The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook: 350 Essential Recipes for Inspired Everyday Eating Review

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(More customer reviews)I come to you deliriously happy after having eaten Bishop's mozzerella and tomato tart with a basil and garlic crust. My husband had to be physically restrained from eating until he was in pain (I had to whisk the tart off to the kitchen, but he vowed to finish it late tonight). All this and I didn't even make the recipe right! I used canned whole tomatoes sliced (no fresh on hand), dried basil (again no fresh around), and didn't wait the extra hour to let the tart dough rest in the fridge before baking it. No matter, it was extraordinary. I'll need to go into a recovery program if I make it the right way! But this is the beauty of this book. He gives these extraordinary yet simple recipes and encourages you to think for yourself. Like his mentor told him and he passes along to us, take what is simple and good and bring it together. Inspired. This is one of those cookbooks that doesn't just give you recipes but gives you ideas. Bishop also simplifies some recipies that have been intimidating to me. He makes polenta so simple, I have made it twice now while busy doing other things. I just go in and give it a stir every ten minutes. It was lovely. I wanted to make the garlicky greens on the cover of the book, but found I had no chard. I made it with fresh broccoli florets, and it was a pleasure. The instructions for risotto are likewise easy and encouraging.All the recipes in this book can be made without fuss and turn out impressively. This is a cookbook for real people, who don't have time to cook all day, and normal kitchens. This is absolutely my favorite cookbook. I make my first risotto next week!

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The Vegetarian Meat & Potatoes Cookbook: 275 Hearty and Healthy Meat-Free Recipes (Non) Review

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(More customer reviews)As a meat eater and lover, I enjoy using this cookbook to prepare meals without meat about once or twice a week. Its clever use of the word "meat" in its title grabbed my attention in the bookstore, and its 275 recipes promises a wide variety of experimentation in the kitchen. Roberston uses a lot of tofu and eggplant as substitutes to meat. Prior to reading this book, I ate eggplant about twice a year, always breaded, fried, and fattening. You had to cover my fried eggplant in Louisiana hot sauce to make it edible. As for tofu, I ate it occasionally, sliced, fried and boring, and usually found it rather tasteless and rubbery. Robertson has rescued me from both of these self-inflicted culinary disasters.
The derivation of Robertson's recipes are Asian, Chinese, French, Latin, and what is now becoming known as "New American." She uses ginger, garlic, and sot sauce as the base for many recipes, and teaches you how to cleverly turn mushrooms, green beans, and eggplant into some pretty good meat type dishes. I eat meat because it makes my feel satiated-that is, I enjoy the flavor and texture of meat, and the fat tells my stomach I have eaten. Vegetables can be disappointing in all three of these important aspects of eating. But, I have to honestly say, with Robertson's help, my argument for eating meat is weakened. I'm working against generations of cultural conditioning relevant to my insistence on eating meat, and with Robertson's help, I hope to one day free myself from its shackles. Time and experimenting with Robertson's recipes will tell.
One of the best aspects of this book is the simple ingredients contained in the recipes. I live in bit of a provincial type town, where exotic vegetables and spices are hard to come by. I'm not a chef either, but found the instructions fairly easy to follow. I recommend you add this book to your collection.


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