"The Little Saigon Cookbook: Vietnamese Cuisine and Culture in Southern California's Little Saigon"
By Ann Lee
Photography by Julie Fay Insiders' Guide -- 2006 Buy it on Amazon
Though exotic cuisines may be daunting endeavors for many cooks due to foreign and sometimes costly ingredients, "The Little Saigon Cookbook" is a clear, straightforward cookbook that sheds light on the culture while making its cuisine approachable and delectable.
Interspersed with interesting stories about Vietnamese culture and traditions, the book is a well-thought out tribute to Vietnamese foodways -- with delicious recipes to boot, ranging from the obvious dishes to lesser-known exciting ones like the Shaking Beef Salad with Watercress and Tomatoes or Pork Braised in Caramel Sauce.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
'The Thanksgiving Table: Recipes and Ideas to Create Your Own Holiday Tradition'
By Diane Morgan
Photography by John A. Rizzo Chronicle Books -- 2001 Buy it on Amazon
Though Thanksgiving may be conceptually about unity and giving thanks, the feast is often anything but -- be it from menus predominantly meat-centric or overwhelmingly vegetarian that rely upon traditional recipes or adventurous ones, to lively affairs or smaller, more austere gatherings prone to the usual family quibbles.
But with the help of this book and guide, the meal itself is at least guaranteed to go smoothly, with preparation and decoration ideas as well as recipes to suit eaters and appetites of all kinds. Catering to the variety of the holiday's staples -- the smells, the anticipation, the flavor, the feel -- this book is virtually all you need to host the most perfect, memorable Thanksgiving.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
'Long Nights and Log Fires: Warming Comfort Food for Family and Friends'
Commissioning Editor Julia Charles
Photography by Ryland Peters & Small Ryland Peters & Small -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
"When the cold wind blows and the snow piles up outside, where better to be than at the heart of a warm kitchen, enjoying the aromas of good home cooking wafting from the oven?" ponders the intro to the supremely satisfying "Long Nights and Log Fires" cookbook.
Crafting a comprehensive repertoire to all things comfort food, the gratifying collection dishes up everything from "soups and snacks," "sides and salads" to "one-pot wonders," "bakes and desserts" and even heart-warming drinks, including Mocha Maple Coffee and Mexican Chocolate with Vanilla Cream. Using a bevy of autumnal ingredients -- relying on fresh produce, flavorful herbs and spices and a comforting dairy element -- this cookbook features everything sweet, spicy and savory to satisfy palates on cold nights.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
Crescendo ($70, pictured) is a set of four glasses, each in a different delicate shade of pink. Since they're stemless, the glasses are great for non-alcoholic drinks as well as white wines, and they're dishwasher-safe.
Pink Vinum Rosé ($59) is a set of two pink-stemmed glasses specifically designed for rosé wine. They're also dishwasher-safe, and the color of the wine isn't distorted, since the pink tint is limited to the stem.
Riedel is donating 15 percent of their pink sales to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life -- now that's something we can all raise our glasses to. Order online or find them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Sheila Lukins, the author of the iconic 1980s cookbook "Silver Palate Cookbook" has died after a short battle with brain cancer.
Lukins wrote the cookbook in the early 1980s after running a shop called the Silver Palate on New York's Upper West Side with colleague Julee Rosso. Its recipes -- including olive-infused chicken Marbella -- became mainstays of the '80s kitchen.
Lukins had been diagnosed with brain cancer only three months ago, her daughter told the New York Times.
'Robin Rescues Dinner' By Robin Miller Photographs by Ben Fink Clarkson Potter -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
In the desolate land of "quick fix" cookbooks, recipes tend to be uninspired, trading flavor for time. Food Network "Quick Fix Meals" and "Robin to the Rescue" hostess Robin Miller seeks to change that stereotype with low-fuss, high-flavor cooking in her newest book, "Robin Rescues Dinner."
Featuring 52 weeks of seasonally appropriate recipes, the lexicon crams in some 350 formulas for delicious eating. As a bonus, it includes major timesavers, like bulk (cooking ahead) tricks and corner-cutting tips.
Though perhaps erring on the side of conservatism rather than that of innovation, Robin turns out excellently executed staple dishes with remarkably low-overhead ingredients, either involving surprisingly short grocery lists or relying heavily on pantry staples.
See what we tested and whether it's worth buying after the jump.
'New Orleans Classic Gumbos & Soups' Recipes from Favorite Restaurants Text and Photographs by Kit Wohl Pelican Publishing -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
The best Creole-Cajun dishes are oft found in Louisiana: gumbos bursting with fresh seafood, sausages and chicken slopped together with rice, soups with an intense depth of flavor -- all representing comfort food at its best."New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups" showcases some of the best recipes from eateries around the region and brings them to home cooks in a non-intimidating approach.
Recipes like Tulane Chicken Andouille Gumbo and Red Bean and Sausage soup will keep you coming back to this book for the ultimate weekend dinners. Be sure to buy the freshest ingredients possible, especially seafood: It plays a key role in the outcome of dishes, and makes the extra effort well worth it.
See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.
'A Great American Cook: Recipes from the Home Kitchen of One of Our Most Influential Cooks' Jonathan Waxman with Tom Steele Photographs by John Kernick Houghton Mifflin -- 2007 Buy it on Amazon
It's rather hilarious when a chef's cookbook matches his real-life persona.
It shouldn't have been a surprise that the man who trained Bobby Flay in the kitchen some 20 years ago is a pretty darn good teacher, and we were happily producing pretty decent artichoke specimens within minutes.
That same confident, coaxing voice is present throughout Waxman's cookbook, a hodgepodge of his culinary experiences. From the red-pepper pancakes with corn and caviar he introduced at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse to a potato gratin he picked up while training in France, this is a fine compilation from a man who has trained many of the American greats -- and who used to hobnob with the likes of James Beard and Julia Child.
What we tested and whether the book's worth buying, after the jump.
'Pie' Angela Boggiano Mitchell Beazley -- 2009 (paperback) Buy it at Amazon
Fans of savory pies need no longer fear getting hung up at Heathrow security due to the suspicious scent of smuggled Stargazy pie and Cornish pasties emanating from their person. Angela Boggiano's pastry-centric paen to traditional British fare allows the rest of the globe to tuck into cold Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and hand-held Grimbsy Town Soccer Pies in the comfort of their very own homes.
There's a serviceable nod to the dessert end of the spectrum, but the meat and fish based recipes are the sweet spot.
Takeaway tips: Pastry crust isn't difficult to make, so long as you follow the author's three golden rules:
1. Handle it lightly.
2. Keep it cool.
3. Bake it in a hot oven.
Quality of pictures: Seductive and instructive
We tested: Melton Mowbray Pork Pies and Eccles Cakes Recipes were thorough, easy to follow and quite approachable for home cooks and fledgling pie makers. The U.S. edition translates all measurements into non-metric quantities. Our one quibble was a single digit omitted from the Eccles Cakes baking temperature (50F? Really?) but we took our best guess, and both pies turned out as pictured and previously sampled while we were in their native land.
Worth the investment: Yes, for Anglophiles, ex-pats, lovers of lard and the gluten averse -- she includes recipes for wheat-free pastry.
I'm not gonna lie -- I'm rough on my books. There's a school of thought treating the physical manifestation of the written word as a sacred object, and I fully respect that. However I, for one, shove an old copy of "How to Cook a Wolf" into the bottom of my bag with the notion that at some point it'll sustain me on an overextended subway ride. I read "The Devil in the Kitchen" in the bathtub, A.J. Liebling over a lunchtime reuben, and good gosh a-mighty are my cookbooks covered in schmutz.
But hey, it's thematic goo; "Molto Italiano" is spattered in tomato sauce, "Pie" -- seen above -- is all a-smear in lard, "Charleston Receipts" in Otranto Club Punch and "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" slicked with a fine mist of rendered rind bacon. To my mind, these books are being honored, used, proven. Should these books at some point have a subsequent owner, they'll know what's been tested, made and made again.
Still, am I dishonoring the object or the authors when I'm getting the books all mucky? I posed the question to Matthew Lee (whose book "The Lee Bros. Southern Cooking" I've doused in all manner of pickling brine), and he noted that he and his co-author, his brother Ted have debated pre-mucking-up copies of their book to nix the blank canvas factor. The recipes therein are warm of heart and humble of origin, so it's not out of character, but would, say, a gellan-gumming of Grant Achatz's "Alinea" be a crime against the rather expensive and exceptionally lovely object?
Do you keep your cookbooks in pristine condition, or do you just accept page stains as collateral damage?
There's no reason why a healthful meal cannot also be the most delicious meal. For example, check out the recently launched SMART menus program created by renowned cookbook author Mollie Katzen, and one of Oprah's favorite docs, Dr. Michael Roizen. They put together a series of recipes that show how you can can easily remake your favorite recipes without all of the unnecessary indulgences of high amounts of saturated fat and calories.
Gwyneth Paltrow is no stranger to the foodie world. She's traveled Spain with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, and Claudia Bassols to taste all that the country has to offer. And now she's getting into home cookin'.
The Telegraph reports that Paltrow is going to publish her first cookbook next year, called My Father's Daughter, focusing on "the importance of togetherness at mealtime, emphasizing that cooking for your family is the ultimate expression of love."
I imagine that means there will be some remembrances of dad Bruce Paltrow, but what there won't be is a whole bunch of macrobiotic love. She's given up that food trend and is now reveling in all that is local, organic, and seasonal, with a healthy side of vices like coffee and wine. So basically, like most other cookbooks out there, I guess. We'll have to see what next year brings!
When you try to expand your culinary experience internationally, the task can be daunting -- a mixture of foreign ingredients, new and unfamiliar dishes. But with the right delivery, it becomes easy and wonderful. The key is explanation and pictures. You'll never want to try a food that you can't imagine in its finished state -- especially when unfamiliar ingredients enter the equation.
A good starter book is The Around the World Cookbook, which is part of the Creative Cooking Library series. It's quite large, but that's because not only does every recipe have a picture of the final product, but also pictures of the process. This proves to be invaluable when you're looking to expand your culinary horizons, but can't imagine what the final product will look like. The recipes are grouped by region and include locales like Africa, Indonesia, Morocco, Spain, and the Caribbean.
I will admit -- the pictures look a bit dated, but the flavors are solid. There's the simple, sugary snack of African Banana Mandazi, tasty Dhal Puri roti, and my favorite -- the French Onion Soup recipe, which I've been using for years now. If you're itching to start breaking out of your internationally-secluded comfort zone, this will help without scaring you off right off the bat.
I know people swallow it (note that I will not reveal my own preference - this is not one of those sites), however the concept of cooking it up into a gourmet meal is totally new to me. I'm speaking, of course, of semen and the new book, "Natural Harvest: A collection of semen-based recipes" by Paul Photenhauer.
In the book, Paul tell us that, "Semen is not only nutritious, but has a palatable texture and wonderful cooking properties." It's a widely available ingredient and the flavor is complex like a fine wine. Depending on the male's diet, the flavor will vary.
The book contains recipes for the almost white Russian, man made oysters, tuna sashimi with dipping sauce (you know what that is), and (if I may insert editorial opinion here), the grossest of them all, creamy cum crepes.
Paul does give the all-important warning, "Please do not add semen to your guest's food without informing them beforehand," and I thank him for that. While I'm typically OK risking it with a mystery meat on my plate and have even gone so far as to eat fried bugs, I would definitely need a warning and perhaps a doctor's seal of approval on the producing male before digging in to any dish from Natural Harvest.
Are you totally disgusted or would you try it?
Natural Harvest is available for $24.99 at Lulu.com. You can also find pictures there of some of the other recipes.
I am often skeptical of big, multi-purpose cookbooks. I'm something of a Joy of Cooking girl myself (particularly the edition printed in the late sixties/early seventies) and so I don't always see the utility of having additional huge, all-encompassing cookbooks taking up space on my shelves when I'm always going to turn to Joy.
However, as soon as I opened up the Culinary Institute of American Cookbook, my dedication to Irma Rombauer's opus started to crack just slightly, making me think that it might be a good idea to open myself up to a few more large tomes. There are a number of useful tricks in the introduction, including one that made me slap my hand to my head with its useful obvious. They advise to keep a stick of butter in the freezer and then use a vegetable peeler to detach small bits which will then easily melt on veggies or toast. Genius!
This is a book written and designed for home cooks (as opposed to many of the CIA's publications that are intended for students at the Institute). It's printed on a combination of glossy and matte paper, so that there are several sections of gorgeous pictures, scattered among larger sections of recipes. I was a little disappointed in the recipes, as they seem to be the same collection of world cuisine we see all over these days. There were a couple of recipes that caught my attention, though. I've earmarked the Warm Black-Eyed Pea Salad (page 45), Garlic Cheese Grits (page 183) and Chedder and Thyme Muffins (page 254).
Bottom line: If you have a full-to-bursting shelf of cookbooks, you don't need this book. However, if you're shopping for a cook that is just moving beyond beginner status, this could be a great book to help them walk down that path.
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When you try to expand your culinary experience internationally, the task can be daunting -- a mixture of foreign ingredients, new and unfamiliar dishes. But with the right delivery, it becomes easy and wonderful. The key is explanation and pictures. You'll never want to try a food that you can't imagine in its finished state -- especially when unfamiliar ingredients enter the equation.
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