Photo by Christian Cassiel
Every week on here, I get the chance to tell you about a new cookbook that has inspired me, and I celebrate that gratefully, for it gives me a great boost of happiness to share my enthusiasms, and especially so when food or books are concerned! Unfortunately, though, I have a personality much given to perseverating, which means I never quite stop fretting about the many estimable books that don’t make it onto CookbookCorner, whether it’s because I find out about them too late or there simply isn’t room. Still, being timely isn’t everything, and although it came out at the beginning of last month, and there are books a-plenty out this week (some of which I hope will make the cut later) I simply wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I failed to bring ‘Kin' to your attention. The reason is a simple one: I have fallen in love with this book.
The recipes it contains are vibrant, welcoming and beguilingly wide-ranging. And that’s an important factor, no doubt about it. But what makes Marie Mitchell’s stunning debut so particularly compelling is her nuanced reflectiveness, her vulnerability-risking honesty, her illuminating insistence on vital context, both historical and emotional — in short, her sensibility. This is also a book — subtitled ‘Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen’ — about food as legacy in so many ways. And part of this is about the premature deaths of first her brother and then, shortly before the birth of Mitchell’s daughter, her mother. This resonated deeply with me: the premature deaths of first my mother and then, very shortly before the birth of my daughter, my sister are very much part of why I wrote my first book, How To Eat; I needed to memorialise them through the food that had underpinned our lives together. But don’t get nervous! Suffering, both personal and systemic underpins Kin, to be sure, but this is actually a joyful book: a celebration of what matters, of what connects us and, of course, of fabulous food!
Let me give you a few examples, just to whet your appetite. I have to give a mention of the Mango Chutney; Pickled Spring Onions; Hot Pepper Sauce; Jamaican Patties; Naughty (and that’s Mitchell’s term, not mine!) Pork Bites; Fluffy Cassava Fries; B’s Roast Chicken; Jerk Lamb Burgers; Mango Chow; Home Rice and Peas; Pop’s Mac Pie, a fiery mac and cheese; Creamy Tomato Curry; Ital Coconut Stew; the eat-me-now Ginger Drizzle Cake; Stout Punch Ice Cream; and Custard Apple Sorbet. No shortlist can convey the vitality and scope of it, but this book offers so much comfort, so much inspiration. And the recipe I am so happy to be sharing with you today is the gorgeous Buss Up Shut Roti, a particular favourite of mine!
KIN: Caribbean Recipes for the Modern Kitchen by Marie Mitchell is published by Particular Books.
Photos by Christian Cassiel.
