Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
If I could summarise Cloud Atlas in a paragraph, I wouldn’t be writing the recipe section of a newsletter. This epic saga throws up a lot of interesting concepts. Soap is a drink consumed by clones that provides their nutrition. I found it difficult to source the original protein source for the drink so I substituted in some vanilla protein instead.
Please enjoy this refreshing smoothie as you delve into the world of Cloud Atlas.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
A Gentleman in Moscow tells a story of optimism in hopeless situations. The Count shows us we can still appreciate beautiful things in the most difficult of circumstances. So even if things are bad, you can sit back with a book and some delicious food and drink and enjoy that small moment.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
Normally I put a little explainer here why I chose this meal with this book. But this time I am going to let a the book do the explaining.
“Do you want to talk?” Rebecca says softly.
Demzey scoffs, shaking his head. “About what? Where would we even start?” Demzey says, his eyes appearing to dampen. “Should we discuss the massacre at the compound? Or the scientists trying to escape in the SUV only to be overturned, dragged out into the desert and ripped to shreds? Or maybe the soldiers who are sitting in quarantine right now, the ones who saved my life, their bodies being turned inside out, while I sit at this restaurant waiting for a crab cake sandwich with steak fries and a cold draft? Yes, by all means let’s talk…”
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
I tried to come up with something that you could have as part of a roadside picnic. Boullion is mentioned in the book and I have created a very quick consommé recipe that hopefully approximates what was intended. To go with it there are some sandwiches which you might have been served in the Borscht Café.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
While reading this beautifully sordid little book, Corrupted Vessels, I was really struggling to come up with a meal to go with it. And then I realised a meal would be all wrong—it needed a cocktail. While some of Ash’s herbal infusions were tempting, I decided it was safer to go with a traditional mojito.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
Ove tells us about his childhood and being brought up by his single father. In the evenings they ate sausages and potatoes. This is a simplified version of a Danish Sausage casserole. I feel that Oves father may have left out some of the flourishes such as cream that would normally be added in but feel free to add a drop yourself if you are in the mood. This is a very simple and cheap dish and I could see why Ove’s father would have this as a staple. I couldn’t find Danish sausage in my local supermarket so I used Kabonos sausage instead. But any tasty sausage should do.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
Fermín breathed deeply, with relief, and I knew I wasn’t the only one to be rejoicing at having left that place behind…
“Listen, Daniel. What would you say to some ham croquettes and a couple of glasses of sparkling wine here in the Xampañet, just to take away the bad taste left in our mouths?”
This month I have chosen the atmospheric and beautifully written Shadow of the Wind and paired it with Spanish croquettes. I hope that this recipe, along with a nice glass of rioja, will immerse you into the Barcelona vibe that comes through so strongly in the book.
Traditional Spanish croquettes are made with a béchamel sauce and involve a two-day cook, so I have simplified this a bit by using potatoes for the croquettes. Apologies to our Spanish readers for the abomination.
Life is hard. Some days are at the absolute limit of what we can manage. Some days are worse than that. Eating—picking a meal, making it, putting it into your facehole—can feel like an insurmountable challenge. We wrote this cookbook to share our coping strategies. It has recipes to make when you’ve worked a 16-hour day, when you can’t stop crying and you don’t know why, when you accidentally woke up an Eldritch abomination at the bottom of the ocean. But most of all, this cookbook exists to help Sad Bastards like us feel a little less alone at mealtimes.
The Sad Bastard Cookbook is funny, realistic, and kind. It’s vegetarian/vegan. It’s a community-built project. And the e-book is free. It’s hard to survive late capitalism and we want to help.
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Want to help us make The Sad Bastard Cookbook a success? Work with us to game the book-recommendation algorithms so more people see the cookbook in their suggested “To Read” books. Leave us a reviewGoodreads or Storygraph (or anywhere else). The algorithms rate reviews higher than anything else, so saying what you honestly thought of the book is incredibly valuable to us—and to other readers. It’s one of the best things you can do to promote our work.
Want an amazing editor for your own project? Victoria Rose (she/her) is an editor, writer, avid reader, self-described geek, and fan of all things creative. You can find her at FlickeringWords.com. Lindsay Hobbs (she/her) is a book lover, fiction editor, occasional writer, and cat mom. You can find her at topazliterary.com. We had a truly wonderful experience working with both of them. Their eye for detail was incredible, and they knew how to change our words without changing our meaning. Most of all, they believed in the project and they treated our work with love. If you need an editor for your writing project, you should see if either of them have an opening.
Want to hear us get sappy?The Sad Bastard Cookbook was the work of the community coming together. From professional editors volunteering their time, to complete strangers suggesting recipes, it was truly a wonderful experience to create something meaningful with so many of you. We hope it help you find food you can eat, and helps you know that you are loved. Please, take care of yourself.
Content notes for The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Mental and physical illness, disordered eating, and dark humour throughout, as well as occasional mentions of alcohol, swearing, and political references. If you have specific food triggers, some recipes may be unpalatable to you.
Fiction To Sink Your Teeth Into, a feature from author and professional chef Rohan O’Duill!
This is my first baking recipe for Night Beats and I have kept it to a very simple sponge cake. However, you really need a stand mixer for this recipe.
Night Beats Extended Universe 