Showing posts with label kates cooking library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kates cooking library. Show all posts

Vegetable Love Review

Vegetable Love
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy Vegetable Love? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Vegetable Love. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Vegetable Love ReviewWinner of the Julia Child Cookbook Award and columnist for Gourmet, Family Circle, and Vogue magazines, Barbara Kafka is a passionate chef who has always conveyed her enthusiasm in her writing. This book is no exception. Collaborating here with chef Christopher Styler, a writer and producer of PBS cooking shows, she has now produced the definitive guide to vegetables from all over the world, and she has done so with such style and panache that people will be reading this cookbook and enjoying its recipes for generations.
It is, first of all, a beautifully organized cookbook. Instead of simply presenting the vegetables in sterile, alphabetical order, Kafka (with Styler) has organized them according to the area of the world in which they originated, arranging them alphabetically within sections--Vegetables of the New World; of the Mediterranean Basin, Europe, and the Arab World; of Asia and Africa; and (for onions, scallions, herbs, and vegetables used everywhere) as Citizens of the World. This gives a refreshing unity to the sections based on the fact that the vegetables within each section are related to each other culturally and often blend naturally in recipes. As she introduces each vegetable within these sections, she discusses their histories, and since she is also a gardener, as well as a chef, often gives suggestions for planting and growing.
Fascinating and unique recipes teach home chefs to think outside the box, expanding the thinking of even experienced cooks by suggesting new ways of preparing or of combining ingredients. Eleven pages of recipes using artichokes, thirteen for beets, and twenty for tomatoes, for example, show the depth with which each vegetable is treated, and the creativity of the recipes is reflected in the Ruby Chard Tart, Beet and Apple Strudel, Carrot Sorbet, and Parsnip Flan with Smoked Salmon.
A 150-page Cook's Guide, with green-edged pages for quick reference, presents all vegetables alphabetically, allowing the authors an opportunity to give additional basic, practical information for each vegetable--buying and storing, washing/ways of cutting, yields and equivalents, methods of preparation, possible substitutes, distinctions within each vegetable group, and anecdotes. The entries on beans and peppers are particularly helpful.
Written with humor and filled with friendly advice, this is a book for everyone, not just the gourmet chef. The suggestions are practical, and the writing is fun to read. Best of all, Kafka TRIES to connect with her reader--she doesn't just refer to an ingredient from the Cook's Guide--she provides the exact page number. Her beautifully organized, 35-page Index coordinates the various sections so you can look up recipes by ingredient. (If you have fish on hand and want to know something interesting you can do with it, there are ten vegetable sauces listed, and if you have tons of zucchini, there are thirteen recipes, from pickles to custard.) Released in time for the winter holidays, 2005, this is a landmark cookbook which will keep its readers enthralled. Mary Whipple
Vegetable Love Overview

Want to learn more information about Vegetable Love?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens Review

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens ReviewThis is a book for people who love to eat - cooking is not really necessary for its enjoyment! Ms. Kasper is a wonderful writer who paints with words as beautifully as she cooks. Recipes are forthright - simple ingredients simply prepared. (For those who want a more complicated cuisine I'd recommend her first book ("The Splendid Table"). Here she tells tales and recites the folklore of the Italian countryside; she explains the heartland of the country and and the heart(s) of it's people. Since we can't all travel with Ms. Kasper as she makes her rounds, this is as close to heaven as we can get without a plane ticket! FIVE STARS!The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens Overview

Want to learn more information about The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...

The Provence Cookbook Review

The Provence Cookbook
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Are you looking to buy The Provence Cookbook? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Provence Cookbook. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Provence Cookbook ReviewThe cookbooks of `cuisine Provence' just keep coming. The latest is the new book by Patricia Wells, whose credentials for doing a cookbook on a cuisine of France are impeccable, as she has already written seven (7), including an earlier book on Provence entitled `Patricia Wells at Home in Provence'. I made a point of reviewing the earlier book (as well as four (4) of Wells' other books) when I saw the notice of the new book's being published.
Madame Wells gives no clue in this book to distinguish it from the earlier title. She does indicate that it marks the occasion of her living at the farmhouse, Chanteduc, with her husband for the last twenty years. My biggest question about the current volume is, after all the books which have already been published, what new can be said about the cuisine of this singularly fecund culinary terroir? The answer in this book is `A lot'.
Like Wells' earlier Provence book, this book does not dwell on standards such as Bouillabaisse or Salad Nicoise. It presents recipes of local restaurants and bistros and recipes invented by the author herself. There are still lots of references to friends and acquaintances such as Joel Robuchon who happens to be great French chef, but the emphasis in this book, unlike the earlier title, is much more on the restaurants and food producers and vendors of her neighborhood in Provence than it is about Madame Wells and her contacts to the greats of French cuisine. This concentration on contacts in Provence sometimes seems a bit absurd to 99% of Madame Wells' potential audience. What reader / cook in Duluth will have any interest whatsoever in the telephone and fax numbers of `Restaurant Le Mimosa' just outside of Montpellier in Provence? Only that reader who will happen to be traveling to Provence within the next year, I gather. This doesn't mean there are no such contacts of value to the general reader. There are names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses (of course) to many local vintners, truffle merchants, and olive oil producers. I'm certain that if someone were absolutely determined to obtain a bottle of primo olive oil from Provence, they could use this information to track down a source. Note that the references to these merchants is certainly not an afterthought. The subtitle of the book states that it is a book of both recipes and a guide to markets, shops, and restaurants. I will chalk this up as a plus, as 175 good recipes for a list price of less than $30 is a bargain. Throw in first rate intelligence on Provencal merchants and I think the interested buyer will be getting their money's worth.
In addition to addresses and other contacts to Provencal restaurants, the book contains a three-page presentation of major market days in Provence, by day and by department. The end of the book also has three solid pages of sources gathered from the body of the book.
Regarding the recipes, I will not verify that she did not duplicate any recipes from the earlier book other than recipes for aioli, vinaigrettes, stocks, and pistu. Actually, I did check and find that Mme. Wells does not even duplicate her aioli or pistu recipes. That doesn't mean aioli and pistu are not used in the book. They are so ubiquitous that they even appear together in the `Spaghetti a l'Aioli au Pistou' dish. There are chicken stock recipes in both books and they are very similar, yet the one in the current volume is `homemade' and somewhat simpler than the earlier recipe.
The older and newer books are almost exactly the same length. The older book has eleven very traditional chapters. The newer book has thirteen chapters. It has the same eleven titles as the older book plus chapters on `Potatoes' and `Eggs and Cheese'.
I compared the recipes in the `Breads' chapter and found no overlap. Both books contained recipes for Fougasse (French focaccia-like flatbread), but the older book's treatment was a general treatment of this type of bread while the newer book deals only with a single recipe incorporating black olives. Treatment of bread in the older book more thorough in general.
I compared the salad recipes in the two books and found one overlapping title for a `winter salad', yet the two recipes were for two different winter salads.
I compared the potato recipes from the index of the older book to the potato recipes in the new book and again found no overlap. I did, however, find support for Madame Wells' statement in her introduction that her cooking has gotten simpler over the years. As interesting and diverse as the potato recipes are, they are all utterly simple, but not without a clever technique to two. The placing of a bay leaf in a thin slit in new potatoes is certainly new to me.
This book includes wine recommendations for every dish where a recommendation seems appropriate. As with all of her earlier books, the wine recommendations can be pretty arcane and may only be for very general guidance. No apology is made for the obscure references. If wine is not your thing, just ignore them. If you are as fond of wine as are the fictional Drs. Crane, then enjoy yourself.
If you are a fan of Provencal cooking, then you want both books. If you feel the need for at least one book on Provencal cooking and don't want to spring for Richard Olney's oversize tome, then get this newer volume. It's index and table of contents are superior to the earlier book and I do believe the recipes are simpler. If you are traveling to Provence, this book is a terrific find.
Highly recommended. Many simple recipes (not necessarily fast) and lots of panache.The Provence Cookbook Overview

Want to learn more information about The Provence Cookbook?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now
Read More...