Knowing how tasty Liam’s tapas are, I could not wait to open this recipe book. I love the idea of sitting outside with a group of friends. Enjoying the sunshine, sipping on drinks, and snacking on small bites of deliciousness.
Tapas with Liam Tomlin is about the style of food that Liam likes to cook and the way he likes to eat, with lots of different tastes, textures and cooking styles.After so many years in professional kitchens, Liam wanted a departure from the formal structure of restaurants with reservations, stuffy service and fixed menus that are repeated day after day. At Chefs Warehouse, he has moved away from food with too many layers, and components added simply for the sake of adding them. His way of cooking is focused on technique and on extracting as much flavour as possible to create tasty and well balanced dishes. The tapas recipes are not intimidating, only delicious. As Andy Fenner,owner of Frankie Fenner Meat Merchants says: ‘Liam has the crew do it every day. This book will show you how to do it at home.’
Recipes that caught my eye:
- Lacquered quail with pickled carrots (p33)
- Duck breast with fesenjun sauce (p37)
- Pumpkin gnocchi (p71)
- Tomato tart (p79)
- Gyoza (p95)
- Beef broth (p118)
- Saffron linguine with mussels (p131)
- Beetroot cured salmon (p137)
- Steamed fish curry (p141)
- Onion and cider soup (p185)
- Grape chutney (p197)
- Chocolate sorbet (p211)
- Churros and chocolate sauce (p215)
- Bao buns (p232)
My impressions:
All I can say is WOW! Tapas is an impressive cook book that is worthy of any coffee table. Even the mushrooms on toast (p189) looks impressive. I love the photographs, not only the ones that entice you to try a recipe. But the ones highlighting life in the Cape.
What I made:
Over the years, I have made a few dishes inspired by Liam. The first being the café de Paris butter and the second was my own recreation of his sweetcorn and basil velouté. For this review I made the onion and cider soup which I loved. Dave is not a fan of onions so this meant I get to enjoy the entire pot. I also made the chocolate sorbet to serve with a chocolate stout pudding. The sorbet takes me right back to Italy, where we are meant to be in 10 days time.
Publishing information:
Penguin Random House South Africa sent me this recipe book to review.
Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime September 30:
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- 2019 – Smokey Fiery Harissa
- 2015 – Nida Deguitene Answers Questions For The Blog
- 2013 – Cassoulet
- 2012 – Angeliqueca Roux Answers Questions For The Blog
- 2011 – ClemenGold And Cranberry Cake
- 2010 – Chilli Oil
The cider and onion soup sounds wonderful. I must admit that Liam Tomlin was an unknown to me until today when I read your post. After reading, I Googled the chef and came to like the guy. I’ve been on a cookery book buying moratorium, but this one is surely tempting me. In checking our Swedish online book seller, I see his Tapas cookery book is available here. Maybe I’ll put it on my Christmas wish list.
He is a really good chef and I will share the recipe soon so you can road test it before committing to the book 🙂
Thanks, I’ll look forward to trying one of his recipes.
Looks a great cookery book but I already have so many
This is a really lovely one to have 🙂
Changing word meanings can really be fascinating. In this case, the Spanish word “tapas” has grown into an entire new meaning as an English-language word.
When we spent quite a while in Spain, we went to tapas bars where there might be as many as six choices of small rather simple items that people shared while drinking (mainly) beer. Things like grilled small peppers, cubes of special cheese, thin slices of special Iberian ham, or room-temperature Spanish Potato Tortilla (a kind of omelet). In becoming popular outside of Spain, as you show, the number and complexity of dishes has exploded. The list of dishes you included sounds good, but doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with Spanish cooking. As I say, words change all the time.
be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I agree, the dishes are from all over. And none seem to be the small plate concept. But despite that, they all look good.
To me, none of the recipes that caught your attention sound unique in any way – like tomato pie and pumpkin gnocchi, but that doesn’t mean the recipes aren’t wonderful, of course. As much as I like fine dining, I don’t like when the food is too complicated, and so artistic that you don’t even know where to stick in your fork to start eating. So I certainly like his approach. The cover of the book is really nice.
I also like my fine dining to be eatable 🙂
So many of the dishes you picked sound like ones I would try. I’ll be looking forward to the ones you share with us.
Thanks Karen 🙂
This cookbook sounds interesting, Tandy. It would make a lovely Christmas gift.
It is the perfect Christmas gift 🙂