2.THE GIFT OF THE GREEK (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018, 158 pages, ISBN 978-1-5107-2557-7 $17.99 USD hardbound) is by the UK's Yiota Giannakopoulou, a Peloponnesian who grew up with an extensive garden plot in Greece. She's got 75 recipes for the Mediterranean diet, all with a healthy dose of EVOO. She's arranged it all by type of course, beginning with apps and salads, mains, dips, breads, and sweets. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: beginner
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: the classics include butter beans, dolmas of vine leaves and rice, seafood salad, bulgur wheat and feta cheese salad, chickpea coup, lemon chicken with rice, puy lentil stew, pasta pie, sea bream, harissa dip.
The downside to this book: too short – I wanted more, maybe 110 total?
The upside to this book: large typeface (even the index).
Quality/Price Rating: 86
3.THE CAMPOUT COOKBOOK (Artisan, 2018, 224 pages, ISBN 978-1-57965-799-4 $19.95 USD hardbound) is by Portland OR food writers Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson, IACP Award winning authors of "The Picnic". They return to the outdoors for an extended overnight picnic and more. There are about 100 preps here, from wood-fired skillet pizzas to mug cakes and s'mores. All are suitable for deep backcountry cooking under the stars or just your backyard. Maybe your balcony too. It's a mix of make ahead meals and meals to cook on-site. There are also trail snacks and "fortifications", all leading up to the morning meal. Lots of lists. The book could have been improved if it also used metric in the recipes, but at least it had metric conversion charts.
Audience and level of use: campers, picnic lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: figgy pecan crackers and whipped feta; roasted garlic parmesan monkey bread; smoked kielbasa, swiss chard, and Yukon gold potato hash; rib-eye with shallot butter.
The downside to this book: still, somebody has to do cleanup, and even more of it if this is two-nighter.
The upside to this book: useful preps for kids and vegetarians too
Quality/Price Rating: 89
4.TACO! TACO! TACO! (Hatherleigh; distr. Penguin, 2018, 243 pages, ISBN 978-1-57826-752-1 $20 USD paperbound) is by Sara Haas, a Registered Dietitian and professional chef who also writes about food for magazines and is a cookbook author. Here she promotes healthy eating with recipes concerning chicken, turkey, lamb, beef, pork, fish, seafood, veggies, and taco salads. There are about 100 preps in all. Her book also has large print and diagrams, plus techniques. The assumption is that you might not know a lot, but if you do, skip it and head for the recipes. Most preps have an option for either corn or flour tortillas, but some do specify just one or the other. The book could have been improved if it also used metric in the recipes, or at least had a metric conversion chart.
Audience and level of use: taco lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: ropa vieja tacos; sesame soy chicken tacos; fried egg tacos with dukka; cherry almond cheesecake tacos; brown sugar chili salmon tacos; curry cashew chicken salad tacos.
The downside to this book: sopes and gorditas are not covered.
The upside to this book: a good collection, very well detailed.
Quality/Price Rating: 87
5.THE BOATER'S COOKBOOK (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018, 426 pages, ISBN 978-1-944824-28-0 $29.99 USD papercovers) is by Sylvia Williams Dabney, who has lived aboard a boat full-time for over 15 years. She's sailed, cruised and chartered 60,000 offshore miles. She has cooked virtually every meal for family and friends during that period, in her galley. So there is lots of experience here, along with advice and tips for cooking in a small space. The book is also useful, of course, for apartment/flat rentals. She's got a list of gadgets and equipment (everything has multiple uses), as well as a pantry of essential supplies. 450 easy galley-tested recipes are extremely useful here, arranged by course or ingredient (apps, breads, breakfast, poultry, meat, pasta, rice, salads, seafood, soup, veggies, desserts and drinks). Every chapter is loaded with advice. The book could have been improved if it also used metric in the recipes, but at least it had metric conversion charts.
Audience and level of use: boaters, renters, students.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: so fast chicken thighs, blue cheese popovers, baked crab dip, banana walnut snack cake, kale pesto, meyer lemon pesto with mint, pumpkin mousse, johnny cake.
The downside to this book: the book itself is enormous and heavy – take that into consideration for the galley.
The upside to this book: there are tables of food equivalents and substitutions.
Quality/Price Rating: 87
6.FRENCH GRILL (The Countryman Press, 2018, 288 pages, ISBN 29.95 USD hardbound) is by Susan Hermann Loomis, who has written many other cookbooks detailing French foods. She teaches culinary workshops in Normandy and continues to write for food magazines. Here she investigates the art of grilling through 125 refined and rustic recipes. For a heavy-hitter well-selling French food cookbook author she still brings along top logrollers such as David Lebovitz, Steven Raichlen, Laura Shapiro, and Patricia Wells. Obviously the publisher feels that she needs them in order to sell. This is all neither here nor there in context of a cookbook review, but it does seems to be indicative of the approach by publishers. So too the book could have been improved if it also used more metric in the recipes to cover teaspoons and tablespoons, or at least had a metric conversion chart. Chapters are all arranged from apps (amuses bouches) through first courses, poultry, fish, rabbit, lamb, beef and veal, with pork getting its own separate section. Side dishes include veggies and grains and then there are the desserts. What makes French BBQ different? Mainly the use of typical French cuts and beasts (rabbit, lamb, game) and herbs and spices (garlic, bay leaf, Esplette peppers, olive oil, quotes from French writers, a well-defined menu outline, and, of course, French words in the recipe titles (eg, les huitres grilles au pommeau), unfortunately only indexed with English words.
Audience and level of use: French food lovers, libraries.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: aioli with autumn veggies from the grill; curry beef and zucchini brochettes; strawberry shortcake from the grill with coconut whipped cream; rabbit with mustard and crispy bacon; Syrian spiced lamb chops; sweet potatoes with quail eggs; smoky pork shoulder a la Francaise.
The downside to this book: needs better metrication
The upside to this book: a virtually unique approach to BBQ, able to match Cajun and Creole BBQ. She also points out that grilling in France appears to be a male's job (p14 – 15, and indexed with the recipes)
Quality/Price Rating: 88.
* THE RESTAURANT/CELEBRITY COOKBOOK...
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...is one of the hottest trends in cookbooks. Actually, they've been around for many years, but never in such proliferation. They are automatic best sellers, since the book can be flogged at the restaurant or TV show and since the chef ends up being a celebrity somewhere, doing guest cooking or catering or even turning up on the Food Network. Most of these books will certainly appeal to fans of the chef and/or the restaurant and/or the media personality. Many of the recipes in these books actually come off the menus of the restaurants involved. Occasionally, there will be, in these books, special notes or preps, or recipes for items no longer on the menu. Stories or anecdotes will be related to the history of a dish. But because most of these books are American, they use only US volume measurements for the ingredients; sometimes there is a table of metric equivalents, but more often there is not. I'll try to point this out. The usual shtick is "favourite recipes made easy for everyday cooks". There is also PR copy on "demystifying ethnic ingredients". PR bumpf also includes much use of the magic phrase "mouth-watering recipes" as if that is what it takes to sell such a book. I keep hearing from readers, users, and other food writers that some restaurant recipes (not necessarily from these books) don't seem to work at home, but how could that be? The books all claim to be kitchen tested for the home, and many books identify the food researcher by name. Most books are loaded with tips, techniques, and advice, as well as gregarious stories about life in the restaurant world. Photos abound, usually of the chef bounding about. The celebrity books, with well-known chefs or entertainers, seem to have too much self-involvement and ego. And, of course, there are a lot of food photo shots, verging on gastroporn. There are endorsements from other celebrities in magnificent cases of logrolling. If resources are cited, they are usually American mail order firms, with websites. Some companies, though, will ship around the world, so don't ignore them altogether. Here's a rundown on the latest crop of such books –
22.THE SPICE TREE (Ebury Press, 2017, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-78503547-0 $42.95 CAD hardbound) is by Nisha Katona, founder of Mowgli Street Food, a UK food writer and television presenter. Its subtitle is "Indian cooking made beautifully simple". The spices and finishing flavours use in Indian cooking are not that unusual. These familiar spices are re-arranged and sorted into a formula, a spice tree infographic that shows what spices and ingredients always go together. For example, with veggies, you pick one cluster, such as the "gujrati quartet" (cumin seed, mustard seed, dry red chili, and asafoetida) and fry in oil, then add your veggie and some (to taste) turmeric, chilli powder, salt and sugar. After that, add one or more of English mustard paste, lemon, garlic, white poppy seed, coriander powder, tomato, green chilli, garam masala, coriander leaf, or amchoor. Then you are done. In addition to veggies, she's got the infographic formula for pulses, meats, and fish. They all move through the turmeric-chilli powder-salt-sugar area. It seems quite simple but it will be okay through practice. She has lots of technique notes. The book is arranged by type of food: brassicas, green veggies, root veggies, squashes, light lentils and dals, heavy pulses and grains, fish and shellfish, red meat, game and offal, chicken and eggs. The Spice Tree approach may work well in her restaurants where many different dishes are cooked every day; the at-home meals would be fewer but the large pantry must still be maintained. But of course you would not need a whole pantry if you don't cook flesh or don't cook veggies. The book could have been improved if it also used both metric and avoirdupois for all of the ingredients in the recipes, or at least had a conversion chart. Quality/price rating: 86
23.THE ACADIAN KITCHEN; recipes from then and now (Whitecap, 2018, 240 pages, ISBN 978-1-77050313-7 $34.95 CAD paperbound) is by Alain Bosse, AKA The Kilted Chef. He's a strong Atlantic Canada culinary ambassador with a track record of promotional appearances throughout the world. This is his second cookbook (the first dealt with mussels), and he celebrates over 400 years of Acadian history and culture. It's from Champlain and the Order of Good Cheer through the Cajun and French Canadian dishes. There are classic preps and modern updates: fricot, rappie pie, jambalaya, festive desserts. It is all arranged by type of courses, from salads and apps through to desserts, with some chapters such as "Cajun recipes" and "French-Acadian fusion" dealing with overlaps. There is an Acadian food glossary (hands up if you know bocouite, eplan, tompinambour) and also a bibliography. A big round of applause too for the support of Experience Acadie. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, with no table of equivalents needed. Quality/price rating: 91
* THE REISSUES, THE REPRINTS, AND THE NEWER EDITIONS...
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...all reflect a boom in the cookbook publishing business. A paperback reprint will lower the cost to the purchaser, and also give a publisher a chance to correct egregious errors or add a postscript. Some will reissue a book in paper covers with a new layout or photos. Others will rearrange existing material to present it as more informative text while keeping the focus tight. Some magazines will reissue popular or classic recipes in an "easy" format. Here are some recent "re-editions"...
24.THE RIVER CAFE CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKBOOK (Penguin Michael Joseph, 2017, 416 pages, ISBN 978-0-71818906-8 $53.95 CAD paperbound) is by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. It was originally published in 2009. and this is a paperback reprint of that edition. It's got all the major "classic" dishes, over 300 of them. The book has been a rarity for some time, with high prices in the resale market. The paperback is sturdy enough but it may become a bit frayed as time goes by. However, it is an essential book. With one large type recipe per page it should be well-used until the spine cracks open. At which point, you can safely separate all the pages (but do retain the index) for a binder. It is arranged by food type, from soups, through pasta, risotto, polenta, bread, pizza, fish. Meat, veggies, and desserts. Wine is not discussed, but it is used in 15 dishes. This book has always been a winner, with preps based on the restaurant and service mainly for six. It is good to see it back in print again. Quality/price rating: 90
25.A TASTE OF ADVENTURE (Ebury Press, 2017, 144 pages, ISBN 978-1-78503724-5 $35.99 CAD hardbound) is from Exodus Travels, a UK travel firm. It was originally published in 2016 by the company, and then reprinted last year by Ebury. It is an assortment of recipes meant for adventurers with appetites: the global scope allows you to recreate your travels at home. The preps come from a wide-range of sources, mostly in situ. It is arranged by continent, with Europe up first, followed by Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Each chapter is divided into "dishes" and "drinks". Thus, we have tagine, larb, cevapi, ajvar, tiramisu, kjotsupa (Icelandic lamb soup), sahlab (hot milk drink), beetroot curry. Something for everyone. There's a mix of avoirdupois and metric in the recipes, which needed some conversion charts – but these were not available. While there are pix of food, there are also pix of travel. Still, a decent book, especially for Exodus Travels customers. Quality/price rating: 84.
26.SUPERFOOD BOOST (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017, 2018, 144 pages, ISBN 978-1-8=5017-3159-2 $19.99 USD hardbound) is by Erica Palmcrantz Aziz, a Swedish raw-food educator who has authored or co-authored several other raw food books. This one was originally published in Sweden in 2017; this is the English language translation. It has more than 70 gluten-free and dairy-free recipes for immunity building smoothies, bowls, green drinks, energy bars, and others. The belief is that food is medicine and superfoods contain maximum nutrition in every serving. They can easily replace anything else you have as "snacks". All the preps are based on raw food, and this also helps keep it simple and saves time (no cooking). Results? Balanced blood sugar levels. How about a strawberry coconut smoothie bowl? Or zoodles (made with zucchini or spaghetti squash) with sun-dried tomatoes and pumpkin seeds, dark chocolate puffs, and avocado nice cream. Inventive.
The book could have been improved if it also used more metric in the recipes, but at least it had metric conversion charts. Quality/price rating: 87
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Chimo! www.deantudor.com
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