Review: chef Peter Lute’s herb cookbook
Chef Peter Lute explains with finesse in The Power of Herbs how you too can learn to cook better with herbs and spices. Including an editors’ pick with FavorFlav’s top 3 favorite recipes from the book.
Last year, Lute radically changed course. In the former gunpowder factory that had housed his restaurant Lute for fourteen years, he started a new restaurant with a new name: De Kruidfabriek by Lute. With, appropriately, herbs in a starring culinary role. On the former factory grounds, the chef created his own Garden of Eden. With a vegetable garden and herb greenhouse that are partly integrated into the restaurant as well. With a chef’s table that has one leg in the kitchen and one in the greenhouse. A new restaurant like this also calls for a new book. In The Power of Herbs – Flavors from De Kruidfabriek , Lute pays tribute to herbs.
His book reads like an herb manifesto
Herb manifesto
Fish and meat are fine for adding structure to a dish, Lute says, but as far as he is concerned, they are interchangeable. The true flavor and layers in a dish come from the use of herbs and spices. His book reads like an herb manifesto. How do you harness this power? What are the flavor properties, and how do you combine flavors?.
Herb passports
Lute works with Limburg herbalist and herb grower Frank Radder. He wrote the herb passports, in which he clearly describes the properties, aroma, flavor, and uses of various herbs. Divided into hardy herbs (such as thyme, rosemary, bay leaf), soft herbs (for example basil, mint, parsley), spices (cardamom, cloves), and mixed spice blends (composed blends such as vadouvan, za’atar, ras el hanout).
Tips
What is nice about the book is that it is not an egomaniacal chef’s book in which the chef directs the spotlight solely at himself. Lute’s book is packed with useful tips for the home cook. Never heat soft herbs such as basil (contrary to what some Italian cookbooks claim). The effect is negligible after heating. Oven potatoes with rosemary? Instead of roasting loose sprigs along with them, which eventually wither and lose their strength, you get much more flavor by finely grinding rosemary needles in a mortar and mixing them into the (heated) oil, then rubbing this into the potatoes (or, for example, chicken) after cooking, just before serving. This gives you a more intense rosemary flavor.
Another good thing to do: make herb oil. Blanch the soft herbs. This helps preserve their color and flavor. Finely grind the herbs in a blender with oil and strain through a cloth (or kitchen paper). You get a beautiful color and an amazing concentrated flavor.
My copy of the book is full of stickers next to every dish I would love to make just like that
Spices
Spices (the dried forms of roots, seeds, and other parts of a plant) are best used whole rather than ground. That way, you get the most out of the product. Use a mortar or an electric grinder to grind the spices finely if necessary. Another good thing to do: ‘mijoteren,’ as the pros call it. In other words, heating (literally braising) them in a little oil, which releases the aromas and flavors. Delicious in an Indian curry or Caribbean stew.
Recipes
Lute stands for a pure and accessible cuisine. No excess, but precision is his motto. And he conveys this in his book as well. The recipes stand out for their simplicity when it comes to feasibility, but without exception they spark curiosity about how the ingredients come together in your mouth. Again and again, an herb or spice claims the starring role. The dishes are enticingly photographed by food photographer Remco Kraaijeveld and stylist Vanja van der Leeden. My copy of the book is full of stickers next to every dish I would love to make just like that. A cookbook that makes you want to get started right away.
Recipes
* Herb pizza with salmon and wasabi mayonnaise
* Polenta fries with capers and parsley mayonnaise
* Pastrami sandwich with ras el hanout, couscous, and Amstel herbs
The Power of Herbs
Peter Lute.
€ 29.99
Carrera
Image: Remco Kraaijeveld
