The Exotic Meat Cookbook, By Jeanette Edgar and Rachel Godwin (Friday Books)

THIS recipe book features a range of exotic meats, from antelope to zebra.

What I really loved about the book is that the authors give information about each animal before listing recipes on how to cook it.

Included in this list is the origin of the animal, common cuts, what it tastes like, best ways to cook it and the author’s signature dish . There’s also an interesting list of cooking do’s and don’ts as well as tips and techniques that will be useful to all budding chefs.

The recipes are quick and simple. Some of the interesting dishes that you can conjure up in your kitchen include blesbok and chocolate sauce; roasted springbok with mango salad; bison steak with Jack Daniel’s sauce; buffalo burritos; crocodile fillets with vermouth and fresh herbs; homemade pheasant burgers; bacon-wrapped kangaroo; ostrich stuffed peppers; crispy rabbit bake; and zebra carpaccio with chocolate vinaigrette. — Nicolette Scrooby

Muthi and Myths, By Heather Dugmore & Ben-Erik van Wyk, (Marula Books)

WITH a talented journalist and a professor of botany as co-authors, this book has the right credentials for an informative, well-written read.

Heather Dugmore was first drawn into the spiritual world of muthi and myths by a sangoma who gave her shelter during a storm on the Wild Coast.

Intrigued by her wise host’s tales of mermaids and spirits, Dugmore says it nonetheless took a while before she realised the full significance of the encounter. The sangoma, it seems, realised at once.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she told the then-student who’d knocked on her door. “… the storm was sent to bring you here.”

Some time later Dugmore encountered botanist Ben- Erik van Wyk, whose own book, Medicinal Plants of the World, co-authored by pharmaceutical biologist Michael Wink, is a weighty and respected academic work. Van Wyk is an accomplished storyteller, too, always ready, notes Dugmore, “to travel thousands of kilometres out of his way to find out about traditional medicinal plants and to listen to the stories behind their origin and use”.

Together, and in fascinating detail, they’ve written “the deep history” of 52 indigenous medicinal plants of Africa, particularly southern Africa. That history includes not only the botanical features and healing uses of each plant, but also the often incredible beliefs and legends that surround them. You’ll probably be familiar with some of the plants – bulbine frutescens, known as the burn jelly plant; wild olive; rooibos; leonotis leonurus, or wild dagga; maroela; and aloe ferox, for example.

Whimsically, perhaps, there’s a “story” for each week of the year, but if you’re as eager to learn as I was, you’ll devour them all in one or two sittings. — Stevie Godson