This week on Cooking the Books, Pam Brunton, chef at Inver restaurant, an hour and a half from Glasgow, takes us on an extraordinary deep dive into everything that we need to know about food - the philosophy, the politics and the provenance of what we eat in her book, Between Two Waters. It’s part memoir, part manifesto on the future of feeding the world, as well as a sharp, feminist critique of the power of the global food economy, and has been heralded as a fiercely original work of narrative non-fiction, from one of the world’s most exciting thinkers about food, sustainability and landscape.
Here, Pam gives us a peek behind the staff briefing before the evening service at Inver.
And the recipe from the book.
HAZELNUT AND BEREMEAL SHORTBREAD
Makes approximately 20 biscuits
These shortbreads combine the toasted nut meal with beremeal. Bere is indigenous to Scotland and is still grown in Orkney and milled there at Barony Mill. It has a nutty, toasty flavour, and is low in gluten, meaning it’s great for
keeping shortbread biscuits ‘short’ – delicate and crumbly (the dough is also good for crumbles).
150g beremeal
125g plain flour
100g ground hazelnuts
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 150°C (fan).
Mix the hazelnut meal and flours. In a stand mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until pale. Add the flour and hazelnut mix gradually, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until evenly incorporated. Don’t over-mix, or you’ll work the gluten in the flours and your biscuits will be tough, not ‘short’. Wrap the dough in baking paper and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
Work with the dough while it is cool but pliable. Lightly dust a work surface with flour. Roll the dough into a sheet 1cm thick, and either cut triangles with a knife, or stamp out circles (or dinosaur shapes!) with a cookie-cutter. Lift the biscuits carefully onto paper-lined, flat baking trays. Leave a space in between each; the biscuits will spread a little.
Bake till the biscuits are a pale golden colour all over. They will take 35–40 minutes, but check them after 20 minutes, turning the tray if your oven isn’t even (ours isn’t). The shortbread should feel firm in the middle but remain pale throughout.
Towards the end of cooking, use a small sieve or tea strainer to dust the biscuits with caster sugar. Return the tray to the oven for 2–5 more minutes (this will encourage the sugar to stick).
Cool the shortbreads on the baking tray till they firm up, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Decorate with a few crushed or grated hazelnuts.
Image by Elena Heatherwick
So glad you had Pam on this week, she's an incredible lady and the book is brilliant and a very important read for us all. There are a handful recipes dotted throughout it; the raspberry and tomato broth is one of the most delicious and unexpected things I've had!
This sounds such a brilliant book- will look forward to reading it and the podcast!