Cookbook Review:
Plum Gorgeous

The new cookbook Plum Gorgeous: Recipes and Memories from the Orchard is just what it says - plum gorgeous!

It's a gorgeous little cookbook filled with appetizing food images and great photos of the orchards in her area.

Romney obviously loves cooking with fresh produce, direct from the orchard. It shows on every page of this delightful cookbook.

One reviewer called this cookbook "A beautiful love letter to stone fruit" and it really is. Romney takes these luscious fruits and uses them all sorts of imaginative and delicious ways.

Interspersed throughout Plum Gorgeous are beautiful, full-color photographs and Romney s reminiscences from the year she spent living in an orchard in Big Sur, along with fruit lore and selected notes on handling and preserving the fruit.

Here is a sampling of some of the wonderful recipes you will find in this little gem of a cookbook:

US Visitors

• Moroccan Orange Salad
• Grilled Lime Prawns with Aioli
• Lemon Almond Cake
• Strawberry, Nasturtium and Cucumber Salad
• Wild Strawberry Tartlets
• Blackberry Polenta Muffins
• Steak with Blackberries
• Rhubarb Mustard
• Almond Meringue with Rose Cream and Red Currants
• Grilled Lamb Chops with Pomegranate

There are two recipes from this fantastic cookbook on the site too. Check out:

Tomato, Grape, and Ricotta Flatbread Recipe

Preserved Lemons

In an accessible but imaginative way, Plum Gorgeous beautifully reveals the many layers and flavor profiles of each fruit Romney highlights.

This is what others are saying about this lovely cookbook:

One commenter noted:
I must warn, do not read this book while hungry. You will want to run out and get all the ingredients to several or maybe all the recipes she shares with us. I am making the "Marmalade Chicken" for dinner this evening. I love that she also offers alternative items to substitute based on the weather or time of the growing season. The photography in this book provided by Sara Remington is eye candy for all food lovers, and created "artist envy" in me.

This is a book that I will gift to those I know who love to cook, those I know who love to eat good food that stimulate all their senses, and to all the artists I know. I urge everyone who reads this book to not keep it to themselves, pass or gift this bounty just as you would a wonderful sumptuous meal for 10.

And WonderBunny writes:
Plum Gorgeous is a great book about recipes using fresh fruit and is organized by season. Each chapter has a few basic recipes, for example the lemon curd recipe in the spring chapter, and then a way to use that for an actual dish. In the case of the lemon curd, it was delicious sounding blueberry lemon compote.

This cookbook really celebrates the memories inspired by each season's beauty and bounty. If you love stone fruits or really different recipes, you need to consider this for your cookbook collection.