Читать книгу Rachel’s Food for Living - Rachel Allen - Страница 5

Food has the amazing potential to be comforting, uplifting, restorative, nurturing, energising and many other things besides. It plays a hugely significant role in our personal lives, both physically and emotionally and can lift us up when we are low and keep us up when we are on top of the world. Eating can be steeped in ritual or be utterly spontaneous but one thing is for certain – the feelings that food stirs go far beyond mere biology.

I love the way that certain aromas and flavours can instantly conjure up vivid memories. They send us back to our childhood kitchens, tugging at our grandmothers’ apron strings, or to other times and places in our lives that hold special significance. For me it is the smell of roast stuffed chicken and potatoes that fills me with joyful recollections of my mother’s incredible Sunday dinners.

Food makes the best gift, whether it’s hot buttered toast for someone with the blues or an elaborate three-course romantic feast for the one you love. The time we take to lovingly prepare a meal can pay dividends in the way it makes others feel cared for.

Even the simplest foods are enough to inspire a happy social occasion. One of my greatest pleasures is catching up with girlfriends over tea and sympathy (and a big pile of biscuits!). We all know that, ‘Come round for a cuppa’ really means, ‘Come round and let’s chat for hours and laugh until it hurts.’

This book is filled with foods that have special meaning for me or for my family and friends. I hope that these recipes will make for fun and memorable cooking and eating for you, too!

p.s. The oven temperatures in this book are for a conventional oven, but if I am using a fan oven, then I usually reduce the temperature by 10 per cent.