European Books - Page 4

Art of Lithuanian Cooking

Maria Gieysztor de Gorgey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good recipe book 4 out of 5 stars.
35 of 37 people found this review helpful.

It was what I expected, but I was hoping to be surprised. However still a great overall collection of recipies. I would have liked to see more detail. For example the book sais "cook beets separately", well how long do you boil beets? Americans now adays generally just know how to open can, pour and microwave. Also substitutes for ingredients like pike and carp should be mentioned. I know from living in Lithuania that these fish are common there, but not easy to find pike and carp in the grocery stores here in the states. Also, the book often sais to use mushrooms. However Lithuanians are masters at mushrooms. They have different terms for a species of mushroom depending on when they are picked, if they are under, on the side or on top of a log, etc. I personally use cremini mushrooms for Lithuanian cuisine for the more "gamey" nature. To make this book special a professional editor could do wonders. It would be great to see the meals broken down by the regions of Lithuania, and a historical reference of how these foods and spices made their way to Lithuania. However, I guess I am reaching for the sky. I would just like to see a book that gets people focused on the amazing foods of Central Europe. So many times people ignore agrarian cuisine as "peasant food" and fail to see the brilliance of it's simple ingredients mixed w/ expert preparation. With all this said, I am happy I spent [the money] on this book. I will definitely use it as a reference.

Editorial Review:

"Art of Lithuanian Cooking is a culinary showcase of palate-pleasing regional delights." --The Midwest Book Review "Here is a collection of Lithuanian recipes that will be welcome on any table." --The International Cookbook Revue This favorite Hippocrene cookbook includes over 150 authentic Lithuanian recupes such as "Fresh Cucumber Soup," "Lithuanian Meat Pockets," "Hunter's Stew," "Potato Zeppelins," as well as delicacies like "Homemade Honey Liqueur," and "Easter Gypsy Cake." The author's introduction and easy step-by-step directions ensure that even novice cooks can create authentic, delicious Lithuanian recipes.

A Taste of Croatia

Karen Evenden

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A Taste of Croatia...savoring the food, people and traditions of Croatia's Adriatic coast...is both a user-friendly cookbook and an intriguing travel memoir dedicated to the land that the New York Times recently dubbed the "New Riviera." Packed with straight-forward recipes, photos, food facts and anecdotes, the author has created a publication that goes beyond the bounds of what makes a great cookbook...she delivers the spirit of the culture, the country and the cuisine and then ties it all together with a collection of recipes that will make you want to run to your kitchen and start cooking. Today, throughout America, we are hearing more and more about the benefits of eating fresh, seasonal, local foods that are grown and produced using sustainable methods. However, for today's cooks, it can be difficult to know exactly how to incorporate these concepts into our busy lives without it being too complicated, time consuming or expensive. Toss in a dash of ethnicity and even the most competent home cook can become discouraged. Fear not: A Taste of Croatia provides a straightforward and easy way to celebrate a culture whose dishes can be created anywhere fresh ingredients can be found...all the while capturing you with an inspiring story that will allow you to set out on your own adventure...without leaving your favorite chair. A Taste of Croatia is based on the author and her husband's three-year odyssey sailing the Adriatic coast and living aboard their 50-foot sailboat. It is the story of the lands they explored, the people they met, the markets they visited and the foods they enjoyed. Presented as a well organized, easy-to-use cookbook, most of the recipes have been savored by generations of Croatians and all of the recipes have been adapted for use in American kitchens. It is the author's hope to provide each reader with his or her own enriching, delicious, inspiring and thought-provoking "taste of Croatia."

The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe

Bob Spitz

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

I choked my way through it 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Bob Spitz rambling account left me thinking that his time would have been better spent on an analyst's couch rather than at cooking schools. The author's narcissism is left unchecked and, therefore, he rarely accepts responsibility for his situation or poor attitude. I would gladly return the book and send the money directly to him for his therapy fund.

Editorial Review:

The education of a barbarian in the temples of haute cuisine.

In the blink of an eye, Bob Spitz turned fifty, finished an eight-year book project and a fourteen-year marriage that left him nearly destitute, had his heart stolen and broken on the rebound, and sought salvation the only way he knew how. He fled to Europe, where he hopscotched among the finest cooking schools in pursuit of his dream. The urge to cook like a virtuoso, to unravel the mysteries of the process, had become an obsession.

Spitz hit the fabled cooking-school circuit in a series of idyllic European villages, and The Saucier's Apprentice is a chronicle of his exploits. Combining an outrageous travelogue with gastronomic lore, hands-on cooking instruction, hot-tempered chefs, local personalities, and a batch of memorable recipes, Spitz's odyssey recounts the transformation of a professional writer—and lifelong kitchen amateur—into a world-class cook. 30 illustrations.

Wild Brews: Culture and Craftsmanship in the Belgian Tradition

Jeff Sparrow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Lambic Tour 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 25 people found this review helpful.

I've never been in a Belbium brewery, but from what I hear, the health department in any city/state in the US would immediately shut them down. The very title of this book 'WildBrews' explains why. The traditional lambic beers of Belgium are produced using wild yeast. While you can find wild yeast everywhere, the ones you get here in the US produce truly bad beers. Each batch you produce will be different, sometimes totally different, but in my experience always bad.

The yeast that seem to abound in Belgium produce beers with a consistency that has lasted for generations. I don't know if it is true, but I have always suspected that clumps of yeast would gather together rather like cob webs or dust balls around the brewery and fall or be blown into the mix. I was rather surprised at the appearance of the breweries in this book as they seemed clean and sanitary.

Lambics have not been among the most popular beers made in this country. Only a few micro breweries produce lambics, the most popular around here is New Belgium from Ft. Collins, CO.

You can, of course make your own Lambics, the recipies start on page 255 of this book. But you don't do it with the natural yeast floating around the air in your garden. You buy Lambic yeast from a couple of companies.

One scary thought. Beer was invented some 5,000 years ago. Probably some grain got wet, sprouted, dried out, got wet again and some yeast got into the mix. Boy that must have been bad stuff. At that time it was all wild yeast. Personally I'm glad that we've had 5,000 years of yeast development.

This is an enjoyable book, almost a travelogue through Belgium beers.

Editorial Review:

Explores the world of Lambics, Flanders red and Flanders brown beers as well as the many new American beers produced in the similar style.

Everybody Eats Well in Belgium Cookbook

Ruth Van Waerebeek, Maria Robbins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It's a country that boasts more three-star restaurants per capita than any other nation--including France. It's a country where home cooks--and everyone, it seems, is a great home cook--spend copious amounts of time thinking about, shopping for, preparing, discussing, and celebrating food. With its French foundation, hearty influences from Germany and Holland, herbs straight out of a Medieval garden, and condiments and spices from the height of Flemish culture, Belgian cuisine is elegant comfort food at its best--slow-cooked, honest, bourgeois, nostalgic. It's the Sunday meal and a continental dinner party, family picnics and that antidote to a winter's day.

In 250 delicious recipes, here is the best of Belgian cuisine. Veal Stew with Dumplings, Mushrooms, and Carrots. Potato and Leek Stoemp. Smoked Trout Mousse with Watercress Sauce. Braised Partridge with Cabbage and Abbey Beer. Gratin of Belgian Endives. Flemish Carrot Soup. Steak-Frites. Belgian Steamed Mussels. Belgian Steamed Mussels. Cognac Scented Flemish Waffles. And desserts, some using the best chocolate on earth: Belgian Chocolate Ganache Tart, Lace Cookies from Brugge, Almond Cake with Fresh Fruit Topping, Little Chocolate Nut Cakes.

As Belgians explain it, since one has to eat three times a day, why not make a feast of every meal? 57,000 copies in print.

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris

A. J. Liebling

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

What a bore! One star is an over-rating! 1 out of 5 stars.
10 of 45 people found this review helpful.

Before purchasing this book, I read all the customer comments which gave nothing but praise. I just don't get it. I wish one of the reviewers would have given me tips on how to stay awake while plodding through each sentence/paragraph, along with where to find a single nugget in these pages worth remembering. Okay, I'll probably always wonder how the author's love of boxing was deemed worth inclusion, but then I wonder why the entire book was printed. I feel suckered! And can't think of anything to recommend this book. My advice is to spend your money on ANYTHING written by M.F.K. Fisher, "The Tummy Trilogy" by Calvin Trillin or "Blue Trout and Black Truffles" by Joseph Wechsberg for much more pleasurable reading.

Makes you long for the good old days... 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is a fantastic book, but if you've never cracked The New Yorker open before, you might not like the style. Very in the moment and tongue in cheek, Liebling is a master wordsmith leaving no offense done to him by the onset of modernity unheckled. Some of the greatest tidbits come when he derrides the famous Michelin Star rating system for French restaurants, now a standard that chefs have literally killed themselves over - Liebling reminds you that its just a rating from a TIRE manufacturer and that he feels it marked the decline of real French cooking.

I read passages of this book out loud to friends and family, most notably the ones dealing with the immense amounts of food, and always got a laugh. This is not a book dealing with the upper crust of French high society, but rather a street wise, in the guts little tome that entertains and educates - though sadly, it is unlikely one can find the Paris that Liebling describes anymore.

Editorial Review:

New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling recalls his Parisian apprenticeship in the fine art of eating in this charming memoir.

Saucier's Apprentice

Raymond Sokolov

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

Editorial Review:

Here is the first book all the great sauces of practical, workable system. Raymond Sokolov, the widely admired former Food Editor of The first to point out that the hitherto mysterious saucier's art, as practiced by the best restaurant chefs, is based on what amounts to an elegant "fast food" technique. And this is what he demonstrates in his unique, useful, and witty book:
-- How to prepare, at your leisure, the three fundamental classic sauces (the "mother" sauces from which all others evolve: Brown, White, and Fish Veloute)...
-- How to freeze them in one-meal-size containers, ready for use at a moment's notice...
-- How to transform any of these basic put-away sauces, quickly and easily, into the exact ones that French chefs are famous for and serve in the finest restaurants...
-- How to prepare the classic dish for which each sauce is traditionally used, with suggestions for enhancing simpler fare (the recipes run the gamut from Duckling a la Bigarade to Poached Eggs Petit-Duc -- that is, with Chateaubriand Sauce).

Mr. Sokolov has conceived, then, a comprehensive collection of recipes -- authoritative, clear, and easy to follow -- as well as an inventive method of cooking for the average kitchen. Peppered with culinary lore and with reassuring accounts of the author's own experiences as a modern-day Saucier's Apprentice, here is a book that will appeal to every good amateur cook who wants to produce sumptuous fare at home for occasions great and small.

The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia

Darra Goldstein

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

One of my favorites! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

As someone who was born and grew up in Tbilisi, I was very happy to find this book -- it captures all of my favorite recipes, and when I prepare them according to this book, they taste just like my grandma's cooking.

More than just a recipe book, this is also an exploration into the rich history and culture of Georgia, and how the history shaped the cuisine. I suggest this book to everyone who would like to add some interesting preparations to their cooking. For vegetarians, Georgians have plenty of healthful and filling ways to prepare veggies and beans, and also some mouth watering sauces that will enliven any dish (veg or not).

I enjoy this book both as a cook book, and as a historical book!

Editorial Review:

According to Georgian legend, God took a supper break while creating the world. He became so involved with his meal that he inadvertently tripped over the high peaks of the Caucasus, spilling his food onto the land below. The land blessed by Heaven's table scraps was Georgia.
Nestled in the Caucasus mountain range between the Black and Caspian seas, the Republic of Georgia is as beautiful as it is bountiful. The unique geography of the land, which includes both alpine and subtropical zones, has created an enviable culinary tradition. In The Georgian Feast, Darra Goldstein explores the rich and robust culture of Georgia and offers a variety of tempting recipes.
The book opens with a fifty-page description of the culture and food of Georgia. Next are over one hundred recipes, often accompanied by notes on the history of the dish. Holiday menus, a glossary of Georgian culinary terms, and an annotated bibliography round out the volume.

Finnish Cookbook (International Cookbook Series)

Beatrice Ojakangas

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Finnish Cookbook 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

I love this book, and I would never have stumbled upon it except for Amazon's "recommendations" program.
My grandmother was Finnish and used to bake bread on a regular basis. I was only 7 years old the last time I saw her, but as I knead the Finnish rye bread dough, I can see her in her kitchen making bread.
I want to make everything in the book. Everything in it seems "right" to me. I see myself in it.

Finnish Home Cooking: The Real Thing 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book is an introduction to the Finnish kitchen. Ojakangas, a second generation Finnish-America, learned some traditional Finnish dishes from her grandmother. But when her husband was awarded a Fulbright grant in Finland for 1960-61, she was able to get make an intensive study of Finnish food culture. She discovered how some of the dishes she had learned to make as a child had roots deep in Finland, while others were presumably American creations. In this collection of recipes, Ojakangas focuses on the foods found on Finnish tables, although she does include some of the Finnish American traditions that have become standard in Finnish-American culture.

The book makes fascinating reading, for Ojakangas provides not only the common recipes, but she also includes with each recipe a brief description of how the dish fits into the context of the daily diet. Rather than following the standard American cookbook organization of appetizers and soups, main dishes, sides dishes, and desserts, Ojakangas pay close attention to which types of foods are most important for Finns and how they are used together. With this in mind, the book begins with breads, moves on to the coffee table (mainly cookies and cakes), pastries (both sweet and savory), soups, fish, meat dishes (heavy on the liver, pork, and sausage, and very little chicken), vegetables and salads (mostly roots, very little greenery), desserts (fruit soups and porridges), dairy and eggs, beverages, sauces, and sandwiches (open-faced). At the end of the book is a chapter with suggested menus for special occasions and a selected reading list and bibliography.

This is the best and most authentic Finnish cookbook that I've come across in English. I've tried out a few Finnish American cookbooks, and although their recipes may be tasty, they often are distinctly American in flavor, with many more ingredients like green vegetables than one would ever find in Finland. In this book, we find recipes for all the Finnish standards, for everything from kalakukko to maksalaatikko, from mämmi to sima. Ojakangas provides both the Finnish and English names for each dish; although the Finnish is generally quite accurate, there are a few typos. (I stared at "valdemariisi" for quite some time before I realized it should have been written "vadelmariisi", or raspberry rice.)

The culinary descriptions make this book great reading for anyone contemplating visiting or living in Finland for an extended period. I sure wish I had read it before heading off to study in Finland as an exchange student. The first week I arrived in the country, my host-mother showed me around the kitchen and told me to make myself at home. Then she went off to work in Helsinki for the week, and I was left to fend for myself along with her teenage daughters. By the end of the week, I was starving, having consumed all the food that was familiar to me in the first few days. When my host-mother returned from Helsinki and heard that I had reported there was no food in the house, she became very upset, and showed me a large sack of potatoes and other mysterious food stores. At the time, although I was an decent pasta cook and could make some passable stir-fried vegetables, I had never cooked a potato in my life-nor did I know what to do with any of the other foods in the kitchen. I didn't know what Finns ate or when they ate it, so I was completely at a loss when left to feed myself in a Finnish kitchen. A thorough reading of this book before leaving home would have provided a great preparation for what I would find in Finland. I would not have been so surprised by the dark chewy breads, the early meal times, and the importance of lunch and coffee-hour rather than dinner and dessert.

Editorial Review:

From the Crown Classic Cookbook series--which features a collection of the world's best-loved international cookbooks, specially adapted for use in American kitchens.

Ukrainian Recipes

Joanne Asala

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Delicious Ukrainian Recipes 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

NEW in the series of Stocking Stuffer cookbooks, in the popular recipe-card file size Stocking Stuffer format, this book represents Ukrainian cooking as one of the best homestyle cuisines of the world - basic, fresh, wholesome and nutritious, yet still possessing a taste as rich as the black soil itself.

Ukrainian food is not often found in restaurants, for it is a style of cooking best meant for families, for homecomings, and for holidays. The majority of recipes in this book come from Ukrainian-American homes, where Joanne Asala, who collected the recipes, shared the food and native traditions.

One-hundred-sixty pages include recipes for daily fare and festive celebrations. Notes and menus for traditional observances of Christmas, Easter, and the wedding feast are included with the recipes. Among these are Flummery, Kutia, one of the most sacred of ritual dishes; Easter Bread, Paska, and Honey Nut Cake for weddings.

On the cover is a photo of a candelabra representing the trident, a traditional symbol of Ukraine. Examples of the exquisite, symbolic folk art, especially egg design, krashanky, are found throughout the book with reference to the significance of the various designs.

Excellent for personal collections, as well as a thoughtful gift and memento.

Editorial Review:

This spiral-bound index card size book contains dozens of traditional recipes from Ukrainian-American kitchens. Makes a great gift or "stocking stuffer" for friends and relatives.END