36 NOVEMBER 2016 THE COMPLETE GUT HEALTH COOKBOOK THIS MONTH’S LUCKY SUBSCRIBER, Daisy Lee from Auckland will receive all three books reviewed on this page. B O O K R E V I E W S When you think about food and nutrition, it’s not often you consider your gut. Yep, we see plenty of ads on television talking about probiotics and the like, but to many, your gut is either fine or it’s dicky. Paleo-meister Pete Evans – he of My Kitchen Rules Australia fame – reckons there’s way more to it than that…in fact, he says gut health could be a leading factor in overall wellness and the way we eat has never been more important. Dedicating his new cookbook to its readers and the trillions of bacteria that live within them, Evans says he’s suffered from poor digestion, nasal issues and dry skin for pretty much all his life, until he discovered paleo. “We’re so quick to use pills, potions and injections – short-term solutions that only mask the problems and never deal with the underlying concerns, which, in my case, were caused by the foods I was eating and the beneficial foods I was not including in my diet,” he says. And getting your gut healthy isn’t that hard, he and co-writer Helen Padarin say. Some super-charged broths, tasty ferments and medicinal spices…and Bob’s your uncle. Featuring a six-fold path to getting your gut right, some star ingredients, healing herbs and spices to grow at home, a four-week meal plan and more than 100 recipes, this definite guide is ideal for being as healthy as Evans is…it’s a gut reaction. It’d be pretty neat to be Rick Stein. Travelling the world finding little tucked-away places offering the most sublime cuisine must be exhausting but incredibly enjoyable. Filming those trips for the rest of us to see would be satisfying, but coming up with new themes must be a constant battle for the BBC star. In this latest offering, Stein embarks on a series of weekends in search of good food, great wine and superb recipes because, as he says, “I think weekends are a time for memories. So this is my weekend book.” Don’t worry – you won’t have to organise Saturday sports so you can whip over to Vienna for a bite of tafelspitz – because Stein has done the hard yards so you can make recipes at home for family and friends. The recipes are divided by days of the weekend and include some beauties such as Danish fish frikadeller with remoulade, huevos a la flamenca to Constantinople artichoke stew and Berliner doughnuts. His passion for using good-quality local produce and creation of flavour combos makes this a must-have Christmas gift for his legions of fans, and the book will accompany the second-half of the BBC television series of Prime (screening dates yet to be announced). She’s bold, she’s colourful, she’s interesting and she’s ours…Peta Mathias is a staple of our foodie television watching. Now, the former nurse and self-proclaimed “bolter, nomad and gourmand’ offers fans her candid and somewhat bitter-sweet memoir covering cuisine, travel and adventure. “This book is my attempt to explore these interwoven elements that, like a refrain in a song, have recurred throughout my life: food, travel and love. It’s not an Eat Pray Love thing – it’s more a pay-the-rent thing and have-adventures-whileyou’re doing-it thing,” the former frontwoman of Taste New Zealand says. Saucy tales, racy humour, languid laments about feminism are rife, but the book also recounts her most recent uprooting – selling her Grey Lynn cottage to transform a dilapidated Southern France hovel into a stylish new abode and cooking school in Uzes. Catholicism, hippie culture, perfectionism and men don’t escape her pithy recounts, but it’s clear Mathias is a woman who risks much, can’t be tied down and is always dreaming of her next adventure. As she says, she promises to grow old disgracefully, and explains in this candid book the reasons why you should never put all your eggs in one basket/bastard! Mathias will tour Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch later this month with her comedy show… more information is available at: www.ticketdirect.co.nz or www.ticketek.co.nz THE COMPLETE GUT HEALTH COOKBOOK by Pete Evans (MacMillan, $44.99, available now) RICK STEIN’S LONG WEEKENDS by Rick Stein (Penguin Random House, $65, available now) RICK STEIN’S LONG WEEKENDS NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASTARD NEVER PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASTARD, by Peta Mathias (Penguin Random House, $40, available now)
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