Comments on: Home Cooking

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Mon, 21 Feb 2005 02:58:48 +0000

My favorite cookbook is The Spice Box: A Vegetarian Indian Cookbook by Manju Singh—she really communicates the process of mixing spices in such a way that I, who before I read the book knew good Indian food only as an avid consumer, became over the course of a few months a credible cook of curries and chutneys.

By: Mary Kay

Mary Kay — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 21:59:58 +0000

Hands down, the best cooking magazine in America is Cooks Illustrated. They decide how they want the dish to taste/look/feel and then make it over and over and over with variations until they get it just the way they want it, and give you the recipe (and recount the research. The genius behind the magazine had published his own cookbook, The Cooks Bible: The best of American Home Cooking. He and Cooks Illustrated published many of the recipes from the magazine in a book called The Best Recipe which I see is now out in a revised edition as The New Best Recipe. I’ve used the original many times and other recipes from the magazine many times and they have always been wonderful. They have published other, specialty, cookbooks as well. I recommend them all heartily. MKK

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 06:31:24 +0000

From Mark Bittman, a food columnist for the NY Times: “How to Cook Everything”. His techniques are simplified with the busy home cook in mind; the food is sophisticated; he includes many sidebars with lists of variations and combinations. (i.e. “20 meat recipes that are good on salads”) Read “The Minimalist Cooks” Wednesdays in the NYT. “The Minimalist Cooks Dinner” (book) has yielded really good meals, like a simplified choucroute garni, or butternut squash with pasta. For Middle Eastern cooking try Claudia Roden, either “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food” or “The Book of Jewish Food.” Yes, the latter is full of wonderful recipes from the Sephardic and Mizrahi traditions, along with plenty of historical info not only about Jews but about trends and influences in the food of the Levant. Her recipes are well thought out, simple but tasty. Native-born Arabs have begged me for my mjaddarah recipe – from Claudia, who was born in Cairo. Anissa Helou has written many books on Lebanese and Mediterranean cooking -any of them is worth the price. Clifford Wright is another whose cookbooks I read like novels – encyclopedic, with dishes I haven’t seen before – the “Mediterranean” books always have extensive Arabic and Middle Eastern recipe selections. Pamela Anderson’s “How to Cook Without a Book” is an extremely useful guide to getting food on the table quickly, without use of mixes or prepared ingredients. She uses formulas, with easy ways to remember them, and offers lots of variations for things like pan sauces for sauteed proteins, supper soups, stir fries, pad thai, pasta sauces, vegetable sides and salads – with a little practice you can come home, look in the fridge and pantry, and produce a meal in under 40 minutes.

By: Mitch Mills

Mitch Mills — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:52:01 +0000

Either The Joy of Cooking, mentioned above, or Marion Cunningham's Fannie Farmer Cookbook are encyclopaedic treatments of US cooking. Not loaded with pictures though. Primarily just (well done) line drawings and diagrams. Lots of US home cooks cut their culinary teeth on one or both of these two books. I don't know about Ireland and its cookbooks, but the closest British analog to Rombaeur or Cunningham would probably be Delia Smith. For a very pretty, picture-laden, nicely layed-out book, take a look at Saveur Cooks Authentic American. Great photography of the food and countryside and people, and nice writing about the people and places the regional dishes come from. I can't vouch for the recipes, though, as I don't own it and haven't cooked out of it, I've just leafed through it longingly at the bookshop. And it's not by a single author, it's a collection of recipes and articles from the magazine by various contributors, so there's no overarching vision or voice to the recipes, no "signature moves". In my experience, the recipes in Saveur magazine are generally pretty reliable though, so everything in the book is probably at least servicable. And as I mentioned above, the photography is gorgeous and very hunger and travel-inspiring. You might want to ask Belle for her input too.

By: MaryLou

MaryLou — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 00:54:39 +0000

I don’t have this book, but based on reviews and Marion Cunningham recipes, I’m guessing it’s excellent. Lost Recipes by Marion Cunningham: ttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375411984/qid=1108774284/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-3478904-5127128

By: steveh

steveh — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:54:12 +0000

The vine is winding down now, with no flowers for the past month and just a couple of passionfruit per day, but it’s been a challenge keeping up. I’ve given away perhaps 100 and made passionfruit tarts, shortbread, curd, and smoothies. Inspired by a scene in “Maria, Full of Grace”, I’ve taken to putting the pulp of 3-5 into a blender with water and a bit of sugar. That mousse sounds pretty tempting.

By: SamChevre

SamChevre — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 17:20:13 +0000

For a good American cookbook, it is hard to beat The Joy of Cooking—a 60’s or 70’s edition, not the revised one with Asian recipes. It is classic American food, with its influences showing—so it has dishes like sauerbraten and omelettes. And it’s introduction to ingredients and techniques—Know Your Ingredients—is worth the price of the book by itself.

By: Yakov Smirnov

Yakov Smirnov — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 16:13:03 +0000

In Russia, peaches walk to you!

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:39:28 +0000

Thanks—did you notice the latest feature at John and Belle’s place, excerpted from “What’s Cooking in United Party Circles At Parow.”