Street Food Chicago Review

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(More customer reviews)"Street Food Chicago" compiled by Chef Michael J. Baruch (founder of La Baruch Cuisine Moderne) is a 455-page culinary celebration of Chicago's local foods that draw from its ninety different ethnic groups and the more than seven thousand restaurants. Readers are provided with an opening chapter on Chicago's culinary history titled 'Bear Wars, Old Polish Geezers, Politics and Street Booze including Weird Stuff Behind the Bar in Jars', then goes on to celebrate the corner bakery, cafeteria cuisine (including the famous Blue Plate Special and ethnic sandwiches), and on to recipes that range from Kreplach; Chicken Cacciatore; Pizza Sausage; and Gert's Creamy Coleslaw; to Mama D's Meatball Sandwich; Curried Crab Salad Dip; Jerusalem Salad; Juan's Breakfast Taco with Chorizo, Potato and Egg; and Fiery Pepper Beef in Lettuce Cups. There are even sections of color photography illustrated preparation processes, finished dishes, and Chicago street scenes. A very highly recommended addition to personal and community library ethnic cookbook collections, "Street Food Chicago" is an impressive compendium of culinary delights with completely 'kitchen cook friendly' instructions on how to make them.

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The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics Review

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(More customer reviews)As others have noted, the index in this book contains entries for both this book, in black ink, and for The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics in blue. Well, since this book has a blue cover, you would (as least I did, and continue to) think the blue ink entries are for the blue-covered book. Not so. The index is pretty good; much better than my old stand-by, the New Cook Book (Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbooks). Many index entries have useful "see also" entries.
There are a few (often just a few per section) helpful black and white photos, and some gorgeous color photos of some recipes. Like other reviews, I've noted some easy and some quite difficult recipes. The print on the pages extends into the gutter (the margin in the binding of the book) too much; when the book is open on the kitchen counter, part of the print is curved down into the binding a bit, making it a little less easy to read.


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A culinary treasure, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook—The Original Classics became an indispensable reference when it was first published. Now, years later, comes its companion volume, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook—The New Classics, which includes an index for both volumes and collects more than 1,200 of the best-of-the-best recipes that have appeared in Martha Stewart Living magazine since 2000. From the practical to the inspirational, from quiet suppers for two to dinner parties for ten, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook—The New Classics has options for every meal and every cook, with family-pleasing classics, new fare, and twists on both. Whether you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner such as Tuna Steaks with Mint Sauce or a sophisticated hors d'oeuvre like Prosciutto Crostini and Fresh Figs with Gorgonzola or a rich dessert like the Ultimate Malted Brownie Sundae, The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook—The New Classics provides excellent choices across 22 categories. In addition to recipes for all-time favorites such as Lasagne Bolognese, Chicken Soup with Dumplings, the Best Onion Rings, and Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust, you will find helpful how-to photographs that demystify preparations for piecrust, gnocchi, soufflés, and more. Here, too, are cooking tips and techniques, nutritional information for healthy choices, comprehensive pantry and equipment glossaries, menu ideas, and a resource guide for finding ingredients. With the same stunning color photography and easy-to-follow, comprehensive format that grace the pages of Martha Stewart Living and The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook—The Original Classics, this new volume is a must-have reference that will become a loved and oft-used favorite of every home cook.

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The Northwest Essentials Cookbook: Cooking With the Ingredients That Define a Regional Cuisine Review

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(More customer reviews)I live on the northern california coast and we share many of the same wonderful foods that create the northwest flavor. This is a great cookbook, the recipes are simple and tasty. The book is broken down into chapters like salmon, prawns and crab, wild mushrooms, herbs, lentils split peas & chickapeas, and apples & pears. These are a few, but certainly not all. This is a book full of recipes at their best when you use the freshest of ingredients. I recommend!

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The Filipino-American Kitchen: Traditional Recipes, Contemporary Flavors Review

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(More customer reviews)The dishes in this book fit the title: Filipino American. That is, they are based on the traditional foods of the Philippines but modified to allow the chef to take advantage of fresh local products, and of a minimum of specialty spices. The resulting foods are thus more suited to both the American taste and the American supermarket than highly traditional recipies.
Philippine food traditions are based on their particular variant on oriental cooking, but modified by years of invluence from incoming cultures. The Spanish took over the island in 1542 and left them with a deep impression of Spanish culinary heritage (paella for instance, but without saffron). The Spanish in turn brought with them some Mexican influence. And then there were the Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese.
Ms. Aranas has done an excellent job of fitting these into an American kitchen. You will be hard pressed to flip through this book without finding something that you want to try.

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Containing over 100 traditional and modern adaptations of Filipino recipes, this cookbook is perfect for Americans with little to no experience with Filipino cuisine, and for Filipino-Americans interested in learning new adaptations of traditional dishes. A comprehensive guide, The Filipino-AmericanKitchen includes a brief culinary history of the Philippines, a list of Filipino ingredients used in the recipes, and a guide to navigating Asian grocery stores.There is also a resource section for ordering ingredients online or directly from stores, followed by 10 chapters of recipes organized by course, with main courses organized by food type.Anyone interested in Filipino cooking will find this book an invaluable resource.

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CUISINE OF THE SUN: CLASSICAL FRENCH COOKING FROM NICE AND PROVENCE (Fireside Cookbook Classics) Review

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(More customer reviews)From the blurb, Mireille Johnston was born in Nice [naturellement] and educated in France and the USA. She translated the script for the classic film "The Sorrow and the Pity" - directed by Marcel Ophuls - and also hosted a superb series on regional French cooking that was shown here in Canada on TVO (TV Ontario, a publicly-funded educational network).
This easy-to-follow cookbook includes the classic Nicoise recipes such as bourride (creamy garlic fish soup),soupe de pistou (vegetable soup flavoured with pesto (basil paste)), hors-d'oeuvres such as anchoiade (anchovy and garlic spread), pan bagna (classic sandwich with tomatoes, anchovy fillets, and a bit of tuna, etc.), pissaladiere (onion tart), tapenade (anchovy, olive, garlic, and capers spread), salads such as salades blanches (warm bean, cauliflower, and potato salad dressed with a spicy vinaigrette), salade de haricots verts (warm green bean salad with a vinaigrette composed of crushed garlic, good vinegar and olive oil, and salt and pepper), the classic "salade nicoise" (includes tomatoes, cucumbers, lima beans, purple artichokes, green or red peppers, onions, hard-cooked eggs, anchovy fillets (again!), basil or mint, radishes, and tuna - all artfully arranged (compose) on an attractive plate), sauces such as aioli (garlic mayonnaise), beurre d'anchois (anchovy butter), coulis (a warm tomato sauce, sauce aux noix (walnuts, garlic, and olive oil sauce), pistou (superb basil, garlic, olive oil,and cheese sauce), rouille (thick cayenne pepper and garlic sauce), basic vinaigrette (olive oil and very good red wine vinegar), fish dishes such as court-bouillon (fish stock), gigot de mer (fish baked with onion, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and white wine), moules de pecheurs (steamed mussels with mayonnaise, mustard and served cold), sardines grillees (grilled fresh sardines with parsley and garlic), thon provencale (fresh red tuna cooked with vegetables and white wine).
Ms. Johnston also include recipes for boeuf mironton (boiled beef baked in vinegar and caper sauce), daube d'avignon (lamb, vegetable, and herb stew), estouffade (lamb and beef stew), pietsch (poche de veau farcie - breast of veal stuffed with vegetables and simmered in white wine), pot-au-feu provencale (boiled beef, lamb, and vegetables), poulet a la nicoise (chicken cooked with onion, tomato, olives , and white wine), roustissouns (pork sauteed with herbs and red wine vinegar), vegetables such as beignets de legumes (vegetable fritters), celeri paysanne (celery braised in white wine), courgettes rapees (grated zucchini sauteed in olive oil), farcis a la nicoise (lightly stuffed vegetables such as green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, chopped beef, lamb, or ham, rice, garlic, parmesan cheese, etc., etc.), ratatouille nicoise (vegetable melange simmered with herbs), crespeou (tomato omelet), troucha (spinach omelet), pois gourmands a la paysanne (snow peas sauteed with lean salt pork and chives), tian d'artichauts (baked artichoke hearts).
Also included are pasta and grain dishes such as barba jouan (pastry filled with cheese,ham, rice, herbs, and pumpkin[!]), panisses (chickpea "french fries"), pates rouges et vertes (noodles with ham and herbs), polente aux champignons (corn meal mush with mushroom sauce), ravioli a la nicoise (beef and spinach ravioli), tout-nus [all-naked] (spinach, rice, and meat balls), festive dishes such as aioli monstre (rich variety of vegetables, fish, and meats served with a garlic mayonnaise), bouillabaisse [!] (superb fish and vegetable stew), desserts such as beignets de fruits (apple raisin fritter or doughnuts), cloche amandine (bell-shaped almond brittle), compote d'abricots, de peches, et de prunes (apricot-peach-plum compote cooked in lemon and orange juice), galette des rois (crown-shaped brioche with candied fruits), glace a la fleur d'orangers (orange blossom water ice cream), nougat blanc (honey, almond, and egg-white confection [candy]), petits biscuits aux noix (crumbly walnut cookies), poires au vin rouge (pears in red wine and lemon juice), tian au rhum (rum and milk custard), tourte aux noix et au miel (walnut and honey pie).
The witty and fun illustrations are by the inimitable Milton Glaser and Mireille Johnston includes a table of classic ingredients from the Nice district, a table of techniques and tools, and mail order sources.
This tremendous chef died in October of 2000 at the very early age of 65 and it is not well-known that she was a former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy. She is sorely missed but anybody who wants to savour the sights and smells of summer only has to refer to this cookbook and enjoy the memories. Very, very highly recommended and almost a necessity in any well-appointed kitchen. It superbly complements Julia Child's classic books on French cooking and is a joy to read and is admirably produced.
Timothy Wingate, Ottawa CANADA

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Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions Review

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(More customer reviews)If you've gotten this far, you probably already know the premise of this book. Rather than arranging recipes and tips by course or type of food (as in most cooking books that are arranged in chapters on appetizers, breads, etc.), Joachim has given us an alphabetical listing of cooking terms and tips.
What makes it useful? It's definitely a valuable resource for new cooks. Personally, when I was starting out in my new kitchen, I hadn't the slightest clue what a reduction sauce was, and a friend sent me a recipe calling for one without explaining exactly how I was supposed to go about making it. I was saved by this book, which has a simple explanation of reduction sauces that was very easy to find. This book provides simple explanations of the cooking terms and techniques that a lot of recipe books (and friends) assume you already understand.
It's also handy when it comes to creating the last-minute menu. Murphy's Law states that you'll only have last-minute supper guests when your refrigerator is mostly empty. (Okay, so it doesn't exactly say that, but humor me.) But if I'm going to have last-minute guests and I find that I have plenty of pasta on hand, the pasta entry in this book can give me ideas on how to make a meal out of it. There is a chart listing the best types of sauces to use for each pasta shape, as well as recipes for artichoke pasta sauce, fettuccine alfredo, macaroni and beef, shell pasta with lentils, and so on and so on.
My misgiving about the book is that, as I've gotten better and better at cooking, I use it less and less often. If simple and quick homestyle cooking is your forte, you'll probably like the recipes, but they didn't work too well with my fancier tastes. All in all, I find myself picking up this book when I need to whip up something easy at the last minute, and I would highly recommend it if that's your goal. But if you're looking for something a little fancier, you're better off looking elsewhere.

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Real Thai: The Best of Thailand's Regional Cooking Review

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(More customer reviews)Like the author, I was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand (though it appears from her introduction to the book that she preceded me there by about 15 years).
Anyway, I was thrilled to learn of this book soon after I returned to the U.S. in the early 1990's. My sister had discovered it soon after she had visited me in Thailand, and had found the recipes to authentically replicate many of the dishes she remembered from her first-hand Thai experience. I was skeptical when my sister initially told me of the book, but was pleasantly surprised from the moment that I began to read through it -- so pleased, in fact, that my sister gave me her copy right there on the spot, and then went out the next day to replace her own copy.
What so pleased me was the genuine authenticity of the recipes captured in the book (rather than the "westernized" or "fusion" versions that are contained in so many recipe books, and on far too many a restaurant menu these days). Many of these other books are really glorified "coffee table" books, whereas McDermott has compiled here a practical working guidebook that addresses the entire breadth of Thai cuisine. The recipes contained in her book masterfully and faithfully reproduce the exact dishes that you might find in a restaurant (large or small) or in a typical Thai home, and they are generally quite easy to replicate. As a byproduct of being more authentic, the versions that she has captured in this book also have the added benefit of tasting better than many of the dishes that you are likely to encounter at many Thai restaurants here in the U.S. If you want a book to cook from (and not just to display), this is the one.

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Kitchen Science: A Guide to Knowing the Hows and Whys for Fun and Success in the Kitchen Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great book for the kitchen, and there are no recipes. This book explains why you get the results you get (and how to fix them), such as why my steaks toughen as they cool and why I lost color in my parboiled vegetables. I now know whether or not an egg is raw or hard boiled (without cracking it to find out), how to care for my knives, how to check for temp. accuracy in my oven, why the grocery store shouldn't sell green tinged potatoes, and whether or not the chicken I bought has ever been frozen. Simply a great book that'll have you saying "Aha! with every page.

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Brennan's New Orleans Cookbook...and the Story of the Fabulous New Orleans Restaurant Review

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(More customer reviews)The Brennan's New Orleans Cookbook is a great, classic New Orleans cookbook. (Note: I was born in NO, live in South Louisiana, and lived in NO for 5 years.) Try the recipes for Stuffed Bell Peppers, Stuffed Mirletons (use shrimp instead of crabmeat), Red Beans, Redfish Courtboullion, and Creole Jambalaya. One day I'm going to start on Page 1 and cook everything in this book!

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One of America's greatest restaurants, Brennan's in New Orleans is known worldwide as a home of fine cuisine. "Breakfast at Brennan's" is a longstanding tradition among sophisticated visitors to the city. This collection of the Brennan family's distinctive Creole recipes was first issued in 1961 and has remained a favorite ever since.Author and columnist Hermann B. Deutsch recounts the fascinating story of the Brennan clan, telling how a family of poor Irish immigrants rose to become the premier restaurateurs in New Orleans. Numerous photographs and drawings illustrate the history of the family and their restaurant.The more than 150 recipes in the book include such time-honored Brennan's favorites as Bananas Foster, Trout Amandine, Pompano en Papillote, and Eggs Benedict. With more than 155,000 copies in print, Brennan's New Orleans Cookbook is a classic compendium of superb food from one of the nation's finest restaurants.

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Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood Review

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(More customer reviews)I have always enjoyed fish when I go to restaurants but the fish market and cooking fish scared me. 'Fish Forever' gives me the information to select and cook great seafood dishes. The results of the recipes are spectacular. I am lousy cook, but the recipes are so easy to follow, they improved my cooking. The book is also an interesting look at fishing and the seafood business.

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A unique cookbook and guide to healthful, eco-friendly seafood
Few people know more about fish than Paul Johnson, whose Monterey Fish Market in San Francisco supplies seafood to some of the nation's most celebrated chefs, from Alice Waters, Thomas Keller, and Michael Mina to Todd English, Daniel Boulud, and Alain ducasse. In Fish Forever, Johnson offers a cookbook for anyone who loves fish, but worries about overfishing, contaminants like mercury, and other serious health and ecological issues.
Fish Forever reveals which species of fish you should and shouldn't eat, based on how endangered, contaminated, and tasty they are. Plus, Johnson includes amazing recipes from around the world that take advantage of those most abundant and delicious types of fish.
Provides in-depth guidance on 70 fish species along with 96 international recipes that highlight the outstanding culinary qualities of the fish used
Includes more than 60 beautiful color photographs, as well as plenty of cooking tips and helpful sidebars
Winner of the coveted IACP Cookbook of the Year award

Fish Forever is a must-have kitchen resource for seafood lovers—and Earth lovers—everywhere.

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Melissa's Great Book of Produce: Everything You Need to Know about Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Review

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(More customer reviews)`melissa's great book of produce' by Cathy Thomas is named after the produce wholesaler, Melissa's, who is best known, at least on the east coast, by their displays of dried fruits, vegetables, and spices in your local megamart produce section. Ms. Thomas is not an employee of Melissa's, but she received a great bit of assistance from the Melissa principals in writing the book.
For starters, the author set herself up for heavier than necessary criticism by subtitling the book, `Everything you need to know about fresh fruits and vegetables', because the book clearly does not have EVERYTHING you need to know. This is mostly because the book is oriented toward the casual user rather than the person wishing to use the book as a reference source.
To evaluate whether this book contains `EVERYTHING' you need to know, I compared it to the most authoritative popular book on vegetables, Elizabeth Schneider's `Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini'. The very first thing you notice, looking at the entries for `A' is that while Ms. Thomas covers but two main vegetable names, Ms. Schneider covers seven. One may not miss the entries for Amaranth, Arracacha, or Arrowhead, but we are certain to be put out by the absence of entries for Asparagus or Arugula! Since I agree with Ms. Thomas' organization by division into fruit and vegetable by use rather than by strict botanical classification, I did check in the fruits section for `asparagus' and `arugula', but neither were there either. What is even odder, neither were in the index either, and I looked for both `arugula' and `rocket', the Brits' name for the peppery herb.
The next thing I missed was the scientific name for each plant, at least for the most common representative(s) if there is more than one, as there are for thinks like beans, berries, and mushrooms. This may be just a bit too academic a requirement for some, until you want to start comparing information in two different books on the same species. And, virtually every important book on raw ingredients I can think of (Bruce Cost's `Asian Ingredients' and Jill Norman's books on herbs and spices) gives us the two part Latin scientific name. Another lesser bit of information I miss is the names of vegetables in various different languages. The best example of where this is useful is in the confusion between rocket and arugula, courgettes and zucchini, and aubergines and eggplant. At the very least, the French, Italian, and Spanish names should be given, plus the English alternatives, when the Brits use a different word from us Yankees.
Comparing the article in both Schneider and Thomas on artichokes, my first impression is the much greater variety and quality of photographs in Schneider's book. For artichokes, this is especially important, as the techniques required to extract the hearts from the artichokes are not nearly as well done in words as they are with an accompanying set of photographs, especially if you have never before approached an artichoke in the flesh. I will give Ms. Thomas points for giving us sections on the most basic methods for preparing various species, but I find some lapses here and there. In the article on bananas, for example, Ms. Thomas wisely repeats the useful information on how to freeze bananas, but she neglects to say whether we are to peel the bananas before freezing. Other writers have been much clearer on this point.
Both books give recipes for the most common varieties of vegetable, but Schneider gives more and longer recipes. In this shorter book, Thomas would have been better off giving more general information.
In general, I was not entirely happy with how Thomas' book was organized. Many things were grouped under a common heading that other books might put in separate articles. For example, Thomas groups thirteen (13) different mushroom varieties under `Mushroom' while Schneider gives sixteen (16) different articles on varieties of fungus, including truffles, for which Thomas has no entry at all. One problem with this organization is that within each general article, there is detailed information that is also grouped. For example, if you need to know the special cleaning requirements of morels or the fact that shiitake mushroom stems are best thrown into the stock pot, you need to wade through all the stuff on every other kind of mushroom. This organization is most noisome when it comes to nutritional information, which is unfortunate, as many other books don't include this stuff. I think Ms. Thomas would have done well to present all the nutritional information in a table at the back of the book, since if I want to find foods with a good source of vitamin D, I could find it much more easily than by wading through the whole book.
This is not to say this book does not have its good points. For starters, in the course of this comparison, I discovered that Schneider's highly praised book has NO entry for cabbage (although it does have a chapter on Chinese cabbage and several other Brassicas)! Also, Schneider refers us elsewhere on the very large subject of chillis (sic) (species Capsicum), as she claims this subject deserves its own book. This, Thomas' selection of main article subjects is a bit more in tune with the non-scholarly reader. The greatest virtue of this book, which is exactly what the author had in mind, is that it is a good way to find out what to do with the wealth of new produce types showing up in our markets today.
The book does not live up to its title, as some important produce types are left out, but if you can have only one book on your shelves for `produce', this one is worth it, especially if you can get it at a good discount.


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PATRICIA WELLS AT HOME IN PROVENCE: Recipes Inspired By Her Farmhouse In France Review

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(More customer reviews)This cookbook is full of country food. Most of the flavors come from herbs and olive oil and the recipes call for very fresh ingredients, so they are fun right from the beginning. If you live near a farmer's market, these recipes will do justice to the produce there.
The recipes are laid out well, with measurements given in both metric and imperial notation, and there are plenty of substitutions listed for the more obscure ingredients. Be warned, though. . . this is not a beginner's cookbook. Each recipe uses a lot of ingredients and assumes a) that you know what all the ingredients are (lamb's lettuce? orange flower water? sheep cheese?) and b) that you know to prepare each ingredient to the point where it joins the rest of the recipe (grating zest, stemming thyme, cutting basil into chiffonade). The recipes also benefit from close reading and planning beforehand. For this reason, even though the style is "country food," I mostly end up using this book for somewhat fancier dinners.
Once you've started, though, the resulting food is truly superb. No one has ever complained when fed a dish from this book. The Tomato Clafoutis is a summer standard at my place. I served the Winemaker's Grape Cake at a party today, and it was gone in fifteen minutes. There is also a nice section at the back for sauces, relishes, homemade liquors and pantry items called for in the main body of the book. These recipes are simple and keep for a while, so if you are in a place where you can't nip out to the local French-Arab market for preserved lemons, you can put your own up for when you need them.
A word to the wise, though. Spring for a hardbound edition. Although the paperback is lovely, the binding is terrible. The spine glue is weak, and your pages will start falling out in clumps, starting with the two glossy photo sections. It started to fall apart the moment I opened the book, and it just can't hack the heavy kitchen use that cookbooks tend to get.

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Creole Gumbo and All That Jazz: A New Orleans Seafood Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I have used this book fro over a decade and am about to order a fresh copy. It is a great read and a great, practical cookbook. I have used it constantly.

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This delicious compilation is cooked with aroux of raconteur Howard Mitcham's wit and served with a side dish of jazzhistory and lyrics.As an appetizer, Mitcham traces the development of thecuisine that made New Orleans famous and the history of the people who broughttheir native cookery to the melting pot that makes New Orleans a living gumbo.For the main course, he puts together a cornucopia of local delights that areready to prepare in any kitchen.A dazzling array of photos, foods, and far-out folklore, spiced up withtidbits of jazz history and lyrics, comprises a seafood cookbook thatcelebrates the world-famous cookery of New Orleans. Howard Mitcham offers morethan 300 enticing dishes, from crab gumbo and shrimp-oyster jambalaya tobarbecued red snapper and trout amandine.Mitcham traces the development of sophisticated Creole cooking and itsrambunctious country cousin, Cajun cooking, with innumerable anecdotes,pictures, and recipes. Along the way, he offers a list of substitutes forhard-to-find seafoods, a bibliography, and a guide to the best mail-orderseafood markets in New Orleans.Howard Mitcham, renowned chef, poet, artist, and storyteller, has practicedthe inventive art of New Orleans cuisine for three decades."A delightful book with excellent recipes..."Mimi Sheraton, The New York Times" Creole Gumbo is more than a cookbook. It isa history book, a music lesson and a personality profile of greatjazzmen."The Today Show

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Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp and Grits Review

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(More customer reviews)Nathalie Dupree's Shrimp & Grits Cookbook presents a dish born in South Carolina and elevated to new heights. Authors Nathalie Dupree and Marion Sullivan reviewed the most famous and the most cherished recipes for shrimp and grits to cull out the best for a cookbook which even covers what kind of pan to use. Another plus: recipes come from top lowcountry chefs, are paired with color photos, and include plenty of variety, from Goat Cheese, Basil and Shrimp Timbales to Shrimp and Grits with Country Ham and Red-Eye Gravy and Quick Tomato-Bacon Shrimp and Grits.

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"Breakfast shrimp and grits" has long been a staple of the South Carolina Lowcountry, the favored morning repast during the busy summer shrimp season. Now, renowned Southern cuisine maven and author Nathalie Dupree is pleased to offer an entire cookbook dedicated to this famed Southern dish that will inspire people around the world to discover its appeal and versatility for any meal! Shrimp and grits have emerged from their humble origins to become a signature for sophisticated Southern dining. The magical combination of shrimp and grits, whether for pre-dawn breakfast on a shrimp boat or as an entrée in the finest New York restaurant can be deliriously wonderful. Nathalie Dupree, along with Marion Sullivan, present the most cherished and famous recipes for this lowcountry classic. Their colorful recipes and no-nonsense approach share essential tips about how much and what liquid to use, what kind of pan, and how long to cook grits, along with information about how to catch, clean, freeze and cook shrimp. Recipes include: BLT Shrimp and GritsShort-Cook Shrimp and GritsNew Orleans-Style Grits Cakes with Shrimp and TassoPlus a section of recipes for using grits in breads, crackers and desserts! "Dupree . . . advances the welcoming traditions of Southern hospitality."-Publishers Weekly

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Mexico One Plate At A Time Review

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(More customer reviews)When I was growing up my idea of Mexican food was having to eat those terrible Mexican TV Dinners - YUCK. (The same went for Chinese food.) As a young and middle aged adult I refused to go to a Mexican restaurant based upon my childhood cuisine nightmares. Now I am married to someone who loves food from all around the world. He has been responsible for introducing me to many ethnic foods that I would have otherwise never tried.
Several years ago my husband and I went on a vacation to a place about an hour south of Cancun on the coast near Tulum Beach...Puerta Aventura. It was a 5-star all-inclusive hotel. Among other things that impressed me was the exquisite food. We both must have gained ten pounds on that trip. That was my first taste of good Mexican food. What an eye opener.
Not long ago I was watching FoodTV and saw Rick Bayless, heard about his book, heard the rave reviews on it, and watched several popular chefs prepare authentic Mexican regional cuisine. I was fascinated and wanted to try it out. So I bought this book. Let me tell you folks, if you have never had good Mexican food, this is THE PLACE to start. If you have only eaten it in restaurants, this is THE BOOK to start cooking it.
I began with his Classic Guacamole (to die for), then his Shrimp Ceviche (double to die for) and went on from there. Just the reading and learning itself is a treat. In addition to the recipes, Bayless often goes into detail about the source or inspiration of the recipe; for instance, he talks about the Tortilla Soup...it's his Mom's tortilla soup and he gives the background of the many uses for tortillas. I didn't know this stuff!
He also includes a section on the many types of equipment, spices, herbs, tools and anything else you can think of in preparing and seasoning. There is also a section giving Internet sites to shop for the supplies you will need.
Now I am the proud owner of an electric tortilla press and let me tell you, once you eat a homemade tortilla, there is no turning back to the store bought kind.
Thank you Rick Bayless for writing a book that helps people like me learn the joys of cooking and eating this wonderful food.

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Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One Review

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(More customer reviews)From the smallest kitchen in the world, starring the fattest fingers you've ever seen - making Joe Yonan's Yucatan-Style Slow-Roasted Pork from his book, "Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One." It's not too hard to make, cooks low and slow for a long time, and it's really, really super-delicious! What you don't eat, you can freeze, and it re-heats very nicely for sandwiches, tacos, or with rice.

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From the award-winning food editor of The Washington Post comes a cookbook aimed at the food-loving single. Joe Yonan brings together more than 100 inventive, easy-to-make, and globally inspired recipes celebrating solo eating. Dishes like Mushroom and Green Garlic Frittata, Catfish Tacos with Chipotle Slaw, and Smoked Trout, Potato, and Fennel Pizza will add excitement to any repertoire and forever dispel the notion that single life means starving, settling for take-out, or facing a fridge full of monotonous leftovers. Yonan also includes shopping and storage tips for the single-chef household, along with creative ideas for making use of extra ingredients. Serve Yourself makes cooking for one a deeply satisfying, approachable pleasure. And with such delectable meals, your solo status could be threatened if you're forced to share with others!

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