The Silver Spoon and Vefa’s Kitchen

“No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”

– Julia Child

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I began my foray into more adventurous cooking with the purchase of two cook books for fifty cents each from my local library’s sale room. These books were, The Silver Spoon, “the bible of authentic Italian cooking”, and Vefa’s Kitchen, a massive book of Greek recipes. In retrospect they were both far too advanced for a novice such as myself, but I was too much the novice to know it.

Another drawback of these books, at least for me, is the fact that there are very few pictures. When I cook from a recipe I need the visual, I need to see what the finished dish is supposed to look like. Still, I enjoyed these books very much and still do, and I was able to find simple recipes that I could easily make. The first thing I made was a Chicken in White Wine recipe that I found in The Silver Spoon, to which I added some capers, as I had read somewhere that they went very well with chicken. For a first attempt the dish turned out quite well, in my opinion.

As a side to my chicken I found a recipe for orange glazed carrots, and one for grilled asparagus. I didn’t know if these really went with the chicken – though given my current knowledge I am certain the asparagus did – but they were good and I enjoyed the meal.

Even though the Italian cookbook contained a full glossary of cooking terms and an entire section on kitchen equipment and utensils, complete with pictures, I never really got past the basics, and I have yet to cook anything from the Greek cookbook; all of that octopus was just a little overwhelming. I feel certain though that I will attempt to prepare something from it’s pages someday. I will let you know.

For now I have to run and turn my record over, side one of Boney M’s Night Flight to Venus album just ended.

Cheers!

Stephen