Cookbooks!

[lynne]

Sisi,

To answer your question, "The Moosewood Cookbook" (the original) is my favourite. I have all of them though. "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" is my favourite name of a veg. cookbook.

"Fields of Greens" and "The Versatile Grain and the Elegant Bean" are 2 of my other favourites.

A good web site for recipes is the Vegetarian Resource Group's site, www.vrg.com.

Happy Cooking!

[shroomgirl]

I have had the chance to meet alot of cool authors, one of the groups I'm in holds small receptions for them while they are on tour...so I've met Patricia Wells, Molly Katzen, Paul Prudhomme, etc...and it is so fun to ask them the ins and outs of their writing....Molly did her own art so the attention to detail is all her.
I've been called a chef groupie by several of my chef friends....I'll admit it! People doing fun things with food turn me on.

I have around 500 cookbooks in all but my collection has grown at an alarming rate since I got on the Internet a few years ago - the largest bookstore here has only 2-3 shelves of cookbooks so there wasn´t much to choose from before I discovered Amazon, Jessicas Biscuit and the rest. And secondhand books were impossible to get before I found abebooks.com and similar services.

I have cookbooks in 15 languages (and can even cook from most of them) but the majority of my collection is in English. A few of my favorites:
Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables by Elizabeth Schneider
The Legendary Cuisine of Persia by Margaret Shaida
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David
Colman Andrew´s Flavours of the Riviera and Flavours of Catalonia
The Outlaw Cook by John Thorne
Honey from a Weed by Patience Gray
The Mosewood Book of Desserts
Any book by Jane Grigson
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee (not a cookbook but immensely interesting)
- and dozens of others.

I finally had to give away many of my gardening books to make room for my cookbooks. Was so happy when my baby sis got married so I could "give away" some of the cookbooks I didn't look at much anymore. I'm one of those people who can sit in front of a fire, sipping a glass of wine, with my hubby and pull out 10 or so cookbooks to look at the recipes and pictures...I never thought of this as strange..just perhaps a little obsessed. Love to get many of the cooking magazines too..or go to the local libary for a look through..thank god for the internet and sites like epicurious.com and sunset...etc...to help feed that need for new recipes.

Just saw one by Tom Douglas, who has three of my favorite restaurants here in Seattle...Etta's, Dahlia Lounge, and Palace Kitchen. It was on the University Bookstore site and they ship for free/wrap for free..same discounted price as Amazon. Thinking of ordering it from Santa to me )

Does anyone else have a copy of the original Making of a cook by Madeleine Kamman. Man, what a book! I've cooked my through most of it but some of it is way out there. It reads like a chemistry book. The new one's great as well. I, too, like Essential of classic italian by Hazan. Good book. My wife is glad I don't keep any of my many books in the bathroom anymore.

[Mezzaluna]

I'd love to get the Marcella Hazan book... Nanna, I have about 5 French cookbooks, most of them bought over there. It's fun and challenging to try and translate them accurately (no disasters so far!) and figure out the measurements ("une verre du lait", for example, is a 'glass'- about 6 ounces). I gave an 'all-American' cookbook to a French friend and made sure to give her a set of our measuring cups and spoons. At the time you couldn't find a lot of the ingredients for Tex-Mex (for which she acquired a taste while visiting me here), so I'd mail her chili powder, etc. Last time I was in France 2 years ago I had no trouble finding Old El Paso and Preferida on the grocery store shelves. Who'd have thunk it?? Works the same way for me, as you can't find things like petit suisse and some of the cuts of meat here (at least where I live), so it's an adventure in judicious substitution. Lots of fun, too!

[Live_to_cook]

Does anyone have a recommendation for an authentic, thorough Vietnamese cookbook that covers the basics? It's a hole in my collection and, after all, Christmas approaches...

[mudbug]

MaryeO,

Did you still want the "False Tongues and Sunday Bread"? Got a list yet?

Cchiu, don't tell me you actually found a copy?!?!? Email me at cymraecelt@yahoo.com and we'll make some kind of arrangements! The other biggie is called something like "English Puddings, Sweet and Savoury" by Mary Norwalk.

I love La Cuisine, Secrets of Modern French Cooking by Raymond Oliver. It was an overnight best-seller in the original French and the English translation from the 1960's is a must-have. Sadly, long out of print but I have two copies -- one in the city and one in the country because it is a Bible! I found both in used book stores.
Also out of print but worth adding to your collection are the Time-Life Foods of the World cookbooks. The recipes are adapted to American ingredients where possible and are as authentic as you can get without being there. I use them heavily as resource material before trips overseas or within the US to learn what I should eat and why. The commentary is excellent on the traditions of foods in various cultures.
Old copies of the Joy of Cooking are irresistable. The new version is silly and close to useless. The old editions are perfect for basic knowledge and technique.
The books of Elizabeth David and MFK Fisher are bedside reading.
For new books, it's hard to live without Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.

[shroomgirl]

Margaret Looks like we have similar tastes in reading material....
I still go back to Time Life series, and Julias early works.

[Ruthy]

A very interesting discussion. How different we all are! I have several hundred cookbooks - I would embarass myslef if I were to count them - plus a whole shelf of files and years of magazines in the basement. But I rarely use the old books and find myself constantly drawn to the books written by talented chefs. I keep Jean-Georges, Charlie Palmer, Alfred Portale and Thomas Keller on my most accessible shelf and use them constantly, not only for recipes but for ideas and techniques and find I am constantly learning something new. I have indexed all my books etc on a datebase that now has 10,000 entries. This way I can find almost instaneously whether ingredients are frequently paired, different techniques and new ways to cook ingredients I have on hand. It is a wonderful hobby and I shall never tire of it.

[elakin]

hi....

responding to the request for a good vietnamese cookbook, the people who wrote "flatbreads and flavors" (it's a married couple but i don't remember their names) have come out with a book on southeast asian cuisine called "sweet salty sour spicy" or something like that.

you should be able to find it no problem at any major bookseller...it's one of the big books of the moment...and i mean big. it's huge, french laundry sized, and it's full of beautiful photos. "flatbreads" was a beard and child award winner, so this one's bound to be good.

check it out.

Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia

by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid (Hardcover)
Average Customer Review:

[ 02-17-2001: Message edited by: Crudeau ]