Recollections and
Recipes". He died in 1964.
Reviews
"Pomiane is my hero" – Raymond Blanc
"Nothing less than inspired" – Simon Hopkinson
"An utter delight" – Financial Times
"It should be a cause of culinary celebration that his books are being
republished" – Sunday Times Magazine
price: £ 7,99
ISBN: 9781897959619
pub date: January 2008
PB, 152 pages, black&white illus.
Uncomplicated and delicious, the 300 recipes assembled here can all be
prepared in ten minutes – and in a saucepan or frying pan rather than a
microwave. Ultra-rapid soups, instantaneous sauces, split-second egg dishes
and quick-fire desserts all feature here, together with vegetable, fish and meat
recipes susceptible to Pomiane's unique approach to cooking. As fast – and as
witty – as classic Hollywood comedy, "Cooking in Ten Minutes" is a book that
belongs in every kitchen.
Sample Recepis
Tomatoes a la Polonaise
Cut the tomatoes in two. Melt some butter in a frying pan. Add an onion finely
minced. Put the tomatoes face downwards in the pan. Cook on a hot fire for
five minutes. Turn. Pierce the skin with a fork. Cook for five minutes. Salt,
pepper. Pour three ounces of thick cream between the tomatoes. Heat. Let the
creamy sauce come to the boil. Serve.
Minute Steak
While the steak is frying in the pan cook half a pound of finely-sliced
mushrooms and a minced shallot in butter in another pan. Make a blazing fire
so that the water in the mushrooms evaporates rapidly. As soon as this has
taken place put the mushrooms into the pan with the steak. At the last moment
add some small pieces of ham. Mix everything together. Serve the steak
surrounded with its garnish.
Oysters and Sausages
Fry some chipolata sausages. Serve them very hot on a dish and on a second
dish a dozen oysters. Alternate the sensations. Burn your mouth with a
crackling sausage. Sooth your burns with a cool oyster. Continue until all the
sausages and oysters have disappeared.
White wine, of course.
price: £ 10,00
ISBN: 9781897959602
pub date: January 2008
PB, 192 pages
"Roman Cookery" unveils one of Europe's last great culinary secrets - the food
eaten by the ordinary people of ancient Rome. Based on olive oil, fish and
fresh vegetables, it was the origin of the Mediterranean diet as we know it
today and, in particular, of classic Italian cooking.
Mark Grant, researcher extraordinaire, has unearthed everyday recipes like
Tuna Wrapped in Vine Leaves, Olive Oil Bread Flavoured with Cheese, and
Honeyed Quinces. Like an archaeologist uncovering a kitchen at Pompeii, he
reveals treasures such as Ham in Red Wine and Fennel Sauce, Honey and
Sesame Pizza, and Walnut and Fig Cakes.
The Romans were great lovers of herbs, and "Roman Cookery" offers a
delicious array of herb sauces and purées, originally made with a pestle and
mortar, but here adapted, like all these dishes, to be made with modern kitchen
equipment.
This revised and expanded edition includes previously unknown recipes,
allowing the reader to savour more than a hundred simple but refined dishes
that were first enjoyed more than two millennia ago.
About author
Mark Grant teaches classics and is the editor and translator of culinary works
by Anthimus and Oribasius. Inspired by working as a cook, he spent a year
training in catering management. He has been researching the cooking of the
ancient world for more than twenty years as well as writing and lecturing on the
subject. "Roman Cookery" received the André Simon Awards Special
Commendation.
Reviews
"A fascinating book for all who love Italian cooking and an invaluable addition to
the Italophile cook's library" – Rose Gray, author of "The River Cafe Cook
Book"
price: £ 12,99
ISBN: 9781897959466
pub date: January 2004
PB, 240 pages, black&white illus.
The Moghuls gave India the Taj Mahal and, as this path-breaking book shows,
they also transformed the country's cooking. Pomegranate Soup, ApricotFlavoured Lamb, Date Halva: the Moghuls revolutionised the cooking of the
subcontinent by bringing from Muslim Persia a refined and sophisticated Middle
Eastern cuisine and combining it with Indian spices and ingredients to produce
some of the world's boldest food combinations and most exquisite recipes.
"Moghul Cooking" is the first ever book on the subject and offers the reader
more than 150 mouth-watering recipes. Covering everything from snacks and
soups to breads and rice dishes, Joyce Westrip, who was born and brought up
in India, also tells the reader how to make the chutneys and other
accompaniments essential for a complete Moghul meal.
The Moghuls are famous for giving India its greatest architectural monuments,
for the refinement of their court and its arts: Joyce Westrip establishes that their
gifts to Indian cuisine were every bit as important.
Reviews
"A triumph" – Food and Travel
"Recipes that are both sumptuous and easy to follow... fascinating" – Saveur
"Inspiring... a wealth of historical information as well as a collection of exotic
recipes" – Gourmet Traveller
"Well researched, well written and a joy to handle. Joyce Westrip takes us back
in time and enables us to peek through the window of time on the lavish and
opulent Moghul courts" – Petits Propos Culinaires
"Princely recipes from the noble race that built the Taj Mahal" – Australian
Vogue
"Fascinating" – Scotland on Sunday
price: £ 12,99
ISBN: 9781897959367
pub date: January 1998
PB, 256 pages
English food is enjoying a revival after decades spent in the shadow of
European and other cuisines. Michael Smith's highly acclaimed book is centred
on eighteenth-century recipes, but also delves back into Elizabethan and Stuart
kitchens, and his skill in adapting historic dishes for the contemporary cook
puts Almond Soup, Asparagus and Bacon Fraze, and Caveached Sole within
easy reach of today's reader.
Traditionally, English cooking was generous in its use of herbs and spices and
adventurous in its combining of flavours, and Michael Smith's wide-ranging
research uncovers dishes with a surprisingly modern air: Mustard Soup,
Salmon in Red Wine, and Gooseberry and Rosemary Ice Cream, for example,
sit alongside classic potted meats and fish.
For too long, breakfast and tea have been seen as the only meals at which
English cooking has anything to offer the world. This refreshingly contemporary
collection of classic recipes proves once and for all that the inventiveness and
diversity of English food deserve to be recognised – and enjoyed.
About author
Michael Smith, restaurateur, food historian and broadcaster, was trained in
cookery schools and restaurants in France, Switzerland, Denmark and
England. On his return to Britain he began to promote, through both his writing
and his lecturing, classic English recipes. The food and wine correspondent of
the "Yorkshire Post", he died in 1989.
Reviews
"Of the many books on our food, his is my favourite, the one I use most" –
Jane Grigson
"A masterpiece” – Derek Cooper
"The best book on the subject" – Financial Times
price: £ 8,99
ISBN: 9781897959336
pub date: January 1997
PB, 160 pages, black&white illus.
"Casablanca Cuisine" recreates the lost world of the pied noirs, French settlers
in North Africa, and is a perfect example of food as the meeting-point of
cultures. Offering such delights as Chicken with Olives, Tuna with Red Peppers
and Capers, and Date and Almond Nougat, this is the first ever book on this
healthy and sophisticated cuisine.
Like all North African cuisines, pied noir cooking places great importance on
fresh ingredients, and Aline Benayoun – who was born and brought up in
Casablanca and later lived in the South of France – presents a full range of
tasty and nutritious vegetable, fish and meat dishes as well as salads and pied
noir versions of couscous.
Sample Recepis – Lamb with Pears
1 kg / 2 lb diced leg of lamb
2 large onions, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp saffron
A bunch of finely chopped coriander
4 pears, peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
150 g / 5 oz blanched almonds
Salt and pepper
Pour the olive oil into a tagine or large earthenware casserole, put it over a
medium heat and, when the oil is hot, add the onion. As soon as the onion
starts to turn translucent, reduce the heat and add the meat, cinnamon, ginger,
saffron, coriander, salt and pepper and just enough water to cover the meat.
Cover and simmer gently until the meat is tender, for about an hour and a half,
and then add the almonds and pears to the tagine. Cook for a further
30 minutes, or long enough to soften the pears, and serve.
This dish works almost as well with apples or quinces, although the latter take
a little longer to cook.
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959190
pub date: January 2004
PB, 304 pages, black&white illus.
"The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" is one of very few books that genuinely
deserve the label "legendary". Toklas and her lover, the writer Gertrude Stein,
lived first in Paris and then in rural France, and for more than 25 years she
collected the recipes with which they entertained Matisse, Picasso and others.
The fruit of hundreds of hours in the kitchen, market-place and vegetablegarden, this gloriously entertaining culinary companion ranges from inventive
responses to wartime austerity to French bourgeois cooking at its richest and
best. Always delicious, the recipes vary from simple snacks – Mushroom
Sandwiches and Tricoloured Omelette made with spinach and tomato – to
elaborate dishes like Supreme of Pike a la Dijonaise and Pheasant with
Cottage Cheese.
"The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook" has long enjoyed a reputation as a highly
original cookbook – and not just because of its recipe for hashish fudge.
Available once again, it is certain to delight a new generation of readers as well
as find its way back onto shelves from which it has mysteriously disappeared.
Reviews
"A masterpiece" – Bee Wilson, The Guardian
"A delicious concoction of reminiscences and recipes" – Time Out
"A frothy and delicious mixture of memoirs, travel writing and recipes" –
Michele Roberts, Books of the Year, Independent on Sunday
"A book of character, fine food and tasty human observations" –
The New Yorker
"Alice was one of the really great cooks of all time... the secret of her talent was
great pains and a remarkable talent" – James Beard
"It will be the fiercest Francophobe who can read Alice's recipes and not hanker
for a taste, the dullest cook who will not want to get to the kitchen and try them
out" – Time
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959428
pub date: January 2003
PB, 192 pages, black&white illus.
Okra, plantains, sweet potatoes and mangoes: these and all the other essential
ingredients of Jamaican cooking are now widely available in Britain and North
America, bringing the island's delicious cooking within anyone's reach.
Covering all aspects of Jamaican cuisine from soups to preserves, fish to ices,
"Classic Jamaican Cooking" also presents a range of traditional herbal
remedies and drinks. With recipes as varied as Plantain Tart and Shrimp Soup,
Salt Fish Patties and Coconut Ice Cream, this book dispels forever the myth
that Jamaican cookery begins with Curried Goat and ends with Rice and Peas.
Mistress of a large Jamaican household at the end of the nineteenth century,
Caroline Sullivan wrote the first ever book on Jamaican cooking. Needing only
occasional modification by the modern reader ("Take seven gallons of rum,
three gallons of seville orange juice..."), she brings alive the wealth and variety
of the island's food. With its blending of African and European influences,
Jamaican cooking rests on a foundation of tropical fruits and vegetables, and
the author draws out the full range of their flavours in one of the New World's
tastiest cuisines.
Sample Recepis – Pumpkin Pie
One round pumpkin
One pound of minced meat
Spring onions
Seasoning
Salt, pepper
Butter
One round pumpkin, one that can stand in a dish, not one that rolls over. Cut
off the top, about a third of the vegetable. Then scoop out all the seeds and
pithy stuff round them. Cut out the pulp as close to the rind as possible, just
leaving enough near the rind to keep it from breaking. Boil this pulp; meanwhile
have one pound of meat minced and seasoned with pepper, salt, butter and
spring onions. Pack this into the hollowed-out pumpkin rind, put on the cover,
that is the top that has been cut off (with the stem on if possible), and bake for
three-quarters of an hour. Serve with the top on and with a folded napkin round
the lower part.
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959435
pub date: January 2003
PB, 208 pages, black&white illus.
Moroccan cuisine is famous for its subtle blending of spices, herbs and honey
with meat and vegetables. In Fez, the nation's culinary heart, the cooking has
numerous influences – Arab and Berber, with hints of Jewish, African and
French. The country's classic dishes are couscous, tagines or stews, and
bistilla, an exquisite pie made with a flaky pastry.
Capturing the atmosphere of Fez, cultural capital of the medieval Moorish
world, Madame Guinaudeau takes us behind closed doors into the kitchens
and dining rooms of the old city. She invites us to a banquet in a wealthy home,
shopping in the spice market and to the potter's workshop, shares with us the
secrets of preserving lemons for a tagine, shows us how to make Moroccan
bread.
"Traditional Moroccan Cooking" is the perfect introduction to a mouth-watering
culinary heritage and a vivid description of an ancient and beautiful city. It
offers a taste of the delights to be found in one of the world's great gastronomic
centres.
Sample Recepis – Tea
Tea-making is a gift of God, a gift that cannot be acquired. There are no
proportions, no rules for making tea, no two glasses ever taste the same. The
quality of the leaves is of an infinite variety – before the war I was told of more
than sixty sorts. The quantity and quality of the mint, everything counts in this
infusion. I will try to teach you to make this green tea in a way that I hope will
be drinkable without presuming to reach the ultimate perfection where the
scented mint brings to the bitterness of the tea its fresh and piquant flavour.and
threes. Grill quickly, turning them often and serve very hot.
price: £ 9,99
ISBN: 9781897959503
pub date: January 2006
PB, 208 pages, black&white illus.
Bengal is home to both Hindus and Muslims who farm the fertile Ganges delta
for rice and vegetables as well as fishing the region's myriad rivers. As recipes
for Chicken with Poppy Seeds, Aubergine with Tamarind, Duck with Coconut
Milk and the many other delights in "Bengali Cooking" testify, Bengal has given
the world some of its most delicious dishes.
This highly original book takes the reader into kitchens in both Bangladesh and
the Indian state of West Bengal by way of the seasons and religious and other
festivals that shape the region's cooking. Chitrita Banerji offers her readers
authentic Bengali home-cooking – dals, fish, vegetables and kedgerees –
rather than the standard fare of Indian restaurants. Hers is much more than a
cookbook: it is also a vivid and deeply-felt introduction to Bengal's diverse
cultures and landscapes.
About author
Chitrita Banerji, who was born and brought up in Calcutta, lived in Bangladesh
for seven years before moving to the United States, where she now lives. She
has contributed to "Granta", "Gastronomica" and a variety of other publications.
Her books include "Eating India" and "Feeding the Gods: Memories of Food
and Culture in Bengal".
Reviews
"Delightful... evokes, not just describes, the colour, the smells, the tastes, the
customs of Bengali food" – Matthew Fort, The Guardian
"A loving tribute to her homeland and its kitchen" – The Times
"Absorbing... a vivid portrayal of Bengali customs and cuisine, as much an
introduction to the culture as a cookbook" – Vogue Australia
"Banerji weaves a broad canvas of delights" – New Age (Bangladesh)
"A cookery book with a huge difference... highly original" – Eastern Eye