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When a new knitting or craft-related book comes out, I do enjoy getting a sneak preview through the medium of other people’s blogs.  However, I’m not a huge fan of the Random Book Review.  It seems that, more often than not, my tastes in literature or non-fiction will vary wildly from those of whichever blogger I am reading.  Sometimes, it can even be alarming (“they enjoyed that book?!”).  Blogged book reviews, however, do impact on my purchasing habits in a sneaky way.  If ten of my favourite bloggers champion some new tome, it does make you wonder whether there might be something in it.

And so it was with Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros.  Alicia’s words were the clincher.

And so here is my Random Book Review.

This is possibly the best recipe book I have *ever* purchased. Tessa is a London-born food writer with the  peculiar distinction (from a culinary point of view) of having a Finnish mother and a Greek-Cypriot father.  She lived in South Africa from age four and then travelled extensively.  This gastronomic heritage has proved fertile ground and the book contains a wealth of eclectic and delicious recipes.

Falling Cloudberries is simply gorgeous to look at it: the food photography is mouth-watering and the design of the book is excellent (it has a ribbon page marker – hurrah!).  Even the end papers are covetable.

The food writing component is inspirational and evocative and, critically, there’s not too much of it – just enough to give you a flavour of the author and what she’s about.  The recipes themselves are clearly and concisely written, without skimping on detail, suggestion and guidance.

Most importantly, the recipes themselves are wonderful.  I have owned this book for about two weeks and so far I have cooked:

• Oven-baked fish with tomato & parsley
• Youvetsi
• Leg of lamb with oregano & lemon
• Pork with celery in egg & lemon sauce
• Boiled potato salad
• Tava

• Red pepper soup with olives, lemon rind & yoghurt

• Chicken, coconut & cashew nut curry

Eight recipes in fourteen days!  It’s that kind of a book.  I find myself flicking through it and thinking “I must cook that immediately, or the world will end.”  DF and I have been eating like kings.

The best thing about this book, though, is that you can eat from it every day.  The recipes feel very much like family favourites, and I have no doubt they will become favourites of our family.  The ingredients for each dish are not many and cuts of meat are cheap.  Occasionally and inevitably, the ingredients can be a little difficult to track down (and Notting Hill is the kind of place where you can find the most surprising and unusual ingredients), but Tessa is very good at suggesting alternatives.  Many of the dishes are simple to prepare, but do take a long time to cook in the oven.  As I work from home, this suits me.  It may not be quite so good for those dashing home from work at 8pm in need of sustenance.  However, these recipes are made for cooking in large family size quantities, so there will be leftovers.

Even Tessa herself is kookily beautiful.

As I discovered this book through blogs, I thought I should return to my blog to share it with you.  Falling Cloudberries has given me my cooking mojo back.  My advice?  Beg, borrow or steal a copy.  Or, you know, buy one.

Tessa has written a couple of other food/recipe books.  I was flicking through Apples for Jam (an even more scrumptious title than Falling Cloudberries, no?) in the book shop a few days ago and thought that it would be a wonderful book for parents of young children (that will be me in 5 months, then).  I think it might creep its way into my Amazon basket in the very near future.

(All pictures taken from the book)