This cookery book is as much about a way of life as it is about recipes.It follows the lives, and the food in the lives, of six generations of women in the Palmer family.
The Palmer farm is located in the middle of the Great Karoo, which means that you have to live in accordance with the seasons, given the extreme weather conditions. The cooks in the Palmer family have learned to use what’s available in accordance with what the land can provide.
And it can provide everything from orchards of citrus fruits ; apples, pears, grenadines, quinces, plums, nectarines,and figs.
All sorts of vegetables are available also, from the humble potato to the Jerusalem artichoke.
You get a sense of families lives in the Karoo. And their lives revolve around two things; meal times and the weather. As I read through each page I felt I was being invited in to drop in and eavesdrop on the Palmer family and their goings on.
The book is beautifully written and the photography is exquisite. I am not surprised that his book won the prize for the best South African cookbook at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
The authors say that the most important requirement, in terms of choosing recipes for this book, was that every dish had to have its own kind of magic.
It’s an utterly joyful cookbook with the most mouthwatering recipes
Roast Beetroot and Persimmon salad with Sour Cream and Lemon Zest looks extraordinary when you plate it up, the dark purple of the beetroot
Front cover.
contrasting with the bright orange of the persimmon pieces.
Rolled and Deboned Saddle of Karoo Lamb is a dish the Karoo is really known for. The distinctive and celebrated flavour of the meat is imparted by the herbaceous Karoo bush that the sheep graze on, it gives the meat a distinctive aromatic taste.
The recipes are evocative home cooking at it’s best, and thoroughly Karoo in Nature. Having read this lovely book from cover to cover I feel I know the Palmer family, their quirks and personalities and more importantly, a thorough understanding of their profound love of honest to goodness cooking.
Prickly Pears & Pomegranates. Local, organic and seasonal food from the Plains of Camdeboo.
By Bernadette Le Roux and Marianne Palmer.
Photography by Craig Fraser.
Published by Quivertree Press. Price R345.
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