Plum Gorgeous: Recipes and Memories from the Orchard [Hardcover]

Romney Steele (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 19, 2011

From the author of My Nepenthe, this cookbook features 65 seasonally-inspired recipes that celebrate the "romance of each fruit."

Inside Plum Gorgeous, Romney "Nani" Steele follows her successful cookbook-memoir My Nepenthe with 60 seasonally inspired recipes that celebrate the "romance of fruit." Capturing the essence, beauty, and deliciousness of cooking with seasonal fruits, Steele offers simple and seductive recipes that intertwine with the seasons in which each fruit is harvested.

Savory recipes like Coriander Steak with Blackberry Vinaigrette and Kumquat Couscous Salad with Fried Haloumi Cheese are presented alongside sweet treats like Passionfruit Chocolate Truffles and Plum Soup with Basil Ice Cream. Interspersed throughout Plum Gorgeous are beautiful, full-color photographs by Sara Remington and reminiscences from the year that Steele spent living in an orchard in Big Sur, along with fruit lore and select notes on handling and preserving fruit.

In an accessible but imaginative way, Plum Gorgeous beautifully reveals the many layers and flavor profiles of fruit while celebrating the memories inspired by each season's beauty and bounty.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fruits that are bright, colorful and downright PLUM GORGEOUS star as the ingredients in Romney Steele's delectable ode to orchard fare." --More Magazine

"A love letter to California's delicious fruit, with artful type, charming photographs, whimsical drawings and lots of fun recipes." --Santa Rosa Press-Democrat

"A beautiful love letter to stone fruit at the prime of ripeness, complete with stories from the orchard, little poems and proverbs singing their praises, and of course, lavishly illustrated and elegant seasonal fruit recipes for both sweet and savory dishes." --Serious Eats

"As romantic...as it is practical and inspiring.... Plum Gorgeous will make you want to find the best fruits of the season and include them with every meal of the day." --Seattle Weekly blog Cooking the Books

"If a cookbook can be romantic, this one surely is. 'Plum Gorgeous' is the essence of simplicity and yet one of the most sophisticated books to cross our desks this year." --The Oregonian

"Charming memories are interspersed with mouthwatering photographs of an artsy, old-fashioned nature and inspiring sweet and savory recipes covering all the seasons...lovely." --The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC

"The recipes are wonderfully imaginative, appealing, easy to follow, and utilize fruit for all parts of a meal." --Kitchen GadgetGals

While Plum Gorgeous is first and foremost a cookbook, filled with 60 super-seasonal recipes, with such beautiful photographs and food styling, as well as extensive headnotes to the recipes, it feels like much more than the average cookbook. Steele captures a time and place in her own life - and fills the book with such a clear aesthetic sense - that a mere cookbook jumps into the world of the truly aspirational. We, too, would like to sit around her table, lathering raspberry rhubarb rose petal jam on everything in sight. --localfoods.about.com

About the Author

Romney "Nani" Steele is a writer, a cook, a visual artist, and a food stylist. As the granddaughter of Bill and Lolly Fassett, creators of Nepenthe Restaurant, she grew up at the family business and opened Cafe Kevah, located on the grounds of Nepenthe. She lives in Oakland, California, with her two children, Trevor and Nicoya.

Online:

mynepenthebook.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Plum-Gorgeous/

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (July 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1449402402
• ISBN-13: 978-1449402402
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Plum Gorgeous July 14, 2011

By L. J. Baker

Format:Hardcover

I would give this book a 10 out of 5 if possible. Plum Gorgeous by Romney Steele is not just a memoir, or just a cookbook, or just of food photo book, it is simply all of those things and more. It had the ability to bring back my memories of the smell as you walk out the backdoor to the orchard, in the heat of the summer, and smell only ripe peaches. And not just any peaches but those varieties that you barely see any more, like the Fay Elberta. It brought back the memories of the canning of summer's bounty with my grandmother, jams, fruit, pickles and more. The scent of the fruit pies coming out the oven with beautiful lattice tops.

I must warn, do not read this book while hungry. You will want to run out and get all the ingredients to several or maybe all the recipes she shares with us. I am making the "Marmalade Chicken" for dinner this evening. I love that she also offers alternative items to substitute based on the weather or time of the growing season. The photography in this book provided by Sara Remington is eye candy for all food lovers, and created "artist envy" in me.

This is a book that I will gift to those I know who love to cook, those I know who love to eat good food that stimulate all their senses, and to all the artists I know. I urge everyone who reads this book to not keep it to themselves, pass or gift this bounty just as you would a wonderful sumptuous meal for 10.

Thank you, Romney Steele, for keeping the spirit of the orchard in California alive. You are what my husband fondly calls a "true California sunshine girl" because you appreciate, and have created works of art out of nature's bounty so abundant here in California.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully unique recipes that are about more than plums July 11, 2011

By WonderBunny VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Plum Gorgeous is a great book about recipes using fresh fruit and is organized by season. Each chapter has a few basic recipes, for example the lemon curd recipe in the spring chapter, and then a way to use that for an actual dish. In the case of the lemon curd, it was delicious sounding blueberry lemon compote.

The spring sections starts with citrus fruits. I loved the sound the recipes like honey lavender lemonade. I guess I should clarify that, I like the sound of something besides straight lemonade but I could forgo the lavender. There are even basic recipes with a twist like orange pistachio sables (butter cookies). There was also a Moroccan orange salad that looked awesome in the picture.

The is another section that sort of falls between both spring and summer and is all about recipes with berries. Recipes such as strawberry, nasturtium and cucumber salad had my mouth watering. A little more complex than some of the earlier recipes in this book, they didn't sound too difficult. Other unique recipes in this section include the raspberry rhubarb rose petal jam and the blueberry lemon thyme risotto. I am going to have to try the risotto since it seems I'm on a risotto kick recently.

The third section is summer fruits and contains mostly recipes dealing with plums. Things like plum soup, plum pork chops and plum and lavender jam can all be found in this section. There were also other fruit recipes including duck with cherry salsa and a few recipes for peaches, apricots and mangoes. While some of the recipes are just variations (apricot mango chutney) on others I've seen, I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

The last section is all about fall fruits. There were recipes with figs, apples and pears. I think the grilled lamb-chops with pomegranate and the persimmon chocolate chip cookies were my two favorites from this section. Oh, the final recipe for white chocolate passion fruit truffles sounded awesome but probably not something I'll try as my other half is allergic to passion fruit. They still sounds interesting though.

I liked the recipes in this book; they were interesting and had unique blurbs about the background of the recipe. I was at times annoyed with some of the photographs that filled this book. While I felt the ones of the food added to the book, some of the atmospheric ones were not at beneficial to me. I do want to try a few of the recipes but certain items may not be easy to find everywhere (like the persimmon or elderberry water). This was an enjoyable cookbook to flip through and I'm looking forward to trying some of the recipes. 4 Stars.

I received an ebook copy of this book via Netgalley from the publisher.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gorgeous Cookbook/Photography Collection/Food Memoir April 2, 2013

By Jill Clardy VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I received this book a few weeks ago, read it cover-to-cover immediately, and have continued to pick it up and leaf through the pages, enjoying the gorgeous photography and imagining the dishes I will try to recreate when our local farmer's market opens again later this month.

The title "Plum Gorgeous" perfectly describes the photography and recipes and writing. The author makes cooking and food presentation a sensual, visual art. On page 6 Romney writes: "Lemons make me happy, seeing them on my table in a Moroccan bowl with turquoise edging. The shiny ovals remind me of living at Henry Miller's house, the jumbled oasis down the hill from the orchard, the redwood table at the center of the room where I would always place that bowl and fill it with lemons from the tree. My ode to joy." I also enjoy the perfect beauty of fresh lemons and frequently keep a pile of them in a cobalt blue bowl in my kitchen.

All of the recipes feature fresh fruit and produce from the garden, but with the ubiquity of farmer's markets these days, I should be able to find the seasonal ingredients. Some of the recipes that look appealing to me include "Moroccan orange salad", "strawberry, nasturtium and cucumber salad", "olallieberry pie", "blueberry lemon thyme risotto", "lavender-brined pork chops with grilled spiced plums"' "honey-glazed duck breasts with cherry salsa" and so many others. I have tried a couple of recipes and they are well written, easy to follow and completely reproducible by a cook with even modest skills.