Cookbook Review ~ Whitewater Cooks with Passion by Shelley Adams

Shelley is back and this time she is cooking with passion! The fourth and latest book in the Whitewater Cooks series, Whitewater Cooks with Passion, sees Shelley cooking new recipes using inspiration from her trusted family and friends as well as plenty of inspiration from around the world.

The paperback book continues with the same theme as the other books in the series with lots of beautiful, mouth-watering photographs to accompany a lot of the recipes. There are 7 chapters dedicated to recipes including Breakfast, Starters, Soups, Dinners and Desserts.

It didn’t take me long to start bookmarking plenty of recipes and in the end I tested 6.

Tested Recipes:

Green Curry Chicken with Roasted Eggplant and Red Peppers

Mango Cucumber Salad with Mint and Sweet Chilli Vinaigrette

Italian Wedding Soup

Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes with Raspberry Icing

Chickpea Flatbread

Indian Artichoke Hummus

The first recipe to be put to the test was the Green Curry Chicken with Roasted Eggplant and Red Peppers. We love Thai curries so I couldn’t resist this recipe especially as it was so easy to prepare – you literally put the ingredients in an ovenproof dish and pop it in the oven and forget about it. I was very hesitant about the amount of curry paste suggested but since I had the same brand as she suggested I stayed true to the recipe and I am so glad I did! The end result was absolutely delicious. It was a perfect Thai curry made without any fuss. I would serve this to friends coming round for a relaxed dinner without any hesitation. I did skip the cucumber you put on at the end because I couldn’t get the mini cucumbers suggested but also because I served the curry with the Mango Cucumber Salad with Mint and Sweet Chilli Vinaigrette which takes me to the second tested recipe.

I absolutely love mango salads with Thai curries so I had to make this to accompany the above recipe. The recipe does have quite a lot of ingredients but it’s still simple to make and really just a case of some chopping and assembling. The dressing makes a lot and to honest in future I don’t think I would use quite as much oil but it was delicious and full of wonderful flavours. As for the salad it was packed with bright flavours, great texture contrasts and lovely fresh and vibrant flavours. It was also a huge hit and brought a wonderful ray of sunshine to our plates and palates on a miserable rainy, grey January day!

Cookbook Review ~ Whitewater Cooks with Friends - Shelley Adams

If you look through my Cookbook collection (it might take a while!) you will quickly notice that it is a very British collection of cookbooks. For most of you that won't come as much of a surprise since you know I am Scottish and only moved to Canada 7 years ago...however for those of you in America and Canada (and of course around the world) there will be a lot of authors you have never heard of that I take for granted, so this month it was lovely to be able to review a Canadian book, and one that is close to home for me.

Whitewater Cooks with Friends is the third published cookbook by Shelley Adams (Whitewater Cooks and Whitewater Cooks at Home), who is the previous owner of Fresh Tracks Cafe at Whitewater Ski Resort in Nelson, BC. Although Adams has now retired from running the Cafe this book is the result of some gentle persuasion and a reminder from her daughter and friend of Shelley's mantra that “great recipes are meant to be shared!” Here Shelley has teamed up with her friends to collaborate on a fantastic selection of their favourite recipes that they have shared together throughout the years.