On the 7th December 2011, we officially launched The Hungry Girls’ Cookbook Volume 3! The venue was a shop called Melbournalia Home, located in a gorgeous old warehouse down a laneway near the Queen Victoria Market.
Dale Campisi of Melbournalia and Arcade Publications kindly introduced us, then Rachel offered some insight into the Hungry Girls project – from a tiny print run of our first book in 2006, which was intended as a Christmas gift for friends and family, the Hungry Girls have now made over 3000 books! Each one is hand-bound with cloth, which amounts to quite a lot of PVA and cotton, and love that has gone into every copy.
The lovely folk of Melbournalia manned the drinks table at the launch, while the Hungry Girls weaved around the room (between the tables of locally made products) offering delicious nibbles. There were pastries with mushroom pate and roasted cherry tomatoes (from Volume 1), and others with crushed peas, broad beans and pecorino. There was some cheesy baked polenta to be had – ingeniously heated in a sandwich toaster in lieu of any kitchen facilities – and for sweets, some cute spotted cups filled with yoghurt and white chocolate pannacotta (from Volume 3), and chocolate mousse spiked with Frangelico. No one felt like going out for dinner afterwards!
Volume 3 is now stocked in shops in Melbourne and across the country, and can also be purchased through the Shop page of our website. It is beautifully photographed by Leah Holscher and playfully illustrated by Katherine Bird. As for
the recipes inside, this is another collection we hope you will want to cook from again and again. Think squid, orange and rosemary pasta; mapo tofu; homemade Italian sausage; Persian carrots; lemon curd cake … Mmmmmm.
I just found you guys via Design Sponge and I’m so excited to order your latest book. I love that you are three friends working together to make something artful, useful and beautiful. You all are quite the inspiration to me this morning. Happy Friday!
Congratulations! The cover of the new book is beautiful – and it looks like it was a fabulous – and delicious – celebration. I especially love the little blue spotted cups!
Yes, the blue spotted cups were a good find! They came from Paper Eskimo, http://www.papereskimo.com.au
The binding on your books is gorgeous… without even perusing a recipe I find myself wanting the collection. Amazing project!!
Ive just found your blog through the Design Files daily. Your cookbooks are fantastic! I love the illustrations on the cover, and that they are hand bound with cloth (with love and care) – and the food looks amazing too.
I also love how three creatives have come together to put together an artwork with such a lovely outcome.
Congratulations!
Kx
Rach – just got this through Design Files. So excited that you are doing something that you love, these look gorgeous, beautiful and amazing. Congrats again (beats EA hey?!?). Karina xo
HI there Karina! Well, I did love working at Explore Australia, but yeah, now I definitely love writing recipes and dreaming about food! Hope you’re doing well, x
Hi girls. Congratulations on number 3. I love the last 2 and have managed to make a few recipes out of them. Definitely will get the third. It’s great you keep doing what you love!!
Yes…I too came across your treasure cookbooks via Design Files…do you have an index for each cookbook..so you can decide if you don’t have the bucks to buy all..which one you would love first? They really are SO beautiful..and the food looks divine..
Your squid, orange and rosemary pasta sounds delicious! Thanks to “the design files” I have found your blog!
Hi Satisha. We haven’t yet compiled an index of the recipes in each book, but if you click on the About page of our website, you can at least have a peek at a few of the pages inside each volume and get a feel for the recipes. Hope this helps!
Lovely blog, books and recipes! A friend of mine forwarded me a link and glad she did
I too discovered Hungry girls via design files. Every morning at work we have been been reading through some of the recipes, all our mouths watering!!
Hey there,
Have been cooking out of all three books lately, with great success! We did the Mapo Tofu last weekend for a vegetarian friend who came for dinner, but I think I was a little too generous on the soy bean paste! And maybe red soy bean paste is a stronger one? I’ve never used it before, so good to try something new. But what else can we do with the rest of the container of soy bean paste?? Any other recipe ideas welcome Rach!
Cheers and congrats on the design files guest blog!
Hi Nic!
Oh dear – was the soy bean paste a bit too strong, or salty? They’re all a bit different … But there’s heaps of things you can do with it! I make a minced pork sauce for noodles with soy bean paste in it. It’s also good in stir-fries with eggplant (combined with pork is good here too), and even just in fried rice – makes it a bit different. Hope you find a few good things to do with it!