Cookbook Review Thread

[JaredL]

All,

I'm a total noob at cooking. My idea of cooking is getting something from Trader Joes and putting it in the oven, maybe with some rice on the side. Anybody have any suggestions on books or websites that would be good for me?

My wife doesn't really cook either and the way our schedules work it would work out a lot better if I did the cooking. We both really like Asian food, primarily Chinese, Japanese and Thai and to a lesser extent Korean and Indian food. In a book I would like general info and especially recipes for foods that don't take forever to prepare (long cooking time is ok) and I would love to learn a few staple meals. I live in Pittsburgh so getting some ingredients may be a problem though there are asian grocery stores around.

Anything come to mind?

Jared

[bernie]

Personally, I'm kind of a picky eater(which sucks). I like a book that has pictures of (all)the stuff. Williams-Sonoma, iirc, does this.

b

[MrMon]

I am a huge fan of www.foodandwine.com, by the magazine of the same name. To access their recipe database you have to be a subscriber, but it's the best $20/yr you'll ever spend. I always start there if I need to find a recipe, usually succeed, but if I don't, I'll look elsewhere. You can search by up to two ingredients, issue date, chef, plus other filters. There is almost no trashy food here, all top notch stuff from top notch chefs. Quick and easy, it's usually not, but it's almost always good. Fantastic even. I would really hate to cook without it.

[asofel]

Williams-Sonoma has an excellent pasta book.

I tried eating it last night. Didn't go well.

[Rhone]

Marcela Hazan is the nuts. Everything I've ever made from her books has turned out fantastic.

Here's a question, though. Any good Chinese cook books out there? I have one from the 70s that I found in a used book store called The Good Food Of Szechuan, which is pretty good, but I'd like to find some more.

[oneeye13]

i really like the barefoot contessa cookbooks. they have mostly simple recipes that people would actually cook. i think i've probably made 15 dishes from them and liked almost all of them.

[Snafu'd]

I just picked up Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques which is an updated, one volume version of his famous La Technique and La Methode illustrated cooking technique books. The book has over 1000 techniques and recipes that are given in a step by step illustrated format. Although there are many techniques and processes in this book that are far more complicated and involved than I am interested in, there are more than enough that are practical and can be learned by even the most amateur cooks.

[Ron Burgundy]

I'll review my raw food books first.

I bought these not because I'm a raw foodist, but because I just like eating fresh produce, and wanted some new ideas on how to eat them. There's a lot of ways to incorporate raw food techniques to make traditional food different or healthier.

One thing I like about all three of these is that they don't talk about meat eaters or cooked food eaters in an insulting tone, which is too common in the raw/vegan culture.

Raw By Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein

This book is almost all recipes. There's really nice big pics of every dish. Obviously, a Charlie Trotter book is going to have very complicated recipes using a lot of rare ingredients. So it's not something you would use to look for fast and easy weeknight dinner type things.

I've taken a lot of ideas from this book, but I've only made two dishes following the recipe. One of them good (tacos), one not so good (jicama-corn salad).

Living Cuisine By Renee Loux Underkoffler

This book has extensive chapters talking about the techniques and ingredients used in raw food preparation. It also has a lot of recipes, including desserts. No pics, though.

I've used a lot of the dessert ideas, and they've all been good. This book is how I discovered that avocado and chocolate go very well together.

Raw Food Real World By Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis

I've made a bunch of recipes from this book and they've all been really good. Especially the salads and smoothies/shakes. There's pics of every dish, and of the very hot Sarma eating various things.

The authors also talk about their "detoxing" and some other stupid hippy nonsense. Skip those chapters, trust me.

[Aloysius]

[ QUOTE ]
I just picked up Jacques Pepin's Complete Techniques which is an updated, one volume version of his famous La Technique and La Methode illustrated cooking technique books. The book has over 1000 techniques and recipes that are given in a step by step illustrated format. Although there are many techniques and processes in this book that are far more complicated and involved than I am interested in, there are more than enough that are practical and can be learned by even the most amateur cooks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just picked this up - pretty much agree with above review. Prolly fairly obvious - but this is French cuisine focus techniques (lots of sauces) and recipes. The fact that there are step-by-step photographs is very, very helpful and executed well on the page. This is especially true for when Pepin describes how to fillet fish, or cut chickens and truss them up etc.

If you are into French food this is very useful.

-Al

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]
I've mostly stopped using cookbooks, because the internet is just a more functional resource.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I wholly agree with this. I've gone through a bit of a cycle, actually, where I used cookbooks, stopped and am now back.

Part of getting recipes off the internet is that they are often simplified or just very basic. Which is ok, but not only are you missing something more complicated but you're also missing some of the process explanation and context.

If you're not into straight cookbooks, I'd suggest Culinary Artistry ... amazon link.

It's not a cookbook, but a discussion of flavor pairing, dish creation and menu construction. It's more of a reference book than a cookbook or textbook; it's really an excellent book to have on hand.

And along the lines of something someone suggested earlier (Inn at Little Washington), I've really enjoyed "Happy In The Kitchen" by Michel Richard .... amazon link.

The dishes will make you rethink a lot of process, and though they're supposedly "easy to follow for the home cook" I found them almost depressing (in a good way). They really demonstrate the type of cooking and prep that goes into a 4-star professional establishment. It's amazing. And Richard comes right out and says "the gulf between home cooks and professional chefs has never been larger." If you've ever eaten at one of Richard's restaurants, it's an experience. I ate at Citronelle a while back and put together a sort of mini-review of the place ... Citronelle review.

Amazing - His book discusses the "mosaic" dish I ordered and thought was so amazing. Probably the most visually arresting dish I've ever had -- and it was born from a need to use scrap. That blows me away.