From grapefruit to walnuts and cocoa to liquorice, this sumptuous cookbook from the 2021 Masterchef finalist is the definitive guide to how to get the most out of beautiful culinary bitterness.
It's time to embrace the beauty of bitter flavours.
Fearlessly bringing together the best flavours and culinary strategies from around the world, Alexina Anatole will help you befriend bitterness - one flavour-balancing technique at a time. Using ten ingredients to walk you through every type of bitterness and how to tame it - from grapefruit and bitter oranges, bitter greens, tahini, beer, walnuts, cranberries, tea, coffee, cocoa and liquorice - each recipe will expand your repertoire and open the door to new worlds of deliciousness, using bitterness in both savoury and sweet dishes to elevate the taste of everything you make.
These 80 recipes include something to suit every taste and occasion. Start with bold breakfasts recipes, like Coffee Pecan Banana Bread, Malted Crepes with Lime & Sugar, and Winter Citrus Fruit Salad, then fill your day with light lunches and weeknight dinners like Roasted Aubergines with Whipped Feta, Grapefruit & Hot Honey, delicious Seared Salmon Tacos with Grapefruit & Avocado and Allspice Lamb Chops with Pickled Walnut Ketchup. Then, impress your guests with Ancho Coffee Beef Short Ribs, Duck Confit with Bitter Orange Salsa Verde and Jerk Pork Belly with Grapefruit Hot Sauce, plus decadent desserts such as Negroni Pavlova, Bitter Chocolate Torte with Passionfruit Sauce and Tiramisu Tres Leches cake.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529193121
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 1103 g
Dimensions: 254 x 196 x 25 mm
I may have said this quite a few times, but I feel it bears repeating: bitterness is the most undesirable of attributes, except when it comes to food … My 'bitter tooth' is pronounced … I gravitated greedily towards Alexina Anatole’s book, Bitter - Nigella Lawson, Nigella.com
Bitter by Alexina Anatole is a gem of a cookbook - not only are the recipes fresh, fun and innovative, but her well-researched writing on the nature of bitter food is a pleasure to read - knowledgeable and generous. I've come away with ideas to enhance my own cooking as well as a stack of recipes to try out for friends and family. A delightful read. - Rukmini Iyer, author of the Roasting Tin series and India Express
A detailed deepdive into the wondrous world of one of the trickiest flavour profiles. Stunning and inventive recipes inspired by cuisines from around the world to make you fall in love with bitter! - Ixta Belfrage, author of Mezcla
So much more than just a cookery book, Bitter is a revelation. Alexina skillfully takes you on a journey through the world of 'bitter', exploring its place in the sphere of flavour, and arming you with tricks and hacks on how to use bitter foods in your everyday cooking. Her recipes are a delight - beautiful, vibrant and packed with exciting, unexpected combinations I can't wait to try. - Dominique Woolf, author of Dominique's Kitchen
The cover is beautiful, the photography is gorgeous and it's accessible. She makes bitter into a really gorgeous topic and lovely recipes. - Georgina Hayden, Sunday Brunch
In this delightful book, MasterChef runner-up Alexina Anatole takes 10 ingredients - bitter oranges, beer, walnuts, cranberries, cocoa and coffee among them - and 'walks you through every type of bitterness and how to tame it'. The recipes are varied and compelling - chicory, roquefort and walnut salad, and coffee and Biscoff no-bake cheesecake jumped off the pages at me - but above all, the pleasure here is in embracing bitter flavours and using them to elevate, balance and bring pleasure across a dish. - Mark Diacono, Delicious Magazine
What I love about Alexina’s approach to recipes and cooking is her thoroughness ... Her debut cookbook, Bitter ... is just the most divine book that celebrates the wonder of bitter flavours and how to use them. I have spoken often in here about the need for balance in cooking and one of the best ways to achieve it is by harnessing bitterness. It offers so much dimension and sophistication to recipes and this is evident in every single one of Alexina’s. - Rosie Mackean, The Dinner Party substack
I welcome Alexina Anatole’s debut book ‘Bitter’ with open arms ... In her debut, Alexina aims to show us all that there’s nothing to fear and so much to gain from bitterness. There are many bitter ingredients we don’t tarnish with the fear brush in the kitchen - coffee, tea and cocoa all have bitter profiles that don’t make us panic. Yet, I’ll admit I still have some residual anxiety around bitterness. If you feel similarly, I’m thrilled to tell you that Alexina is a competent and soothing guide. - Nicola Lamb, Kitchen Projects
From grapefruit to walnuts and cocoa to liquorice, this sumptuous cookbook from the 2021 Masterchef finalist is the definitive guide to how to get the most out of beautiful culinary bitterness. - Mark Skinner, Waterstones
Absolutely glorious - Ashley Jensen, Saturday Kitchen
Alexina's ability to take very strong, bitter, sharp flavours and marry them together with majesty is incredible - John Torode, MasterChef
Alexina really impresses me with her originality - Gregg Wallace, MasterChef
Extremely accomplished - Jay Rayner, MasterChef
Tremendous - Vivek Singh, Saturday Kitchen
A cracking book… marvellous - Olly Smith, Saturday Kitchen
An excitingly original book - Daily Mail, Books of the Year*
So interesting, so clever and so many great recipes – a wonderful cookbook.
Until I picked up this book, I’d never thought about bitterness in food, or even been aware that many of our most enticing foods...
More
I followed Alexina on Masterchef and was rooting for her to win. You can tell through the show that she was very experimental but intentional with flavours and had something new to offer the food world.
I...
More
This is a revelation from Masterchef finalist Alexina Anatole. We can now taste what all the fuss was about. Some truly unusual but magnificent recipes which you initial imagine shouldn’t work. But they do.... More
Please sign in to write a review
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
