Growing and Using Hot Peppers (Storey Publishing Bulletin, a-170) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was looking for a book to give me some information about Growing Peppers, preferably indoors. Anyway I figured I would get this book thinking it would have some good information in it on growing and stages of growth, trouble shooting....something. Well lets just say there are litterally three pages on growing peppers and the rest of the book is recipes and making wreathes. I didn't expect much for three dollars, but I think I got even less the I expected.

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Since1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-oninstructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skillsquickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, andtheir remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and citydwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine Review

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(More customer reviews)Martha Rose Shulman's Mediterranean Harvest owes a large debt to many who have gone before her, including Diane Kochilas, noted expert on Greek cuisine, and Clifford Wright, James Beard award-winning Mediterranean cookbook author. Shulman is quick to give credit where credit is due, and borrows widely from other culinary experts such as Carol Field (The Italian Baker) in areas of local expertise.
With a glut of Mediterranean vegetarian cookbooks on the shelves such as The Greek Vegetarian: More Than 100 Recipes Inspired by the Traditional Dishes and Flavors of Greece (Diane Kochilas), Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World (Gil Marks), and The The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen and Vegan Italiano: Meat-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free Dishes from Sun-Drenched Italy by Donna Klein, why should you choose the pricey Mediterranean Harvest?
One word: love. Shulman's love of local culture, hidden culinary gems, geography, and regional tastes, her lovely travelogues disguised as recipe introductions, and diary entries from memorable stops along her Mediterranean odyssey, both personal vacations and working in Mediterranean kitchens while researching other cookbooks such as Provencal Light and Mediterranean Light: Delicious Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine(Shulman is author of over 25 books). Also, she touches on some less-commonly-discussed cuisines such as Bosnia, Croatia, and Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, and North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia). There is also a handy index arranged by region.
Shulman's rundown of kitchen equipment and the Mediterranean Pantry (spices, olives and olive oil, cheeses, yogurt, wine, herbs, spice blends, nuts and seeds) is a miracle of compactness, yet provides ample information for the home cook without overwhelming. After a brief section on aperitifs, the all-important topic of breads, pizza, and panini is covered first, since bread serves as the base for many common Mediterranean delicacies such as fattoush (Lebanese bread salad), panzanella (Italian tomato and bread salad), and Castilian garlic soup. Most households couldn't afford to waste stale bread (Tuscan bread was traditionally made without salt), so it was given new life as a base for soups, strata, and vegetable salads (the juices would soften the bread).
The list of sauces and dressings includes such favorites as Salsa Romesco from Spain (almonds, bread, spices, and tomatoes), aioli (garlic mayonnaise) several variations of Italian pesto (basil, olive oil, cheese, and nuts), and yogurt-based sauces common in Greece and the Middle East (tzatziki, skordalia, tahini dressing, chermoula, harissa, and preserved lemons). Tapas / meze (finger food) are given a respectable spread befitting their social importance in the Mediterranean, including Tunisian carrot salad, tabbouleh, several variations of marinated cold veggies, hummus, bean and legume salads, and greens.
The eggs and cheese section captured my heart from its introduction; Shulman recalls a Velazquez painting from 1618 of an old woman cooking eggs, with the simple garnish of onion and olive oil, melon, and wine. Such staples as frittata, Spanish tortilla, omelets, strata, and several varieties of scrambled eggs delight, along with a recipe for homemade ricotta cheese.
The "small catalogue of pasta" (if this is the small catalogue, I'd love to see the large one!) is a chef's dream, and there are numerous sidebars to aid you in properly cooking pasta, making homemade pasta dough, and shaping homemade ravioli and garganelli.
The rest of the book is dedicated to savory pies, gratins, vegetables and beans (stews, sauteed/ pan-fried veggies, potatoes), rice, couscous, and grains (risotto, polenta, pilaf) and topped off on a sweet note with sweets and desserts (biscotti, clafouti, granitas, fruit compotes, ricotta cheesecake, baklava, and dessert couscous). A brief page of online resources for Mediterranean ingredients is included, as well as a select bibliography. Thankfully, sidebars are also included in the index as they are numerous and enlightening.
Overall, this may be the most complete look at Mediterranean cuisine that I've had the pleasure to read, vegetarian or not. Shulman's obvious respect and love for the region and its varied, healthful cuisine shines through every page, and her down-to-earth instructions and informative sidebars add to the experience. The visual design is simple and uncluttered (no photos or line drawings), with the focus appropriately on the magical recipes that transport you around the globe. The recipes are generally straightforward and simple, take advantage of fresh produce (although some shortcuts such as canned tomatoes and canned beans are used), and are delicious. If you're looking for one cookbook that combines the charms of Italian, French, Spanish, Greek, and Middle Eastern cuisine along with delightful commentaries on local culture and dining, Mediterranean Harvest is the book for you.


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Intensely flavorful and inherently healthy, Mediterranean food is one of the world's most appealing cuisines. Mediterranean cooks know how to make eating a pleasure. They do it simply—with olive oil and garlic; with herbs and spices; with tomatoes and eggplants, peppers and squash, figs and peaches, and other seasonal produce. And of course there is crusty bread and local cheese, the freshest yogurt and endless wine.

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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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The Victory Garden Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I do not garden but this cookbook, a gift from my mother, is my standard resource for cooking vegetables. I always find a recipe for the vegetable in hand that is appropriate to the occasion for which I am cooking - myself, family, guests or a festive dinner.
The book includes a first person introduction to the use of the vegetable, its growing conditions, etc. The intent is to get the feel of a private conversation with the author regarding the vegetable. There are general instructions for preparation for those who prefer to wing it rather than follow recipes. There are a variety of recipes for the vegetable which generally include at least one for each of the basic preparations. Then there are nice tables of yields, storage, use for leftovers, hints for use, even microwave instructions. The book has color photos of the various vegetables, including photos of preparation of the vegetable.
The vegetables included, some of which are families of vegetables not a single vegetable are: asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, fennel, greens, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, onion, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, salad greens, salsify, spinach, summer squash, winter squash, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, tomatoes, turnips & rutabagas.
This is the only vegetable cookbook you'll ever need.

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