My favorite books about food

These are some of the food books I really love. Amazing life stories, food travel guides and fiction books that connect food to people's feelings in a way that I start believing these are not really separable. Be careful with them. You might end up believing it too.

Spicy hot cake with sticky toffee sauce

Last weekend I made this Nigella's Spicy hot cake. I knew I'll have to make it once I saw the video of her making it. The batter goes into the baking dish, lots of muscovado sugar goes on top and - oops - all that goes flooded by boiling water from the kettle. But magic! - a great looking pudding in boiling sticky toffee sauce comes out of the oven.

Crispy oatmeal cookies (vegan version)

I'm getting more and more enthusiastic about vegan baking. After the banana upside down mini cakes worked I got these wonderful oatmeal cookies. My first attempt one them I'm embarrassed to describe. At the second one however they even surprised me. They came out deliciously light, crispy and airy. The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and orange gave them a touch of heat and feast.

Banana upside down mini cakes (vegan version)

I recently got interested in vegan (eggless and dairy free) pastry. After my several unsuccessful attempts on this, banana upside down mini cakes finally worked perfectly. They came out really flavorful and full of aroma, airy, tender and moist at the same time. I had a great breakfast. So for the first time since these experiments started I really feel like sharing a recipe.

Gorgonzola and spinach pasta

Since I started this blog I noticed that virtually all my favorite pasta recipes contain fettuccine / linguine / tagliatelle and cream sauce. The only exception seems to be pasta with home made pesto.

Picture perfect Tarte Tatin

I keep making Tarte Tatin since I came back from France. Last time I made a pretty innocent one, with not much sugar and butter. This time I wanted it to be rich and really pretty. The idea was to make a thick apple layer. Like the one I saw in Berthillon Paris cafe.

Upside down cake Moscow bakery

Yesterday I was meeting a friend and she suggested we check out the Upside down cake Moscow bakery. I felt really lucky with this finding. We spent 2.5 hours there and since then I can't help thinking about when I'm going back to try more desserts.

Broccoli and gorgonzola cream soup

Sometimes I really need some vegetable soup. It's the most comforting food I can imagine. Especially if it is a cream soup. The brilliant thing about it is that it doesn't have to be complicated. To me the best vegetable cream soups are plane, with one or two components and with no thickeners (like flour or heavy cream).

True Australian Pavlova

Couple of weeks ago I got really lucky on LiveJornal. An Australian working in a pastry kitchen shared her Pavlova recipe with me. Since then I was eager to try it and finally did.

A magic cup of cinnamon hot chocolate

I just needed something energizing yesterday night. So I thought about hot chocolate recipe I saw in David Lebovitz The Sweet Life in Paris. Happily I had an appropriate chocolate bar at home. I was too lazy to go out.