I get books for Christmas, sometimes from myself. Especially if I’m in a favorite indie bookshop. That’s how I ended up taking home two cookbooks, one of which was Bosh!. This is a series I’ve reviewed from before, but I don’t think I’ve done the original, first in the series. Basically, this is a British vegan food Youtube channel (probably; there’s a chance the website plus videos was first) that went viral before that was a thing, and then there were books. The books have been hit and miss for me. Thankfully, this one seems to be more of the former than the latter. Per said website the title supposedly was chosen for the brand because it “it sounded fast, fun and the opposite of fussy, which is exactly what we try to create from our recipes and food products.” According to the book’s intro, the goal is restaurant quality food (“Fantastic Feasts”) at home, but there’s recipes that are more for speed/ease (Quick and Easy”) and others that are not (“Showstoppers”). There’s also a thankfully brief review of how to set up a good kitchen, important tools, and key staples to have around at most/all times.
Most of the recipes are doable, in terms of technique, ingredients, and equipment. Most everything is pretty readily available, even if you’re not British. While nothing is totally surprising, there’s still some good variety in terms of cuisines, including traditional British (‘fish’ and chips, mushroom and Guinness pie, etc.), general European (paella, lasagna, carbonara), Asian (pad thai, tom yum soup, Massaman curry) , Indian (multiple other curries, korma, “big bhaji burger”), Mexican (burrito cake, fajitas, tacos), and plenty of fusion (burrito samosa, jerk jackfruit/plantain pizza).
There’s a few times, I’m not sure about how well as recipe is supposed to work, like with a roasted sweet potato in the style of baked potato, but with a curry crust. The uncertainty? The skin stays on the whole time, before roasting, after crusting, etc. I don’t find sweet potato skin edible; regular potato skin is definitely edible. IDK? The curry paste is scratch-made but looks doable and perfectly fine. Then there’s the pain au chocolat loaf cake. This is basically a chocolate quick bread with pre-made chocolate filled croissants stuck in the batter. The idea seems ok, but I’m really not sure that this would turn out nicely.
Things like the Guinness/mushroom pie, the veggie wellington, the sticky toffee pudding, the kind of innovative “fish” to go with chips all are things I want to try. Most other recipes also will be worth attempting, but seem a little more mundane; that’s not a bad thing, just means the majority are a bit less exciting or new, at least to me. The vegan fish recreation is tofu-based, but it uses a slice of nori on the tofu before battering and frying to both mimic the look of skin on a fish fillet as well as presumably add some “oceany” essence for the seafood swap. I’m not really a fan of nori in the sushi sense, but this might actually be worth trying.