Reference Books - Page 27

Perfect Vegetables: Part of "The Best Recipe" Series

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Veg-o-rama 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

A well written, detailed book wherein each chapter brings a new vegetable and great ideas. I was primarily looking to make vegetables play a more central and creative role in my cooking, and this book has been the answer. You'll be carmelizing onions and braising endive in no time.

Finally - Vegetables Get Some Respect 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Vegetables have always been the Rodney Dangerfield of food: they never get any respect. They are variously beaten, cooked, stewed, molded, mashed, seasoned, sauced, and pureed to death, sometimes more than once in the same recipe. This behavior even includes places that you expect would have more respect for our botanical friends: Indian/Hindu/vegetarian, Oriental/Buddhist/vegetarian, California/vegan. The cookbook aisles are littered with the carnage of bad vegetable recipes. Properly cooking vegetables is neither easy nor fast. Correctly done, the vegetable portion of your meal often takes MORE time and/or effort than, say, the protein centerpiece of your meal.

This book qualifies as a genuine vegetable encyclopedia that you can rely on for accurate information and proper cooking methods. You get 44 vegetables. Each and every one gets several pages and a thorough treatment, including recommended prep methods and recipes. Typically, each vegetable gets a half dozen or so pages (beets and okra get 2 pages, potatoes 50). This book is an alphabetical encyclopedia of the proper way to prep and cook vegetables. It was a real joy to finally see vegetables given the respect they deserve. Be mindful, however, that this means that cooking your vegetables are no longer quick, easy, and simple.

Their prep methods for artichoke and asparagus are very good, but causes you to throw away some edible parts. Do you know the best way to ripen avocados? This and much more about vegetables will be revealed to you. Can you cook a brussel sprout that people will actually eat? Do you have to cut an "x" in the base? Did you know that there are a couple of frozen vegetables that actually pass muster with the authors? The vegetables chosen are all the standard, usual ones you will find in any supermarket. The authors have the integrity to avoid special, rare, hard to find vegetables that might be fabulous, but impossible to get unless you are a celebrity super-chef in Manhattan. A properly prepared vegetable, although just a side-dish, should be good enough, with a glass of wine, to serve as a light supper all by itself. Are the vegetables you typically prepare at home this good? I was rather surprised that squash (winter and summer) got short-shrift in this book. They are so cheap, so plentiful, so easy to get, and so good, why not devote more attention to them? The only answer I can imagine is that the staff of CI are not very fond of squash, regardless of season.

This is a truly brilliant cookbook, but I knock it down a notch for the poorly thought out format. It is designed just like their periodical, Cooks Illustrated. The format might be suitable for a magazine, but it is a serious mistake for a book designed to be a ready reference for the home cook's bookshelf.
1) Problem #1 - Side Bar Mania. Kitchen tool reviews and taste tests are randomly scattered throughout the test. They are listed in the index under `equipment' and `ingredients' respectively, right where the home cook is likely to forget that they even exist in the book. These should be collated right in front along with the TOC.
2) Problem #2 - Where are the `master recipes'? This book uses a concept they call `master recipe' for the main prep/cooking method for a vegetable plus the variations. The TOC only lists the vegetable. This might be OK for a chapter that has only one master recipe, but is a major flaw for chapters that has 15 such `master recipes'. Each and every master recipe should be listed in the TOC. As is, this book is only marginally useful as a reference.
3) Problem #3 - More Side Bar Mania. Important information about the particular vegetable tends to be buried in each chapter. In potatoes, for example, important information about their storage (and that the frig is OK for them) is buried 4/5 of the way through potato chapter in the middle of a section about French potato salads, where you will never find it unless you read the entire chapter. How is this suppose to help the home cook?
4) Problem #4 - OK, now I am just picking nits. The photographs are out of focus and kind of irritating to look at. How could a food stylist permit this to happen? OK, one baby bok choy is in focus, but the other 3 are blurry; and this flaw is true of all except one (grilled corn) of the color photos.

Editorial Review:

How to prepare and cook everything from asparagus to winter squash Do you know why most stuffed peppers are soggy and bland? Is it better to blanch or steam broccoli? Will washing mushrooms make them waterlogged? In Perfect Vegetables the editors address these and hundreds of commonly asked questions about vegetables. There are more than 350 recipes including Glazed Carrots with Bacon, Grilled Portobello and Spinach Salad and Tomato and Mozzarella Tart

Cooking under Pressure

Lorna J. Sass

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Remember how wonderful home cooking tasted when you were a kid? Remember the comforting aromas that filled your house, the delicious soups and stews that warmed your childhood winters?

They can all be yours again. From the elegant to the ethnic to the traditional, this collection of recipes --developed for a whole new generation of pressure cookers and mindful of the healthier way we eat today -- is comfort food at its fastest and best.

Today's totally safe pressure cookers -- sleeker, speedier, more user-friendly than the microwave oven -- turn out foods in one-third the time of conventional methods without sacrificing moisture, flavor, or aroma. Even inexpensive cuts of meat become tender and succulent; soups, stews, and sauces taste as if they've been simmering for hours; pot roast melts in the mouth; rice, beans, and grains, which used to take hours, are ready in minutes.

Lorna Sass introduces us to an eclectic array of dishes that can be prepared on a whim: Imagine a classic ossobuco in only 18 minutes, chicken gumbo in an astounding 9, superb risotto in just 6 minutes without stirring -- even chocolate cheesecake and Grand Marnier bread pudding are done to perfection in record time.

These are dishes that are right in tune with the eat-healthy eat-right life-style of the 1990s: The shorter cooking times allow foods to retain their nutritional content, and the pressure cooker is ideal for preparing grains and beans, so low in cholesterol and high in fiber. Also included in the book are charts and tables that take the guesswork out of cooking foods under pressure.

Treat yourself to this wonderful world of satisfying flavors: Take the pressure out of cooking and put the taste and nutrition back in.

Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook

Susan Curtis, Janet Mitchell, Kathi Long

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Collectible Santa Fe Cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful.

"The heart and soul of the School is the agriculture upon which the food is based. Many of the traditional methods of growing and processing regional foods - posole, atole, chicos - are almost lost arts. The Cooking School serves as a vehicle to expose and sustain traditional lifestyles." ~Introduction

The Santa Fe School of Cooking Cookbook is filled with pictures from the school and some of them are rather amusing, like the picture of the goats next to the recipe for Open-faced Quesadillas with Goat Cheese and Roast Peppers. Pictures of peppers roasting over an open grill and blue corn being crushed in a molcajete gives this cookbook a warm sunny personality.

I was especially appreciative of the section on the types of chiles. De Arbol, Serrano and Jalapeño are familiar, but Pasilla and Moritas are definitely new to me.

Delicious Recipes Include:

Blue Corn Pancakes
Guacamole
Black Bean Soup
Wild Mint and Lamb Soup
Jicama Salad with Watercress, Radishes, and Chiles
Chicken Enchiladas
Grilled Shrimp in Achiote Marinade
Sopaipillas
Spiced Winter Pears with Ginger Crème Sauce

The Indian Fry Bread is easy to make and makes you feel a different connection to the earth and culture. It is different to fry bread and makes you feel like you are participating in some ancient breadmaking ritual as you pat out the dough by hand (Or you can roll it out, but I learned how to make it that way from my father's sister).

The recipes for Fresh Tortillas will take your cooking to new levels or homemade bliss and there is also a recipe for Green Chile Sauce and the smoky dipping sauce called Chipotle. Spiced Bananas with Rum and a recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake make this truly collectible. Each recipe has a story and there are cooks notes and plenty of pictures that will make you wish you were gathering the produce and walking through sunny fields of corn. I've walked barefoot in New Mexico and fell in love with the Sopaipillas and the warm earth and even survived a hailstorm in my "just purchased" car. Fortunately we found shelter fast.

This cookbook brought back so many memories! It might inspire a vacation to New Mexico.

~The Rebecca Review

Editorial Review:

Includes beautiful recipes for southwestern cuisine.< BR>

How to Bake: Complete Guide to Perfect Cakes, Cookies, Pies, Tarts, Breads, Pizzas, Muffins,

Nick Malgieri

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

How To Bake is as necessary and essential as a good oven; it is the most comprehensive and accessible guide to baking available in English. In a single, illustrated volume, Nick Malgieri, one of America's preeminent bakers and baking teachers, leads cooks through the simple art of creating an international assortment of delicious sweet and savory baked goods.

Here are the best recipes for breads, including such quick ones as Buttermilk Corn Bread, Irish Soda Bread, Classic Southern Biscuits, and Currant Tea Scones, as well as such delicious yeast-risen breads as Italian Bread Rings, Swiss Rye Bread, Challah, and English Muffins. Malgieri also offers recipes for savory treats like Old-Fashioned Chicken Pie, Pepper and Onion Frittata Tart, Cheese Quiche, and Rosemary Focaccia; and for sweet pastries ranging from puff pastries--Apple Turnovers, Banana Feuilletés with Caramel Sauce, Brioches, Strawberry Savarin, and Croissants--to pies and tarts, cobblers, and cookies of every stripe--drop, bar, rolled, and filled; brownies, macaroons, and rugelach. Cakes, too, are here, from layered to rolled, from angel to devil's food.

The recipes in How to Bake are clear and methodical. Master recipes explain all the steps to making a classic dish. They are frequently followed by creative variations so that the baker's palate and skills will always be accommodated and challenged. Start out with a simple spice cake, for example, and transform it, under Malgieri's reassuring guidance, into a lavishly decorated celebration cake.

In addition to an exhaustive and tempting selection of recipes, Malgieri offers clear, detailed instructions, interweaving techniques and helpful sidebars: how to make a pastry bag out of parchment paper; what baking pans to buy; mastering pie and cake toppings; learning to decorate a cake so it looks as if it came from the bakery; and scores of other helpful tips. All this is punctuated with precise explanatory illustrations and thirty-two pages of luscious color photographs to inspire and guide the baker. How to Bake is a one-volume "bible" for bakers.

The Union Square Cafe Cookbook: 160 Favorite Recipes from New York's Acclaimed Restaurant

Danny Meyer, Michael Romano

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Union Square Cafe serves some of the most imaginative, interesting, and tasty food in America. The restaurant and its owners, Danny Meyer and chef Michael Romano, have been lauded for their outstanding food and superb service by Gourmet, Food & Wine, the New York Times, and the James Beard Foundation. Now its devoted fans from down the block and across the globe can savor the restaurant's marvelous dishes, trademark hospitality, and warm decor at home.

Offered are recipes for 160 of Union Square Cafe's classic dishes, from appetizers, soups, and sandwiches to main courses, vegetables, and desserts. Hot Garlic Potato Chips, Porcini Gnocchi with Prosciutto and Parmigiano Cream, Grilled Marinated Fillet Mignon of Tuna, Herb-Roasted Chicken, Eggplant Mashed Potatoes, and Baked Banana Tart with Caramel and Macadamia Nuts are some of the all-time favorites included in this long-awaited collection.

Union Square's recipes are easily mastered by home cooks. They call for ingredients that are widely available (mail-order sources are listed for those few that are not), employ familiar techniques, and take a reasonable amount of time to complete. Amateurs and pros alike will find the dishes here as accessible as they are irresistible.

Beyond just providing recipes, The Union Square Cafe Cookbook inspires confidence in home cooks by sharing Michael Romano's tips for success. Readers learn that soaking baby onions in warm water makes them easier to peel (in the recipe for Sweet Peas with Escarole, Onions, and Mint); that the Corn and Tomatillo Salsa served with Polenta-Crusted Sea Bass also goes well with barbecued chicken or pork; that leftover Sautéed Spinach with Garlic makes a great sandwich filling; and that yesterday's sourdough bread should be kept for such soups and salads as Ribollita and Sourdough Panzanella. Danny Meyer's wine suggestions, inspired by the restaurant's remarkable cellar, accompany almost every recipe.

The Union Square Cafe Cookbook does the rare job of capturing the bustling energy and ebullient enthusiasm of the restaurant itself and the spirited personalities—those of Danny and Michael—that drive it. Folks will still go out of their way to eat at Union Square Cafe, but this cookbook—filled with the restaurant's vitality, warm artwork, and tempting recipes—ensures that its pleasures are as close as your bookshelf.

Joy of Gardening Cookbook

Janet Ballantyne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Book for Gardeners 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book with great recipes & instructions on vegetables. Try the Mustard Lemon Potatoes it's a family favorite. Also a great gift idea for families w/ gardens

Not worth your money 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I do not understand the five star rating on this book. I have been collecting cookbooks and cooking since I was seventeen. Forty years ago.

Never have I had such a dismal array of recipes. In any cookbook you can usually find at the very least two to three good recipes.

Not there is not one redeeming quality to this one. So please, please save your money.

Great Book for Gardeners 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book with great recipes & instructions on vegetables. Try the Mustard Lemon Potatoes it's a family favorite. Also a great gift idea for families w/ gardens. Hey! Janet do another Cookbook about vegetables !

Joy of Gardening 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Although out of print for many years, this book still contains many great recipes from Janet Ballantyne. It was first printed in 1984 and an anniversary edition was printed in 1994. Several of my favorite recipes, including vegetarian, are in this cookbook and I just bought a used one for my daughter.

Editorial Review:

This classic includes more than 350 how-to-do-it and how-to-serve-it color photographs. 128,000 copies in print.

A Continual Feast: A Cookbook to Celebrate the Joys of Family and Faith Throughout the Christian Year

Evelyn Birge Vitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

incomplete at best 2 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

There are too many gaps in this book and I find myself looking for something else to replace or complement it. For example,today is the feast day of Saint Therese the Little Flower and there is no mention of her, which is dissappointing,especially for my homeschooled daughter for whom this book was purchased. She does however very much enjoy the information in this book and would appreciate any recomendations to fill in the gaps.

A great introduction into cooking for the Church year! 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a really helpful cookbook, especially if you didn't come out of a liturgical tradition orginally. Evelyn Vitz has laid the book out in a calendar fashion for the most part, but has sections on days of fasting and abstinence and saints days. I really love her recipe for plum pudding and use it every year now. I had tried several other recipes before hers, but hers is definitely the best. We have also included a lot of her other suggestions in our family celebrations. This is a cookbook that I refer to frequently (especially during Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter).

This book is great for any Christian family that wants to add a bit more traditional Christian emphasis to their lives. You don't have to be Catholic or Orthodox to enjoy it and use it. You may find yourself understanding Catholic and Orthodox traditions once you've read it, however.

This book passes on traditions that some families failed to get from Great Grandmother before she died. If you are from a Christian family, it will help you get in touch with your roots (as well as give you a lot of delicious recipes to try).

Editorial Review:

Here is a cookbook to celebrate the joys of family and faith throughout the Christian year. Wonderful recipes and ideas from the Christian tradition offer suggestions on when and why these dishes might be served. 275 recipes bring new meaning to "breaking bread together." Illustrated.

Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions

David Joachim

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A useful volume providing both recipes and hints on cooking 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

An interesting concept is at the base of this book. It provides hundreds of recipes--as a part of what is described as 5,000 "ingenious kitchen hints, secrets, shortcuts, and solutions."

Coverage is from A to Z. Some examples of helpful hints. On page 3, substitutes for alcohol in recipes are noted. Instead of one tablespoon of sherry or Madeira, use one tablespoon of apple juice. Another item under A is the choice of the right apple for the right purpose. For example, Golden Delicious apples can be used for sauce, baking, salads, and eating; McIntosh apples are best for eating and sauce; and so on. And immediately after these hints, there is a nice recipe for spicy applesauce (using McIntosh apples). On page 75, for those readers addicted to Buffalo Chicken Wings, there is a recipe for Buffalo Hot Sauce. While I would prefer old-fashioned Tabasco Sauce, the recipe calls for somewhat milder hot pepper sauces, for palates that aren't as willing to burn. In addition, there are a couple recipes for using the sauce other than on chicken wings. What about making Mango Salsa? Page 268 features a simple, easy to make recipe. Polenta? Pages 377-378 provide a veritable "how to do it" mini-manual, including what to do if you err in making it (such as burning the bottom of the polenta). On Page 531, you can read how to prepare vegetables for grilling. For asparagus, snap off the tough ends and use direct heat to grill the vegetable. And so on and so on. A to Z? What about getting the zest from oranges to use in recipes? Here is one of the few places that I have run across this "how you do it" tidbit.

All in all, a very nice and useful volume.

Editorial Review:

Now in paperback: the most comprehensive home-cooking reference book ever-with 5,000 fabulous insider kitchen tips and over 900 great-tasting recipes from food experts across the country.

Whether you cook a little or a lot, plain or fancy, healthy or hearty, for your family or just for fun, this is the one book that does it all-faster and easier than you ever dreamed. Find out how to choose the juiciest oranges, perk up limp asparagus, rescue any over-salted dish, and crack an egg with one hand. Get down-to-earth answers to the cooking questions that you face every day. Or, if you're simply tired of the same old meals night after night, discover hundreds of easy recipes that put great-tasting food on your table in a jiffy.

Party Receipts from the Charleston Junior League: Hors D'Oeuvres, Savories, Sweets

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

My Favorite Party Recipes 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 12 people found this review helpful.

The Party Recipes from the Charleston Junior League is my favorite cookbook. Of all the cookbooks I own I always buy the ones that have lots of pictures. I usually like to see what it looks like first before I make anything. This cookbook was the exception, as it does not have pictures of the food. I looked through the cookbook and immediately saw at least 30 recipes that I knew I wanted to make. I couldn't put it down, as there was such a collection of recipes that I always wanted to try. Whenever I need a recipe for a party or gathering, this cookbook is always the first one that I pick up.

I like the short comments with each recipe from the recipe contributor. I especially like the spiral binding as the book stays flat on the table while you are using it. The people of Charleston, South Carolina know how to throw a successful party. I'm glad they shared their most popular recipes in this book.

Recipe categories in the book:
Accoutrements: Nuts, Nibbles, and Beverages
Cold Dips and Spreads
Hot Dips and Spreads
Cold Hors d'Oeuvres
Hot Hors d'Oeuvres
Lowcountry Shrimp, Crab, and other Seafoods
Southwestern Favorites
Sandwiches and Baked Savories
Sit-Down Starters
Cookies, Cakes, and Confections for the Buffet Table

Editorial Review:

The third Charleston Junior League cookbook reveals more secrets of the city's legendary hospitality.

Techniques in Home Winemaking: The Comprehensive Guide to Making Chateau-Style Wines

Daniel Pambianchi

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Editorial Review:

From crushing grapes to bottling wine, this essential handbook enables the home winemaker to make informed decisions about ingredients, equipment, and the winemaking process. Precise step-by-step instructions lead both novice and advanced winemakers through all of the important procedures, including selecting and working with new equipment, determining the best material for specific styles, analyzing the product, monitoring acidity levels, and common troubleshooting problems. Using accessible charts and tables to offer detailed instructions for making Pinot noir, port, and sparkling wines, this newly updated edition also covers often overlooked topics, such as ice wines and blending varieties.