What inspired you to write your book?
I have been a chef for ages, over 30 years, the most recent half of them cooking on the lovely little Caribbean island of Tortola. Naturally in all that hot sunshine iced desserts are much in demand and I managed, indeed more than managed to come up with the goods without using an ice cream machine. I haven’t been messing with ice and salt either!
What I have been doing is adapting, tweaking and varying one embarrassingly simple recipe to make numerous delicious and even impressive (at least to me) ice creams and ice cream dishes. Basic though the method is, many of these ices have been best sellers in high class restaurants and are in no way a compromise.
Having seen how many homemade ice cream books there are on the market, often involving complicated methods and expensive ice cream machines, I felt it would be shame not to pass on this undemanding but excellent recipe
About your Book:
This may be a chefs’ secret, in which case – sorry everyone!
This is the quickest and easiest way ever to make real rich, creamy dairy ice cream ~ no machine needed, no hard work just mix it, bung it in the freezer and forget it!
This is also very much a proven method; working in the Caribbean the customers were very pernickety and naturally, in all that lovely hot sunshine, ice cream desserts were much in demand. Unable to get hold of either an ice cream machine or a good quality ready-made product Suzy Bowler created her own luscious ice creams, using a simple foolproof method; so simple and foolproof, in fact, that it would be a shame not to pass it on.
100+ Luscious Ice Creams without a Machine includes …
~ Over 100 delicious ice cream recipes from vanilla, strawberry, chocolate etc. to flavours such as Clotted Cream, Salted Caramel, Rum Roasted Banana, Chocolate-Chilli Ripple, Cinnamon Toast, Peach & Brown Sugar Meringue, Blue Cheese & Port Ripple, Über Mocha and loads more all based on one simple recipe and method.
~ 35 or more recipes for inclusions, additions, sauces etc.
~ Great serving suggestions.
~ Photos, anecdotes and jokes!
~ Now includes American Cup Measurements and a clickable Index of Recipes.
Cuisine Style or Food Genre
Quick and Easy Desserts
Sample Recipe or Food Advice
Squidgy Chocolate Meringues to serve with ice creams
I advise you not to leave these lying around in public – they really are most enticing
180g/1½ cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate
2 large room temperature egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
50g/¼ cup caster sugar
~ Break up the chocolate and put into a small bowl and stand it in a small pan of boiling water to come about a third of the way up the bowl. If your bowl is plastic it is a good idea to stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
~ Simmer the water until the chocolate is melted and then stir till smooth.
~ Cool a little but it should still be runny.
~ Preheat your oven to 350ºF/180ºC/160°C fan/gas 4 and line a baking tray with baking parchment or a non-stick liner.
~ Whisk the egg whites together with the cream of tartar (abiding by the same meringue rules as above) to soft peaks.
~ Add the vanilla extract and then, still whisking, gradually add the sugar and whisk to stiff peaks.
~ Add the cooled chocolate and fold in gently, gently to till all merged together.
~ Immediately drop teaspoonfully onto the parchment a couple of centimetres apart and bake till shiny and cracked – about 15-20 minutes.
Cool still on the tray on a cooling rack and either fold into an ice cream or eat quite soon (not difficult) although they will do fine for 2 or 3 days in an airtight container. This recipe makes about 20 so you could do both.
If, inexplicably, you have no ice cream, fill these meringues with whipped or, even better, clotted cream.
What formats are your books in: eBook
How do you see writing a food/cookbook as different from writing other genres of books?
I think a huge difference is everything has to be tested and re-tested so as well as sitting a lot there is also a lot of eating involved. What a life!
There is also a great deal of competition from celebrity chefs who I have nothing against but whilst lovely books and some great ideas I don’t feel are always useful for home cooks BUT they are so difficult to complete with!
Advice to someone that is thinking about or currently working on a food book or cookbook
Enjoy yourself!
I love food and I don’t just mean eating it. I like food shopping (and no other shopping!), planning, experimenting, cooking and feeding others (and myself) and I enjoy writing about it. I would love to make loads of loads of money out of the venture but as I have so much fun even if I don’t, well … I’m still happy!
Apart from that don’t nick other people’s recipes or photos, try to add some personality to the book and test your recipes before publishing them.
How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
A couple of years ago my first book, “The Leftovers Handbook: A-Z of Every Ingredient In Your Kitchen with Inspirational Ideas For Using Them” was properly published and I was very proud and excited. Soon after that I became irritated, upset and a bit cross! I had worked so hard on it and I feel it is full of really useful, unusual and creative ideas for leftovers. I also felt it was very timely with all the discussion of food waste currently on the media. When the book was edited I was aghast at the mess the editor made of it (some ludicrous changes which I changed back, some just weakened my writing), once published I found that the “artwork” was just clipart, the promotion was virtually non-existent and the sales, consequently poor.
In short I thought I can do better myself!!!
I would advise new authors to at least try going it alone.
Author Bio:
I have been a somewhat itinerant chef for over 30 years. After 14 years in Cornwall I cooked in a ski resort in the French Alps, on a passage making yacht around Madeira and the Canary Islands, in New Zealand and on a catamaran in the Caribbean before settling in the BVI where I worked as a chef for many years. All this travelling taught me not only a great deal about different foods of the World but also how to make the best of what you have.
I have now stopped cheffing but am still strangely obsessed with food and cooking. I have therefore decided I’d like to spend my dotage passing on what I have learned.
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