Introducing my fourth cookbook – Homegrown Kitchen – Everyday Recipes for Eating Well. This is the book I have always wanted to write – a culmination of 18 years of studying, researching and teaching others how to cook and eat well. My sincere hope it that it will find a place in your kitchen, splattered with food, littered with page markers and handwritten jottings in the margin, just like my own favourite cookbooks. It is an insight into how I cook and the reasons behind the techniques I use. The recipes are a combination of notes from my sell-out cooking workshops around New Zealand interwoven with everyday meals I prepare for my family. It is essentially my kitchen wrapped up in the pages of a book.
Every recipe is accompanied by an image, that I photographed myself in my home kitchen as I was cooking for my family, plus everyday lifestyle images by my sister Ana Galloway. The book begins with a handy section on stocking the pantry plus useful kitchen equipment. Then launches into the ‘bricks and mortar’ section of the book – Kitchen Essentials. This comprehensive section includes the recipes I make most weeks, sometimes daily, including ghee, yogurt, coconut yogurt, homemade stock, sourdough bread (including gluten-free bread), pastry, nut and seed butter and much more. Instead of delegating this section to the back of the book, like most recipe books, I wanted to begin the book with the recipes I make most often.
A section on Preserving & Fermentation follows with recipes for safely preserving the harvest including preserved fruit pieces, compote, chutney and jam, all using minimal sugar – and in some cases no added sugar at all. I introduce the art of naturally preserving food through lacto-fermentation, one of my favourite subjects and something I have spent years researching and perfecting into the simplest methods so anyone can master them at home. We are now halfway through the book, and I haven’t even got to the main meals yet! The rest of the book is divided into Morning, Daytime, Evening and Sweet, and contains the everyday family meals I make most often depending on the season and produce availability.
Here is a selection of my favourite recipes from each section:
KITCHEN ESSENTIALS – Golden Ghee / 5-minute Sourdough Crumpets / No-knead Super Seeded Sourdough Bread / Dairy-free Parsley Pesto
PRESERVING & FERMENTATION – Tomato & Carrot Kasundi / Low-sugar Fruit Conserve / Spicy Kimchi-style Kraut / Lacto-fermented Green Beans
MORNINGS – Protein-boosted Nut & Seed Granola / Golden Brunch Waffles / Overnight Chocolate-Hazelnut Pastries
DAYTIME – Whole-grain Sesame Cracker Breads / Everything Pantry Cookies / Buckwheat Pikelets
EVENING – Miso & Ginger Ramen / Silverbeet Palak Paneer / Salmon Teriyaki Rice Bowl / Nourishing Broken-bone Chicken Soup / Braised Lentil, Fennel & Sausage Casserole
SWEET – Chocolate & Apricot Fudge / Pumpkin Caramel Slice / Boiled Lemon & Coconut Loaf / Pear & Chocolate Layer Cake / Real-fruit Ice Cream / Double Chocolate Raspberry Puddings
*Find reviews, reader feedback & FAQ’s for my cookbooks HERE.
NICOLA!!! AMAZING!!! I love your book, have only had a sneaky peek through, am waiting for my day off on Tuesday to sit and read it from cover to cover and plan what I’m going to hook out of it over Easter. Simply stunning!!! Congratulations! Xx
Thank-you Jan! I have been getting some wonderful feedback from those who received their pre-ordered copy. It makes the huge effort involved worth it to know people will be cooking from the pages for many years to come xx
Today I just tried your feijoa cake recipe with the last of my fruit ans it’s still not cooked after being in the oven for 1 hour 20 mins. I followed recipe and oven setting so would welcome your comments.
Thanks
Ann
Hi Ann, thanks for checking. I have tested and made this cake many times now and the baking time has always been within 35 minutes, and have heard from others who make this cake successfully in feijoa season. Oven temps can vary and it could take another 5 minutes to be ready, but 1 hour 20 mins something has gone wrong. How wet was the mixture? It is quite a wet mixture that is poured into the tin but it shouldn’t be overly loose in consistency. Is this the recipe you are referring too as I notice this comment isn’t on the feijoa cake page.
FEIJOA CAKE with Lemon & Macadamia Icing
This looks just beautiful. I’m just emerging into a new era as my little boy turns 2…ready to put new efforts into our families’ nutrition. Can’t wait to try out this book. We’re still enjoying your little tummies recipes too. xx
Thanks Sarah, I am sure you will find this cookbook very useful. It is the food I cook for my family and tested on my 5 & 7 year olds.
Happy cooking 🙂
So proud of you Nicola. LOVE your book. Just want to devour every page…. it’s stunningly beautiful. So inspirational. Thank you for sharing your passion with such openness and honesty. I’m totally hooked!!
Thank-you for the kind words Karen. It is so wonderful to hear that the pre-orders have begun to arrive and finally the contents are revealed and can be used by those I wrote it for. Thank-you for your support, it truly is appreciated 🙂
Am desperate to get my hands on your beautiful book, Nicola. When will it be coming to the UK?
Thank-you Sally, it will be available on Book Depository soon I am hoping. They have it on their site as ‘unavailable’ but you can choose to be notified when it is in stock here:
https://www.bookdepository.com/Homegrown-Kitchen-Nicol-Galloway/9780947503291?ref=grid-view&qid=1491775036314&sr=1-4
Thanks for you interest! Nicola
I love the look of your book and can’t wait to cook the recipes.
Will I be able to get it in Australia?.
Hi Paulette, I can send one over, however, it is $20NZ postage: http://shop.nicolagalloway.co.nz/shop/product/homegrown-kitchen-signed/
And it will be available through online book sellers that ship internationally soon.
Thank you so much Nicola. I received your beautiful cookbook yesterday afternoon, and have found it difficult to put down ever since. The nutritional information and guides about how to get the best out of the ingredients are so helpful. It is going to take me some time to absorb it all, but now it is all in one place, I have something to refer to often as often as I need to. I finally feel brave enough to attempt a sour dough culture with your concise and economical instructions as a guide. I have 3 young children, so time and organisation are very important to me, and I really appreciate how you have managed to factor that in throughout the book. A joy to read and explore, thank you!
Hi Rebecca, thank-you for the wonderful feedback 🙂 Yes, it certainly is not a book you can read in one sitting but that was my plan as I want it to be a book that can referred to often, taking in a little at a time.
Good luck with the starter, I have made so many now and this is definitely the easiest and surest way to be baking in no time. Make sure you make the crumpets with the first lively 4-5 day starter as these are something special, and it will also give your starter a boost to be mostly used and then feed with fresh flour and water. I tried to make it is user friendly as possible.
Happy reading, Nicola x
This book looks incredible! I love to live by the ‘Garden to Table’ philosophy. <3
Thank-you Elien, please do check it out!
Congratulations Nicola!!
I am missing the Organic Green Grocer Kitchen and all the visitors that kept the place buzzing with warmth.
I hope to see you around soon.
Thanks Ami, I haven’t been in for a while but I heard that you had left also. I hope all is well 🙂
I grow Cavallo Nero on my allotment and my wife has made some crisps from them using this recipe, delicious. If any are left by lunchtime they will be sprinkled over our home made leek and potato soup and incorporated into an omelette.
Hi Michael, I just found your message. It somehow slipped under the radar!
So wonderful to hear, happy cooking and gardening!
Nicola
Well done Nicola,your book is amazing, and always at my side when I have spare time to read.I have made and enjoyed sour bread for the first time.Thank-you. Lyn
Thank-you Lyn, I love hearing from others enjoying cooking from my book.
Warmest, Nicola