| Have you ever thought of making chocolate tincture? James has and it forms part of one of the new inspirational recipes from A Year With James Wong. He teams it with homemade Rose Syrup to make a delicious Rose & Chocolate Shot, a drink that’s good for the heart in more ways than one!
James Wong is the sort of chap you can’t help but like, he has a bubbly enthusiasm for herbs and plants and enjoys the challenge of taking natural ingredients and turning them into remedies and treats for the body and soul. I enjoyed his first book, the recipes were easy to make and appealed to the kitchen herb wife in me. His new book is more of the same with added extras! |
The book takes you through the basics of growing and making your own herbal goodies; this time it’s not just remedies and cosmetics, but items for the home such as Wood Polish that contains Rhubarb Root, and if you have pets, you can discover how to make your own herbal flea powder, or treat your cat to a DIY Christmas toy.
James is a man who believes in suffering for his art, literally, at last year’s Herb Society conference, he explained the painful process of testing the Rose & Clove Hair Removing Sugar on his own legs! He works on his recipes until they’re perfect, although they don’t always work out as he explained about his attempts to make his own rosewater.
The recipes are broken down by ailment like last time; there are recipes for digestive, respiratory, dermatological, kids, muscular and joint, emotional and hormonal problems. One of the thing criticisms I had about his first book, was the number of ‘exotic’ herbs and ingredients in the recipes. So in this book it’s great to see UK natives such as Herb Robert, Meadowsweet and Horsetail feature in the recipes.
If you watched the GYOD for Christmas programme, you’ll be pleased to find all the recipes are in the new book. When my review copy arrived, I couldn’t resist trying out some of the recipes for myself. For the ladies who suffer monthly, I can highly recommend the Time of the Month Tea and the Oats & Almond Moisturizing Body Cream is heavenly. For men, my other half really liked the Witch Hazel Aftershave Gel for Shaving Rash and has requested that I make up some of the Anti-Dandruff Hair Oil for him to try. I still have a list of recipes I want to try as the fresh ingredients become available, but of the ones I’ve tried so far, as before I’m impressed.
This book puts the emphasis on Growing Your Own – with sowing and planting guides and season by season charts for sowing and harvesting, it enables you to grow and gather ingredients from your own garden and be able to use them fresh, instead of having to source dried ingredients. If you’re not a gardener, there’s a non-gardeners guide and also a guide to wild foraging and plant buying.
Throughout the book James offers additional tips and ‘gifting ideas’. There’s a ground breaking additional bonus to this book – in that its interactive – Some of the pages contain symbols for audio, video and images. By going online to the Harper Collins website www.harperplus.com/jameswong/ you can get access additional content, such as videos of James talking about his recipes.
In James introduction, he says he hopes “to provide a complete tool kit that will get you off to a good start. Before you know it, you’ll be tinkering away like a botanical Willy Wonka…”
An image I find inviting, it captures James sense of fun and his enthusiasm for making simple easy herbal goodies. Although with James you don’t need to use ‘pure imagination’ to achieve wonderful homemade herbal results.