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Cookbooks &/or food-related ones released 2010 (ish)


rgruby

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Well,

Trying to decide if there's anything out there in the last year or so that I might want to put on my xmas list.

Keeping in mind that I'm almost completely out of the loop on what's been published. And, I haven't done more than skim the couple of cookbooks I received last Christmas.

I did get Bourdain's book for my birthday.

I think I'll put the new McGee book on the list. There's a new book on Canadian cheese that I might add as well.

Other than that - what would you like to see under your tree in almost a month's time? And what have you picked up this year that's been a worthwhile addition to your library?

Cheers,

Geoff

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The four new books I got this year were Bayless's "Fiesta at Rick's," Kennedy's "Oaxaca al Gusto," Greenspan's "Around My French Table," and Young's "Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge." Of the four I think that Oaxaca al Gusto is the most interesting, but also the least "useful" in the sense that it's pretty difficult to cook from. I really enjoyed cooking from Bayless's book, though it may offend Mexican purists, and Greenspan's was OK though perhaps not really that unique. I'm still working through Young's but I can't really recommend it at this point.

Edited by Chris Hennes (log)

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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I recently checked out a new release, My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino (with Janet Fletcher), borrowed from my public library. Calabria is the toe tip area of Italy. Costantino presents some delicious-sounding, gutsy Southern Italian food. Not just another Italian cookbook. Costantino has documented the distinctive regional food style of Calabria, based her family's recipes and her travels there. Good organization, good recipe-writing (as far as I can tell from reading), gorgeous photos. If there's any drawback, it's the fact that we're almost in December, and many of the sunny Italian ingredients for these recipes won't be in season for another 6 months. However, some recipes are suitable for winter months, and I plan to cook a few when there's a break in my schedule.

Costantino teaches around here, and one of my friends has taken many of her cooking classes. My friend raved about Costantino's food and her classes, and I'm sorry now that I never took one of her classes myself. But I'll do the next best thing--try out some recipes in this book when I have the chance.

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I always give myself cookbooks at Christmas. Nobody else knows which one to buy so I do it myself or send out a list.

This year, I bought one Christmas cookbook early and that is "India Cookbook" written by Pushpesh Pant who is an Indian food authority. The book advertises itself as "the only book on Indian food you'll ever need" and has 1000 recipes from all of India's regions. It is therefore a huge book and its size is intimidating but nothing else about it is. There are many coloured photographs with the names of the dishes neatly labeled. The book is packed in a flour bag and weighs 1.5 kg.

I just bought the book so I haven't cooked from it yet but having perused it over the weekend there are several recipes I would like to try such as a Goan shrimp curry, a pork vindaloo, several lamb curries and stir fries, quails stuffed with savory minced chicken and many enticing breads and sweets. A dessert called Rabri (thickened milk) looks delicious as do the kheers, gajar halvahs etc. The regions are very well represented in every section of the book.

The recipes are not difficult - there are some new ingredients to be sourced but there are a few standard methods used throughout the book which are apparently the methods used by by cooks all over Indian - so there is a consistency which once mastered will be straightforward to use.

Other books I would like to receive for Christmas are "At Elizabeth David's Table" which looks like a contemporary presentation of her work with lots of glossy photographs and which as a longtime fan of Elizabeth David, I hope will convince other cooks that her recipes have stood the test of time. There are many testimonials included by British chefs who were influenced by her. She was to Great Britain, what Julia Child was to America and she revolutionized eating there after the war.

The third book I would like to receive for Christmas is Molly O'Neill's One Big Table - 600 recipes from the nation's best home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pitmasters and chefs. I have read high praise of this book and look forward to reading it over Christmas.

One final book - a Canadian book "Eating Chinese: Culture on the menu in small town Canada" by Lily Cho which is a study of the lives and cuisine of those lonely Chinese families who ran the one Chinese restaurant in many of the small towns of Canada. We had such a restaurant in Kimberley, BC where I grew up. Wong's restaurant was where the Rotary Club met each week, where high school graduation banquets were held and where people went for a western breakfast or an exotic Chinese meal. You could even get a glass of wine there. There was no other place to eat in town except a diner which served burgers and fries and the usual diner fare.

This book pays homage to these brave Chinese souls who gave small town Canada, a taste for food that was a little different from what they ate every day, even if it wasn't exactly authentic.

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One final book - a Canadian book "Eating Chinese: Culture on the menu in small town Canada" by Lily Cho which is a study of the lives and cuisine of those lonely Chinese families who ran the one Chinese restaurant in many of the small towns of Canada. We had such a restaurant in Kimberley, BC where I grew up. Wong's restaurant was where the Rotary Club met each week, where high school graduation banquets were held and where people went for a western breakfast or an exotic Chinese meal. You could even get a glass of wine there. There was no other place to eat in town except a diner which served burgers and fries and the usual diner fare.

This book pays homage to these brave Chinese souls who gave small town Canada, a taste for food that was a little different from what they ate every day, even if it wasn't exactly authentic.

One of my favourite books is Caprice by George Bowering, set in the Thompson Valley in the 1890s. Something that has always stood out to me in the book was the importance of the cafes serving 'Chinese and Canadian Food'in small towns across the West.

Three recently published books I've picked up this year are Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen, My Favourite Ingredients by Skye Gyngell and Let it Simmer by Sean Moran. I haven't cooked out of any of them yet, but they are all full of enticing recipes and ideas.

Edited to correct grammar.

Edited by Snadra (log)
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The food related book I have enjoyed most this year is Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge by Gordon Edgar.

I mentioned it soon after I purchased it several months ago. I sent a copy to my daughter and she and my grandson enjoyed it also.

I've recommended it to several people who got it and found it as interesting as I did.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I'm asking Santa, pretty please, for Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table", Sarabeth Levine's "From My Hands to Yours" and the Tartine bread book......

Honest, Santa, I've been a very, VERY good girl.

--Roberta--

"Let's slip out of these wet clothes, and into a dry Martini" - Robert Benchley

Pierogi's eG Foodblog

My *outside* blog, "A Pound Of Yeast"

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i second dorie greenspan's book. another one that i actually bought for myself was anna thomas' "love soup". my criteria for buying a book for myself is do i want to copy out over 1/4 of the recipes...i did.

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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Just going to ask - has anybody seen any good year end cookbook roundups/reviews?

Poked around a local bookshop today. David Thompson's (sp?) Thai Street food looks interesting. I'd forgotten about Four Fish as well.

Will try and remember to check out some of the others mentioned here as well.

Cheers,

Geoff

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My Sweet Mexico came out in September of this year. I've been cooking (baking really ) from it since October. Beverages, breads, candies and desserts from Mexico with really good text explaining ingredients, traditions, methods etc. Exceeded my expectations. Surprise hit and keeper cookbook for me this year.

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Recently acquired from the library, Tender II - Fruit I'm as enchanted with the fruit volume as I was with the vegetable one. This book weighs a ton - but it covers a breadth of information from garden to kitchen to recipes. It's now on my Must-Buy list together with the new Dorie Greenspan book.

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Kitchenella by Rose Prince is intruiging me. Subtitle - "The Secrets of Women: Heroic, Simple, Nurturing Cookery - for Everyone." I've had a look at a library copy. I think that the descriptions of what she learnt from who are lovely. Some of the tone is slightly crusading - seems to assume that no readers will have given any of her ideas any thought at all, whereas I suppose some will have considered some of them - but I think I'll get a copy, the ideas are good, and I like the unusual structure.

Catherine

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My Sweet Mexico came out in September of this year. I've been cooking (baking really ) from it since October. Beverages, breads, candies and desserts from Mexico with really good text explaining ingredients, traditions, methods etc. Exceeded my expectations. Surprise hit and keeper cookbook for me this year.

This sounds like a must-have for an avid Mexican cook like me.

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My Sweet Mexico came out in September of this year. I've been cooking (baking really ) from it since October. Beverages, breads, candies and desserts from Mexico with really good text explaining ingredients, traditions, methods etc. Exceeded my expectations. Surprise hit and keeper cookbook for me this year.

This sounds like a must-have for an avid Mexican cook like me.

I took the Empanadas de Jitomate to a Christmas part this afternoon, where they were a HUGE hit. I will say that it's probably not a cookbook for novice bakers or candymakers. The recipes are sound but some the instructions aren't quite as clear as they could have been. That said, I have really enjoyed cooking from this book and my tasters have been well pleased :wink:

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I ordered My Sweet Mexico the other day on a complete whim and then this morning found it listed on this thread and also on David Lebovitz's yearly round-up of cookbooks he thought were excellent.

I was clever all round and didn't even know it. :raz:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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I should have mentioned that I also purchased Dorie Greenspan's new book and have loved everything prepared from it.

I also got Sarabeth's Bakery book after reading about it both on this forum and on a blog but have yet to prepare anything from it but like the sound of the recipes. Lord knows I have more than enough baking books but this one has some intriguing recipes.

I ordered Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen after reading Snadra's post. As I am interested in doing things the traditional way, I think it will be interesting reading. It should arrive today.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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. . . .

I ordered Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen after reading Snadra's post. As I am interested in doing things the traditional way, I think it will be interesting reading. It should arrive today.

Very anxious to hear your take on Forgotten Skills. Suspect I will enjoy reading it immensely but unlike Dorie's book, won't do much cooking from it.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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I ordered Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen after reading Snadra's post. As I am interested in doing things the traditional way, I think it will be interesting reading. It should arrive today.

What kind of forgotten skills does it address? For example, does it discuss or give directions for properly preparing a chicken from feathers and feet? I would find that quite useful. I usually get my chickens post-feathers, but including feet and head. I have not yet found a useful method for properly butchering the bird down to a roastable form. Mainly I just flail at it with my cleaver until it fits in the pan, but there's gotta be a better way.

No Dorie love for me this Christmas, Amazon "sellers" won't ship it to China, and Chapters.ca is a non-starter as well. I'm looking at going to Singapore at CNY just to hit the bookstores.

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