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''Apart from her unfortunate love of unsweetened condensed milk in soups and the like, Monica’s Kitchen is actually a breath of fresh air. Well travelled, she carelessly mentions dishes from France and the continent (she once spent months learning the foie gras business, “with the intention of setting myself up as a Goose Girl in the West of Ireland”) alongside the plain, simple Irish recipes. Her roast chicken, unstuffed and dressed with the pan juices, would be appreciated by Nigel Slaterr and there are definite French influences to many of her vegetable recipes which are, fortunately, a long way from the traditional Irish boil-it-until-it-turns-grey method.
Some of her opinions are laugh-out-loud hilarious. I particularly liked her take the things necessary to make a cook:
“Another essential to good cooking is a husband or son with an adventurous palate. Women do not cook for other women, or for themselves. If they are cooking for other women, it is to annoy them or dazzle them…”
A few of her recipe asides veer towards the demented – ideas on dye in pea soup (“Any fool can make pea soup, but here are the refinements that give it an air. You should add a good spoon of green vegetable dye to the soup just before you serve it. That will take the anaemic look off it.”), boned chicken (“Frankly, I wouldn’t recommend it, but, if you want to see green in the eyes of the women and hear the praise of gluttonous men ringing in your ears, well, here goes.”), brown bread (“The longevity of the men and women of rural Ireland may be directly attributed to their simple diet of porridge, wholemeal bread and stews – together with their uncompromising refusal to fraternise with Income Tax Collectors.”) – but Monica’s Kitchen is chock-full of useful suggestions and recipes as well as being a complete treat to read. Well worth looking out for''.
( the above review from the excellent Irish website Bibliocook - https://bibliocook.com/2006/05/monicas-kitchen/ - a fount of knowledge on older Irish cookbooks - review by CAROLINE HENNESSY )
Monica’s Kitchen by Monica Sheridan was published by Castle Publications Ltd, 1963. This is a reprint in the year of original publication.
Condition - lacks dustjacket. The book itself is in excellent condition , clean and unmarked, with some age darkening to page block.
