Local Description
_____________________________
STELLA'S REVIEW:
What more could you want than a new cookbook filled with tempting delights? Here's the perfect opportunity to get your children into the kitchen cooking for you, themselves, friends and family. Another excellent book from Gecko Press is Egg & Spoon. From the wizardly whisk of Pipi Café’s Alexandra Tylee, it’s good and it's fun—and beautifully illustrated by Giselle Clarkson. So many cookbooks aimed at children fall flat—they are either too easy or too difficult or they over-explain which leads to confusion rather than clarity or leaves a little bit too much to the imagination. Tylee has the pitch just right. Real food recipes ranging from the simple making of Strawberry Chocolate Toasted Muesli, Fish Cooked in Paper, and Walnut Thumbprint Biscuits, to ‘a few more steps to produce’ nosh of Chocolate Eclairs, Avocado & Corn Tacos and Sticky Pork Meatballs and Rice. There are gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan options with an extra few pages at the back for alternative ingredients for allergies and food preferences. The recipes, in most cases, would be easy to convert with a small amount of assistance from a more experienced cook. For example, the Risotto can be vegetarian by changing the stock type, ditto the pumpkin pasta dish by eliminating the bacon. There’s a quick fix for egg replacement for vegans—chia balls, which could come in handy for converting some of your favourite cake recipes. Tylee uses a minimum of processed sugar, preferring honey, bananas, dates and maple syrup for sweetness. My favourite pages are the extra information ones—How to Boil An Egg (making the perfect egg is a skill worth acquiring), How To Tell When a Cake is Done (useful), and the beautifully drawn foraging pages with recommendations for use (Oxalis—a wanted salad ingredient! Picking nettles—don’t forget your gloves). Recipes cover breakfast—check out Breakfast Popsicles, baking—Secret Ingredient Brownies (while avocados are still plentiful), in-between meals—Quick After-School Pasta or Noodles with Marmite(!), and meals from the small—Corn Fritters or Lemon, Thyme and Garlic Pasta; to the more substantial Pipi Pizza, Roast Chook, and Sweet Potato & Pea Curry. There are delicious drinks and plenty of chocolatey delights, all with a twist of humour and good health. Great for the young budding chef and a good go-to cookbook to have on your shelves for the less experienced cooks in your household.
Description
Egg and Spoon is a beautiful illustrated cookbook for children—and adults—that celebrates imagination, confidence and the fun of cooking.
A scrumptious collection for anyone who loves good healthy food— and an occasional indulgence. Here are after-school snacks, breakfast on a stick, cakes, slices and dinners. Egg and Spoon is for children learning to cook independently and families to enjoy cooking together. Much of the food is naturally gluten-free or vegan.
Alexandra Tylee is the owner and chef at Pipi Café, a little pink house, cottage garden and pizza truck. Pipi celebrates eating together and taking pleasure in small things—hot chocolate in a special cup, foraged food, a boiled egg slipped into a pocket for later. Tylee trusts children to choose flavours and handle equipment in this joyful book that will set them on a lifetime love of healthy cooking and eating.
Giselle Clarkson’s illustrations are scrumptious and subversively playful.
Promotion info
Awards
Winner - 2021 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults - Elsie Locke Award for Non-Fiction
Reviews
Author description
Alexandra Tylee is the owner and chef at Pipi Café, a little pink house, cottage garden and pizza truck. Pipi celebrates eating together and taking pleasure in small things—hot chocolate in a special cup, foraged food, a boiled egg slipped into a pocket for later. Tylee trusts children to choose flavours and handle equipment in this joyful book that will set them on a lifetime love of healthy cooking and eating.
Giselle Clarkson is an illustrator and comic artist based in Wellington, New Zealand. Her first book was Secret World of Butterflies with Courtney Sina Meredith, released in 2018.
Table of contents
