This wide-ranging and open-hearted cookbook embraces the autumnal harvest season in the Scottish Highlands, while also celebrating traditional artisanal crafts like wool spinning, offering both lavish recipes and inspiring travel tips for your next trip to Scotland.
Highland Harvest is as much a coffee-table book of food-centric art photos as it is a cookbook. Tweeds, orchards, sturdy country bridges, misty mountains, snow-dusted manors, venerable stone walls, flower arrangements, and Victorian inns are all spotlighted in these deluxe pages, with mini essays to go along. But the food is given centerstage. And these recipes are simple, rustic and extra-fancy all at the same time. Take the “Fall Mushroom Pizza,” which is topped with nothing more than artfully seasoned mushrooms and crème fraiche, but looks like a work of art, drizzled with a balsamic-honey reduction and adorned with a few sprigs of fresh thyme. “That’s not Scottish!,” you might say. And that’s part of the point of Theresa Baumgartner’s approach. This is not presented as a vegetarian or vegan cookbook – there are a few salmon recipes – but it really would provide plenty of options for anyone interested in meat-free fare. Of particular interest to vegetarians might be the “Whole Roasted Cauliflower,” "Beet Dumplings," and "Scottish Nut Roast Balls," all of which offer hearty and cozy approaches to autumnal feasting.
Baumgartner stays true to her harvest-time theme, with many dishes that utilize pumpkins, squash, celery root, mushrooms, and potatoes. There are also a few decorating and craft sections designed to beautify house and table with fall foliage, as well as to provide activities for children. There are ample treats as well, with fruitcakes, trifles, tarts, shortbread and more. 252 page hardcover book.
