Cooking for a classless society
We don’t know if you know this about AK Press, but we really like cookbooks. Okay, not all of us like cookbooks, and not all of us agree on what kinds of cookbooks we like. But on a day-to-day basis, there’s a pretty serious amount of cooking and cookbook geekery that goes on around the warehouse (and over the email, for my benefit). So, it’s exciting that AK’s making a small foray into the world of cookbook publishing with the first US edition of the excellent volume, Another Dinner Is Possible: Recipes & Food for Thought. It’s due to arrive from the printers on September 21, but it’s available for preorder on our website, at a discount, so sign up to get your copy today!
I first came across this vegan cookbook a couple of years ago before I started at AK in a bin of books that Craig had brought to Red Emma’s for us to look through and (hopefully) buy for the store—it was a pricey British import, but we were totally intrigued and bought it anyway. Then I stole—er, I mean I borrowed —the store’s copy to dig out some recipes to use for Red Emma’s ongoing vegan jazz brunch series, and they worked out quite well. Unfortunately, it was hard to get the book in the US (we sold the copy that I did, in fact, return to the store), so I couldn’t really recommend it to people! So imagine my excitement when I joined the AK collective and found out that a US edition was already in the works! Sweet!
The book was written by Mike and Isy, of the Anarchist Mobile Teapot collective, which is, for lack of a better description, sort of like the UK’s answer to Food Not Bombs. Which means that the recipes in this book are geared towards scalability and simplicity. It’s hard to take a recipe from a standard cookbook and scale it up to serve upwards of 50 people in way that’s both cost-effective and efficient. But these recipes are meant to be used in those kinds of contexts, which makes this an ideal cookbook for anyone who’s planning to cook on a mass scale, or anyone interested in cooking for friends. The recipes are written to work for anywhere from 6-10 people, but they’re easy to adapt to larger quantities.
Now you’re thinking of giant pots of pasta with red sauce and TVP taco filling aren’t you? Guess again. Yes, the standard, simple vegan standbys are in here (yes, there is a chapter on cooking pasta), but by no means should you expect this cookbook to be boring. The cuisines represented in here range from Korean to Scandinavian, and the combinations of ingredients are often surprising and usually delicious. Plus, there’s sections devoted to unusual national cusines, rendered in vegan terms. My favorite is the mini-section that explains just precisely how to craft a traditional Swedish Christmas eve dinner (lots of cold fish) using eggplant, chestnuts, and beets.
For example:
Mock Salmon Paté
- Ingredients for 6-8:
– 1 large-ish aubergine (eggplant)
– Salt
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1 stick of celery, roughly chopped
– 1 small red pepper, roughly chopped
– Handful of walnuts
– 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- Slice the aubergine, sprinkle with salt and leave it to stand in a colander for up to 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 8.
- Rinse and drain the aubergine. Drizzle the oil over a baking sheet, lay the slices on it and roast them for 15 minutes or until brown. Scrape off the skins and put the flesh in the food processor along with the other vegetables and the nuts. Process until almost smooth.
- Stir in the soy sauce. Add more salt if you like.
See? Easy and creative! Or, this one:
Caponata
- Ingredients for 6:
– 3 large aubergines (eggplants)
– Olive oil
– 2 onions
– 4 sticks of celery
– 4 tomatoes
– 5 tbsp red wine vinegar
– 2 tbsp tomato purée
– 1-2 tbsp sugar
– Salt and pepper
– 200g pitted black olives
– 150g pitted green olives
– 2 tbsp capers
– Fresh basil leaves to garnis
- Suitable for up to 50. A sweet and sour aubergine stew that can be served hot, cold or lukewarm. You can also fry the aubergines if you prefer.
- Serving suggestions:
– Rice or crusty bread, a bean salad and a green salad. - Cut the aubergines into 2cm cubes. Toss them in some salt and leave to drain in a colander for 20-30 minutes to draw out the bitter juices, then rinse; (this is optional).
- Heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Toss the aubergines in a bit of olive oil and roast them for 20 minutes or until soft and browned.
- Peel and dice the onions, and finely slice the celery. Halve and de-seed the tomatoes, and cut into chunks. Cook the onion and celery in another tbsp of oil for 10 minutes, then add the tomatoes, and cook for 20 minutes. Add the vinegar, tomato purée, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste, along with
the roasted aubergines. You may want to add a dash of water if it is looking too dry. Cook for another 10 minutes. - Either finely chop or pulse in a food processor the olives and the capers and add, and serve garnished with some fresh basil.
Good stuff, huh? The other interesting thing about this book, though, is the essays in the appendix, which cover everything from the history of food production to nutritional guidelines for vegan lifestyles (including special sections on proper nutrition for babies, children, and expectant mothers) to the culture of waste. The book is an much a manifesto (or a series of them) on the politics of food production and consumption as it is a collection of kick-ass recipes. There’s also a guide for cooking on a large scale, for eating and gathering wild foods, and for brewing your own beers and wines.
So check it out. Preorder a copy, you’ll be happy, and we will too!