Jamie at Home

This afternoon I found Jamie at Home on sale at the bookstore (my favorite, Trident Booksellers on Newbury St.) so I thought I'd pick up a copy. It's a rather large, weighty book; not really the best purchase to carry around on an incredibly hot, humid day when there were still lots of stops and a lot of walking to be done on my errand-running venture. Oh well.

Now that I'm back in my somewhat cooler apartment, I've had a chance to page through it in a little more detail. It all centers around Jamie Oliver's love of his garden, which makes me long for a living space that includes a little of the outdoors (growing herbs on the fire escape last summer didn't go as well as planned). All I'd need is a 3x3 foot box of soil, or even some large planters, where I could grow some herbs, tomatoes, zucchini, maybe even some climbing beans. I'd be able to feed myself the entire summer (and longer, if I learned how to can)! Maybe at my next place... TBD.

The book is divided into seasonal "chapters," then by each fruit or "veg" (love the English colloquialisms) with a nice introduction on each, including tips for growing and some simple preparations. Then come the recipes themselves, each carefully thought out to best showcase the star ingredient, none too complicated or fussy, just good, honest meals that you can just imagine on his dinner table in the English countryside (I picture a large, rustic wooden farm table, with long benches or vintage metal chairs, a personal favorite of my own). The photography is beautifully simple and is even more charming on thick, matte paper.

There's even a section on barbequeing in the summer chapter. It's interesting because I think that here in the US, we automatically associate a barbeque with a big grill, either charcoal or gas (or both), but always upright on legs or some sort of stand. The images here though are more reminiscent of a campfire, with coals spread on the ground, vegetables wrapped in foil and placed directly atop, or meat suspended on a spit above the flames. I've seen travel shows focused on Argentina, a very meat- and barbeque-centric culture, where giant metal "grills" are suspended high above a massive wood burning fire. Koreans grill right at the table. Cooking meat over an open flame seems to be such a primal way of preparing a meal, spanning across drastically different cultures, yet not surprisingly, the American love for tools, appliances, and convenience has provided us with the only apparatus for grilling that involves a contraption that will set you back a few hundred dollars, at the least.

I haven't yet tried any of the recipes in the book, but I'm anxious to do so. Although meat appears as an ingredient quite a bit and isn't something I eat all too much of, I think I'm going to enjoy working my way through Jamie's seasons.