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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2010 3:42:13 GMT
It seems we mention favorite cookbooks quite often in the food boards, but there is no thread dedicated to featuring our favorites. There is now! I venerate this woman: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130271914(^ about Diana Kennedy's newest cookbook, Oaxaca al Gusto)I haven't seen that cookbook yet, but have four of her others. If I were only to have one of them ( ), I guess this one might cover the most territory: <~~ click!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2010 4:05:10 GMT
I'm so glad you posted this!! I heard this segment on NPR early this morning and got real excited. I can clearly,definitely see the attraction to her. What a fabulous,fascinating woman. I only have one of her cookbooks.This new one looks like a real gem. I have some favorites I would like to put in here.
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 5, 2010 14:17:42 GMT
And she's a Brit to boot................
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 10, 2010 15:32:35 GMT
Mick, that is part of her appeal ~~ her classic, no-nonsense British approach to cooking, coupled with that wonderful curiosity and keen appreciation the British bring to foreign places.
So come on, you all ~~ let's hear about everyones favorite cookbooks!
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Post by Don Cuevas on Oct 10, 2010 16:25:54 GMT
James Beard's American Cookery. It is classic American cooking with a historical bent and no quarter is given to calories or cholesterol nor food fads. That's so refreshing, these days.
The Vegetarian Epicure, Book 2, by Anna Thomas. Really good, tasty, vegetarian recipes, without fanaticism or preaching. 100 % tofu and meat analog free. It's all fresh and natural, without any smug, superior airs. I turn to it often. The salads and marinated vegs sections alone justify the cost of the book.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 10, 2010 16:59:00 GMT
Wonderful recommendations, DonC! One thing the two books have in common is that so many people probably learned to cook from them. That is quite an accomplishment for a book to be equally useful to both skilled cooks and complete novices. One of the strengths of American Cookery is the historical bent you mention. Beard shows the reader not only the how, but the why of making a dish. This showed in his contributions to the Time-Life Foods of the World series. Even though I gave my volumes to my sister when I moved, they remain favorites since they were the cookbooks that taught me how to cook, starting with the Provincial France volume. Looking them up, I found this enthusiastic recommendation by The Vegan Reader!
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Post by lagatta on Oct 11, 2010 13:06:14 GMT
Anna Thomas is of Polish origin, and has wonderful Eastern European salads and marinated veg; great for winter salads up here.
I also gave away my hardbound Foods of the World (called "La Cuisine à travers le Monde" in French) as I'd read them over and over, but have kept the little spiral-bound recipe volumes. Opened up the Middle East one - pages covered with spicy stains!
I'm not remotely vegan, though I do eat a lot of plant-based meals, but was pleasantly surprised by the tone of the Vegan Reader review. Not preachy or fun-hating at all - most vegan writing really turns me off even if they are discussing foodstuffs I like.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 11, 2010 19:32:30 GMT
I don't have the Vegetarian Epicure 2 (nor 1, for that matter), but now plan to get it. Winter salads are good all year round as main dishes, even in hot climates. Surely I must have mentioned this cookbook before, as I consider it a great treasure: Pomp & Sustenance by Mary Simeti. I looked it up to include here and was appalled at the prices quoted. Perhaps those aren't US dollars, I thought. But no, there were asking prices of almost 200 dollars! Continuing to look, the mystery was solved ~~ the book has been reissued under the title SICILIAN FOOD: Recipes from Italy's Abundant Isle, by Mary Taylor Simeti, nicely priced at under 20 bucks. Click on the picture for an extensive review. Some of the recipes from the book are here in the AnyPort Galley: Caponata (Reply #5) and Gelatos (Reply #10) Here is Amazon's page on the original title, including the fun "look inside" feature.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 12, 2010 11:34:22 GMT
Oh shit - I have a copy of the original book, hardcover. It still has its dustcover, but the latter is a bit worn, so it isn't utterly mint condition. The book itself is in fine shape though; I've never used it directly while cooking (i.e. no tomato or olive oil spots). Could I sell it? I loves my cookbooks, but I could sure use $200.
The new title is quite a dumbing-down - I doubt people would have given it too me without the historical angle.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 12, 2010 17:32:28 GMT
I would certainly part with mine for some of the prices I've seen. Gimme 75 bucks & it's yours! I'd be just as happy with the same book under the new name, which I could purchase with the money gained from the original.
LaGatta, I'm sure you could sell it through AbeBooks, eBay, or some such outlet. If you know any used booksellers, they might be willing to handle that for you.
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Post by Jazz on Oct 13, 2010 14:43:17 GMT
Pomp and Sustenance sounds so good. Of course, I leapt to amazon.ca and found a hardcover version of the original (good condition) for 17.95USD. Given the next cheapest was 44.95, and spiralling upwards from there, I immediately ordered it. This will be a wonderful read. Thanks for this, I’d never heard of it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 13, 2010 15:54:48 GMT
Wonderful, Jazz! It's one of those books you can dip in and out of to read. It's full of history, but all of the recipes work beautifully.
Here is one that I copied to send to my family, thus the personal comments:
BISCOTTI REGINA Makes 3 dozen cookies 3 3/4 cups flour 3/4 cups sugar ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ cup lard 2 egg yolks 1/4 teaspoon vanilla ½ cup milk, or less 2 egg whites, lightly beaten 1 cup sesame seeds
Sift the flour, sugar and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and cut in the lard until the mixture reaches the texture of a coarse meal. Add the egg yolks, vanilla and as much milk as is necessary to hold the dough together. Knead for a minute and then shape the dough into finger-shaped pieces about 1 ½ inches long. Roll each piece first in the egg whites and then in the sesame seeds to that it is well covered with a layer of seeds. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven about 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
[My comments: Use lard! This recipe is super authentic, so there is no reason to mess with it. I do the first step (sifting dry ingred. together) in the food processor. When they’re mixed, you can add the wet ingredients & pulse until it starts forming a ball. Remove wad from processor, & proceed as above. The dunking in egg white then sesame bit is very messy. Try having a shallow bowl of egg whites right next to a shallow bowl of sesame seeds. Use left hand for dipping pieces into & out of whites, & reserve right hand for tossing the pieces around in the seeds. Do be sure to cover the pieces well with both those ingredients. This is soooo worth it–they taste exactly like the kind we’ve always loved from Brocato’s.]
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Post by traveler63 on Oct 14, 2010 18:08:37 GMT
My two most favorite cookbooks are "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" which I can say started my passion for French cooking. No I haven't made all of the recipes! The other is "Larousse Gastronminique" 1978 edition. This was the last edition before the "Americanization" of the book.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 20, 2010 16:46:06 GMT
Wow -- you are undauntable, T63!
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 5, 2015 6:46:04 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2015 12:51:18 GMT
I did hear about this cookbook and thought of you Bixa. What a hoot!!!
I can't really say it's something I necessarily desire or seek out but if someone gave me one I wouldn't turn my nose up at it.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 30, 2017 11:49:25 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 30, 2017 20:28:40 GMT
Oh, THANK YOU for that, LaGatta! Wonderful article and a very generous sampling of recipes and photographs. The one of the potato salad evoked my grandmother so forcefully that it brought tears to my eyes.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 30, 2017 21:01:15 GMT
Please search "Rachel Roddy" at the Guardian site for her recipes but also simply for her writing. She has lovely recipes from Rome (Lazio), Sicily and other Italian regions, as well as splendid British ones and a few inspired by other countries, as befits the now cosmopolitan Rome where she and her little family reside. Some commenters mentioned that one lamb recipe was rooted in a Persian one, and she quickly agreed - there are more than a few Iranians and other Persian speakers in Rome nowadays. The Guardian articles: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/kitchen-sink-talesI've just made this: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/21/sausages-and-greens-recipe-napoli-style-from-rachel-roddy-kitchen-in-romeMy version isn't quite as pretty as hers as the only truly fresh local greens are spinach, and I added spring onions - immature red ones. Spinach wilts of course, though I only added it at the end and turned the heat down. It seems to taste fine though. I didn't want to use broccoli or rapini immported from Mexico or California when we finally have some local produce - late this year with all the rain. I used little chicken sausages from Milano, an Italian grocery in my neighbourhood. But they have to be the rough cut sausages, whether pork, veal, lamb or chicken, not the very smooth kind. I'll make some rice...
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Post by fumobici on Jun 30, 2017 21:02:17 GMT
I think it takes a cook who is exceptionally secure in themselves to propose and create simple recipes. Doing so, puts the cook in the shadows and the ingredients into the spotlight. Italian cooking is rife with simple recipes, without a lot of fancy or fussy preparation or presentation tricks.
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 1, 2017 6:59:28 GMT
I love reading Elizabeth David, but have only tried a handful of actual recipes. For basic techniques, I still refer to the sainted Marguerite Patten's Everyday Cookbook, which my mother gave me when I left home. And we always used to have a good laugh at my grandmother's Cassell's Shilling Cookery from the early 1900s, and seemed to be full of unimaginable recipes starting with things like "Take a quart of cream and a dozen eggs", handy hints on how to manage kitchenmaids and the like. More recently, I quite like some of Nigel Slater's offerings. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 21, 2017 16:58:27 GMT
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Post by lagatta on Jul 21, 2017 22:41:35 GMT
That is one of the true classics, and what a splendid quote. My most adventurous aunt had it; she was a Canadian Army nurse in the immediate postwar period (same timeframe as Mossie and they are about the same age). She was stationed in many countries and travelled to the Soviet Union - must have been when Khrushchev was the leader - and brought me nesting dolls and showed off a beautiful fur coat and hat before anyone ever thought of protesting those (of course northern Canadians also hunted and processed furs, but not always the same species or the same styles). I wanted to be like her when I grew up; unfortunately she had a disastrous late marriage, a "slow" child and a handsome younger husband who didn't stick around. I vowed never to have human children...
I have a first edition (or at least from when it first came out, in 1968, of Claudia Roden's Book of Middle Eastern food. Although many things had changed in the few years between 1961 and '68, Claudia Roden was living in London (she was from a Jewish-Egyptian family; even somewhat-middle-class Coptic and Jewish Egyptians did everything they could to have their children educated in Paris, London or both (as was her case). One could only buy olive oil at a chemist's in London back then ; that seems unthinkable now that London is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.
Whitehorn, Roden and my aunt are all still alive and as far as I know, relatively well for advanced age.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Jul 22, 2017 14:41:42 GMT
Gosh....after reading this thread I scuttled off to look at my cookery books. Big mistake....three hours later I was sitting on the floor surrounded by cookery books, recipes torn out of magazines and newspapers, pamphlets...art books, craft books, astronomy books... I found a recipes hand written on scraps of paper by my Mum and sister (both passed away)...and inside one of Dad's astronomy books were notes he had written for a lecture he gave about radiation in space! I found post cards, bookmarks, letters and photographs...in fact I cleared one of the units completely and rearranged the books! I put all the loose recipes in a folder, and I found a little paper recipe book that my Mum gave me...it was produced in the early sixties and was already falling to bits when she passsed it on to me... I suppose that the book that I use the most atm is the Mary Berry one. I also use the 'Hairy Dieters' books a lot. There are books that I refer to if I'm cooking specific things like Indian or Chinese meals Pat Chapman's 'Curry Club' books are brilliant and exlain how to make spice blends, chapatis etc...altho nowadays I tend to use cook-in-sauces as they are quite good...if I am entertaining I will go the whole hog and make my own Anyway...here are some of my cookery books... the rest of the shelves on this bookcase are quite tidy too...
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Post by bjd on Jul 22, 2017 19:21:35 GMT
I used to buy cookbooks, then French cooking magazines if I saw one of interest. While decluttering recently, I threw out all the magazines. Nowadays, if I feel like making something new, I look on the internet. There are some good French websites like Marmiton.org, or you can choose recipes according to what ingredients you have. I also have an old, stained notebook in which I write down recipes people gave me.
But I admit I eat to live rather than live to eat so I don't always make a lot of effort by looking for new things. But the other evening I invited friends around and one of the appetizers I made was red, yellow and green peppers marinated in olive oil with a bit of rosemary, which I had to go break off a bush somewhere since mine died. A Pita peeling the peppers though. It was over 30° so I didn't feel like turning on the oven to grill them. Turns out you can peel them after putting them in the microwave for a few minutes.
I also admit that I tend to adapt recipes, either because I don't have all the ingredients I need, or I decide that something would be good. Often the second time though -- the first time I usually follow the recipe.
Cheery, your bookshelves are so neat!
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 22, 2017 19:50:37 GMT
I must have about a dozen cookbooks, mostly passed down by my mother, a few given by friends and some sent as gifts from Lonely Planet for services rendered. I never really use them, but when I come across one of them, I find myself leafing through it to see if any new ideas pop up. One that I received from LP is called "The World's Best Spicy Food - where to find it and how to make it." A lot of the dishes really do look great but unfortunately most of them contain never-heard-of ingredients which are quite obviously the key to the recipe. i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411149999i/19139529._UY411_SS411_.jpg
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Post by lagatta on Jul 22, 2017 23:51:32 GMT
That sounds like Yotam Ottolenghi! I find it difficult to source his ingredients here, despite large Levantine and Maghrebi communities with people who are Muslim, Christian, Jewish and smaller faith traditions from where all that stuff started, and a long-standing Ashkenazi Jewish community for the food he presented from that aspect of Israeli culture...
Most of my bookcases are orderly, but the cookbooks aren't all in such good shape, from being used and having various spills. I'm getting rid of a lot of them too, but it is hard to choose. They are in a bookcase separate from my other ones.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 2, 2017 16:45:26 GMT
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Aug 2, 2017 19:34:48 GMT
I went to a charity shop yesterday and bought five recipe books....
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Post by lagatta on Aug 3, 2017 0:28:11 GMT
I'm trying to avoid those. I have boxes of the damned things to donate, and I won't throw books in the street. If the charity shop is stupid enough to do so, it isn't my fault.
I'd like to just put up an internet ad: books to give away, but alas it isn't very safe for a woman alone. I remember one move, no, not a rapist or a knife fiend, but a shithead who said to me (in French) oh, you're just selling your crap. He was eyeing some valuable antiques. And none of my sale was crap; I'd have simply put it out and someone would have taken it, very quickly. If only that applied to books. I summoned all my courage to tell him to leave.
Thanks bixa. I suppose the article is referring to the English publication of the Diary, though even in Dutch it was difficult, as Primo Levi's "If this is a man" was in Italian. Levi's book was initially refused ad Einaudi by Natalia Ginzburg, (née Levi), who was not only leftist, Jewish and a former partisan but the widow of Leone Ginzburg who had been tortured to death by the Gestapo. There was a real feeling of "we have to move on". It seems callous now, but perhaps it was necessary for people to rebuild their lives and their countries.
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