texasmesquite

A feast of new cookbooks

By Greg Morago and Karen Haram - Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News

Looking at the ’60s edition of Joy of Cooking — practically the only serious collection of recipes in the kitchen for many of that generation — it’s striking to note how much cookbooks have changed in just a few decades. Today we demand much more of the many cookbooks in our homes.
They’re not just recipe collections. They’re cultural telescopes; history lessons of places we may never see. They’re picture books of aspirational living. They’re culinary encouragement — a cooking buddy and cheerleader when our hands are full and time is short. They’re literature that inspires and uplifts long after the last crumb has been eaten.
But in the end, a cookbook is only as good as its recipes. Sure, it’s great to dream of frothy soufflés, but if the batter doesn’t rise, that cookbook is destined for the next garage sale.
Autumn brings a flurry of new cookbook titles — all noisily clamoring for attention on already crowded bookshelves. We culled through the new shipments looking for the same thing that intrigues home cooks: great stories, fabulous photos, a sense of adventure and a reason to get in the kitchen. Here are some titles, from authors and cookbook publishers we trust and respect, which will never wind up in the garage sale pile. These are our new keepers.
Bubby’s Brunch Cookbook
By Ron Silver with Rosemary Black (Ballantine Books, $30)
Prep: Who doesn’t love brunch, especially when it’s prepared by Ron Silver, chef/owner of famed Bubby’s Pie Co., the go-to place in New York for brunch that counts Beyoncé, Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel and Jay-Z among its customers? Silver may only have 100 seats in his Tribeca restaurant, but the restaurant still serves brunch to some 1,400 diners each weekend; a second post in Brooklyn helps pick up the slack.
Cook: Though Bubby’s serves comfort food all day, brunch is clearly Silver’s passion. Not only does he reveal the secrets to his signature German Skillet-Baked Pancakes, Sizzling Ham and Gruyere Omelet and blueberry scones, he takes much of the stress out of entertaining by offering 25 brunch menus. Silver keeps his recipes simple enough that cooks can easily duplicate them at home.
Serve: With some 200 recipes, there’s plenty to choose from, be it Spinach and Brie Omelet, Homemade Corned Beef or Mulled Wine With Cinnamon Sticks and Fruit.
Pastry Queen Parties: Entertaining Friends and Family, Texas Style
By Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman (Ten Speed Press, $32.50)
Prep: Rumors to the contrary, Rebecca Rather is not Dan Rather’s daughter, but the newsman might wish she were. Rather is nationally known for her Rather Sweet Bakery and Café in Fredericksburg; her second book, The Pastry Queen Christmas: Big-Hearted Holiday Entertaining won best American cookbook in the IACP Cookbook Awards in 2008.
Cook: Rather may be known for her pastries, but this book is about more than sweets. Want to throw a Hill Country garden party, a Gulf Coast beach bash, a Tex-Mex fiesta? Rather has you covered, no matter the occasion. Lush color photos capture the beauty of entertaining in the Lone Star state, as seen through the eyes of a master party-giver.
Serve: Comforting favorites such as Rosa’s Red Posole, Mary’s Crayfish Pies and Fiesta Chiles Rellenos are plentiful, but there are also refreshers such as Watermelon Mojitos, Corona Sorbet and Beachside Frozen Pops. And, since Rather is the pastry queen, there’s also S’mores Cupcakes, Key-Lime Coconut Cream Cake and Chocolate Mousse Cookies Two Ways.
Absolutely Chocolate
From the editors of Fine Cooking (The Taunton Press, $29.95)
Prep: Unlike some publications that focus on food outside the home, Fine Cooking magazine is known for its celebration of food and recipes as prepared in a home kitchen. The publication is designed to inspire confidence and creativity, and that same focus is carried through in Fine Cooking’s Absolutely Chocolate. A previous Fine Cooking cookbook, Cooking New American, won the IACP Cookbook Compilations Award in 2005.
Cook: Most everyone needs a few good chocolate recipes, but the experts at Fine Cooking have gone way beyond that. Learn how to choose the right chocolate for baking, handle chocolate, decipher labels and more. Many of the recipes include photos of chocolate dishes so divine you’ll want to head to the kitchen immediately. This is a book any serious chocoholic will want in his or her collection.
Serve: You want brownies? Absolutely Chocolate has them, be they chewy, fudgy, cakey, rich with cocoa, made with cream cheese, enhanced with peppermint, stuffed with chocolate chunks, glazed with port ganache, combined with butterscotch, or turned into double-decker bars. Cakes, tarts, pies, cookies, puddings, soufflés and more also fill the pages.
Baking: 350 Recipes and Techniques, 1500 Photographs, One Baking Education
By James Peterson (Ten Speed Press, $40)
Prep: James Peterson started his career as a restaurant cook in Paris and has authored 15 cookbooks, including Sauce, which was a 1991 James Beard Cookbook of the Year winner. Peterson’s as famous for his food photography as his recipes, and with 1,500 examples in this oversized volume, there’s plenty to enjoy.
Cook: As the name implies, this book is all about baking. Packed with 350 recipes, it’s the step-by-step photos that demonstrate techniques that stand out. Want to find out how to seal your quiche crust so none of the eggy mixture leaks through? Peterson has the answer.
Serve: Raspberry Buttercream Layer Cake includes 24 photos that take you through the assembly process so thoroughly that even a novice baker could successfully make this recipe. Other winners include Cherry Tartlets, Pecan Pie, Apple Strudel, Focaccia and Coconut Macaroons.
Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta
By Giuliano Hazan (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $27.70)
Prep: The apple didn’t fall far from the tree where Hazan is concerned. Son of famed Italian cookbook writers Marcella and Victor Hazan, Giuliano Hazan made his name in the food business with his own cookbooks and instruction in Italian cuisine. Home cooks have come to know and trust him in the finer points of pasta. The man knows his macaroni.
Cook: Now that Americans’ obsession with low-carb cooking is over, we can get back to big bowls of pasta, Hazan writes. Hey, for some of us, pasta never went out of fashion. And that’s what makes Thirty Minute Pasta a kitchen keeper. It’s loaded with mouthwatering recipes for everyone’s favorite comfort food. Better yet? The recipes can be prepared in less than 30 minutes, which qualifies Hazan as every busy cook’s new best friend.
Serve: There’s no sacrificing authenticity for these pasta dinners, which will appeal to fans of peasant food and the upscale city sophisticate. Vegetarians will appreciate the variety of meatless pasta meals.
French Feasts: 299 Traditional Recipes for Family Meals and Gatherings
By Stephane Reynaud (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $40)
Prep: There is practically no preamble to the recipes in this encyclopedic text on French home cooking from the author of Pork & Sons and Terrine. No sweet talk; Reynaud moves straight to the lovemaking. Ah, but what passion. The terrines, sausages, stews, coddled eggs, gratins, salads, braised meats and tarts of rustic Sunday suppers in France never had it so good.
Cook: Warning: every photograph will make you want to book a flight to France to eat yourself silly. Thick layers of yellow fat atop pâté; the crusty mantle of a cassoulet; the perfectly poached egg in a frisée salad; the burnt edges of fruit on an apple tart — they all conspire to make your mouth water.
Serve: To round out the French cooking, there are tips on wine, on making perfect croissants, on opening oysters, on selecting cheese. But you’ll keep coming back to the soul-stirring recipes for food you don’t have to cross the pond to savor.
The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies & Other Sweets With Ideas for Inventing Your Own
By Karen DeMasco (Clarkson Potter, $35)
Prep: Skip dessert? Never. Not in a restaurant where DeMasco is elbow deep in flour, butter and chocolate. The crafty dessert genius behind Tom Colicchio’s Craft and Craftbar restaurants, DeMasco is a top chef where sweets are concerned. She won the James Beard Award for best pastry chef in 2005 and now is turning out the desserts at Locanda Verde, the acclaimed new restaurant in New York’s Greenwich Hotel.
Cook: DeMasco’s approach to baking is refreshing: “To be spot-on, a dessert does not require dozens of components or fussy preparations. Just keep it simple and do it well.” While there are sophisticated desserts in the book, there are even more homey offerings such as donuts, scones, cookies, cupcakes and ice cream.
Serve: A simple yellow cake with milk chocolate buttercream is the stuff of childhood memories (and now back in fashion). DeMasco loads the dessert counter with yums such as butterscotch cream pie, cinnamon rolls, coconut marshmallows and cashew brittle.
Better Homes & Gardens Anyone Can Cook: Step-by-Step Recipes Just for You
Edited by Tricia Laning (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., $24.95)
Prep: The Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks are some of the best-selling cookbooks of all time for a reason: The recipes are formulated to be forgiving when cooks make mistakes. Anyone Can Cook isn’t fancy, but you can be assured what you make from this book will not only succeed, it will turn out well. You can’t keep publishing cookbooks for nearly a century if you haven’t figured out how to do that.
Cook: If you’re a novice cook looking for an all-purpose cookbook, this is a good choice. The recipes are accessible, and the photos that accompany take much of the mystery from the dishes. Helpful tips are perfect for beginners; more advanced cooks may find them too basic. Each recipe is labeled aswith skill levels from 1 to 3, with Level 1 for cooks who have never been in the kitchen. Level 3 recipes are still relatively simple to make, building on techniques learned from more basic recipes. The book includes a CD of Test Kitchen how-tos.
Serve: We don’t know when BH&G started offering recipes such as Mojito Fresco, Honey Phyllo Cups with Berries, Wheat Berry Tabbouleh and Asian Salmon with Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes, but we applaud the updating. Classics such as Cheesy Corn Chowder, Strawberry Shortcakes, Chicken Salad and Oven Pot Roast also fill the pages.
New American Table
By Marcus Samuelsson (Wiley, $40)
Prep: “You can’t go to cook in America,” Samuelsson’s French chef mentor told him. “All they eat is burgers.” Samuelsson found out soon enough that such was not the case, and his cookbook, which he calls a tablescape of American food, is an evocative testament to the rich and varied foods of his adopted country. The chef and co-owner of Aquavit in New York, Samuelsson is a familiar face in the food world, with two other cookbooks and numerous TV appearances to his credit.
Cook: Born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, trained in France: Samuelsson’s background already boasts the melting-potexperience — a theme found in his recipes for American regional foods such as empanadas, lobster rolls, fried dumplings, baba ghanoush, pad thai, mushroom risotto, lamb chops and jerked catfish.
Serve: One of Samuelsson’s best chapters is holiday recipes for dishes such as sesame-fried tilapia, miso-rubbed lamb with red curry broccoli, Szechuan-roasted hen and coconut rice pudding with fried bananas. How are these holiday foods? They’re the flavors of immigrant experience merging with traditions of celebrating holidays.
How to Roast a Lamb: New Greek Classic Cooking
By Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown, $35)
Prep: Psilakis is one of the country’s most acclaimed chefs who doesn’t have a cooking show. But at least now he has a cookbook. Tapped as one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs in 2008, Psilakis also was named chef of the year in 2008 by Bon Appétit and chef of the year in 2007 by Esquire. Not bad for a self-taught chef whose restaurant career began in a T.G.I. Friday’s. New Yorkers, however, know Psilakis from his restaurants, Kefi, Gus & Gabriel and his upscale Anthos, one of only two Greek restaurants in the world to earn a Michelin star.
Cook: Yes, Psilakis will show you how to roast a lamb and so much more about Greek cuisine. The immigrant experience colors the entire book, blending familial love and struggle with a passion for food. Psilakis’ father, a native of Crete, inspired the chef to write this cookbook that contains honest peasant fare and sophisticated, upscale recipes.
Serve: Seafood, game and lamb recipes shine. But dishes from the garden — salads of bitter greens, cucumbers, fennel; stewed zucchini and beans; grilled squash with feta and mint — make you wish for summer. If there’s such a thing as Greek soul food, this is it.