In Her Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from Grandmas Around the world by Gabriele Galimberti is full of recipes, photographs and stories. This book shows women, grandmothers actually, in their kitchens with the ingredients for a dish they are proud to cook and share. The author is a photographer who planned a trip around the world. His grandmother was concerned about what he would eat on his trip. Who would cook for him? He assured her that there are grandmothers everywhere, and this project grew from there.
My favorite thing about this book is looking at the women with their kitchens behind them. Typically, the only pictures of kitchens I see are beautiful gorgeous perfect dreamy designer spaces in magazines and on the internet. This book reminded me that what makes a kitchen is not the fancy appliances or the perfectly displayed dishes with beautiful lighting. What makes a kitchen is the cook. These women are proud of the food they create and how it feeds the people they love. There are recipes for everything from coffee to caterpillars. This recipe from Switzerland is the one I chose to try one weekend.
The whole thing was a bit tricky. The crust is like a lemon scented cookie. It's so yummy, but it was difficult to work with because it was sticky and also dry and prone to crack. The filling is made from caramel and chopped walnuts, and I was a little uncertain when to stop cooking it. Too little time and the pie would ooze out all over the place when you cut it. Too much time on the heat and it would harden and become too sticky and stiff to eat. In the end it all turned out beautifully, and it was SO delicious. It was a little like baklava meets a southern pie. Very very sweet, but the lemon flavor in the crust made it nice. I liked eating it for breakfast. I'm not sharing the recipe because if you're interested you should take a look at the book.
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