CHEF COOKBOOKS: The Agony and the Ecstacy

I’m almost never a fan of cookbooks written by chefs. Too many are invariably glossy and full of color photographs which distract you from the fact that all too often the recipes don’t work. Full of luxury ingredients they often seem out of touch with their readers. It seems to me is the whole point of going out to a restaurant is to eat things you’d never try at home.  Chefs are used to cooking for large numbers of people and it requires a special skill to translate those recipes down to manageable dishes serving four to six. There is clearly an art to writing a recipe that is not always in sync with one’s ability to create a dish.

Let me share some of my chef cookbook experiences.  For a Christmas feast for an Italian family of friends, I prepared an elaborate and preposterously caloric Gatto Napoletano from Mario Batali’s Holiday Food.  This dense and rich potato cake was baked in a springform pan. While it was baking, we all suddenly saw smoke billowing out of the kitchen.  The butter had leaked out of the relatively new springform pan, hit the floor of the oven causing a smoke cloud which set off fire alarms. I knew immediately how to rectify the disaster and chased everyone (including the host) out of the kitchen. I quickly wiped up the bottom of the oven with wet paper towels and wrapped the spring form in a double thickness of aluminum foil to prevent further smoking. Problem solved. Another Mario Batali story. A friend and I purchased his Italian Grill cookbook at the same time. He told me he was going to make the Spit-Roasted Turkey Breast Porchetta-Style, a recipe that I had already decided I had to do. My friend told me the stuffing couldn’t be contained within the boneless turkey breast as the recipe instructed, and it fell apart in his spit. Having experience with Batali’s recipes, I too thought the instructions for tying the stuffed roast were a bit vague, and I ended up tying it horizontally and vertically to contain the stuffing without it falling apart. Last fall, I saw Batali recreate the recipe on his TV show to be cooked in an oven.  I think Batali is a genius chef, but he’s often one of the sloppiest cooks on TV, and he had difficulty assembling this recipe with stuffing falling all over the place in the pan and surrounding counter.  He may have created a delicious recipe, but his technique for its success showed a distinctive lack of caring what the home cook might make of this mess. 

Which brings me to two recent cookbooks published by celebrated chefs.  One I liked a lot. The shortcomings of the other book made me angry.  Let’s start with the book I didn’t like.

THE FAMILY MEAL: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria (Phaidon Press; $29.95; ISBN: 978-0-7148-6253-8) confuses on many levels. It is a collection of staff meals prepared at the legendary and now shuttered elBulli restaurant in Spain.  Ferran Adria, is of course, one of the most celebrated chefs in the world. A reservation at the Michelin 3-star elBulli might take months of stealth planning to secure. Adria’s revolutionary molecular gastronomy captivated diners, chefs, and most of all, an enchanted food press who fell all over themselves extolling the virtue and creativity of his kitchen. He probably deserved it.  Showered with stars and awards, elBulli won the title of World’s Best Restaurant five years running. 

I’m not saying THE FAMILY MEAL is a bad book, merely a sloppy one. The components of each of the three-course menus is within the reach of a good home cook but only in possession of a serious batterie de cuisine.  As I began to read, so many glaring problems surfaced.  For instance:

• In the front matter of the book, there are photographs of essential and elective kitchen equipment the book recommends. Pots, pans, spatulas, a pepper mill, knives, wood spoons, measuring cups are of course, necessary for the basic kitchen, but how many kitchens also sport a pasta machine, a mandolin, a pressure cooker, and electric fruit and vegetable juicer, a hand-held blender, a kitchen blowtorch and electric juicer, whipped cream and soda siphons, elective as these items are and often necessary to the recipes in this book?

• In the very first menu, there is no instruction for the size of the pan to bake the Santiago Cake in, a real no-no for American bakers.  The recipe for Chocolate Cake does specify the right pan to use, so a sloppy oversight.

• The first menu (Caesar Salad, Cheeseburger & Potato Chips, Santiago Cake) begins with photos of each item in a column on one page. Opposite are the names of the three recipes. The next page after that is a double-spread of each recipe’s ingredients arranged mis-en-place-style. To the left is a section on what you will need to buy fresh and what you will need from the pantry and the fridge (presuming you already have them). Then on the right side of this spread are tips for organizing each menu as well as a time line.  Flip the page, and you have tips for the recipes, and a box highlighting the ingredients and their amounts, with columns for serving two, six, twenty and seventy-five persons. This begs the question about the audience for this book:  are we a home cook, a restaurant chef or a caterer?  Frankly this menu with cheese in the salad, cheese for the hamburger is way too heavy-handed on protein when you include the meat and added carbs for croutons in the salad, bread in the burgers, and cake for dessert.

• Each recipe has an overly generous number of photos of the steps of the recipe. Is it necessary to have two photographs showing how to sprinkle cheese on the salad or two photos scattering croutons? There are two photos each for Pasta Bolognese showing the uncooked pasta tumbling into the pot of boiling water and two photos of pasta being drained. 

• For a dish of Lamb with Mustard and Mint, necks are used.  I’ve never seen lamb necks in a supermarket, let alone a butcher shop in the U.S.

• In a recipe for pork loin it is also listed as thin cut pork-loin steaks, a cut not known in the U.S. Thinly cut center cut pork chops is what is called for in this recipe at least in the U.S.

• In order to make the recipe for Yogurt Foam with Strawberries, you must have a syphon with chargers for whipped cream. Ditto the Caramel Foam.  You’ll need a chinois for the Almond Soup with Ice Cream.

• I think I would have enjoyed staff meals at elBulli with their generous ingredients, for there are two recipes here for duck breast, one for osso buco, another using veal cheeks, a stew with crab, and another featuring quail. I checked with a chef friend just to make sure I was correct.  He said he had never eaten a staff meal using these higher end ingredients.  “Pasta” is an overwhelming choice in the staff meals I’ve eaten,” he replied dryly. To be fair, there are lots of budget-conscious recipes here.

• No size or weight is given for eggplant in one recipe, yet another recipe calling for eggplant is specific about its size. 

• There are 28 photos showing how to make a dish called Noodles with Shiitake & Ginger. Dry shiitake mushrooms can be see floating in water in three of them. Is it really necessary to our understanding of how to assemble this dish with separate photos showing oyster sauce, soy sauce and Shaoxing oil added to a bowl?  Better there should have been more care taken with other details listed above. In general there is an excess of photos here and the quality of them isn't very good either. 

• Under the heading of personal preference, there are some bizarre combinations here or some I would classify as old school:  a potato salad with sliced frankfurters, Cauliflower with Béchamel, Bread with Chocolate and Oliver Oil, Sweet Potato with Honey and Cream for dessert.  

THE FAMILY MEAL does have some virtues.  It can be instructive to see the steps in making Chocolate Truffles but overkill when illustrating every single step.  I liked recipes for Beans with Clams, Salt Cod and Vegetable Stew, the Potato Chip Omelet, Catalon Turkey, Almond Cookies, and Mexican Style-Slow-Cooked Pork. I also like the fish recipes, but most of them (whiting, fresh sardines, Japanese-style bream) are not easily available in my part of the Pacific Northwest. Do we really need a recipe from a Spanish chef for cheeseburgers, especially using bread in the meat mixture, which is more suited to a meatball or a meat loaf.  But I wonder why Adria with his cutting-edge reputation for creating some of the most exciting and exacting food in the world would want to take a step backward, offering something that is hardly new, and rather ho-hum in its execution. A more careful edit and some restraint in the use of photos might have helped.  WHAT TO COOK AND HOW TO COOK IT by Jane Hornby (also published by Phaidon) should have been the prototype for the kind of cookbook, which artfully combines photos and text to create a cookbook for those wanting a visual course on the subject. THE FAMILY MEAL’s design is also a letdown being neither glossy nor appealing, despite the inclusion of a staggering 1500 color photos.   By trying to be all things to all everyone it ends up pleasing nobody.

Ferran Adria

On the other hand, Anita Lo’s admirable COOKING WITHOUT BORDERS (Stewart, Tabori and Chang; $35.00; ISBN: 978-1-58479-892-7) has been at the top of my stack of cookbooks to review since late November. I’ve read it cover to cover, dipped into its recipes often, but felt myself feeling guilty.  Anita Lo is one of Manhattan’s most admired chefs. She has fused her multi-cultural background and education with spectacular results. The chef-owner of  the Michelin star-rated restaurant Annisa, has combined her love for travel, and the foods she has encountered to create superb meals that have kept her restaurant very busy. Here was another restaurant cookbook—the kind I’ve been ignoring.

Charlotte Druckman is her attentive writer partner here and together they present recipes that are clearly written, alternate between being challenging and simple, and contain their fair share of luxury ingredients. Yet for every time-consuming or high-ticket-ingredient recipe, such as Rillettes, Terrine of Foie Gras with Plum Wine, Ragout of Lobster Steamer Clams and Corn with Chanterelles and Tarragon, Grilled Lamb Tenderloins with Curried Golden Raisins and a Spinach Timbale of Duck with Raisins and Mustard-Seed Caviar, there is Kimchi Gazpacho with Shrimp, Ceviche of Tilefish with Fig, Anchovy, and Pistachio (yowza, this is simplicity itself!), Crisp Silken Tofu with Black Beans and Ginger, Spicy Grilled Eggplant with Yogurt and Lentils, Grilled Shrimp with Tamarind, Roasted Pepper, and Chile, Steamed Fish with Scallions and Ginger, Slow Cooked Salmon with Smoked Paprika and Savoy Cabbage (which requires a simple but fascinating technique for cooking salmon), Sauteed Fillet of Skate with Caramelized Apples and Chicken Liver, Chicken Wings with Korean Chile, Kohlrabi and Flank Steak Stir-Fry, and My Mother’s BBQ Spareribs.  These recipes amply display Lo’s infinite range as a chef but keep home cooks grounded and delirious over her magical flavor palette.  Every once in a while, Lo offers something I’d rather eat in a restaurant, such as Poppy-Seed Bread-and-Butter Pudding with Meyer Lemon. But she tells you the candied Meyer Lemon Chips are optional, thus becoming a good choice to make at home. 

Anita Lo frankly admits she enjoys chef cookbooks, but she has created a cookbook to be appreciated by both the competitive home chef who lives for a challenge and has the deep pockets for luxury ingredients, as well as the flavor seekers who want to sample something different and delicious and just off their normal culinary path. Women chefs are generally better cookbook writers in my experience and COOKNG WITHOUT BORDERS belongs in the same company as SUNDAY SUPPERS AT LUQUES by Suzanne Goin (Knopf), THE ZUNI CAFÉ COOKBOOK by Judy Rodgers (Norton) and OLIVES & ORANGES by Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)—exceptional cookbooks by three exceptional chefs.

Try these writers who consistently create wonderful cookbooks for home cooks, including the enormously gifted and visionary Jamie Oliver, the brilliant Deborah Madison, Jacques Pepin--a master and a great teacher, and the sublime and compulsively watchable Lidia Bastianich.   

Sautéed Fillet of Skate with Caramelized Apples and Chicken Liver

My introduction to skate took place when I was a child, during a summer spent on Cape Cod, where, with my older brother and sister, I ran into a fisherman. He was an old salt, his arms deeply tanned and wrinkled from the sun, his beard scraggly and speckled with dried seawater. We asked what he had been catching. “Skate,” he replied. Not familiar with the fish, we inquired further and he told us, “In New England we call skate poor man’s scallops.” He explained that “back in the day,” people on the cape would cut out rounds of the meat as a substitute for scallops because the species shared a common sweetness. What he didn’t tell us is that skate is notoriously difficult to work with when whole. I learned that lesson the hard way and, at the same time, realized the true value of the fish. In the fall of 1999 I had a lot of free time on my hands. Annisa wasn’t open yet and I was just learning the art of angling. My other half at the time, Jen, and I had driven all the way from Manhattan to Shinnecock Canal on Long Island because we heard that striper fishing was particularly good there. After a few hours, and a rough time of it, I landed my skate.

I am by no means squeamish, but this fish broke me. None of my extensive culinary training prepared me for what followed. It was the skate that would not die. It took hours; multiple gashes in the head; a three-and-a-half-hour airless trunk ride from Long Island back home to Manhattan, and a drag-out struggle on the cutting board. We gave up the good fight and decided to let the skate die while we watched TV in the next room. Since that traumatic experience, I have not personally killed another skate, but it’s often on the menu at annisa. It is robust and, yes, sweet-flavored, but to call it “poor man’s scallop” is inaccurate and doesn’t do justice to the distinct character of the fish.

Serves 4

For the sauce:

4 1/2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely diced

3 tablespoons brandy

3/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon salt

Black pepper to taste

For the apples:

2½ tablespoons neutral-flavored vegetable oil

1. tablespoons butter

1½ cup finely diced Granny Smith apple

2. tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

For the chicken livers and skate:

4 tablespoons neutral-flavored vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

6 ounces chicken livers, finely diced

4 (5 ½-ounce) fillets skate

Salt and black pepper to taste

Wondra flour

1 lemon, halved

To serve :

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

Make the sauce: Heat a saucepan over high heat. Add 3 tablespoons of the butter and swirl. Add the onion and lower the heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Add the brandy, then the stock, and bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by one third, then swirl in the remaining 1 ½ tablespoons butter. Season with the salt and pepper and keep warm.

Make the apples: Heat a saute pan over high heat and add the oil. When just smoking, add the butter and apples and saute for about a minute. Add the sugar and salt and cook until caramelized. Remove to a warm plate.

Make the chicken livers and skate: Heat two large saute pans over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and the butter to one pan and 3 tablespoons oil to the other. On a plate, season the livers and skate with salt and pepper and dust lightly with Wondra. When the oil in the pans is smoking, add the livers to the pan with the butter and the skate, whitest side down, to the other pan. Lower the heat to medium-high and cook until golden brown.

Turn the skate and finish cooking on the other side. Squeeze lemon juice over the fish.

Serve the skate with the sauce, topped with the chicken livers, apples, and chives.


from COOKING WITHOUT BORDERS by Anita Lo with Charlotte Druckman, photo by Lucy Schaeffer, published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang (2001)

I regret not being able to link THE FAMILY MEAL to Amazon.com. I'm still working out the problems it creates when I review multiple titles and the Amazon link arbitrarily fails to allow me to list both titles.  Don't know why it happens.  My apologies. 

CANAL HOUSE PUBLISHING HAS BUILT-IN COLLECTIBLE APPEAL AND THE RECIPES ARE FABULOUS!

CANAL HOUSE COOKING has just published their seventh cookbook.  It's called La Dole Vita (Distributed by Andrews McMeel Publishing; January 2012; $19.95).  Canal House Cooking is the creation of Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer.  A little background:  When I was a young man, I had a long-time subscription to Metropolitan Home magazine.  Ms. Hirscheimer was familiar to me as the food and design editor.  Her work as a founding editor and her wonderful pictures for Saveur magazine in its first decade, made me more familiar with her superb skills.  Her vivid photographs of food have always captured my imagination.  Melissa Hamilton co-founded Hamilton's Grill Room in Lambertville, New Jersey, where she served as executive chef.  She has also held positions at Martha Stewart Living, Cook's Illustrated, and at Saveur as the food editor.

Melissa and Christopher escaped the frenetic world magazine publishing world for a more measured and less stressful existence, living on opposite sides of the Delaware River. Now they cook together each weekday in their rustically attractive New Jersey studio. They have two apartment-sized old school stoves which are set next to each other and this is where all the gorgeous dishes you see in the books are cooked.  Each of these jewel-like cookbooks are devoted to seasonal cooking using fresh ingredients, and are designed for cooks at every level of expertise. Their six previously published Canal House cookbbooks have received ridiculously extravagant praise from all areas of the culinary world.  This isn't hype.  You will want each of these lovely volumes in your collection and in a few years, you're going to find out this is one of the most collectible series ever.

La Dolce Vita came about over a lunch of cannelloni.  "We'd gotten into a long conversation about why Italian food tastes so damn delicious," the authors write in their Introduction. Even though they were adept at cooking Italian food, a decision was made. "We rented a farmhouse in Tuscany--a remote, rustic old stucco and stone house at the end of a gravel road, deep in the folds of vine-covered hills. It had a stone terrace with a long table for dinners outside, a grape arbor, and apple and fig trees loaded with fruit in the garden. There was no phone, TV, or Internet service, just a record player and shelves and shelves of books. It had a spare, simple kitchen with classic waist-high fireplace with a grill.  It was all we had hoped for.  It was our Casa Canale for a month."  They would start their meals and writing in the mornings, then set the table for dinner and head out to look for a place to have lunch. How many of us have imagined doing just this?  Reading about it here is almost as fun as their living it one day at a time in Italy.

The Tuscan farmhouse outdoor table where Hamilton and Hirscheimer ate, drank and 

communed for one month about the their latest Canal House cookbook.  

The recipes are simple. Using ingredients of impeccable freshness and quality, you'll find tramezzini and panini (sandwiches), suppli al telefono (fried rice balls), prosciutto and figs to start the meal, or for a light bite.  There are good soups here, such as Capon broth with Anolini (small stuffed pasta from Parma), then pastas (Spinach Tagliatelle with Simple Tomato Sauce and Ricotta or Gnocchi Verdi, or Risotto Milanese).  A Tummala Di Risotto E Spinachi can best be described as an igloo of rice molded around a savory combination of sausage, spinach and pecorino and baked. It is then un-molded and served in wedges--an impressive as well as delicious presentation whose culinary roots stretch back to the aristocracy of the Italian Renaissance.  Fish follows with a sensual Oil-Poached Swordfish and Branzino with Shrimp and Fennel, or the sublimely easy Squid and Potatoes.  The emphasis with Hamilton and Hirscheimer is always on the integrity of the ingredients. Keeping it simple pays off in huge flavor dividends.

La Dolce Vita continues with sections on poultry (glorious Capon, two ways), Braised Rabbit with Capers and Pancetta, then meat--Braised Lamb and Green Beans, Meatballs with Mint Parsley, some vegetable sides--Peppers in Agrodolche (sweet and sour), and Stuffed Onions Piedmontese. The final pages of this culinary diary of life lived well in Italy are devoted to a few outstanding desserts such as Cheesecake from Rome's Jewish Quarter, and Gelato di Gianduia (the divine combination of toasted  hazelnut and chocolate from Turin).  The photos of the recipes and Italy are expectedly gorgeous.  This and the other books are small--some 124 pages, and while I have many Italian cookbooks in my collection, I've come to the conclusion there is always room for another Italian cookbook.

A superbly rustic Squid and Potatoes

Squid & Potatoes

serves 4

Grilled squid may conjure up images of Sardinia’s sun-drenched Costa Smeralda for some, but it’s a dish we prepare all year long. The Franklin wood-burning stove at the Canal House studio is outfitted with a removable grill that swivels and cantilevers over the fire, so when it gets cold outside, we grill inside, over wood coals. Patty Curtan, our Northern California friend, the exquisite printer, designer, and wonderful cook, grills tender squid from nearby Monterey Bay outside on her Tuscan grill. It’s from her that we learned the art of skewering squid. Instead of using two skewers to keep the squid from spinning around when they’re turned over, she just threads each one crosswise through the wide top of the body, lining them up on the same skewer like laundry drying on a clothesline. Leave it to Patty—so logical, so simple, so beautifully done.

2 pounds cleaned squid

1½ cups extra-virgin olive oil

4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

1 onion, halved and sliced lengthwise

2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut crosswise into ¼-inch-thick slices

1 lemon, quartered

Lay the squid in a dish and add 1 cup of the oil, half the garlic, the red pepper flakes, and some salt and pepper. Cover and marinate at room temperature for at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours in the refrigerator.

Put the remaining ½ cup of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and the remaining garlic, and arrange the potatoes on top. Pour

½ cup water over the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until the onions are soft and the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

Prepare a hot charcoal grill. Thread the squid bodies onto metal or wood skewers about an inch from the top and the tentacles similarly through the round body end. Grill the squid over hot coals until opaque and well marked on each side, about 5 minutes. Discard the marinade.

Put the onions and potatoes on a serving platter. Slide the squid off the skewers and arrange them on top. Drizzle a little oil over the squid, season with salt, and serve with lemon wedges.

—From Canal House Cooking, Volume No. 7: La Dolce Vita by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer/distributed by Andrews McMeel Publishing

Most of the other books in the series have a fabulous chapter called "It's always five o'clock somewhere...", with an appealing mix of cocktails for every season. The books are seasonal with appealing and simple recipes for every time of the year. Hamilton and Hirschheimer's style is spare and unfussy.  Volume six concentrates on foods Hamilton and Hirscheimer find in markets and how that dictates what they will cook. Personable, casual, unpretentious and all delicious, Canal House Cooking has earned its own section in my cookbook library. I can't wait to add more volumes.

You will want to have all the books in this series.  I'm thinking Canal House Cookbooks will be as collectible as the Time-Life cooking series was, or the splendid series of lifestyle cookbooks by Lee Bailey, published in the 80s and early 90s. All are available wherever cookbooks are sold, on Amazon. com, B&N.com, etc.

HERE HERE VEGETABLES LOVERS--THERE'S PLENTY TO LOVE IN PLENTY

There is going to be plenty of drooling from me over PLENTY: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London's Ottolenghi (2011; $35.00; ISBN: 978-1-4521-0124-8). Yotam Ottolenghi's thrilling valentine to veggies belonged on my year-end best cookbooks of the year survey. I just didn't pay enough attention in time to include it. My bad. Ottolenghi runs four eponymous "haute couture-to-go food shops in London's" poshest neighborhoods. His is also a popular vegetable columnist for the Guardian.  PLENTY's innovative recipes, functional format and vivid color photographs have earned the book lots of accolades and plenty of buzz. At least I didn't get in the book's way!

Green pancakes with lime butter

On just about every page you turn to, the eye is seduced by one tantalizing vegetable recipe after another.  This is definitely not your mother's organic veggie cookbook.  Let's start drooling with the cover image.  Eggplant with buttermilk sauce seems simple enough.  The halved eggplants are baked with some olive oil. Then the tops are slathered with a tangy sauce of buttermilk, Greek yogurt, salt and olive oil and then adorned with tart, jewel-like pomegranate.  Zing. The Arabic fattoush salad (one of my favorites) is deconstructed for a Quinoa and grilled sourdough salad.  Ottolenghi uses sourdough bread instead of pitas. and while it is bulked it up with quinoa, the grain is still delicate. I drool some more. With spinach, cumin and finely sliced green chilies and onions Green pancakes with lime butter, would perk up any brunch.  I love edamame and keep bags of it in my freezer for when I need it for...Warm glass noodles and edamame. Plenty of great Asian flavors are here. Another stunning and creative combination is Fried lima beans with feta, sorrel and sumac. Or Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes with caper vinaigrette. PLENTY is organized by categories, such as root vegetables, mushrooms, zucchini and other squashes, grains, and pasta, polenta and couscous.

Surprise Tatin

Warm glass noodles and edamame

I can't help myself. I just saw the Surprise tatin photo again. Caramelized potatoes take on more color from low-roasted cherry tomatoes, a little goat cheese, oregano, sugar, and puffed pastry.  I can't wait to make this. Another eye-catcher is a savory Mushroom ragout with poached duck egg. Often a recipe is as simple as it is beautiful, such as Crusted pumpkin wedges with sour cream. Bread crumbs and Parmesan give this dish its crunch. I'll stop now. For really delicious vegetables dishes, I've always turned to Lidia Bastianich, Deborah Madison, or Jamie Oliver, but Yotam Ottolenghi brings a terrific eye to a culinary category of infinite variety and flavors and turns it inside out.  There is a lot of very exciting food in this beautiful book.

Yotam Ottolenghi

SURPRISE TATIN

Filling a tart with potatoes is a real treat for potato lovers.  Serve it with a green salad and you don't need much else. You can use commercial sun-dried tomatoes in oil to save yourself making the oven-dried tomatoes. 

Serves 4

1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling over the tomatoes and for the pan

salt and black pepper

1 lb new potatoes (skins on)

1 large onion, thinly sliced

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp butter

3 oregano sprigs

5 oz aged goat cheese, sliced

1 puff pastry sheet, rolled thinly

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F.  Halve the tomatoes and place them skin side-down on the baking sheet. Drizzle over some olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place in the oven to dry for 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 25 minutes. Drain and let cool. Trim off a bit of the top and the bottom of each potato, then cut into 1-inch thick discs. 

Saute the onion with the oil and some salt for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Once you've prepared all the vegetables, brush a 9-inch cake pan with oil and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper. In a small pan cook the sugar and butter on a high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, to get a semi-dark caramel. Pour the caramel carefully into the cake pan and tilt it to spread the caramel evenly over the bottom. Pick the oregano leaves, tear and scatter on the caramel. 

Lay the potato slices close together, cut-side down on the bottom of the pan. Gently press onion and tomatoes into the gaps and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Spread the slices of goat cheese evenly over the potatoes. Cut a puff pastry disc that is 1 inch larger in diameter  than the pan. Lay the pastry lid over the tart filling and gently tuck the edges down around the potatoes inside the pan. (At this stage you can chill the tart for up to 24 hours.)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the tart for 25 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 15 minutes, or until the pastry is thoroughly cooked.  Remove from the oven and let settle for 2 minutes only. Hold an inverted plate firmly on top of the pan an carefully but briskly turn them over together, then lift off the pan. Serve the tart hot or warm. 

RILLETTES--THE PERFECT FRENCH SPREAD FOR A HOLIDAY PARTY

My First Homemade Rillettes

I have always had the ambition to make rilletes, an irresistible French meat spread that is perfect for parties or for casual snaking with a glass of wine.  Rillettes are milder than pate. There are as many recipes for rillettes as one can imagine and the steps vary greatly, which is why I've resisted making them, until now. The classic rillettes is made from pork and pork fat and little else (a few aromatics, some chicken broth) and requires a long soft simmer in a heavy pot while you go about your business (some recipes call for duck, some for uncured bacon, and other cuts of pork--it can be come very elaborate). I read through all of my French cookbooks (I Know How to Cook, French Farmhouse Cooking, Around my French Table, Glorious French Food, Jacques Pepin's new Essential Pepin, my all-purpose cookbooks (Gourmet Today, How to Cook Everything).  I consulted Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (both volumes) and From Julia Child's Kitchen.  Surprisingly, she makes no mention of rillettes at all.  So I probably have at least thirty recipes for this heavenly spread.  But the easiest, most efficient, least fussy was FROM THE GROUND UP: Hundreds of Amazing Recipes from Around the World for Ground Meats, including Beef Chicken, Pork, Seafood, and More by James Villas (Wiley), which was published this fall. I've already reviewed it, and it has a place in my best-of lists.  Villas' mastery makes sense. When you count Beard, Child, Craig Claiborne, Jacques Pepin, Pierre Franey and other cooking legends as friends, you're bound to pick up a tip or two.  In this case, Mr. Villas has distilled the essence of this spread.  My first batch (I'm making two) produced two impressive pints, which are going under the Christmas tree and traveling to a few parties this season.  This is one of those recipes you might incorporate into your season plans, and who doesn't love getting a crock of this silky stuff as a gift.  Best of all--you made it. 


Here is James Villas' glorious recipe. 

French Rillettes of Pork

French pork rillettes are one of the most glorious appetizers ever conceived, and I’ve never served a crock or ramekin that wasn’t wiped clean by guests. Traditionally, rillettes are made by shredding the cooked, tender, unctuous meats with two forks, but so long as you don’t over-grind, they can be prepared quickly in a food processor. Packed into small ramekins, the rillettes could be served as individual appetizers, but I prefer simply to place a large crock with a big basket of toasted French bread rounds in the middle of the table and let guests help themselves. Do try to make the rillettes a day in advance and place in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to meld.

Makes 8 to 10 servings

2 pounds boneless pork shoulder

3/4 pound fresh pork fat

1 medium onion, minced

1 garlic clove, minced

Herb bouquet (1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, 2 bay leaves, 3 whole cloves, and 2 parsley sprigs tied in cheesecloth)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

1. Trim off any skin on the pork shoulder and cut the meat and fat into 2-inch chunks. Place the meat, fat, onion, garlic, herb bouquet, and salt and pepper in a casserole or large saucepan. Add the broth, wine, and enough water to cover by 1 inch, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer till the meat is very tender, about 3 hours, skimming from time to time. Uncover the casserole and continue simmering till the liquid has evaporated and the meat is cooking in the fat, about 1 hour.

2. Transfer the meat to a heavy bowl and let the fat cool to room temperature in the casserole. Shred the meat with two heavy forks (or grind coarsely in a food processor), add the cooled fat, and continue working with the fork till the mixture is smooth and silky—almost a heavy paste. Taste for salt and pepper, pack the rillettes in small ramekins or a large crock, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Serve with small rounds of toasted French bread.

BEST COOKBOOKS OF 2011; Plus a Few More Worthy of Your Attention

Was there a big trend in cookbooks in 2011? Not that I could see, though meat was a big single subject item with at least six or so coming across my desk.  I got a slew of single subject books (more bacon, more cupcakes, even a pie-baked-in-jars collection, which I think are called cutie pies).  There were also some thundering disappointments which I'll skip over because they came from sources that I've admired and written about extensively (nobody hits a home run with every book, and cookbook writers are no exception).  But there were a bunch of fine cookbooks published this year, some which took me by surprise, while others, long anticipated, lived up to expectations.

My Favorite Book of 2011

I couldn't wait for the American edition of Nigel Slater's TENDER: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch (10 Speed Press; $40.00), because I so much enjoyed The Kitchen Diaries, his previous work.  While that book dealt with a seasonal approach to cooking around the year, TENDER is about something I suspect many city dwellers often long for--a garden patch of their own.  Since 2000 Slater, one of Great Britain's most admired food writers, has planted vegetables in the small, forty-foot back yard of his London home.  In the process of sowing and creating meals with his own lettuces, potatoes, carrots, etc., Slater shares with the reader the thrill of watching something grow, tending to his garden patch with devotion and awe.  In all he writes with glowing affection and respect about twenty-nine different vegetables, from seeds to finished dishes. Slater is a wonderful creator of recipes. A Gratin of White Cabbage, Cheese and Mustard is a good example. He smartly points out that "the 'white' cabbages that sit on supermarket shelves like rock-hard footballs can be put to good use in a gratin." I think of celery in tuna fish or potato salad, or as my mother used to do, a celery stalk slathered with peanut butter. Slater gives us a lovely and simple soup of celery and blue cheese or another satisfying gratin of celery napped in a bechamel, Parmesan and breadcrumbs.  Here is that rare cookbook that belongs on the nightstand or armchair table, to be dipped into over and over again. But don't forget to  whisk it into the kitchen.  Kudos to 10 Speed Press for making this outstanding book available to American readers and cooks. Have I already said this is my favorite cookbook of 2011?

I became an enthusiastic member of the Food52.com website run Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.  Presiding over a community of stylish home cooks, Hesser and Stubbs have found like-minded food lovers who share their recipes, suggestions, time-saving tips, selected genius recipes from some of the finest cookbook writers, and contests where members are asked for their best recipes for spinach or holiday cookies, etc. I confess that I've cooked more recipes from this site and now THE FOOD52 COOKBOOK: 140 Winning Recipes from Exceptional Home Cooks (William Morrow; $35.00) by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs and the Food52 community, than any other book or source this year.  All the recipes seem fresh, contemporary and even old favorites seem reborn.  The book represents "a year's worth of contests--every recipe comes from one of our members and was chosen as a winner by his or her peers," Hesser and Stubbs write in the book's Introduction. Each recipe is accompanied by comments from members,  a few words about the or by the cook, and tips and techniques. In my review a few weeks ago, I called it one of my favorite cookbooks of the year.  Two recipes from the book appeared on my Thanksgiving table, including Lazy Mary's Lemon Tart, an ethereal creation that uses Meyer lemons--rind and all--with sugar, eggs and butter poured into a pre-baked tart dough and given a thirty minute setting in the oven.  I also adapted their recipe for Luciana's Porchetta, using a turkey breast instead of a butterflied pork shoulder. The substitution worked perfectly, and I didn't have to stare at a pile of leftover turkey. I've already raved about Daddy's Carbonara, a fantastic Wishbone Roast Chicken with Herb Butter, and especially Simple Summer Peach Cake.  We've all got cookbooks with one or two really good recipes that we hang on to, but THE FOOD52 COOKBOOK is loaded with lots of recipes you'll want to use over and over again. The bonus is the website great cooking ideas, recipes, and community come together every week of the year.

The twelve states that comprise the Midwest received a valentine in the form of HEARTLAND: The Cookbook (Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC; $35.00), Judith Fertig's magnificent tribute to the rich culinary traditions of this area of the country.  A wonderfully contemporary collection of recipes, historic anecdotes, profiles of food purveyors, and farmers HEARTLAND also soars because of the superb location and food photography of Jonathan Chester and Ben Pieper.  Page after page of images of communal dinners, livestock, covered barns, farmlands, gorgeous produce, and homemade foods, provide ample evidence of the sophistication, pride and sheer goodness of the food available in the very center of the United States.  A single recipe for No-Knead Clover Honey Dough provides the wide application of Clover Honey Boules, Clover Honey Challah, Farmhouse Yeast Rolls, Cider-Glazed Cinnamon Rolls, Apricot-Cream Cheese Strudel, and Berry Pickin' Coffee Cake. I made a batch of Rosy Rhubarb Syrup last spring, and which was a delightful syrup for pancakes, and a delicious component for Rosy Margaritas and Porch Swing Lemonade. And it freezes beautifully to be enjoyed all year long.  Mindful of the seasons, you'll find an inspired Prairie Panzanella that takes advantage of summer's garden bounty, and a rich Butternut Squash, Morel, and Sage Brown Butter Lasagna for an elegant fall dinner party. HEARTLAND reminds us that America's culinary heart is right in the middle of the left and right coasts!

In 1993, the culinary world found it's best stand-up comedian/cookbook writer since Peg Bracken with the publication of Beat This! and two years later, Beat That!  Not only is Ann Hodgman funny, she's a brazen kitchen wizard who immodestly declares her recipes for apple pies, hot chocolate, macaroni & cheese, brownies, french toast, roast turkey and strawberry short cake are the best of the best! And dammit, she's right! Nearly twenty years later, it was time to give those recipes a second look. Some were dropped, others improved, as if gilding the lily were needed. In BEAT THIS! COOKBOOK: Absolutely Unbeatable Knock-'em-Dead Recipes for the Very Best Dishes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $14.95), Hodgman not only gussied up a collection that will brook no arguments she upped the ante by adding fifty new entries.  Now that's crust for you.   


When a writer comes up with a line like, "Might as well start liking goat cheese--it's not going to go away," I pay attention. That's funny.  Or the opening to World's Best Bread:  "I've stolen this recipe from myself; it first appeared in One Bite Won't Kill You (which she wrote)" I howled when I came across this confession:  The first time I dropped the poor thing (the lobster, I mean) into the steaming pot, I inadvertently shrieked out, 'God have mercy!'" And She knows a prime example of the emperor's new clothes: "Why are people always so proud of their brownie recipes?" she wonders.  "Katharine Hepburn, for example.  If there's anything I'm sick of--besides the way she always says she's a regular person and not an actress--it's reading about how sinful her brownies are. Actually, Hepburn's is the dullest brownie formula there is, and one of the most common." 


But amongst all the merriment, you'll find the skill of a master home cook.  Ann Hodman's Powerfully Better Than Any Other Pot Roast, is exactly that.  She uses first-cut beef brisket, because it is superior to such supermarket manicured cuts as "Yankee pot roast." In Perfect Fudge (If You're Lucky), she admits, "You do have a chance of screwing up this recipe, alas.  Because it has more chocolate and more butterfat than most fudges, its temperamental. Even with superfine sugar, which helps ward off crystallizing, it still might crystallize. But if you treat it very respectfully and don't overbeat it and don't make it on a damp day and don't let the chocolate scorch and don't scrape the pan when you're pouring the fudge and don't do all the other things that make fudge cranky, you'll find this fudge sublime (to use a food writerly-word)."  At least she gives you the bad news before you attempt it, unlike other books that insist in making it your fault by not warning you.  Make Ann's Pesto Torta (Best Cocktail Party Cheese Thing).  I made this recipe to get over a bad culinary memory.  I had bought a large wedge of something similar in name at Balducci's in New York years ago for a holiday party.  It was very expensive and tasted just awful.  Every ingredient in this oily, cheesy mess tasted way beyond its sell-by date.  But Ann's recipe is fresh, elegant and festive and proves that it's better homemade. No wonder she's so proprietary about it (you'll just have to read the book to know what I mean).  These recipes are not to be beat, and really, how many cookbooks do you know that have as many "best" recipes or great comedic one-liners as BEAT THIS!? This book could be your most inspired stocking stuffer yet.

Reading James Villas cookbooks takes me back to the culinary gods of my youth--Julia Child, James Beard, Marcella Hazan, Maida Heatter and Barbara Kafka.  These personalities wrote with such authority. They were masters, not to be argued with. The food and wine editor at Town & Country magazine for more than twenty five years, and author of many fine cookbooks, James Villas (who counted many of these personalities as friends) also combines craft, knowledge and conviction.  FROM THE GROUND UP: Hundreds of Amazing Recipes from Around the World for Ground Meats, including Beef, Chicken, Pork, Seafood, and More (Wiley; $22.99), should be the final word on this wide-ranging subject. Villas covers the ground meats from appetizers, canapés, and dips, soups and salads, patties, balls and dumplings, loaves, croquettes, and cakes, pies, quiches and soufflés, to casseroles and pastas, hashes and chilies, stuffed dishes and forcemeats, sausages, and sauces. I would have bought this book for his French Country Pate recipe alone.  The good news is there are more than 200 recipes in this divine collection, which goes far beyond meatloaf.  

And speaking of James Villas, I thought he had written the definitive book on Pig in 2010 and Bacon in 2007.  As a writer, I am seldom careful with the word definitive and toss it around far too many times. It always comes around to bite me later on, as it did late this summer when THE WHOLE HOG COOKBOOK: Chops, Loin, Shoulder, Bacon, and All that Great Stuff (Rizzoli; $30.00) arrived. Libbie Summers, who is currently the culinary producer for Paul Deen's network show and the senior food editor for Paul Deen Enterprises, produces here a stylish and totally complimentary cookbook to Villas's efforts.  The organization of this book is very appealing, with each part of the pig receiving it's own chapters. I'm one of those people who needs a picture or a diagram to locate or define details for me.  I now really understand the difference between baby back and spare ribs, or Boston shoulder and picnic shoulder.  I know now how to render leaf lard, wet-cure bacon or carve a fresh ham. And I have a new batch of terrific recipes. The first thing I made from the book was Grilled Tenderloin and Fingerling Potato Salad, which I've made at least twice since then. There's a crowd-pleasing Cuban Pork Roast with Sweet Cilantro Rice that can feed eight.  Spicy Meatballs and Simple Sunday Red Sauce could change the way you think about using pork instead of beef.  Porkovers and Bacon and Cheese Puffers make me want to have friends over for cocktails. Nothing is definitive. Lesson learned. 

I have come to the Claudia Roden party a bit late.  Arabesque is one of the most gorgeous cookbooks I've ever seen and the recipes are superb.  So are many of the other ten cookbooks she has authored, including The Book of Jewish Food and The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Born in Cairo, she has long made the Middle East her culinary beat. But she has also written extensively about Mediterranean cuisine.  When I bought a copy of THE FOOD OF SPAIN (Ecco; $39.95), I thought Ms. Roden  had wandered off her usual path, but as she explains, her Grandmother was a descendant of Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, the year Columbus set sail for the Americas. So it makes much sense that Ms. Rodin would deliver an impressive survey of Spanish food by region in gorgeously illustrated cookbook that you shouldn't miss.  Spanish food has been hot, hot, hot for the past decade.  I'm sure to catch hell about this, but during my lone visit to Spain in 1999, I found myself very disappointed in most of the food I encountered in Madrid and Barcelona. It's not that I ate badly, nor did I think my usually good food radar was off. But overall, I found the bread to be flat. The food had a musty old-world feel to it and seemed to lack the creativity and variety of French and Italian cuisine. This was a few years before the country seemed to undergo a huge culinary reversal as Spain emerged from the repressive Franco era. Ms. Roden points out that San Sebastian, in the Basque Country, has become the culinary capital of Europe with "the greatest concentration of Michelin three-star restaurants in Spain." And who can ignore the intense food media focus on the work of Ferran Adria, the iconic master chef of molecular gastronomy who packed them in to his celebrated restaurant, El Bulli in the Catalonian city of Roses (now closed). Adria has influenced chefs globally, and he delivers the cover blur on front of the jacket cover. 


You won't find Adria's culinary thumbprint on this book. Ms. Roden notes "Throughout the country, there is a palpable feeling of nostalgia for the old rural life that was too quickly swept away by the booming tourist economy. It has translated into a new found passion for regional cooking and products," she continues.  Like Italy, Spain is made up of many different communities, each divided into provinces, and each has its own cooking traditions.  In the 200 recipes, Ms. Roden explores this diversity in rich detail.  Of course there are recipes for paella, the Spanish national dish, and Salsa De Romesco, which American chefs have recently rediscovered and re-popularized.  There are also many dishes that ought to be far better known such as Fried Goat Cheese with Honey and Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus and Shrimp from Andalusia, Angelita's Tuna Pie from Galicia, Mushroom Flan from Navarre. "Wrinkled" Potatoes with Red and Green Sauces from the Canary Islands, Roast Pork Belly with Baked Apples from Asturias, Orange Flan from Valencia and Murcia, Chocolate and Almond Cake from Catalonia, and Puff Pastry Filled with Almond Custard from Navarre and the Basque Country. Ms. Roden explores all these regions and more, while describing the food products each region is famous for .  There are detailed sidebars on Spanish kitchen utensils, discussions of olives and olive oil, cheese, various pimenton (paprika), Spains's celbrated cured hams, almonds, safron, and bacalao (dried codfish), which have given Spain its distinctive dishes, as well as profiles of food personalities and chefs she met during the research for this cookbook.  


THE FOOD OF SPAIN plunges the reader into the country's diverse culture of food, revealing its influences, and its richness. The 600 photographs will make you want to book a flight there as soon as possible. It is the book on Spanish cuisine and belongs in any serious cookbook collection. 

DESSERTS FROM THE FAMOUS LOVELESS CAFE: Simple Southern Pies, Puddings, Cakes and Cobblers from Nashville's Landmark Restaurant (Artisan; 24.95) will save you a lot of time and money by allowing you to bake your own desserts based on the beloved Nashville eatery.  The reason this book should get your attention is for its superb collection written by the co-author of Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes.  That amazing baking book was seriously overlooked by the food press when it was published two years ago.  People have been mobbing the Loveless Cafe since it opened its doors in 1951.  With the arrival of the dazzlingly talented Alisa Huntsman in 2004, the restaurant added desserts to the menu and the crowds have just gotten bigger.  A master baker, Huntsman was instructed to "come up with a banana pudding, a rice pudding, several assorted pies, and a cobbler--typical Southern staples," she relates in her Introduction. "Turns out I had some learning to do...That included ramping up the sweetness of her confections to match the Southern sweet tooth.  "So I tweaked the recipes gradually, notching up the sweetness to please our customers palates, yet not going overboard."  

DESSERTS FROM THE FAMOUS LOVELESS CAFE highlights the best of Southern confections. These are desserts dear to every American heart. From Blue-Ribbon Pies (Peekaboo Blueberry Pie, Muddy Fudge Pie, Tennessee Sweet Potato Pie), turnovers (Naked Berry Pies), and cakes (Big Momma's Blackberry Jam Cake, Southern-Style Coconut Cake, Root Beer Float Cake), to crisps, cobblers and shortcakes (Apple-Gingersnap Brown Betty, Peach Cobbler, Fourth of July Berry Shortcakes with Buttermilk Biscuits), cookies, bars and cupcakes (Chocolate Cherry Cha-chas, One-bowl Brownie Drops, Lady Lemon Bars, Black Bottom Cupcakes), and old-fashioned puddings (Butterscotch, Tapioca and Brownie Bread Pudding).  The first thing I made was a fantastic and elegant Butterscotch Pudding.  This is the real deal--a pudding with old fashioned butterscotch flavor and a texture that is silken. The recipes are gathered into a nostalgic-looking, soft-focus package that make it feel vintage. The Red Velvet Cake on the book's jacket says it all.  This is dessert book to dip into all year long.  

(My apologies here to Ms. Huntsman--my Amazon link won't let me copy and paste her book for some strange reason).  DESSERTS FROM THE FAMOUS LOVELESS CAFE is available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and in bookstores nationwide).  

SUGARBABY: Confections, Candies, Cakes & Other Delicious Recipes for Cooking with Sugar (Stewart, Tabori and Chang; $29.95) was my other favorite dessert collection.  Gesine Bullock-Prado's approach is to leave the oven (mostly) off and see what you can do with sugar on top of the stove. The sister of Sandra Bullock, Ms. Bullock-Prado has a showbiz personality that she's perfectly aligned with her inner-sweet tooth.  The result is a divine assortment of sweets that are organized by the degree on a candy thermometer. You can make your own Rock Candy, Bittersweet Pudding (Pops), Candied Citrus Peel, Candy Corn, Old-School Chocolate Fudge, Pecan Butter Crunch Tart, Gesine's Fruit Gummis, Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels, Buttery Almond Toffee, Parisian Macarons, Mango Moose Cake, Salted Dulce de Leche Cupcakes, and Cotton Candy.  The author's reassuring voice is light and humorous and instructions are crystal clear. 





The following books didn't make it into my list of best cookbooks of the year, but for various reasons (listed below) and because they make for great Christmas gifts, I couldn't resist talking about them. 

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COOKBOOK OF 2011

It figures the most beautiful cookbook of year is titled:  PLUM GORGEOUS: Recipes and Memories from the Orchard (Andrews McMeel Publishing; $25.00). Written by Romney Steele, the granddaughter of Bill and Lolly Fassett, the creators of the legendary Nepenthe Restaurant in Big Sur, this is a book that celebrates the sheer gorgeousness of fruit at its peak. The book is loaded with beautiful recipes from savory (Fig Relish and Ham Sandwiches (panini), Pear and Butternut Squash Soup and Marmalade Chicken) to sweet (Blueberry Lemon-Lime Gratin, Plum Blackberry Sorbet and Plum Gorgeous Almond Tart).  This is one cookbook that requires no gift wrap.  

The Cooking Channel unleashed the sui generis charms of Nadia G, and Bitchin Kitchen became a hit for the fledgling network.  Fusing a glam rocker/biker chick image with a Brooklynese accent and culinary school chops, Nadia G's shows are hilariously orginal. She says she's part Italian and she knows her Neapolitan dialect. Sounding like a feminine version of the Fonz, NADIA G'S BITCHIN KITCHEN COOKIN' FOR TROUBLE (Ballantine Books trade paperback; $22.00) delivers in her first sassy slice-of-life cookbook.  


Nadia G created her own culinary platform online and then took it to TV,  Decked out in bad girl couture, tatted, her long locks streaked eighty shades of blond and bedecked in jewelry of questionable taste, Nadia G attacks a kitchen in stiletto heels with menus for all the emotional ups and downs of a girl's life.  Her depression desserts may not cure you of your affliction, but while you're eating them, you'll be smiling.  Try Rebecca's Psycho PMS Chocolate Balls, or Inverted Lemon Meringue Pie.  Her advice is good too: "When life hands you lemons, make lemon custard." Actually when Nadia G isn't cooking, she's riffing. I cant' resist her recipes or her philosophizing. In her Bitchin' booty camp XTREME, Nadia G relates, "Let's face it, I'm ripped.  But it wasn't always this way...one glass of wine used to cut it." Her creamy cream-less soups such as Carrot-Ginger, Spinach and Tomato-Pepper, might make you as sleep in a vinyl cat suit. Did someone mention kitten with a whip? Nadia G has put the fun back in cooking shows. No cupcake competitions or Iron Chef nonsense for this culinary dynamo.  



A Cookbook I Should Have Covered in 2010:

I think India may be the only other world cuisine that matches Chinese cooking in sheer variety and exotic splendor.  The works of Julie Sahni and Madhur Jaffrey have long dominated U.S. cookbook shelves when it comes to Indian cuisine. But lately they've been joined by 660 Curries, Raghavan Iyer's huge exploration  on that particular dish, and Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking and American Marsala. Good as those books are, they can't begin to define the enormous range and completeness of the INDIA COOKBOOK (Phaidon; November, 2010; $49.95). Pushpesh Pant, renowned Indian food expert and cookbook author has produced a rich immersion in this astonishingly varied and easy-to-master cuisine with 1,000 recipes.  The book is lavishly illustrated with 200 color photographs and is to India what Joy of Cooking is to the U.S. or The Silver Spoon is to Italy.

Vegetables in Indian cookery attain the level of genius and my eye immediately was struck by a recipe for Cauliflower with Oranges. I love cauliflower and I'm always looking for new ways to cook it.  Start here with this heady mix of cauliflower, potatoes, turmeric, bay leaf,  ground fresh ginger, onions, chili powder, cumin, green chilies and orange slices. Easy to put together and with plenty of simmering while you prepare other parts of your meal.  A good use for the popular home deep fryer would be Cauliflower Fritters (I'm purposely using the recipe titles in English).  With nine other cauliflower recipes, you begin to see the range of and creativity of Indian cookery for this single vegetable. But I'm digressing.

Open the INDIA COOKBOOK and get caught up in its encyclopedic charms. Professor Pant offers a history of Indian cooking by region with lots of fascinating details about feasts, food traditions, and spices and the vital role they play. If you have one Indian cookbook to buy this year, this one pretty much covers the whole field.