All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr & Recipe Gifted by Ben Tish
As always, a book, a recipe and some info.
Read on to find a recipe for Turkish Style Spiced Lentils with Pumpkin, Chicken, and Aleppo Pepper by the incredible culinary artist that is the .Mediterranean cuisine master, Ben Tish.. Find out about the book Foodie Book Club is reading this December too.
Don’t stop reading to find links to Anthony and Bens socials and website, all places you can learn much more about them.
Author
I’ve taken information about Anthony Doerr directly from his website.
Born and raised in Ohio, Anthony Doerr is the author of short stories, a memoir and many novels.
Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and finalist for many book awards.
It’s not just his novels which have won awards, his short stories have won five O. Henry Prizes and many more and his writings translated into over forty languages.
Find Anthonys website here and link to instagram here.
Anthony Doerr
Book
Feeling that many war stories he had read, had portrayed the French resistance as ‘charismatic heroes’ and the Nazis as “evil torturers’ Anthony Doerr wanted to write an original story set in WWII, so he wrote All the Light We Cannot See.
The book is about resilience and the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
It follows the main characters of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German boy drafted into the Hitler youth, as they navigate their way through World War II.
It shows them growing up during the war, when Werner is recruited into the Hitler youth, where he shows a skill for mechanics and Marie-Laure moves to live with relatives.
Their lives briefly cross during the bombing of the German occupied town of Saint-Malo (1944).
The book received mixed reviews, with some critics thinking it ‘unsavoury’ with the writing being pretentious an imprecise.
December choc=sen book and recipe by Ben Tish
What I Think
I didn’t enjoy this book, it felt as though it could have been cut down by 1/3rd, with most of the writing left in the book by bad editing.
I was amused that the book was written because the author wanted to write a book that didn’t portray stereotypical characters. The more I made my way through the book, the more I felt the writing and the story was just another formulaic book..
You’ve probably gathered that this book isn’t one of my favourite reads, so I’m going to give this a 1 egg rating.
Only 1 egg rating from me
Chef
From Great British Chefs and Bens website.
Ben Tish didn’t think twice when I asked him to gift Foodie Book Club a recipe to go along with our monthly book choice, he replied with “Happy to help Lee. What’s your email, and I’ll send you one.”
What an amazingly generous reply and such an open gesture.
So, thank you Ben, I know all of our members will be drooling over your dish and will be already be scrolling, looking for your cook books.
I’ve taken information from Bens own website and from a great piece I found on the Great British Chefs website, so I’m hoping Ben is ok with me piecing these together.
Scroll to the end to find all Bens social links so you can find more about him and where to find his books and restaurant etc.
Ben Tish
Ben Tish has may talents, not just a creator of dishes everyone wants to eat, he’s also a writer of cookbooks, a restauranteur and chef director at Cubitt House’s numerous pubs and restaurants.
Ben grew up in the coastal town of Skegness, and even with parents who loved food and cooking, being a chef wasn’t a thing he’d initially thought about.
Moving to London after his A levels were complete, he was persuaded by a friend to sign up for culinary school and found a place at Jason Atherton hotel in Skegness.
When Jason returned to London, ben got a badly paid job at the Ritz.
He learnt a lot of skills during his time there, but followed Jason to London to work with him at Coast where he met life long friends.
Next came a couple of years at Marcus Wareing restaurant L’Oranger, and then One Lawn Terrace where his long time friend and mentor Jason and Steve Terry resided.
It was after this, at Al Duca, where Ben found and fell in love with the Mediterranean flavours.
Bens first role as head chef was in the West Highlands, at the Crinan Hotel. Ben says it was had great reviews, but because it was very challenging because it was very seasonal.
He spent three years here.
When ben made his way back to London, he agreed to temporarily help out a couple of his friends at their restaurant, Salt Yard, after their chef let them down. Thirteen years later, he was still there, and became a partner and investor.
The restaurant became a group, and grew, with the opening of more restaurants.
This is the time he learnt about the business side of the restaurant-ing.
Wanting to find something that was just his, Ben took a year out to have a think about things and do some planning.
With his wife, he planned to open a restaurant concentrating on the Mediterranean food he had first fallen in love with all those years ago, but after investing lots of time, and lots of money, the site fell through.
It was then that Stuart Proctor came to the rescue with an offer for Ben to work with him and be culinary director at The Game Bird, in exchange for helping him to open his own planned restaurant, Norma.
So, Ben said yes.
Ben describes Norma as having a high level feel to it. At the same time, everything is toned down, relaxed with honed and enhanced rustic food, all with Bens much loved Mediterranean feel.
It was in 2022 that Ben once again decided to move forward and became director at Cubitt House.
Cubitt House is a big deal, it owns a range of pubs and restaurants across London.
As if that isn’t enough, this super man has also published five cook books and is an award-winning food writer, featured in renowned magazines and newspapers as well as named Cookbook of The Year by The Times Magazine.
He shares his skills with others with his classes, is a member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and educates school children through Adopt a School project.
And with all this going on, Ben still found time to help out Foodie Book Club, so thank you, feels very inadequate, but again, thank you Ben.
As promised, here are Bens socials and other ways to find out more about him.
Instagram here, Twitter here, and website here.
Recipe
This recipe and delicious photo, is from Bens latest book Mediterranean. I’ve put it down as sent to me by Ben.
Enjoy it, I know I will!
Turkish style spiced lentils with pumpkin, chicken, and Aleppo pepper gifted by Ben Tish.
Turkish Style Spiced Lentils with Pumpkin, Chicken, and Aleppo Pepper
“I can only take a little credit for this recipe- its creator Sulyman, is one of my talented cooks and this appeared as a staff food one day when I happened to be at the particular restaurant. Fate you could say as I tried it and was blown away, not only delicious and vibrant but a great way to use leftover roasted or grilled chicken, to give it a new life. Apparently, it was taught to him by His Aunty who used to make “Perde Pilav” (veiled rice) for grand weddings- an elaborate, spiced chicken pilaf baked into a decorative crust. There was always extra chicken to use up and this was the family favourite. I can see why- and ready in 40 minutes”
Serves 4
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp chilli flakes
125g dried green lentils, rinsed
2 tbsp tomato purée
600ml chicken stock or vegetable stock (fresh or homemade is best)
400g leftover roasted chicken, shredded
100g curly kale or other greens
200g peeled pumpkin or squash (heavy fleshed is best for flavour), seeds removed and cut into chunks
handful of fresh mint, chopped
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
Aleppo chilli flakes
Sea salt, black pepper, and olive oil for cooking
Method
Heat a large deep saucepan over a medium heat , add the coriander seeds and toast for a few minutes until fragrant.
Transfer to a pestle and mortar or spice grinder and turn to a rough powder. In the same pan, heat a lug of oil and add the ground coriander, onion, and carrots, then sweat for 5 minutes without colour.
Add the garlic cloves, pumpkin, and chilli flakes. Gently cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the lentils. Cook for another minute, then add the tomato purée and stock. Simmer for 35 minutes or until the lentils and pumpkin are tender
Stir in the chicken, kale, lemon juice and the fresh herbs.
Season to taste and then cook slowly for 10 minutes until the lentils are fully cooked and the kale has wilted down.
Serve, sprinkled liberally with Aleppo pepper chilli flakes.
