The Apothecary Chef
Recipes with beneficial herbs & plants for a long & healthy life
Pan-grill Stargazer
Crispy Peach Amandine Dumplings
My Garden Ratatouille
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Whether harvested in far-away fields, gathered at the farmers market, pulled from a garden bed or plucked from the kitchen windowsill, herbs and plants have the ability to elevate our food and health. The Apothecary Chef is a celebration of the fragrance and flavour they impart, and a guide to incorporating them into your cooking and kitchen garden.
The Apothecary Chef is a recipe book with a difference, providing inspiration and information in equal measure. Over 80 recipes include several 'hero' ingredients that you can grow, forage or buy, and a directory of 50 edible plants and herbs to grow and cook with is also included.
Chapters include Good for the Gut, Everyday Joy, A Sense of Calm, Immunity Boosters, Longevity & Resilience and Breath & Balance, with recipes ranging from rosemary calendula potato cakes and allium & wild mushroom galette to mint pannacotta and persimmon pudding.
Contributing chefs include Allan Altschul of The Newt, Nyesha Arrington, April Bloomfield, Honey & Co, Pierre Koffmann, April Bloomfield, David Lebovitz, Peter Gordon, Olia Hercules, Sarah Johnson, Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef), Ben Shewry, Itamar Srulovich & Sarit Packer of Honey & Co., and Lee Wescott. -
An excerpt from the introduction of the Apothecary Chef:
My Father’s veggie garden was planted into my memory from the age of six. He taught me how to make thumb-sized holes in the soil so many inches apart then drop two tiny seeds into the earth and cover just so. As the plants and flowers flourished, I was mesmerized by the rich colours, inspiring me to sketch rainbows into my childish signature; fully and joyfully aware of the gift to see colours.
Into adulthood, and as a chef, I also discovered how to smell and taste colour, through the use of these fragrant herbs, plants and flowers. Inspiration came from an array of softly scented pink English pea petals – their shocking bright green pods, stems and windy tendrils wrapped around the garden fence stretching to the sun.
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“Natasha’s food contains her inimitable exuberance. Her recipes are joyful, innovative, inspiring and mouthwatering. They literally bounce off the page. Brimming with unique combinations of flavours and stunning colours. Good health has never tasted so good!”
–Jinny Blom
Spice Health Heroes
Featuring recipes from José Andrés,
April Bloomfield, Peter Gordon, Judy Joo,
Lidia Bastianich and many more
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Many spices have huge benefits to health and nutrition that are only now beginning to be recognized in the Western world. Backed by an impressive team of international medical professionals and institutions, Spice Health Heroes explores the nutritional and medical applications of 30 commonly available but nevertheless extraordinary spice ‘health heroes’.
In addition to being good for you, spices are universally celebrated for the depth of flavour that they bring to dishes. The alchemy of roasting and blending the perfect spice mix is a careful balance of sweet, sour, bitter and spicy that elevates a dish to something truly special. Here, over 90 recipes, including contributions from more than 20 internationally renowned chefs, draw their inspiration from around the world and include such mouth-watering dishes as Hibiscus and Citrus-crusted Prawns with Tart Tuscan Melon, Tamarind and Tahitian Lime Roasted Duck, and Toasted Pepper, Lemon and Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream.
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My own experience of spices was formed during my childhood in Northern Greece. Nearby was Crocus, a small village in the mountains named after the plant that produces saffron, the most precious and expensive of all spices. In Crocus and the wider area of Kozani where saffron is grown, people often start their day by drinking a cup of tea made of an infusion of just two fine saffron filaments. They understand the potency of this spice and use it sparingly and respectfully in their food and drink.
Spices, earth’s refined alchemy, discovered and cherished by our ancestors, enhance the flavour of our food, bringing life to our mealtimes. As this wonderful book shows, we can use spices not only for their culinary delights but also for their impressive healing qualities to support our health, inner balance and wellbeing.
Along with flavour, spices add texture and colour to our plate. Eating a tasty, aromatic, nutritious meal mindfully in a pleasant environment nourishes the mind, body and spirit. When our food satisfies our tongue, then our brain is content and doesn’t look for pleasure and satisfaction elsewhere. If our diet is bland or unbalanced, lacking one of the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter and astringent, then we can feel something is missing. That’s when our body turns to the ‘easy’ tastes – sugar and salt – and overeating, which, as we know, contributes to obesity and the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases.
Spices, I believe, are the heroes that can save us from disease and poor quality of being. As the title Spice Health Heroes suggests, spices have extra-special properties, including recently confirmed antidepressant effects. Trust spices to help us find happiness.
Spice Health Heroes takes us on a journey through history, folklore and science to our kitchen with unique recipes gathered and artfully created by the charismatic Natasha. Her ideas convince us to grab our apron and explore further in our own kitchens these beautiful spice recipes.
In my own ‘Medical Kitchen Wisdom’ workshops for professionals and ‘Cooking on Prescription’ groups for the public, people explore how to use ‘Food as Medicine’. Hippocrates said that ‘The best doctors cure by changing the diet and lifestyle of their patient’. My intention, in my medical practice as a specialist in Nutritional Medicine and Ayurvedic Nutrition, is to help people find what foods suit their ‘type’, and spices are often the forgotten or unknown ingredient that can help. Spice Health Heroes will be on my ‘prescription list’.
I love spices and use them every day in my cooking. My wish is that, by the time you finish reading this book, you too will come to love and respect our spice health heroes.
Eleni Tsiompanou, MD, PGDip, MSc Nutritional Medicine Founder, Health Being Institute, London, England
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“Spices, Earth’s refined alchemy, discovered and cherished by our ancestors, enhance the flavour of our food, bringing life to our mealtimes. Use spices not only for their culinary properties but also for their impressive healing qualities, which can help your health, inner balance and well-being.”
– Eleni Tsiompanou, MD, PGDip, MSc Nutritional Medicine, Health Being Institute, London
“Spices are a wonderful way to not only improve the flavour of the food you cook but also increase the potential health benefits. Spices provide natural flavours that contain a variety of phytochemicals, many of which are being studied today for their health benefits. Natasha’s book Spice Health Heroes is a fantastic resource for patients wanting to learn how to improve the health benefits of the food they are eating every day.“
– Richard Lee, MD, CWRU School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio
“I got my copy of your new cookbook Spice Health Heroes a couple of weeks ago. What a BEAUTIFUL book!!! And I've learned so much. But the real treat are the recipes. I've already done the chicken tikka, the chicken adobo, and the onion mushroom soup. All delicious!!! Next up will be the pan-roasted monkfish. It's all so yummy. And I feel healthier already. So thanks! thanks! for taking the time (It must have been a BIG investment of time) for researching and writing such a wonderful cookbook.“
Michael F. Venice, CA
Tropical Turmeric Smoothie
Spiced Turmeric Tisane
Fenugreek-Poached Pear with Dessert Dukkah
Pork Chile Verde
Vanilla Table
The essence of exquisite cooking from the world’s best chefs
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With the help of 33 outstanding contributing chefs from around the world, including NZ’s Peter Gordon and Al Brown, chef Natasha MacAller has created a truly international compendium of vanilla expertise celebrating this most exotic yet everyday spice.
Vanilla is a universal ingredient — although many imagine it can only be added to cupcakes, custards and confections. In this book vanilla is the highlight of savory dishes as well, such as Island Crabcakes with Vanilla-Grapefruit Remoulade or Slow-roasted Oxtail Pot Pies with Vanilla-Shiraz Gravy! With over 100 recipes, including starters, mains, brunch, bevvies, desserts, cookies and more, each beautifully photographed, Vanilla Table will inspire home cooks and professionals to sample this captivating but familiar ingredient in a range of delicious dishes that will work for cooks worldwide. Ingredients are given in imperial and metric measures, and common names and types of ingredients used in different countries are described.
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VANILLA IS A PASSION. It is the power behind the throne of fragrance and flavor, an integral component of most chocolate creations and the world’s favorite ice cream. Its captivating scent is everywhere, hidden in more things than you can imagine (cola, perfume, dryer sheets, not to mention my Aunt Helen’s Victory Garden Bundt Cakes). I believe the majority of homes around the world have some type of vanilla in their pantry. It is a universal flavor, although most people imagine it can only be added to cupcakes, custards and confections. I hope Vanilla Table will inspire home cooks, students and chefs to try this exotic but familiar ingredient, not only in delectable sweets but in other dishes such as Kumara Gratin layered with Vanilla Caramelized Onions, Island Crabcakes with Vanilla–Grapefruit Remoulade or Slow-Roasted Oxtail Pot Pies with Vanilla–Shiraz Gravy.
Vanilla is often used to describe something that is just ordinary, nothing special, no extras—however, vanilla is anything but plain.
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“The pages are bursting with aromatic dishes from both the sweet and savory sections of the kitchen … while she no longer dances for a living, the flavors and combinations within these pages will soon be dancing on your palate.”
–Peter Gordon, chef and food writer, London
“You expect vanilla in a Hazelnut Bavarois or a Tarte Tatin, but in the Vanilla Table you discover that ingredient in Vanilla Lacquer Duck Leg and Slow-Roasted Oxtail Pot Pies. These are exotic combinations that will expand your culinary palate and titillate your taste buds in a new way. Natasha MacAller teaches us how wonderful, aromatic vanilla can take the mundane to the memorable.”
–Jacques Pépin, The iconic International award-winning chef, cookbook author and PBS-TV cooking show host
"Natasha MacAller's lovely book is a riposte to anyone who thinks that vanilla is 'plain'. From Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'Gold Ingots' to David Lebovitz's 'Quince Tarte Tatin', these recipes bring home the deep warmth and exoticism of the world's favourite flavour. The collection of recipes from some of the world's top chefs, as well as MacAller herself, open up a universe of vanilla beyond that little bottle of essence at the back of the cupboard. MacAller rightly says that vanilla is a 'universal flavour', but one that is too often taken for granted. Vanilla Table reveals hidden intensities in those dark, twisting pods. It inspired me to embark on vanilla experiments in my own kitchen."
–Bee Wilson, food writer and historian, The Sunday Telegraph, author of Consider the Fork
Raspberry–Vanilla Vinegar
Heirloom Tomato Bisque with Green Pea Pesto
After School Cookies & Milk
The Taipa Salt Pig - Recipes
A beautifully made cook book that includes 10 fantastic recipes recipes all featuring one or more of The Taipa Salt Pigs range of gourmet flavoured salts.
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This little but mighty book started from a random conversation between Natasha and James Moore aka “The Salt Baron” at the local Packhouse Market in Kerikeri, New Zealand. His beautifully worded story illuminates the Taipa Salt Pig process from bucket of water to his award-winning hills of solar dried crystal salt flakes.
A simple sprinkle of Taipa Salt Pig finishing salt can make all the difference in flavour and enjoyment. Ten bespoke recipes by Natasha MacAller, from Softly Scrambled Eggs with smoked salmon, The Grazing Snack Platter, to a decadent Marmite Chocolate Brownie – you will love this collection of recipes – along with stunning photographs by award winning photographer Manja Wachsmuth.
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Learn more about The Taipa Salt Pig and their story – click HERE.
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“Salt is indispensable. The Taipa Salt Pig is my favourite and Natasha Macaller’s recipes bring the range to life.”
–Peter Gordon, chef and food writer, London
Scrambled Eggs
Marmite Chocolate Brownie
Salty Dog Cocktail