Fruit: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook

Fruit: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook by Alan Davidson is the companion work to his book, Seafood: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook which we reviewed earlier in the year. Charlotte Knox illustrated this volume as she did the earlier work by Davidson.

Since it has been dark and drear here, we were inspired by the glorious painting of tantalizing fruit on these pages and we though we would share a recipe with you.


Here is a quick and simple dessert. It couldn't be easier. Spooned into parfait glasses with the whipped cream, it makes an elegant dish and no one will know how little time you spent.

Ginger, Apricot and Almond Pudding

2 cups dried apricots
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 -1/3 cup crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon honey(or more to taste
3/4 cup Greek Yogurt
1-2 heaping tablespoons whipped cream (optional)


Wash and pit the apricots, cover them with water, bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Cool and liquidize into a puree. Add the chopped almonds, ginger honey and yogurt, and fold into the cream.

Yes, there is a bit of an inconsistency. If the whipped cream is optional, why are we instructed to fold everything into the cream? Well, basically you just fold everything together and then, if you want to, to with the whipped cream.

Want to cut 20 minutes off your time? Use three packages of apricot baby food. No cooking, no liquidizing!

The Curiosities of Food

In 1859, The Curiosities of Food was published in London. If it walked, swam, crawled, slithered or flew, Peter Lund Simmonds wrote about eating it. Not something as pedestrian as venison or horse or even possum, Simmonds wrote of buffalo humps, sea lion tongue, and red ants.

Simmonds exhaustive study quickly went out of print and might have been lost to general public if not for Alan Davidson. While researching the Oxford Companion to Food, Davidson ran across Simmonds' book. Its exhaustive research proved a boon for insight into the rarer culinary items Davidson was researching. Not only did he love the book, but he worked to get it reprinted. Lucky for us he did.

Fly Egg Cakes

In October the lakes Chalco and Texcuco, which boarder on the city of Mexico, are haunted by millions of small flies, which after dancing in the air, plunge down into the shallowest parts of the water, to the depth of several feet, and deposit their eggs at the bottom.
The eggs of these insects are called hautle by the Mexican Indians, who collect them in great numbers, and with whom they appear to be a favorite article of food.
They are prepared in various ways, but usually made into cakes, which are eaten with a sauce flavored with chilies.

I realize these ingredients may be a bit hard to find. I have as yet found no supplier for fly eggs nor the yummy elephant toes which are all the rage pickled; and prepared bat is just impossible to get at the butcher! It is very sad for us that Peter Simmonds' book was not a runaway best seller. He was outlining a companion piece for vegetables which promised to be equally fascinating.

Check out our previous post on Alan Davidson.

Seafood: A Connoisseur's Guide and Cookbook

Alan Davidson is one of the shining lights in the pantheon of cookery writers. He founded one of the most influential food journals in history, Petits Propos Culinaires. Elizabeth David and Richard Olney soon signed on.

Davidson came to wilder shores of gastronomy after many years as a diplomat, traveling to far-flung outposts around the world. When his wife found the dazzling array of seafood in the markets of Tunis confusing, she asked her husband to find her a seafood cookbook explaining the various and unfamiliar fish. He found no such book and undaunted, set about to create one. When Elizabeth David found herself in possession of a crudely mimeographed copy of Seafish Of Tunisia And The Central Mediterranean, she knew she was holding a culinary masterpiece and with her help, Davidson published his fist book re-titled, Mediterranean Seafood. A posting to Laos led to two cookbooks on Southeast Asian seafood. Finally, diplomacy lost out to his true calling, writing.

Seafood : A Connoisseur’s Guide and Cookbook is just that. Davidson provides a history for each fish selected. He gives a name to the fish in a dozen various languages and provides a suitable substitute if they aren’t catching rascasse where you’re fishing. The “art” of the book comes from the exquisite illustration of Charlotte Knox. To complete this project, Knox had fish flown in from around the world to model for the drawings.





This is a recipe that makes halibut moist and filled with flavor.

Fish Steaks in Cream and Lime Juice

5-6 ounce steaks of halibut or any other firm fleshed fish
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 cups tomato juice
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon ground coriander seeds
4 drops Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
generous 1/2 cup heavy cream


Heat the oil and fry the onions and garlic until soft and golden, In another pan, heat the tomato juice to the boiling point then add it to the first pan along with the black pepper, coriander seeds and Tabasco. Simmer for 15 minutes. Then stir in the lime or lemon and sugar and simmer for five minutes more. Pour the cream into the center of the pan and do not stir but cover and simmer very gently for five minutes. Place the fish steaks in the sauce. Cover again and cook very slowly for eight to ten minutes until the steaks are cooked through. Serve with plain or coconut rice.

Try this recipe with salmon steaks, substituting the tomato with a citrus juice.

For more information on Petits Propos Culinaires check out Prospect Books.

See more of Charlotte Knox at www.charlotteknox.com.