I'm no longer the only author in the village*. Blonde-bombshell
celebrity cook, Lotte Duncan, has just published her first book,
Lotte's Country Kitchen and mutual friends hosted the
launch party a couple of weeks ago.
Lotte is a self-confessed nutty bird who cooks nutty food**. Her
recipes call for hazelnuts, pistachio nuts, walnuts and cobnuts. In
an age when everyone entering a primary school has to go through a
peanut scanner because Olivia in Yr 3 once developed a rash that
might have been connected to a peanut she found on the supermarket
floor and held in her hands for five whole seconds, I find the
return to nuts as an acceptable cookery ingredient rather
refreshing.
I don't love this book, though, because it's not afraid to be a
bit un-PC. I love it because it's a fabulous book. My favourite
cook book in years, celebrating, as it does, a love of life as much
as a love of food and written throughout in a friendly, engaging,
heart-warming style.
Lotte comes across as the sort of woman you'd love to be your
best friend, although I suspect the queue for that honour is very
long. For one thing, she's not afraid to admit she likes a drink.
You won't hear Lotte say, "oh, that small glass of wine has gone
straight to my head!' You won't hear me say it either. From Lotte
and me you're more likely to get, 'you know, that last bottle might
not have been entirely wise!'
And the food is just to die for. Okay, that's the crime writer
in me talking. It's food to make you want to stay alive and enjoy
for a very long time. This time of year, when the nights are
drawing in fast and the autumn air tastes like a polo mint on your
tongue, our thoughts turn naturally to warming, nurturing comfort
food.
Lotte's autumn recipes (lamb with damsons and rosemary
dumplings, autumn chicken pie, blackberry and elderberry squidgy
pudding) are quite simply the food of our long-forgotten, pagan,
countryside gods and I'm sure it's just coincidence I've put on
four pounds since buying the book.
Her spring and summer recipes look pretty amazing too!
I don't cook as much as I used to. Too busy churning other
people's stomachs to worry too much about what I put in my own, but
Lotte's book has made me remember why I once loved it. And why I
will again.
Thank you, Lotte. And can I join the queue to be your mate?
*Actually, I never was the only author in the village. The only
one who can claim that accolade is the talented,
critically-acclaimed and diamond-dagger-winning crime writer,
Margaret Yorke. But, as Peggie herself knows, I'm not one to let
the facts get in the way of a good story.
** Anyone doubting the former should check out what Lotte wrote
on our GP's copy of her book. Suffice it to say it referred to a
medical procedure you wouldn't normally want to be reminded of when
stuffing the Sunday roast chicken.