Thinking about self-publishing
- rosemary
- Sep 9
- 7 min read
I mentioned this book in passing a little while ago, It was a present from my son - a self-published book by a friend of his. As he handed it to me he told me that I should do one too.
So two things about this post. One - I have had a closer look at the book itself and will just present it as I do all of the cookbooks I buy or am given. There are actually a few enticing recipes in there. The second is some further thoughts about doing it myself.
And apologies - I'm sure there will be a lot of repetition here. Well we probably all churn the same thoughts over in our minds all the time, but hopefully, in the case of this blog, with a slightly different slant each time the topic is tackled.
So first the book itself. It is indeed a 'proper' book in that it has proper copyright and an actual ISBN, and I'm guessing it is being sold somehow. Indeed it is - at various major bookselling sites - Waterstones, Booktopia ... So proper self-publishing. For myself I'm not thinking of self-publishing in the same way. No I'm just thinking of creating a book in Apple's pages, and then getting it printed properly - just a few copies for the family's non-cooks - probably by my favourite local printer, who used to do all of my old film society's stuff. And I know he does books too, because I asked him once. I'm just thinking of a book to help my grandchildren as they leave home - some sooner than others - and have to fend for themselves. So I think it will be less of a recipe book and more of a how-to book.
I shall come back to this. First the book above. The lady is of Pakistani heritage, but born and raised in the UK until moving to Australia 8 years ago. And so there are a lot of Pakistani dishes - inspired by her grandmother and father who seem to have been the cooks of the family. But there are other dishes too - inspired I'm guessing - like most of us enthusiastic cooks, by the various creative cooks and recipe developers that populate the net, social media and the cookbook world these days. I should also say that each recipe has a suggested musical accompaniment because:
"It's about the experience of cooking. That's why each dish is paired with a song, carefully chosen to set the mood, whilst you cook."
Although, being an oldie I recognise none of these songs and actually do not play music as I cook. Which, in a way, is rather sad. Before I had children I used to have a fairly constant musical background, but as my little people grew and became very, very noisy, I gave up to the competition. And then they were gone, and the habit of listening was gone too. And now I wouldn't even know how to begin to again be in touch with what everyone is listening to. Yes, sad.
But back to the book. It's a bit of a mix and to illustrate that mix here are some notes on a few of those recipes.
Chicken and red capsicum curry
This one caught my eye because I just, somewhat foolishly, bought almost a kilo of capsicum - in the Odd Bunch section at Woolworths - and so I shall shortly be needing to do something with them. I guess it's a fairly conventional kind of curry in terms of the spices - turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam marsala - plus the less usual cinnamon stick and cardamom pods. However, I don't think I have ever really thought of using capsicum in a curry - although why not? I'm also not that clever about making up curry recipes so this might be something I can have a go at. I shall put it in the kitchen anyway. I have a small pile of recipes of things imminently to make.
Tarragon Roasted Chicken
There is no photograph of this dish, but I include it because although there are thousands of recipes for tarragon chicken, I haven't seen one quite like this before. You spatchcock your chicken - you know - cut it down the backbone and then press it out flat. Rub olive oil all over, smash a whole head of garlic and put the cloves under the chicken in a roasting tin and roast for 20-30 minutes until when it starts to go brown. While it's cooking mix cream, tarragon and mustard together. Take out the chicken, pour in some white wine, rub your tarragon mixture into the chicken and cook until done. This one I am definitely going to try, because I love tarragon and chicken together.
My signature confit tomatoes with pistachio pesto and burrata
Just to show how attuned, and maybe influenced she is to both the burrata on top of tomatoes general trend, and also to Ottolenghi's Warm tomato salad with burrata, which I made the other day - delicious by the way.
This is not exactly the same, indeed not the same at all really because the tomatoes are slow-cooked in olive oil, herbs, garlic, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar for a long time, rather than a quick roast as in Ottolenghi's recipe. The pistachio pesto is found elsewhere in the book - pistachios, olive oil, garlic, basil, Parmesan - the usual thing really. Pesto on the bottom of the bowl, tomatoes on top with the burrata and some chopped cashews for texture. A variation on Ottolenghi's salad, that could be a start to all sorts of experiments. And pretty simple too.
Pappardelle with roasted pumpkin spinach and toasted walnuts
Another recipe which is, of course, very similar to thousands that you will find everywhere you find recipes and ideas for recipes. Which is not to put this down because I'm sure it is delicious.
And there is cream, garlic and Parmesan. I'm sure it's the kind of thing that people like you and I can whip up with whatever vegetable we have in the fridge that needs using up. Indeed I truly wonder why the laziest of cooks does not have a go at something like this - and it is certainly an example of a genre that I shall be featuring in my sort of cookbook. If I actually create it of course.
Mahdea's meatballs
Mahdea's? I wonder about this one, because it seems to me that the ingredients for the meatballs are exactly those that I use - from Robert Carrier's long ago recipe. Well she uses 'good-quality Italian herbs' and dried oregano rather than Robert Carrier's parsley, but otherwise identical. I even wondered whether my son had passed on the recipe because I know he makes it every now and then. But I don't know how well he knows her. She doesn't fry hers before cooking them in the tomato sauce however. I tried that once, and it wasn't as good as fried ones.
But perhaps I'm being unfair here. I guess this is just a classic that almost everyone makes more or less the same way. And you have to say it looks tempting.
It's a very slim book, and the recipes are all pretty tempting. Not quite all of them have a photograph - and the photographs look pretty professional. I wish her well. There are lots more 'professional' cookbooks out there that are not nearly as good. As I've said before, apparently publishers are happy if one recipe from their cookbook is tried. I could try half a dozen at least from this one.
So what about me? It's not just my son saying I should create a book of my recipes, it was also a comment from my friend Monika as I was showing her my recent purchase of Noor Murad's Lugma as we bemoaned the fact that people - and especially the young - an specifically our grandchildren - do not cook even though there are thousands of extremely simple, gorgeous looking and delicious recipes to be found.
We oohed and aahed over some of Noor's recipes, but, as Monika said - and this is an example - kids would see a longish list of ingredients and an even longer method and go no further, no matter how gorgeous the idea = and the picture - of those Cardamom pancakes with honey lime syrup is. A quick TikTok video is more appealing, even though it won't actually give you the detail of the ingredients or the method. Maybe that's not a bad thing?
Maybe instead we should be aiming for something like this - an almost recipe from the latest Coles Magazine, that involves buying a packet of chips, a jar of chargrilled and sliced peppers, some prosciutto, some chives and some Spanish truffle cheese. Fry the prosciutto until crisp, load the chips with the rest - and then pour over some honey heated with chilli flakes and sprinkle with chives.
It's not gourmet stuff, but I guess it has most of the food groups in there and it looks good too. And it's crunch - always a bonus for the young. Moreover, although in fact, it is no easier to make really than the fancy pancakes, half of the work is done for you, and the recipe is short, short, short - with important things in bold type.
I think what I would like to achieve with my 'book' is to introduce some fundamental cooking genres - tray bake, pasta, stir fry, roast, tarts, pies and how you go about it, plus a bit about what goes with what because I have come to the realisation late in life that this is perhaps one of the most useful things you can learn about cooking.
So far I am just thinking although I have checked out some Pages templates, and am now dithering between these:
And I change my mind every day. Although I have already eliminated two others. Veering towards the first one there, with perhaps a bit of changing around.
YEARS GONE BY
September 9
2024 - A new pastry trick
2021 - Nothing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2017 - Jicama
Count me in as a purchaser. I would love to buy a copy of your book when it arrives.