Ruby Tandoh - Cook As You Are Review
I will hold my hands up and say I don’t like cookbooks. They are cumbersome, intimidatingly glossy and almost always end up destined for the charity shop. I have two left in my possession: Mary Berry Cooks (which I made a scone recipe from once, but am keeping for the comfort value alone) and Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals (which do take 15 minutes on the premise you’re willing to spend your Sunday nights chopping up vegetables and storing them away in neat little tupperware boxes in a perfect, organised fridge). Both of which I look at on my bookshelf, thinking: maybe tomorrow night. Maybe next weekend.
There is one book sitting on my shelf that isn’t pristine, or glossy. It isn’t a cookbook either, but is covered in flecks of dried bread dough and splashes of tomato. It is Ruby Tandoh’s Eat Up: a small, green sliver of magic that encourages us to eat for joy, and the recipes that are sprinkled throughout were the first time I felt seen when faced with cooking. That’s why I was excited when I heard Tandoh was bringing out a new cookbook: Cook As You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens.
‘I wanted to meet people where they’re at rather than leading them into a fantasy about the kind of cooks they might be tomorrow, or next week, or next. I wanted them to just cook now and enjoy it’, says Tandoh in an interview with Bad Form. There is something for everyone in Cook As You Are, and Tandoh draws inspiration from different cultures while citing other food writers and their work as sources of inspiration.
I decided to plunge the book into my own messy kitchen and try a couple of recipes. I am able-bodied so my review only reflects my own experience, and everyone’s experience with the book and these recipes will be different. However, Tandoh tries to make both as accessible as possible. 10 recipes from the book are also available in Easy Read format, and the steps are described using all senses and timings: beans gently blistering in a pan, the softness and springiness of risen dough, the smell of cooking garlic as it changes from a sharp and arresting to rich and mellow. I like the physicality of the book itself too; it is paperback, and opens easily. This is a welcome change from the heaviness of standard cookbooks which I often find difficult to read, my attention so often drawn away from the hob when the pages are flicking closed (something always burns).
The book is split into six sections, with a group of recipes in each. ‘Feed me now’ is perfect for when I’m in a grouchy, pedantic, restless state and I need something quick to lift me out of it, whereas ‘Normal perfect moments’ is conjured from the magic of opening your fridge for a midnight snack.
I had a go at two of the recipes, one from ‘Feed me now’ and one from ‘Wild Appetites’.
Crisp brown butterbeans with garlic yoghurt and spiced tomato sauce
Bean-induced joy - (Molly sits smiling at her kitchen table in front of a plate of food, holding up a fork with a tomato perched on the end of it)
This recipe is a beautiful all-rounder. I can have enough for tea and then some to have with salad for lunch the day after (I am a firm advocate against sad salads). It is mercifully quick and simple to make, which is great for me after I come home from work. I swapped out the paprika in the tomato sauce for smoked paprika as that’s all I had, which ended up adding more depth to the sauce (another good thing is that Tandoh often includes sections on substitutes after each recipe, things that can easily be swapped out or substituted for what you have in your cupboards). Tandoh recommends serving this with salad and crusty bread, to which I happily obliged.
Agliot
Sounds fancy. Is fancy. I thought this was something out of my reach until I found out this was basically next-level cheesy mash. The potatoes require a thorough mashing or straining through a sieve (if you don’t have a potato ricer, which I didn’t) which was quite strenuous and zapped my energy. I didn’t manage to get out all the lumps which would have made it nicer, but it was good all the same and I felt wonderfully extra serving myself this extravagant, stretchy wonder. I served it with a pie and some greens, and I felt pretty proud of myself.
Feeling fancy - (Molly stands in her kitchen, holding a plate of pie and broccoli, astounded at the stringy mashed potatoes falling off of the wooden spoon she is holding).
As somebody who moves through the world in a large body, cooking and eating can be a strange old thing for me, wrapped up in equal parts joy, shame, guilt, and curiosity. In Cook As You Are, I felt held, and curious, and empowered - and I’ve only just scratched the surface.
Written by Molly Cheek
Molly works in communications but prefers to be hunched over a book rather than a laptop. She performs poetry and music in and around Bristol
