Puddings can also be done on the Weber
Weber Mediterranean - As you may have guessed from the title, this is a book on Mediterranean cooking and it abounds with well-illustrated ways to prepare food from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece and even Morocco.
Book: Weber Mediterranean
Author: Jamie Purviance
Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh
Review made possible by: Penguin Random House
Ask any South African man who is the best braaier he knows and he will give you a name but, in his mind, he will be lying to you.
At heart, the best braaier he knows is himself.
So when Jamie Purviance, an American nogal, comes along with his book Weber Mediterranean any S’effrikan thinks to himself “Jawelnofine, I’ll check out the recipes and maybe find something interesting but there’s not much this guy is going to be able to teach me”.
Wrong!
Jamie Purviance knows what he is talking about.
Sure he’s got the recipes (what cookbook hasn’t?) but he also includes a rundown on the fundamentals of braaiing with a Weber (both the charcoal braai and the gas braai) which go far beyond holding your hand over the coals for three seconds to see if the charcoal is ready.
But we all know the basics, right?
Right!
More importantly, and what most of us don’t know, is in the information in the “Braaiing guides” at the back of the book, which give the approximate braaiing times and heats by thickness and weight for fish, seafood, most meats and poultry.
As you may have guessed from the title, this is a book on Mediterranean cooking and it abounds with well-illustrated ways to prepare food from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Greece and even Morocco.
Among the recipes – the starters, the middle bits and the puddings –are some that you probably wouldn’t think about doing on a braai.
Like Orange-Almond Olive Oil Cake or the iced soup Gazpacho or even Lasagna.
And some which are intriguing.
Like Homemade Pork Sausages, Catalan Fish Stew and Baba Ganoush.
When you hear that Jamie Purviance is a graduate of the CIA you can forgive yourself for thinking he is an ex-spy until you remember that the CIA in this case is the Culinary Institute of America – arguably that country’s most prestigious chef school.
