Posts Tagged ‘cookbook roundup’
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
I’m the kind of food nerd that checks out other people’s cookbooks when I go to their house… I just can’t help it. I can usually get a good sense of a person by the kinds of cookbooks they have, if any, and if I’m lucky, I’ll stumble across some new books to fill my shelves. Such was the case this past Christmas when I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law, who’s a great cook, and as such, bound to have great cookbooks. It was there that I found her copy of Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. Her website, 101cookbooks.com is hugely popular, showcasing her own recipes as well as those from her large, and always growing collection of cookbooks. (more…)
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
I love, love, LOVE this book! Not because it’s chock full of recipes for every meal, or that it’s a tome of 500+ healthy recipes, but because it’s a great first step book for those trying to integrate more green vegetables in their diet. This book is something I give to each new client, as a welcome, and a guide to help them find delicious and easy ways to cook their greens. Johanna Abli and Catherine Walthers have created an infinitely usable book, that makes a great addition to any bookshelf.
In the introduction to the book, the first few sentences touch on something that I often discuss with my clients - unidentifiable greens. How many times have you walked through the produce section of a store, particularly a health food store, and wondered what half the things there were? Yeah, we all know iceberg lettuce, romaine, red and green leaf, but sadly most of us don’t know much more. And yet the shelves in the produce section is overflowing with all kinds of fruits and vegetables that most of us will never bother to pick up! I often challenge clients who are maybe a little ill at ease with all the funky vegetables in the store to pick a new one each week, and try it out.
And this is where Greens, Glorious Greens comes in. The book is arranged alphabetically by vegetable, and features a lengthy, but certainly not boring discussion of the history, nutritional values, and unique flavor of each green, putting it in context of what it’s best served with. And because some greens last longer than others, or require shorter, or longer cooking times, each green has a dedicated “shopping tips”, “storage”, and “preparation” section.
My favorite recipes in this book, which I’ve made an over and over again are Chinese Bok Choy, Shiitake, and Tofu, Lemon-Basil Kale, Collards with Dill and Parsley, and Colcannon, an Irish recipe typically made with potatoes, milk, and kale, this version goes dairy free, and knocks the yummy factor up a notch by adding savoy cabbage, and makes a really exciting variation of regular old mashed potatoes. Other stand outs include Polenta Topped with Dandelion Greens, and Curried Chick-Peas with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potato.
Seriously, YUM.
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Friday, February 5th, 2010
This battered and worn booklet was my first ever vegan book purchase (even though it’s really a zine, and not a cookbook, I absolutely couldn’t leave it out of these posts). It’s title humorously pokes fun at it’s own vegan community, and refers to what people often say we eat - bark & grass. I must have been 16 when I bought this, and for a few years it was my only guide to cooking and eating animal free. The Food Network didn’t exist yet, and cooking shows where not in vogue. I was left to my own devices, and this humble little booklet served me well.
The introduction to this zine, authored by Daisy Rooks is not about food at all, but about the not so obvious link between feminism and animal rights. She writes: “based on the statistics that I have seen, I have come to understand that the majority of vegetarians are women. I don’t think that this is a coincidence. Women and animals both fall prey to violence, bigotry and abuse in this male-dominated system. Seen as merely parts of the whole, women and animals have both been deemed acceptable receptacles of male violence.” She goes on to say that because women live in a culture of inequity - gender, race, class, pay, etc - we are more able to empathize with animals pain than men. And “because men are conditioned, again by societal structure, to act as both the oppressor and strong, emotionally detached male, they are often more resistant to animal rights as an issue.” Heady arguments, but I was 16 when I read this and it struck a chord that always stuck with me.
This book was also my introduction to hardline veganism - forgoing foods like high-fructose corn syrup, not because it was unhealthy, but because the waste from the production of this sweetener was often used as livestock feed. A fact quite far removed from my personal consumption, but my argument at the time (and in many ways still is) that I just did not want to participate in any way in industries that dealt in livestock (meat, poultry, dairy, leather, wool, silk, etc). The books’ first page after the introduction is a list of products either derived from animals, or use animal products in their production (such as HFCS). It mentions beer, which often uses animal charcoal for filtration, or lard as a foam reducer - urea, a compound taken from animal urine, which is used in shampoos (check your bottle - I dare you!) - and lecithin, an emulsifying agent made from egg yolks (and from soy, usually marked ’soy lecithin’).
In typical punk DIY style the book is illustrated with photocopied image collages of Norman Rockwell-esque families, women, and children, adding yet another layer of social commentary onto its pages. The recipes in this book are not complicated or even that original, but they served me well and were mainstays in my diet for many years. The banana muffin recipe in here was my introduction to (successful!) baking, and I must have made them 100 times. I brought this little book to college with me, and would make banana muffins in my dorm room, bringing the batter filled tins down to the main kitchen on the first floor to bake. (These then progressed to chocolate chip banana muffins, and then finally coconut chocolate chip banana muffins. oh man, these were so good!)
Recipes like Cinnamon Rolls, Nutritional Yeast Cheese, Lentil Dahl (with an ingredient list that reads “as many lentils as you want to cook [preferably red]) and Chocolate Cake were ones I made over and over again (as my grease splattered pages can attest to)
There’s even a section in the back on “Non-dairy Pest Control”, which gives non-chemical ways to discourage pests like ants, flies and spiders from invading your space, a section on all natural cleaners for drains, ovens, floors, and air fresheners made with ingredients from your pantry (and elbow grease), and a section on how to make your own toothpaste, massage oil, and hair rinse. These ladies were progressive and I was totally into it!
Amazingly, you can still buy this online and for only $3.50 it’s an freakin steal! This little zine holds a very special place in my heart, and while I’ve not made any of its recipes for a long long time, I will always treasure it.
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Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
This book is technically not mine… I borrowed it from a friend and then she moved away -sorry Jenny! But it’s in good hands, and is, of all my vegan cookbooks, the one used most often. It’s recipes are simple and don’t try to smother you with weird recipes using hard to find, whacky ingredients like some vegan cookbooks do. This book is a behemoth, clocking in at 555 pages and 400 recipes! I’ve barely scratched the surface of this one, but probably have about 40 recipes flagged for immediate trial!
Broken down into a staggering 20 chapters, Robertson covers every course and every food staple there is. The first chapter on Vegan Basics is awesome, covering everything from vegan pantry staples (a favorite topic of mine) to different kinds of flours, seaweeds, nuts, and sweeteners. With a good dose of solid nutrition information, this intro chapter really is a must read for new vegans - or honestly, anyone looking to eat more whole foods. And that right there is why I love this book - it uses whole, unmessed around with foods, and doesn’t often suggest the use of technically vegan, but not healthy foods like Earth Balance Margarine (which frankly, I’m getting a little sick of seeing in every new vegan cookbook). Sure, there are a few mentions of things like veggie burgers or vegan cream cheese, but these are really the exception to the rule.
If I had to pick something about this book to change, I’d pick two. First, please, pretty please, use pictures! This book doesn’t have a single one. I know it’s cheaper to leave them out, and the book would be twice the size with them in there, but half the time I browse cookbooks visually (for those into the whole food-porn thing, you HAVE to check out www.tastespotting.com - an immense website that posts just the photos of recipes culled from the internet. I’ve wasted many many hours on this site…). Second, although this book of 400 recipes is a bargain at $22 (mine was free! Sorry again Jenny! I’ll return it one day), I do wish it was smaller. And only because it’s overwhelming to have this many good recipes to choose from in one book! You know how you’re lucky if you find 5 or 6 great recipes in any single book? Well this one will throw you for a loop, because there are literally hundreds of great recipes in here. Robin’s new book 1000 Vegan Recipes actually scares me! I know I’ll get it, but seriously, one thousand recipes?? On top of the 400 in this book, and the other few hundred in her other 6 or 7 published cookbooks? This woman is a prolific recipe magician!
Anyway, on to the recipes I like, nay love, and have made over and over again: Ginger Scented Vegetable Potstickers- easy, quick, and beyond tasty, I keep meaning to make a wonton style soup with these inside. Not to be outdone by the equally simply and equally delicious Vegetable Spring Rolls with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce. Seriously yum! Broccoli Rabe with Figs, Garlic and Pine Nuts was surprisingly tasty despite my not usually liking fruits in my dinner. I end up using regular broccoli for this though, as I find the smell of broccoli rabe to be, er, really offensive. Sorry broccoli rabe, I don’t like you. But this recipe is super yummy, and the best part is? Six ingredients! Love it. For all those people who complain about being too tired to make dinner after work, for shame! This healthy and tasty dinner cooks up in a whopping 7 minutes. Serve it over some pasta or brown rice and you’ve got healthy eats. No excuses!
I’ve not made it to the dessert section of this book (which is strange, because that’s usually the section I start with), but I’m dying to make her Coconut-Macadamia Cheesecake. Next special ocassion cake is going to be this one! But then I skip ahead a few pages and find the Fresh Peach Crisp with Almond Butter Cream. Ooooh my! (Hmmm… I do have peaches I froze over the summer just waiting to be used….) And Mango-Coconut Bread Pudding. Seroiusly, I love coconut, in any form (except those juice boxed coconut waters. ick. Fresh coconut water is 1000% better). Oh god! and the very next page is Coconut-Cardamom Rice Pudding. Why in hell have I ignored the back of this book for so long??!?!
She’s got chapters on chutneys & salsas, breads, smoothies, sauces & dressings, along with the staple chapters on soups, salads, veggies, grains, beans, breakfasts, and desserts. If you’re really looking for a 1-stop vegan cookbook, this one is it, bar none. When I end up getting her 1000 Vegan Recipes book I’ll report back what I think, although I’m sure it will be great (as if I’ll ever get to make even half of the recipes in there… it would take me years!)
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Monday, February 1st, 2010
A short discussion of some of my favorite and oft used cookbooks!
I have accumulated a collection of 60-odd cookbooks, as well as probably hundreds of recipes torn from magazines, photocopied out of books, or scribbled on scrap paper, and another few hundred bookmarked on my computer. A solid 90% of them I’ve never actually made, and likely never will, but still, I keep on collecting.
I have cookbooks devoted entirely to things like cookies, cupcakes or pies. Books on tofu, mushrooms, paela, and raw foods, and even a cookbook in French, which sadly I cannot read, and most of my cookbooks are vegetarian or vegan with a few notable exceptions. Strangely though, it’s these exceptions that seem to get more use in my kitchen than all the others. Why? Because they contain recipes for real food, that people will actually eat, and enjoy, and not pretend to enjoy. Don’t get me wrong… some of my vegan cookbooks get hearty use, but others have been untouched for years because their pages are filled with unpalatable recipes for things that try to resemble something else, the cursed “faux” foods.
During the early part of my tenure as a vegan, I wouldn’t touch faux meats, soy balogna, soy burgers, etc. I found them to be offensive and thought, “hey, if i want to eat something that tastes like balogna, why don’t I just eat balogna” (forgive me, I was still in highschool, and strangely thought balogna was delicious). But as the years wore on, I somehow fell victim to their siren call and quickly found myself practically living off of them. Tofu-dogs, Boca Burgers, Tofurkey, soy milk, soy ice-cream. I bought cookbook after cookbook about tofu, and soy ice-creams, and vegan cookies. As I matured, so did my tastes, and I longed for real, simple foods cooked in a way to maintaining the integrity of the natural flavors. I was over the whole “tofu absorbs the flavor of whatever you cook it with” thing, and wanted to maybe just taste the actual tofu!
BOOK 1
Some cookbooks proved more helpful than others, and over the next few weeks I’m going to review for your some of my most, and least favorite cookbooks. I’ll start off on a positive note with my all time most used, most loved cookbook, and one that I recommend to everyone, vegan, vegetarian, or otherwise: Deborah Madison’s LOCAL FLAVORS Cooking and Eating From America’s Farmers’ Markets.
I’ll admit that this book probably sat on my shelf for a few years before I really looked it. Likely purchased as a gift when I was still in my soy-everything phase, it recipes probably seemed too “normal” at the time. But a few years ago I pulled it out and haven’t put it down since. At 400 pages and with gorgeous full color photographs and laid out in a seasonal order, this book has more flags (and stains) than any other of my books. I’ve never made anything out of here that wasn’t absolutely delicious, as it’s recipes are rich in flavor, and beyond all, dependably tasty!
My favorite pasta recipe of all time comes from this book, and I’ve made it over and over. Located in the early chapters of the book, devoted to spring vegetables stands Pasta with Peas, Fresh Sage, and Breadcrumbs. With only 10 ingredients, this is such an absolutely perfect dish, it makes me want to cry! Fresh spring peas are amazing on their own, but paired with sage, crunchy breadcrumbs and al dente pasta, this cannot be beat.
Another simple dish is her White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage, which, as she states in the introduction to the recipe, makes a hearty bruschetta when served over toast, or a wonderful and flavorful minestrone with some added stock. The fact that her dishes typically contain few ingredients (this one only has 9) is a testament to her true understanding of foods and her ability to let their flavors speak for themselves.
When we reach the autumn section of the book, another beyond simple, but intensely scrumptious dish is her Winter Squash Braised in Pear or Apple Cider. Combining butternut squash, rosemary, and apple cider is not something I ever would have thought of on my own, but they work perfectly together. The sweetness from the squash and the cider are highlighted by the salt and cider vinegar added at the end. The squash comes out tender and manages to be both sweet and savory at the same time. This dish also looks as good as it tastes, and has been showcased at more than one holiday meal.
There are a few things in here that I haven’t tried yet, but have been flagged for a long time; Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce (mostly because I never drink wine, and don’t want to end up throwing out the other half of the bottle!), Apricot-Cherry Crisp, Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding, and Pea and Spinach Soup with Coconut Milk.
While this book does have recipes for lamb, and beef and chicken, and uses eggs and dairy, it should still not be overlooked by vegetarians or vegans. Deborah Madison is a huge supporter of local farmers markets, which predominantly sell produce and this is reflected in her recipes which are almost all based on vegetables. Easily adaptable for those looking for meat/dairy free recipes, this book is my numero uno and I love it dearly. I have the hefty $40 hardcover, but the paperback is available on Amazon for only $17 - an absolute steal for a cookbook you’ll likely use over and over and over again! Trust me on this!
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