Best Mexican Cooking, Food & Wine
Your friends and family will enjoy Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Pickled Ancho Chile Vinaigrette; Crab Cakes with Jalapeño Aioli; and Chicken Tinga — (you can use rotisserie chicken), which makes a tasty filling for tortas and tostadas. Pati also shares exciting dishes for the holidays and other special occasions, including Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey with Chorizo, Pecan, Apple, and Corn Bread Stuffing; Spiral-Cut Beef Tenderloin; and Red Pozole (“a Mexican party in a bowl”), which she served on her wedding day. Your friends and family will enjoy Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Pickled Ancho Chile Vinaigrette; Crab Cakes with Jalapeño Aioli; and Chicken Tinga (you can use rotisserie chicken), which makes a tasty filling for tortas and tostadas. Pati also shares exciting dishes for the holidays and other special occasions, including Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey with Chorizo, Pecan, Apple, and Corn Bread Stuffing; Spiral-Cut Beef Tenderloin; and Red Pozole (a Mexican party in a bowl), which she served on her wedding day.Desserts like Triple Orange Mexican Wedding Cookies, Scribble Cookies. (sandwich cookies filled with chocolate), and little Apricot-Lime Glazed Mini Pound Cakes are sophisticated yet simple to make.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I preordered this book the day Amazon offered it, expecting a collection of recipes from Pati's PBS programs. There are about 60 green-highlighted sidebars, most of which describe a Mexican ingredient and how it is prepared and enjoyed: tamarind, corn versus flour tortillas, several varieties of chiles, hibiscus flowers, cinnamon, and buying avocados. The recipes are flexible and you can substitute pork for beef or adjust the chiles and other flavors to taste. One tip: It's efficient to prepare meals from the book over consecutive nights so you can re-purpose the food as Pati does -- salsas, beans, meats, tortillas. If you want to cook Mexican for your family, order this book and buy an avocado and a few chiles."
"Very easy to follow delicious Mexican recipes with ingredients you can easily find in any super market in the US."
"She is great!"
"Can't wait to use these recipes."
"Love Pati and her book is great."
"great , simple recipes that taste great!"
Beautifully illustrated with 200 full‐color photographs, the book includes dishes such as Acapulco‐style ceviche , Barbacoa de Pollo from Hidalgo, classic Salsa Ranchera , and the ultimate Pastel Tres Leches , each with notes on recipe origins, ingredients, and techniques, along with contributions from top chefs such as Enrique Olvera and Hugo Ortega. "For those interested in learning how to make authentic Mexican cuisine, Arronte has provided the definitive guide. " Mexico: The Cookbook promises to introduce even the biggest fans of tort as and tamales to something new about Mexican cuisine and aims to prove that it can be as refined as it is accessible. In her new book, her warm and expert voice shines and proves to be a most delightful guide through the fascinating labyrinth of Mexican cuisine. Every cook, be it expert or beginner, will benefit and savor from this splendid Mexican cookbook with hundreds of tried and true recipes: a must for any Mexican food lover. Even the most learned Mexican food expert would be pushed to think of a dish not already listed. "The Mexican home-cooking bible (and the most beautiful book). "This weighty book includes more than 600 recipes for home-style Mexican dishes, and its vibrant cutwork cover adds spice, energy, and cheer to any cookbook shelf.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Beautiful cookbook but the recipes are generally hard and require a lot of ingredients."
"These errors in the book are easy to spot and fix by the hands of an advanced cook like my mother - who I gifted this book to in addition to buying my own copy - but by someone like myself, a novice, the errors led to a disaster in the kitchen."
"Finally tried some recipes and they turned out fine."
"I would like to make clear from the outset that this is not a slam against the author; it is, however, an honest and detailed critique of the editors of Phaidon Press, who seem to have been absent from work on the day this book passed through the department. Diana Kennedy's negative comments about this book seen elsewhere in this column of reviews have nothing to do with any sort of vendetta or "sour grapes." Phaidon seems to have spent more money paying "star chefs" and trendy consumer magazines like Vogue to provide blurbs that rev up the excitement for this mess of a cookbook than they did on the real work of production. First, some full disclosure: I am the author of Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition (The William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere). In this critique, I will address some of the glaring errors found throughout Mexico: The Cookbook, but will mostly confine my comments to my area of expertise, which is the gastronomic traditions of the Yucatán Peninsula. While I do not know Margarita Carrillo Arronte well, we did meet in early October 2014, when we both served as judges for an event of traditional gastronomy in Morelia, Michoacán. In fact, all of the grave errors I will highlight in this critique (and all the rest that don't fit) I suspect are the fault of the editors of the publication; I have even pondered if perhaps the book were ghost-written, since obviously the text was not written by anyone who knows the regional cuisines of Mexico to any degree. As one quick example to satisfy your curiosity, many people know how to make guacamole; maybe they have even done it so many times they don't need to follow a recipe. Is the author (or editorial team) aware that avocados come in a wide range of sizes and weights? In my experience, you should plan on at least one-half medium avocado per person, unless each diner is going to be satisfied with about 1 tablespoon of guacamole. A bizarre instruction tells the cook to "gently fold in the avocado" (which you will recall was diced). The author-slash-editorial team instructs the cook to add 4 tablespoons of olive oil at the end of the recipe. Eighty-five percent of the calories in avocados come from fat, so I hardly think more is necessary, or even desired. It has been diced, "folded in" (to 1/2 chopped red onion of indeterminate size) and now the cubes are apparently swimming in a quarter cup of olive oil! Some pop chefs like Tyler Florence may use olive oil in their guacamole, but I can aver that it is not traditional, nor even necessary, unless you want to increase your fat intake. The recipe for "Turkey with black stuffing" (Pavo en relleno negro) on page 341 bears absolutely no resemblance to the dish as it is prepared in Yucatán. Putting any notions of "authenticity" aside for the moment, I pity the poor home cook who tries to make this recipe. In the middle of the recipe is this peculiar instruction: "Stuff the turkey with the pork mixture and the hard-boiled egg yolks and sew up with trussing thread." Further, as another reader expressed here, no Mexican cookbook of any merit would specify something as vague as "red" or "green" chiles. What's more, each region of Mexico boasts its own unique chile varieties that local cooks put to good use. Twenty-five tomatoes are going to exude lots of juice; how are the chiles and garlic supposed to roast in all that liquid? And let's not leave out the most peculiar instruction of all: in order to cook the 8-pound bird (filled with almost 7 pounds of ground pork) we are supposed to place the stuffed turkey in a "large saucepan or flameproof casserole." Even my largest saucepan won't hold a whole chicken of any size, let alone a turkey (albeit a dwarf one.). Most perplexing of all, this recipe for Pavo en relleno negro bears no resemblance to the dish as it is known in Yucatán. For that classic dish, cooks use a pitch black paste made of charred, ground chiles, known as "recado negro." Further, in Yucatán cooks do not stuff the turkey with ground meat; instead, they form several large meatballs, each with an egg yolk in the center; the meatballs cook along with the turkey in a piquant black sauce; to serve, you cut the meatballs in half and give one half to each diner; the little hard-boiled egg yolk peeks out from the center, surrounded by graphite-colored meat. On page 81 you will find a recipe for a classic Yucatecan tamal: Brazo de Reina (or "queen's arm"). Further, to serve with the tamales, we are supposed to make Chiltomate, a charred tomato sauce mashed in a molcajete that in Yucatán is only served with a couple of dishes including grilled pork cutlets and a local sausage - never with tamales. To prepare this sauce, we have an ingredient list of "4 ripe tomatoes, 1/2 onion, chopped, 1 habanero chile . The first paragraph of the instructions reads: "For the Chiltomate, combine the tomatoes, onion, chile, and epazote leaves in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Season to taste, discard the epazote, and process the mixture in a food processor or blender." A final bizarre touch is to add "habanero or Morita chiles" to the tamal when you roll it up. Diós mío - cheese is only rarely used in Yucatán (think of all that tropical heat) and it is NEVER used on tamales. So, if I put the dried avocado leaves directly on the hot coals, won't they start to burn? The description of Yucatán's underground oven, known as a p'íib, given on page 30 is basic at best: "A large fire is lit above a hole lined with stones." Worse still, the author/editor has you purée some stewed tomatoes with squash seeds (referred to as "seeks" in the recipe) to create the sauce; this is definitely not the way it is done in Yucatán. Instead, a squash seed paste is mixed with a simple infusion of salted water and epazote. They read something about tomatoes in another recipe, couldn't figure out what to do with them, so included them in the squash seed sauce. There is a single sauce in the photo in the book and it is a kind of salmony color (thanks to those incorrect tomatoes.). I have shown the photo in the book to almost a dozen of my Yucatecan friends, and with no coaching, they all have the same immediate reaction: they gasp and say "¡QUÉ!??" Just one brief glimpse of the photo leaves them incredulous as to what on earth the editors (cooks, food stylists) have done with Yucatecans' treasured Papadzules, which have a very distinctive appearance due to those red and green sauces. Yucatecans take this "adaptation" as a form of culinary heresy, since Papadzules are considered to be the hallmark of Maya cooking and are therefore taken very seriously. Diana Kennedy and I have jointly gone through the book cover to cover and unearthed literally scores of such errors: sloppy instructions, editorial faux pas, and worse, an apparent ignorance of traditional regional Mexican dishes - or at least an inability to describe them and explain how to make them. The first commercially successful one was invented in 1947 by Fausto Celorio and they were in use almost immediately thereafter (see Jeffrey Pilcher). PAGE 25: - "The traditional cuisine of each region of the country is not just the ingredients, preparation methods and utensils, it is (sic) the rich legacy of its history and cultural identity." European ships came to Yucatán for extensive trade in logwood, chicle, and a host of other valuable products. Campeche on the Gulf Coast of the Yucatán Peninsula was a major trade port for centuries; those ships hardly just "stopped by". While the Europeans aboard those ships may have also collected fresh water, that was not their primary reason for coming here, and the statement is a great oversimplification. And really, what an embarrassing statement to say, "All my life I have wanted to travel through Mexico to learn authentic recipes from each region, and now I don't have to - Margarita has done it for me!" ). Here is my apprehension: that people will read this book and think it is a good representation of "authentic regional Mexican cuisine." Anyone who uses this cookbook as a "bible of Mexican cooking" is on a slippery slope to culinary Perdition. Finally, if indeed (as I suspect and hope) this book was ghost-written, or at least compiled and cut-and-pasted together by a team of 20-something Phaidon editors, Margarita Carrillo Arronte should be embarrassed to have her name attached to it. After all, she participated in the push to get Mexican cuisine designated as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, for which she is to be congratulated."
"Many recipes call for ingredients not readily available, so it's a book to read rather than to use."
"It is the list of ingredients, region, prep/cook time, serving size, and directions. For example: pages 550 and 611 are the SAME recipe (Corn cake with eggnog sauce). Except the recipe on page 611 is only titled Corn cake, but in the directions it tells you to make the eggnog sauce. Too bad it doesn't even list the ingredients for the sauce, so you have to turn back to page 550, which is actually the correctly edited version of the cake. The Veracruz-style fish recipe on page 253 lists the ingredients and directions to make a spice infusion. In addition, it annoys me when the accompanying photo doesn't match the recipe; the recipe says to use red snapper fillets, yet the photo is a whole red snapper. I mean seriously come on now... That is just two examples of numerous editing mistakes I've seen: ingredients missing yet called for in directions, different ingredients in directions than listed in the ingredients list, missing directions altogether, etc."
Superstar chef Alex Stupak's love of real Mexican food changed his life; it caused him to quit the world of fine-dining pastry and open the smash-hit Empellón Taqueria in New York City. She's a respected member of the national food writing community and a frequent contributor to print and digital publications such as Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, New York Magazine, Cherry Bombe, MadFeed, Grub Street and Conde Nast Traveler.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The tone of the recipes is set in the first half of the book which gives a brief background on Alex Stupak and his culinary journey, some fundamentals on spices and chilies, and then a pretty lengthy explanation on the type of corn that best lends itself to tortillas, tortilla recipes, and salsa recipes. The second half of the book is dedicated to taco recipes. Some examples of recipes include Chicken Tacos with Kale and Salsa Verde, Skirt Steak Tacos, Fried Oyster Tacos, Pineapple Tacos, and Wild Spinach Tacos.There are also a few taco recipes that would lend themselves to breakfast as well as a couple of dessert taco recipes."
"A great, in-depth and thoughtful treatment of an underappreciated and highly complex cuisine."
"He actually catalyzed a Mexican food revolution in the city and has proven himself an student, an authority and a leader in the cause of bringing legitimacy and respect to Mexican cuisine."
"I brought some reading materials with me for when spending time on the beach, when I wasn't stomping around on a non-stop taco eating binge!"
"Full of great ideas to spice up all the standards, as well as lots of new ideas to impress friends!"
"Tacos, tacos, & more tacos."
"Very through I finally real confident enough to make a fresh masa!"
"Great foundational recipes and ideas."
Best Mexican Cooking
Your friends and family will enjoy Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Pickled Ancho Chile Vinaigrette; Crab Cakes with Jalapeño Aioli; and Chicken Tinga — (you can use rotisserie chicken), which makes a tasty filling for tortas and tostadas. Pati also shares exciting dishes for the holidays and other special occasions, including Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey with Chorizo, Pecan, Apple, and Corn Bread Stuffing; Spiral-Cut Beef Tenderloin; and Red Pozole (“a Mexican party in a bowl”), which she served on her wedding day. "Pati Jinich has created the most delicious guidebook to the magnificent market-driven home cooking of Mexico that I've ever seen . This book makes it simple to create fresh and tasty Mexican food and inspires me to make soft fresh torillas, pickle my own jalapeños, and delight in Chicken Tinga with my family. ), a one-pot meal that Pati gleaned from a Mexican restaurant cook; Mexican Meatballs with Mint and Chipotle; Sweet and Salty Salmon; and Mexican-Style Pasta can revitalize your daily repertoire. Pati also shares exciting dishes for the holidays and other special occasions, including Mexican Thanksgiving Turkey with Chorizo, Pecan, Apple, and Corn Bread Stuffing; Spiral-Cut Beef Tenderloin; and Red Pozole (a Mexican party in a bowl), which she served on her wedding day.Desserts like Triple Orange Mexican Wedding Cookies, Scribble Cookies. (sandwich cookies filled with chocolate), and little Apricot-Lime Glazed Mini Pound Cakes are sophisticated yet simple to make.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I preordered this book the day Amazon offered it, expecting a collection of recipes from Pati's PBS programs. There are about 60 green-highlighted sidebars, most of which describe a Mexican ingredient and how it is prepared and enjoyed: tamarind, corn versus flour tortillas, several varieties of chiles, hibiscus flowers, cinnamon, and buying avocados. The recipes are flexible and you can substitute pork for beef or adjust the chiles and other flavors to taste. One tip: It's efficient to prepare meals from the book over consecutive nights so you can re-purpose the food as Pati does -- salsas, beans, meats, tortillas. If you want to cook Mexican for your family, order this book and buy an avocado and a few chiles."
"Very easy to follow delicious Mexican recipes with ingredients you can easily find in any super market in the US."
"She is great!"
"Can't wait to use these recipes."
"Love Pati and her book is great."
"great , simple recipes that taste great!"
Best African Cooking, Food & Wine
In Afro-Vegan, renowned chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry reworks and remixes the favorite staples, ingredients, and classic dishes of the African Diaspora to present more than 100 wholly new, creative culinary combinations that will amaze vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike. Afro-Vegan shows us how to be proud of our storied, vegetable-rich foodways.”. —Hugh Acheson, chef and author of A New Turn in the South “ Afro-Vegan animates the cuisine of the African diaspora with the detail, reverence, and passion it deserves. He inspires us to celebrate and explore.”. —Dayo Olopade, author of The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa “If A People’s History Of The United States and Joy of Cooking had a baby, Afro-Vegan would be it!”. —Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of Veganomicon and Isa Does It “In this beautiful, casual collection of recipes from across the African diaspora, Bryant Terry brings to life a vegetable, grain, spice-based culinary heritage too often ignored.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In addition to over 100 intriguing recipes (I’ve made about six since getting the book last week, and they were amazing), Chef Terry shares his obvious passion for life and food, for music and art, for high culture and down-home good times, for gourmet appetites and raw-knuckled activism. At one level, this is a cookbook for African Americans, showing the way back to a traditional, healthy, local, seasonal, and plant-centered diet that speaks of community, resilience, innovation, and love. It’s full of appreciation for the heroes - sung and unsung - of the various movements of liberation and exploration whose efforts have paved the way for Mr Terry’s considerable accomplishments. Chef Terry's encyclopedic knowledge of techniques and ingredients from all over the world allow him to synthesize and fuse artistically: North African chermoula sauce meets tempeh (fermented Indonesian soybean cake); Jamaican patty filled with Lousiana maque choux; Brazilian vatapa informed with Southern okra, corn, and tomatoes."
"I feel like vegan cookbooks can sometimes be repetitive, they always contain some type of "cheeze" recipe, and they all contain complex versions of traditional meat-based entrees."
"I'll roll up my sleeves again some day and really give some of the recipes a go."
"bought as a gift...it was well received."
"Purchased for a friend and she LOVED it!"
"Wonderful book , The most beautiful cookbook i ever bought ."
"New look at food and very creative."
"Now this cookbook is very useful and has recipes I love!"
Best European Cooking, Food & Wine
With five bustling restaurants in London and two stellar cookbooks, Ottolenghi is one of the most respected chefs in the world; in Jerusalem, he and Tamimi have collaborated to produce their most personal cookbook yet. The book’s leisurely pace picks up with the introduction of dishes, some familiar but many not, that include fattoush, latkes, mejadra, clear chicken soup with knaidlach, pan-fried mackerel with golden beetroot and orange salsa, and helbeh (fenugreek cake).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This cookbook is approachable and the recipes are actually something you will make...and then make again. ****Edit****I would just like to say, that one of the reasons, I think, that this is so doable for a Middle Eastern cookbook, is these are the recipes that regular people make."
"This cookbook offers both; the recipes work (I should note I have the UK edition without US conversions)--many of the techniques are new to me and they work well--and the flavors are amazing. The first recipes I made from this book were the roasted cauliflower salad with celery, hazelnuts and pomegranate and the sofrito chicken. I am adding this cookbook to my top 10 list because a) it's a beautiful, well-written book, b) the recipes work very well when followed to the letter, but there's lots of room for improvisation, c) the flavor and texture combinations are complex, subtle and well-balanced, and d) the dishes are delicious."
"The recipes are well described so you can successfully create a great diverse table full of beautiful plated food."
"This is a wonderful cookbook to read - lots of content, stories, reminiscences, with pictures that are worth a thousand words, all in addition to some great recipes."
"Such a wonderful cookbook!"
"Some of these recipes were more beautiful on the pages of this book than in reality...some odd preparations but a good creative source for cooks looking to expand their usual fare."
"I thought my mom had plenty of cookbooks already."
"This book is a classic."
Best Canadian Cooking, Food & Wine
Discover 250 Keto Recipe for Instant Pot Recipes for breakfast, dinner, lunch, snacks, desserts Save you time, money and energy: all recipes are easy to cook Improve your health: all recipes are healthy and well balanced Increase your happiness: happiness and food are highly connected.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I would recommend this cookbook (Informational guide) to anyone who is hoping to eat better, feel better and look healthier."
"This book deals with all sorts of recipes for pot cooking."
"That’s by far the best book on instant pot cooking I now have, out of the five I recently purchased."
"Simple, easy to follow recipes with ingredients you have on your shelf or pantry."
"I love this book!"
"Not only are the recipes amazingly easy and delicious, the other half of the book is packed with information on how the diet works, tricks and tips for fitting it into your every day life, and lots of encouragement from someone who has been there, done that when it comes to food addiction."
"I thought that the recipes we're good and do able but why switch sweeteners from solid to liquid?"
"SOOO many interesting options and simple recipes and they need only a few simple ingredients!"
Best Latin American Cooking, Food & Wine
“Elemental, fundamental, and delicious” is how Anthony Bourdain describes the trailblazing live-fire cooking of Francis Mallmann. Francis Mallmann is the reigning star of food television in the Spanish-speaking world, and the most famous and popular chef in South America.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I want to eat every page in this book."
"His rustic and unfussy, but uncompromising and deeply considered, approach to live-fire cooking shows that grilling can be sophisticated and gourmet, and I've fallen in love, as he has, with the bittersweet, rich flavors of food charred over live fire. He elaborates on the incredibly strong foundation established in Seven Fires, incorporating the regional ingredients and influences of the locations he visits throughout the book while making the approach a bit more practical. Mallmann explicitly rejects elaborate grills and excessively fussy prep and technique here - the whole message is to resist the urge to overthink and overdo, and simply to get outside in beautiful surroundings and cook good food over fire. Some may feel that this is a compromise, but I think it's more a nod to the reality that a towering hardwood bonfire is not an everyday undertaking - whether you're a revered Argentine asador or a tired new dad making dinner after work - and that the perfect is often the enemy of the good. It's a little bit disappointing not to see recipes for lamb on iron crosses and salmon cooked in the infiernillo (a double-decker bonfire that forms the oven from hell) - simply because those approaches are so heroic and awesome."
"Did Mallmann meet my expectations?"
"Beautiful photography and easy to follow recipes."
"We cook a lot over our outdoor fire pit and when we go camping."
"The illustrations are inspiring."
"Beautiful photos and stories."
Best Native American Cooking, Food & Wine
In his breakout book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen , Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy. Chef Sean Sherman was born in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and has been cooking in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Montana for the past twenty-seven years.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I recently cooked a whole dinner, from the book and everyone (including my kids) ate every bite and we had in depth conversations about Native American history and how life was like before the Europeans arrived."
"It would take some dedication and access to ingredients to make some of the actual recipes, but it's definitely one of the most exciting cookbooks (and the only non-digital) that I have bought in the past few years."
"Great text, excellent recipes."
"A great resource full of both functional instructions and detailed explanations to provide additional cultural context to a given ingredient or preparation method."
"Some of the most interesting dishes and so yummy!"
"Tasty recipes and good information."
"This was a gift and it has been well received on its content."
"I love the book, and it arrived on time!"
Best Middle Eastern Cooking, Food & Wine
With five bustling restaurants in London and two stellar cookbooks, Ottolenghi is one of the most respected chefs in the world; in Jerusalem, he and Tamimi have collaborated to produce their most personal cookbook yet. The book’s leisurely pace picks up with the introduction of dishes, some familiar but many not, that include fattoush, latkes, mejadra, clear chicken soup with knaidlach, pan-fried mackerel with golden beetroot and orange salsa, and helbeh (fenugreek cake).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This cookbook is approachable and the recipes are actually something you will make...and then make again. ****Edit****I would just like to say, that one of the reasons, I think, that this is so doable for a Middle Eastern cookbook, is these are the recipes that regular people make."
"We ended up getting it for my father in law for Christmas and I think he read the whole thing cover to cover on Christmas Day."
"This cookbook offers both; the recipes work (I should note I have the UK edition without US conversions)--many of the techniques are new to me and they work well--and the flavors are amazing. The first recipes I made from this book were the roasted cauliflower salad with celery, hazelnuts and pomegranate and the sofrito chicken. I am adding this cookbook to my top 10 list because a) it's a beautiful, well-written book, b) the recipes work very well when followed to the letter, but there's lots of room for improvisation, c) the flavor and texture combinations are complex, subtle and well-balanced, and d) the dishes are delicious."
"Bought this book for my sister's birthday and my husband had me order one for him to take to work."
"The recipes are well described so you can successfully create a great diverse table full of beautiful plated food."
"I have it both as a book and on Kindle -- I usually don't buy cookbooks like this one on Kindle because I love the real book -- but I knew I would want to show off some of these recipes when I am visiting family and friends so I have them portable, too."
"Such a wonderful cookbook!"
Best U.S. Regional Cooking, Food & Wine
How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more. “[Kenji] approaches recipe development with monomaniacal zeal, then shares the delicious results with the infectious enthusiasm of the coolest teacher you had in high school.”. - The Globe and Mail.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon""The Food Lab" by Lopez-Alt is a dense collection of science based tips, explanations, techniques, and recipes for the home cook. I really like the way this book has been laid out: - The introduction is a modest overview of the author and his background followed by some really helpful information on equipment (such as an explanation on techniques for holding knives, how heat transfers through metal for consideration in what type of pan to use, essential equipment to have in your kitchen, and how to store and organize your fridge and pantry). * Cooked Vegetables has a great range of side dishes such as Brussels sprouts, Mexican street corn salad, roasted cauliflower, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and quite a few more recipes. Recipes in this chapter include mac 'n' cheese, risotto, linguine with clams, lasagna, and spaghetti. - The front and back book covers insides have conversion tables to be opened or flipped to quickly as a reference."
"And this book is great, and beautiful, full of photos, his great sense of humor, and excellent instructions. I was just hoping to see more of that type of food, whereas this book is targeted towards beginners (not to say that experienced cooks can't get value out of this book, because it's full of great info) or more specifically, towards people who haven't been reading his column all this time. Though in the meanwhile, there are already recipes I've got bookmarked to try out, like his puttanesca, pot roast, oven fries, THAT MEATLOAF, not to mention his excellent egg salad, which I've previously made from the site…. I'm so glad to be able to pay Kenji back in some form for the years of free content on Serious Eats and I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in cooking and improving their skills, in particular beginner cooks."
"Like most cookbooks today, it begins with a background of the author, who is an MIT grad turned culinary scientist. There are some things which go contrary to cooking norms (flip your steak often, and searing does not lock in juice), but there are explanations for the methods behinds the madness. Even if you never bother to make a recipe from this book verbatim, it will greatly increase your cooking skills from practical knowledge of physics, chemistry, taste, and technique."
Best International Cooking, Food & Wine
This impressive go-to kitchen resource also includes helpful tips for cooking success including: How to integrate the Mediterranean diet into your diet; “Why This Recipe Works” educational notes from our chefs on why a particular ingredient or technique worked best; Recipe variations for creative inspiration; Nutritional Information; Helpful conversion charts for both volume and weight; A detailed index to quickly find the recipe you’re looking for. The highly reputable and recognizable brands of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, and Cook’s Science are the work of over 60 passionate chefs based in Boston, Massachusetts who put ingredients, cookware, equipment and recipes through objective, rigorous testing to identify the very best.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Second, this is much more than a book of recipes."
"It's helped us shift our eating habits away from meat, potatoes and pasta - although all three are included here - to healthier options."
"The table of contents in each section lists special indicators (little colored squares) after dishes which are either fast (45 minutes or less) or vegetarian. And then there are little "notes" inserted every few pages which go into a specific ingredient, what to look for, how it's used...things like sardines, pancetta, bay leaves...or else methods, like how to properly wash and dry a salad, or how to salt-soak beans. Many of the recipes also list further variations, such as pan roasted cauliflower...which then shows how to add capers and pine nuts, or spices and pistachios."
"It's a good cookbook, but if you're looking for manageable weeknight recipes and cook alone (no help in the kitchen) or work for a living, you may want to consider a different book...although I'm not sure what book that would be."
"I love to grill, love vegetables, grains and pasta, and this book will keep me busy for some time."
"Excelent book!"
"So far I have made the vegetable gratin, roasted artichokes, chicken kabobs, and a baked lemon fish potato dish. The potato lemon cod/hake dish was really good and it was very quick to make. The artichokes didn't come out as anticipated but this was also the first time I'd ever touched a fresh artichoke much less cooked one so I will take the blame on that."
Best Caribbean & West Indian Cooking & Wine
In Afro-Vegan, renowned chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry reworks and remixes the favorite staples, ingredients, and classic dishes of the African Diaspora to present more than 100 wholly new, creative culinary combinations that will amaze vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores alike. Afro-Vegan shows us how to be proud of our storied, vegetable-rich foodways.”. —Hugh Acheson, chef and author of A New Turn in the South “ Afro-Vegan animates the cuisine of the African diaspora with the detail, reverence, and passion it deserves. He inspires us to celebrate and explore.”. —Dayo Olopade, author of The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa “If A People’s History Of The United States and Joy of Cooking had a baby, Afro-Vegan would be it!”. —Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of Veganomicon and Isa Does It “In this beautiful, casual collection of recipes from across the African diaspora, Bryant Terry brings to life a vegetable, grain, spice-based culinary heritage too often ignored.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In addition to over 100 intriguing recipes (I’ve made about six since getting the book last week, and they were amazing), Chef Terry shares his obvious passion for life and food, for music and art, for high culture and down-home good times, for gourmet appetites and raw-knuckled activism. At one level, this is a cookbook for African Americans, showing the way back to a traditional, healthy, local, seasonal, and plant-centered diet that speaks of community, resilience, innovation, and love. It’s full of appreciation for the heroes - sung and unsung - of the various movements of liberation and exploration whose efforts have paved the way for Mr Terry’s considerable accomplishments. Chef Terry's encyclopedic knowledge of techniques and ingredients from all over the world allow him to synthesize and fuse artistically: North African chermoula sauce meets tempeh (fermented Indonesian soybean cake); Jamaican patty filled with Lousiana maque choux; Brazilian vatapa informed with Southern okra, corn, and tomatoes."
"I feel like vegan cookbooks can sometimes be repetitive, they always contain some type of "cheeze" recipe, and they all contain complex versions of traditional meat-based entrees."
"I'll roll up my sleeves again some day and really give some of the recipes a go."
"bought as a gift...it was well received."
"Purchased for a friend and she LOVED it!"
"Wonderful book , The most beautiful cookbook i ever bought ."
"New look at food and very creative."
"Now this cookbook is very useful and has recipes I love!"