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Thursday, February 20, 2014

* FOOD AND DRINK BOOK OF THE MONTH! *

1.THE CANADIAN CRAFT BEER COOKBOOK (Whitecap, 2013, 184 pages, ISBN 978-1-77050-193-5, $29.95 CDN soft covers) is by David Ort, a food and beer writer in Toronto (PostCity.com, TorontoLife.com, SpotlightToronto.com). Here he has developed preps for craft beers that can be found locally just about anywhere in Canada, ranging from abbey ale, India pale ale, barley wine, witbier, pilsen, brown, lager, bock – the full panoply. There is a rundown on pairing beers with food, and 75 or so preps for the full range of apps through salads, mains, desserts. Each has specific beer recommendations, so you might have to look around for comparable local brands. There are even some beer cocktails. The usual and expected are here: welsh rarebit, Flemish beef stew, stout braised lamb shanks. But there are also some new and welcomed interpretations. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: beer drinkers; cooks wanting to use beer and bittering agents.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: currywurst; brownies with spiced ale chocolate sauce; rapini with dopplebock; soba salad with sriracha dressing; witbier onion rings; IPA guacamole.
The downside to this book: there are a lot of pictures and some interesting profiles of people, but I would have appreciated more recipes in these spaces. The aim should have been for over 100 recipes.
The upside to this book: there's a bibliography for more reading and recipes.
Quality/Price Rating: 90.
 

Chimo! www.deantudor.com

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