Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I got my tester copy today! I'm super excited because usually living in the UK means people who preorder the books online get them before me.

I tested about 70 recipes from this and am so excited to remake some of them let alone start on the things I didn't make. If I'd had it in time
for MoFo it would have been my theme.

I'm a little caught off guard with it because during testing the recipes were split up by country, which I loved, but in the book they're split more traditionally
into soups, salads, breads etc, but there are country menu plans to pull things together.

It looks very like Veganomicon inside, which I both like and dislike (recipes going on to the next page don't work too well in my cookbook holder).

There are some specialist ingredients, of course, the book wouldn't be authentic otherwise. But there's plenty you could make without them. While I was testing
sometimes I'd just make one dish from a country during the week, but then at weekends I'd splurge and make a few and do a menu.

I've got so many loves from this book that I'm not going to list them, but I thought I'd start a thread for people to join in with!

I am impatiently waiting. I missed an unexpected parcel delivery yesterday, since the person couldn't get into the building without the code to the front door, and of course my phone's battery decided to secretly die too. Thursday...

I got mine on Friday! I have been drooling over it all weekend and mapping out the stores in Queens I need to hit to replenish my supplies.

I was so excited to get it yesterday! I knew there were tonnes of recipes (from testing), but I didn't know it would seemingly bigger than the Veganomicon! I also expected the recipes to be arrange by country, but I can happily make do without. This is seriously a cookbook you do NOT want to miss out on. It is really quite epic. And oh my, there are so many amazing recipes I made in testing. Terry rules!

i got my tester copy, too! aaaand i also was a little bummed that they weren't broken into country like they were in the tester forum. BUT. i am loving the meal plans at the end! i can't wait to re-make some of our favorites. especially all of the thai foods. so yum.

We got ours too! (My. Precioussss) I've been walking around cuddling it and reading it through like a story-book. I'm really excited to try some of the things that we weren't able to test and to revisit some of our 'old' favourites.

Ooooh! I'm well jealous! I need to wait another week and 2 days until I get paid before I can order it.

A warning for other testers. I was just going through my folder of testing print outs and I think there are quite a lot of things that have had to be left out of the book. I have counted 11 things I tested or planned to test which don't seem to have made it. So if you had any particular favourites, save the print outs!

tell us your favorite stuff, guys! so we can have an idea of where to start when we get the book.

I'm pretty sure Terry said that most people (if they tested enough, I'm too lazy to go back and check how many) will get an e-book of the 'lost recipes' or something.

Anyway, I loved this book so I'm super excited for my copy to arrive in like a month's time (because living on the other side of the planet to most of humanity really sucks). A few things have made it into regular rotation in my house, which is kind of a big deal because I don't repeat recipes super often. Off the top of my head, my favourites were probably:

Thai green curry (I made this for my brother a couple of weeks ago, he's a total omni green curry snob but he loved it)
Massaman curry (probably our most frequently made curry)
Lemongrass lime rice
Edamame gyoza
Naan (by far the best vegan naan recipe I've made, and I've tried a few)
Sweet potato stuffed parathas
Char siu seitan
Kimchi and kimchi manju dumplings (Boyfriend's favourite recipe from the book)
Pol sambol
Eggplant and tofu adobo (I was just super excited to see an adobo recipe!)
Roasted gnocchi (pretty simple, but it's really quick and easy so I make it fairly often)
Eggplant parmigiana (I only made this once because it's kind of labour intensive, but gah, so worth it. This is a total special occasion dish)
Orange fennel tempeh

I also make the basic baked tofu all the time, and I've gotten a lot of use from the Jamaican curry powder.

I also posted some photos here a little while ago!

Can't wait to pick this one up!

So much good stuff! I think my very favorite was the Jamaican Curry Seitan Patties. Life-changing. I'd never had, much less made, anything like them before and I love them.

Other favorites: the White Bean Farro Soup (do not skip the topping! so yummy), all the Ethiopian stuff, but especially the Saucy Berbere Lentils, the pierogies, all the socca variations, the Tenacious Tart Tatin...

I just got my tester copy today and promptly sat down and read the whole thing. I feel like I'd forgotten about half the recipes in it and now I want to have huge themed dinner parties because I remember how much I loved everything (mostly) that I made.

My favorites are:
Pistachio Date Quinoa Salad
Semolina Date Squares - I want these instead of a birthday cake! They are amazing.
Preserved Lemons - I put them in all sorts of things now.
Brown Rice Biryani with Cashews
Crusty Persian Rice
Ful Medames (I used canned beans and it was so fast and delicious)
Lemon Mustard Yassa Tofu
The Basic Baked Tofu - holy crepe this is the best baked tofu.
I had excellent results with all the seitans and spice blends as well.

This is going to be my next purchase for sure. I am a bit disappointed that the recipes aren't grouped geographically. That is something I dislike about WVF too. Are there colour pics throughout, or just a section in the middle? Bummer about the layout being similar to Veganomicon. I love the content of that book, but find it difficult to flick through for inspiration because the layout is not user-friendly. Even other books I have that have recipes running from page to page somehow have a more open, readable layout. I'm not a fan of sidebar tips either, which seems like I'm difficult to please, but I just don't like distractions, preferring a linear, logical layout.

I had another look through later last night and some of the recipes I thought were missing are there under different names or in different sections than I was expecting.
The index is a little bit lacking but the indexes peas me off in most cookbooks so that's certainly not unique.

Plus Erin - I'm sort of on the other side of the planet too but mine got here in really good time!

I have this on pre-order and these lists of recipes are making me salivate. With any luck, the book will arrive in the midst of my few-days-off and I can cook to my heart's (and stomach's) content.

So excited about this! I can't attend the cooking demo Terry's doing in Amsterdam because of a school function (bummed because I could get the book there! early!), but I'm making an awesome Amazon order for myself since there are so many great books coming out. I love Viva Vegan, but because of where I live it's really difficult to get some of the ingredients unless I go home to the states. But I'm hoping this book will allow me more flexibility. We have a well-stocked Asian market around the corner. Can't wait!

ok, favorites, let's see...
the lemon/olive seitan (especially in the seitan gyros)
chipotle tofu cemita sandwiches
tofu potato adobo
all of the thai stuff
all of the ethiopian stuff
garlic naan with the baingan barta
tempeh katsu
yassa lemon mustard tofu

those were our favoritest of the favorites.

SO EXCITED. I have it pre-ordered and keep checking to see if it's shipped yet.

I made the lemon mustard yassa tofu with seitan and loved it, too! I'd almost forgotten about that one.

can't wait for mine to ship!


I always wonder what happens to the recipes that don't make it in...

Exciting. I missed a delivery the other day and I couldn't think what it was but I suspect this is what it is!

Mat.

I was thinking about what I loved. I knew going into testing that I'd love the Indian, Sri Lankan, South Asian stuff, and I did, because they are cuisines I'm very familiar with. But some of the things I liked so much were the surprises. There's a shakshuka with tahini sauce, a greek rice soup, Columbian coconut lentil rice, orange fennel tempeh (not sure this one made the book), roasted eggplant salad, shchi with rye muffins, claypot seitan with mushrooms and rice and the fusilli with Sicilian pesto, which I didn't expect to like as much as I did.

My copy has arrived too! I've been busy making little bits and bobs already, until I have people to cook for this weekend and make a bigger spread. Currently have the chickpea parmesan topping cooling in the fridge, half-made.

My favourites (so far):
- The flourless chocolate torte (I made the Mexican variation and will try the Ethiopian one this week).
- The naan - fluffy and perfect
- Both adobos
- The seitan (following the coriander seitan recipe). This method is so damn good.
- The tempeh-olive-preserved lemon tagine guy.

And today I had black beans to die for ('Homemade Mexican beans').

The book itself is really beautiful too - hardback loveliness with frequent colour photo pages.

And you should definitely try the

I have been trying to decide if I should preorder this book or not. DH doesn't like most food styles... he will pretty much only eat Americanized Italian and Mexican food (ie he doesn't like most things from Viva Vegan because they are more authentic.) He doesn't like any Indian food, curries, stews, mushy foods like eggplant or zucchini or vinegar type foods like capers or kalamata olives in vinegar. What do you think testers? Is it worth the $23 or should I wait for the library to get it?