29.9.16

the troll cookbook



About a month ago I was craving apples -- good, local apples harvested in season.  And then, like a bit of wish fulfillment, walking through the farmers market, my eyes landed on a pile of freshly picked Gravensteins.


These first apples of the season put me in mind of a watercolor illustration by Karima Cammell from The Troll Cookbook, which she co-authored with Clint Marsh.


I've been intending to tell you about this book since its publication last February, but now that apple-season is here, it seems the perfect time.

The Troll Cookbook acts as an instruction manual for how to prepare food as trolls do: relying on seasonal produce, guided by appetite, and enjoyment of all five senses.  The recipes are organized by season, interspersed with insight into troll-wisdom, sensibilities and folk-tales.  For example, this information appears under the heading Goblin Fruit: Visiting the Troll Market

All vegetables taste best when they are fresh and grown in soil, ideally with a bit of dirt still clinging to them when they are displayed in the market. What sort of dark magic, thinks the troll, is responsible for hydroponic tomatoes grown in the dead of winter? 

... Moving beyond the produce section, the troll is equally frustrated with much of the rest of the supermarket, with its aisles of packages plastered with photographs of the food inside, or worse, of happy people.  Trolls appreciate truth in advertising.  Not once has a troll torn open a box of cereal and found actual people to eat inside.  It's disappointing.

This quote points, alas, to the one deficit in this book.  Trolls are known for tossing hapless humans into their cookpots, and yet I could not find one recipe for how to cook a human among the collected recipes. This is probably for the best. Personally, I'd much rather have a book filled with instructions for preparing apples, breads & cakes, pickled vegetables, preserved lemons, rose-hip jam and warming winter soups.  How about you? 

6 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Me too : I prefer making good cakes and cookies with apple... At home, we have a book too to cooking with fairies and elfs where sugar is "crystals of white moon" and milk is " unicorn blood".
    Miam miam ...
    Have a good autumn and a nice day !
    Bon week end
    Christineh

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    Replies
    1. Chere Christineh,
      You must tell me the title of your book with recipes for cooking with elves and fairies!! I would love to see if I can somehow buy a copy. I'm not sure I like the idea of cooking with "unicorn blood" but the rest of it sounds amazing!!

      Bon weekend to you, too, and xo
      mb

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    2. Hello,
      The title is "La grande tambouille des fées" from René Hausman and Michel Rodrigue, edited by "Au bord des continents" ISBN 2-911684-34-6 but it's maybe only in french ... With children, it's very good and at the beginning of the book, there is a nice story with a little boy and the illustrations are beautiful.
      I have a other book but it's more for adults : it's "Petit précis de cuisine elfique" edited by "Avis de tempête" by Laurence Germain et Yannig Germain. It's only cooking and maybe only in french too ... Illustrations are nice and the writting is poetic (ISBN 2-911-684-03-6).
      I hope you'll find them ...
      Bon week end to all of you
      xo
      Christineh

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    3. Dear Christineh - Thank you so much for the author/title information. I was able to order a copy of each book from US Amazon!! I can read enough French so that we will be able to enjoy the books and I can't wait for them to arrive!

      Are you familiar with the work of Brian Froud? We own quite a few books by him & his wife. The books are quite wonderful http://www.worldoffroud.com/books/index.php

      We also adore the books: "How to Find Flower Fairies", "Flower Fairies Magical Doors", and "Flower Fairies Magical Moonlight Feast". The artwork is by Cicely Mary Barker.

      And for more faerie-love, there is this magazine http://www.faeriemag.com/ It's an indulgence but I cannot resist...

      Can you email me? That way I will have your email address and it will be easier to communicate with each other in the future.
      xo
      mb

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  2. Hello !
    I answer here because I can't send you a email if I haven't a count ... I don't understand and I'll see with my husband later ...
    I know Brian Froud because I have 2 books : "good fairies-bad fairies" and "Le livre de fées séchées de Lady Cottington". And on my motocycle helmet, I have a "good fairies" !!
    The world is little !!!
    I hope you a good week with lots of apples !!!
    bises,
    Christineh

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    Replies
    1. Ah! It would be difficult for you to send me an email if you don't have an email account! I just thought it would be easier to email about fairy books than to write back and forth here in my blog comments.

      How funny that, in the French Lady Cottington book, the fairies are séchées (dried) whereas in English they are "pressed" i.e. flattened, as one would press flowers between the pages of a book to preserve them.

      And how fun to have a fairy on your motorcycle helmet (how fun to have a motorcycle!)
      xo
      mb

      Delete

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