By Kirsten Kruck.
"I love nothing more than combining a variety of flavours, textures and ingredients to make a new tasty salad.” - Peter Gordon.
Born out of the admiration for wholesome, sustainable food;
cookbook Savour comes from New Zealand expat, Peter Gordon, whose love for
cooking has been simmering for decades.
From collating his first cookbook at the age of four, Savour is the
eighth of Peter’s published cookbooks, with collaborations on over a dozen
more. Savour is a revisitation on ’Salads: The New Main Course,’ published in 2005
and has inspired the vibrant recipes collated here.
Savour will be the next page turning house staple, where inspiring salads are rustically plated to entice anyone to delve into its colourful beauty, from the at-home cook to the adolescent fresh-out-of-home. Pairing sweet with savoury and bitter with tart, ingredients are perfectly combined to offer delicate balances of all flavours. This guide steps you through the process from basic salads right down to the intricacies of creating a feast for friends.
With Savour in hand, host an elaborate dinner party for eight taking guidance from Peter’s first hand experiences, from shelling coconuts to conversing with local butchers and cheese makers on the finer qualities of their produce. Peter reiterates in Savour the importance of using fresh, local, seasonal produce when available to create the best salad to suit the mood, while also giving back to the surrounding farmers through sourcing sustainable ingredients.
"Healthy food, whether that means more grains and vegetables, less gluten and dairy, less animal protein, sustainably caught fish or animals raised with impeccable farming methods, are what we all seem to want in our diets. These are the things I’ve been advocating, and the way I’ve been eating, for as long as I can remember - and salads are a terrific way to bring all of this together!” - Peter Gordon.
Complementary salad additions of caramelised boiled nuts and popcorn add different elements and textures to dishes and an entire chapter is dedicated to dressings that will highlight flavours instead of overpowering them, bringing home that salads can be taste sensations.
"What I like about salads is that they should suit your mood – they can be quick and easy (which is why I’ve created a simple salad chapter) or planned well in advance, with a lot of care and attention taken. Some of the salads in this book are to be served at room temperature and others warm, but many can be served either way, so they needn’t be seen as exclusively either Winter or Summer salads.” - Peter Gordon.
Let Savour take you on a journey through the who’s who of root vegetables with delicately combined cheese, grains and nuts seen in a refreshingly crunchy salad like the nashi, radish, ginger and cashew salad - a perfect side for any roast. If hosting a Sunday brunch then opt for a colourful dish of millet, roast vegetables, Pietro’s egg and pomegranate served with lashings of butter on crusty bread with chorizo.
Move into a selection of more substantial standalone dishes, for either satisfying starters or the main thorough fare with seared, grilled, poached or baked fish and meats and be tempted by dishes like the roast chicken, kumquats, black garlic and avocado salad served warm and paired with your favourite bottle of wine.
Recipes and images from Savour by Peter Gordon (Jacqui Small) $49.99.
