I have a vast and ever growing cookbook
collection. It's sorted into 3 major groupings- international cookbooks (sorted
by country), US regional cookbooks (sorted by state or region), and the
hodgepodge that is the rest of the books (sorted by unifying theme such as
"salads", "pressure cooker cookbooks", "cheese
course", "desserts", etc).
Just like it's a good idea to systematically
rotate through one's closet at least once every few years - challenging
yourself to find a way to incorporate each outfit you own before you allow for
a repeat - it's a good idea for cookbook collectors to cycle through our
culinary volumes.
This summer I started working my way through the
international cookbook section of my collection, starting with African cuisine.
So far I've only made it up to Canada (cooking a few culinary treasures out of
my Canadian cookbooks this week) and I have some thoughts to share on the
various cookbooks I've been cooking out of the past two months.
Africa
Cooking
with an African Flavour (Sapra Safari Guide)
by Rosanne Guggisberg (Author), Elaine Mwango (Editor)
My mother-in-law picked
up this cookbook for me on one of her trips to Africa. It has a very colorful
softcover binding. A fairly basic guide written for the English speaking
audience on staples of African cuisine, it makes for a good introduction to the
continent's ingredients. I've made chicken in yoghurt as well as glazed sweet
potatoes following the recipes in this cookbook and both turned out well.
Recipes from the African Kitchen
by Josie Stow and Jan Baldwin (Author)
A friend of mine
picked up this hardcover edition for me on his travels and I was delighted to
receive it. The recipes are all very appealing and presented in an easy to
follow format that will work well for both beginner and intermediate/advanced
cooks. I like that the recipes often indicate where in Africa they originate
(several are from Morocco for example) and that snippets of text on African
culture are sprinkled throughout. The rice pilaf recipe is really good. I'd
definitely recommend picking up this cookbook - it's easy to find on Amazon and
it has a large variety of recipes to try.
Andorra
Catalan
Cuisine, Revised Edition: Vivid Flavors From Spain's Mediterranean Coast
Many people associate
Catalan cuisine with Spain (and indeed, the author writes extensively about the
Catalan culture in Spain within this cookbook). but I was introduced to Catalan
Cuisine on a weekend trip to Andorra (that tiny country nestled between France
and Spain) a few years ago. It was love at first sight and I knew I wanted a
Catalan cookbook to add to my collection. Spanish tortilla, shrimp in garlic
butter, creme Catalan - all the classics are here in one volume plus so much
more. I love to put together dinner parties featuring an assortment of small
plates drawn from this cookbook and there hasn't been a recipe I've tried yet
from Colman's book that hasn't turned out well.
Australia
Tastes of the Outback
On my first trip to
Sydney, I came across this cookbook in one of the local big box bookstores. The
recipes looked very good, especially as I'd just had my first taste of
Barramundi in one of the fish takeout shops downtown and wanted to know how
best to prepare it. But I didn't want to haul the book around on vacation, so I
noted the title and ISBN and made myself a promise to order it from Amazon when
I got back home. Big mistake! Amazon.com does not carry the title and by the
time I tracked it down on a rare books site out of the UK and paid shipping it
was nearly twice the price of what I'd seen it going for in Sydney. Still, it
was well worth the price because the recipes are fantastic. A few weeks ago we
made the crisp skinned Barramundi (head to Whole foods to source this fish in
the US) and the apple hazelnut cake. Just perfect in terms of flavor. One area
where the cookbook could use some improvement though is in the editing of the
detailed instructions for each recipe. The wording can be a bit vague and some
of the ingredients shown in the finished dish and listed in the ingredient list
aren't directly mentioned in the recipe text so it's a bit of guesswork to
figure out plating and intent of the author. Because of this, I recommend this
cookbook only for intermediate or advanced cooks who can handle such curve
balls.
Austria
Plachutta
- Best of Viennese Cuisine
by Mario Plachutta Ewald/Plachutta (Author)
A few winters ago I
spent some time meandering around Austria and taking in the Christmas Markets.
The food experience was unforgettable - the most delicate apple strudel, belly
warming soups, schnitzel (the ancestor of American chicken fried steak), just to
name a few. One night I dined at Plachutta. This restaurant in Vienna is known
for their Tafelspitz, which is quite an involved culinary affair. You roast a
cut of beef, create a flavorful soup out of it, then serve it in this way:
first serve cups of broth from the soup (no meat) as an appetizer; then serve
portions of the meat and vegetables from the soup as the entree with the
accompaniments of potato pancakes, horseradish sauce, chive sauce, and
applesauce. One of the best things I have ever eaten. Plachutta cookbook not
only covers Tafelspitz step by step but also includes recipes for almost every
other well known Austrian dish, such as those I've mentioned above. One of the
best recipes in the book is for Salzburg Nockerl, a light an airy souffle type
dessert that is heaven by the spoonful. BUY THIS BOOK. BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW
and be transported to the culinary wonderland that is Austria.
Belgium
The
Food and Cooking of Belgium: Traditions Ingredients Tastes Techniques Over 60
Classic Recipes
I really love this
cookbook. I spent a couple of hours pouring over the available cookbooks on
Belgian cuisine and this one best captured the essence of the culinary scene I
experienced during my travels to Brussels and Bruges. Full color pictures,
detailed expose on the culinary culture of Belgium, and recipes that are easy
to follow and taste great. So far my favorites include mussels et frites, herbed
crepes with cheese (I also serve with fresh fruit), and the recipe for rabbit
stewed with cherries.
Belize
U
Toucan Cook Belize
by Alice Nord
My father is French,
born and raised in Haiti, but, while I grew up eating stewed chicken, rice and
beans, and fried plantains, I didn't realize my culinary imprinting was
influenced heavily by Caribbean cooking. That was, until I took a trip to
Belize and was immersed in Caribbean cooking. In addition to Belizean versions
of my Dad's recipes, I had a chance to sample a lot of other specialties of the
region such as conch fritters and thick coconut pie. And fried jacks. MMM, the
fried jacks! Similar to sopapillas, fried jacks are typically eaten with black
beans for breakfast in Belize.
I scoured the
bookstores in Belize, and again after returning home, to find a really great
cookbook featuring Belize cuisine. This was the best I could locate. It's
missing some of the favorites I had in Belize (the coconut pie in this cookbook
is nothing close to the fresh coconut pie I had in Caye Caulker and there are
no spicy chicken soft tacos like I enjoyed at Lucy's taco stand in San Ignacio)
but it's the best of what's available on the market. Alice writes in the style
of your mom or your grandma, and sometimes the recipes are skimpy on important
details (like temp of the oven) but the essence of the recipes shine
through.
This cookbook+Marie
Sharp's Hot Sauce= happiness.
Note that the people
of Belize have quite the cheeky humor as this book is title "U Toucan
(toucan, get it?) Cook Belize", and another title out on Amazon is "I
Belize you can Cookbook".
Britain
Brian
Turner's Favourite British Recipes
by Brian Turner
This was a difficult
review for me. Sometimes it's hard to separate my feelings about the subject
matter from those about the writing. And Brian Turner's writing here is very
good; his instructions are easy to follow, his recipes are formatted nicely on the
page, there are lovely pictures included, and his little stories sprinkled
throughout the cookbook are fun to read. The problem is that it's quite
challenging for me to find a recipe in the book that I enjoy, as a lot of
British food just isn't that appealing to me. Still, for the sake of
authenticity in my international cookbook collection, I didn't want to neglect
to add a well written British cookbook to my shelves, and this seemed the best
of the lot. Recently I attempted the Jubilee Salmon dish and found it to
be wonderful. Salmon, cooked just perfectly, topped with an herbed hollandaise
and paired with asparagus. That same week my kitchen partner prepared the
Welsh rarebit and that was rather a disaster. I still don't know if we did
something wrong or if the dish is supposed to taste like that (ugh) but it was
just a more Cheddar-y version of Velveeta.
Burma
Burma: Rivers of Flavor
by Naomi Duguid
One
of my favorite cookbooks in my international collection. Naomi has put together
*the* best English language cookbook on Burmese cooking. And it's so much more
than just a cookbook, as she weaves in stories of Burmese culture and her
travelogue throughout the pages. This is a book that fun to read from beginning
to end, before you ever sit down to make any of the recipes. When you do get to
making them, you won't be disappointed. Everything I've tried here has been
fantastic. Most recently, I made a late summer supper pairing of lemongrass
chicken soup and shrimp salad (with the addition of fresh tomatoes from my
garden). It was very well received. This is an essential cookbook on Southeast
Asian cuisine to add to your collection.
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