REVIEW: GEORGE BERNARD SHAW VEGETARIAN COOK BOOK Alice Laden

One of the trends in modern diet is a movement away from pastas towards Oriental noodles, because these are low-fat, healthy, fresh, inexpensive, quick to cook, and can provide an unlimited variety of flavours.  H.S. Paul Franklin is the chef/gourmand in the Kangaroo Poets collective, and you can find many recipes and suggestions in his regular column in South of Tuk.  Winter is a good time of year for hearty soup, and Paul likes to make noodle soups with a strong vegetarian broth.  To the broth he adds noodles and then garnishes with fresh, uncooked vegetables.  If you aren’t a vegetarian, you can add meat.

THIS WEEK’S FREE RECIPE: 

VEGETARIAN NO-FAT BROTH

Because this broth is intended as a way to use up cuttings or scraps of vegetables in your refrigerator, each time you make it you’ll have a slightly different flavour.  Do not peel unpeeled vegetables and do not remove seeds – skins and seeds add flavour and vitamins.  Use carrots, potatoes, turnips, parsnips, peas, mushrooms, celery, cabbage, onions, leeks, spinach, broccoli – whatever you have in your fridge.  Add veggies to a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer for at least two hours.  To add an Asian flavour, add ginger, lemongrass and coriander.

THE GEORGE BERNARD SHAW VEGETARIAN COOK BOOK

by his cook: Alice Laden

George Bernard Shaw became a vegetarian in his twenties, deciding to follow Shelley [also a vegetarian] who had written:

never again may blood of bird or beast

stain with its venomous stream a human feast!

and there are references to Shaw’s vegetarianism in his plays and other work:

“meat is poison to the system”

“no one should live on dead things”

“it is beneficial to one’s health not to be carnivorous”

Shaw passed away a few weeks short of his 95^th birthday, and he attributed his longevity to his vegetarianism.  He ate meals prepared by servants while he lived with his mother until he married at age 42.  His wife, not a vegetarian, prepared his special meals for 45 years and when she passed away, Shaw’s meals were prepared by Alice Laden.  Alice was a master vegetarian chef who had apprenticed under Mrs. Gompertz.  Her kitchen was her castle; no one, not even Shaw, was permitted to enter – with one exception:  when the vegetarian President of India, Mr. Nehru, visited Shaw he brought along some fresh fruit, and was permitted to use Alice’s kitchen to personally prepare the fruit for Shaw.  The recipes in this cook book are by Alice Laden as told to R.J. Minney.

Shaw was far from ascetic in his eating habits.  The famous playwright relished variety and spice in his meals.  Lunch, which was often shared with illustrious literary or political guests, was apt to take two and a half hours.  And why not, when it might consist of cheese strudel, leek soup, stuffed pepper salad, cauliflower au gratin, tomatoe and mushroom pie, topped off with lemon mousse or vanilla souffle! 

This book contains 6 recipes for appetizers;

6 recipes for soup;

15 recipes for salads;

55 recipes for main vegetarian dishes;

20 recipes for sauces (or dips);

and [Shaw loved sweet dishes] 26 marvellous dessert recipes.

1977 Jove/HBC paperback; acceptable condition;

ITEM MA54 in the Nebiru Crossing book store [look for us on Facebook]