Food is Food

There are a surprising number of cookbooks covering a single fruit or vegetable and mostly I'm a bit skeptical about how useful they are. Not in this case. This book covers both Summer and Winter squash and has breakfast and brunch dishes, dips & soups, main courses, salads & sides, breads & desserts! I love how creative the recipes are. Speedy Pumpkin Waffles, Osso Buco with Butternut & Cannellini Mash, Savory Zucchini Popovers, Kabocha Deviled Eggs and Butternut Brownies are just a few of the intriguing recipes. There are 26 zucchini recipes alone. Let’s just say you will never complain about having too much zucchini ever again! If you know someone who grows squash this is a great book.

I am crazy about tamales. If they are on the menu at a Mexican restaurant I will almost always order them. Of course there is a world of difference between good ones and lousy ones. Good ones have almost creamy, rich and flavorful masa and delectable fillings. Lousy ones are dry and crumbly, hard and bland. While I already have one book on tamales, I was happy to see this one too. Quite a number of things set this book apart. There are diagrams to show how different wrapping styles, recipes for “nose-to-tail” tamales made from lamb head, beef cheeks, tongue, tripe and more. There are also recipes for salsas and sauces to serve with your tamales, and quite a few vegetarian fillings like artichokes, creamy mushrooms, even broccoli and cheese tamales and bunch of sweet dessert tamales as well. If you want to make tamales at home, this is your book. 

When I was in Honolulu the last time around I arrived on a Sunday and my first stop from the airport to Koko Head Cafe, Lee Anne Wong’s brunch spot in Kaimuki. I had the amazing cornflake french toast but I had to come back for the dumplings because they were already sold out. On my next visit I got the perfectly fried fish dumplings. Wong clearly loves Asian style dumplings and makes both traditional ones as well as her own modern versions. There are steamed, boiled, deep fried and pan fried dumplings to satisfy your dumpling cravings. There are tutorials on how to make doughs and wrappers, how to fold and cook dumplings and more. The pantry section on Asian ingredients is reason enough to buy the book. Recipes I’ve bookmarked include Spicy Chicken Yuzu Gyoza, Sardine Ginger Wonton Soup and Pork and Chive Dumplings. One caveat, although the book cover is somewhat reminiscent of the Dummies books, this book can veer into being a bit "chaffy" from time to time with long ingredient lists and multiple preparations per recipes, that said the instructions are clear and the recipes so creative I still recommend it.

Disclaimer: These books were provided as review copies and this post includes affiliate links

...is Thanksgiving.  And then it's Christmas and then it's spring and then our kids are grown and we're old and we die.  Kidding!  Here are some of my favorite dishes.  What are yours?  I'm in charge of vegetable sides, and I welcome your warm ideas...

Couscous with Roasted Veggies

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon vegetable or rice bran oil 

1 cup sliced onion (half moons)

1 cup sliced fennel bulb 

4 cups thinly sliced red cabbage

1 cup cranberries

Pinch salt

2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1/2 cup red wine 

Instructions 

Heat a large skillet and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion and fennel and sauté for 5 minutes or until translucent but not brown. Add the cabbage and sauté for another 3 minutes or until glossy and beginning to reduce in volume. Add the cranberries, salt, brown sugar, broth and wine. Cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and cook until the liquid evaporates. Taste for seasoning and serve. 

Enjoy!

What we don’t know about Mexican cuisine could fill the pages of a massive book. And now it does. Margarita Carrillo Arronte, a chef, teacher, restaurateur, TV host and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture's chef is the first Mexican author to have written a comprehensive book on Mexican food in English. Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting her and learning more about Mexican cuisine and her book, Mexico: The Cookbook.

It took two years, but a lifetime, starting with being raised in Mexico, eating and cooking there. I always wanted to write this book in English, because I saw a need. There are other books on Mexican food in English, but not written by someone from Mexico. 

The book is on the cuisines of Mexico, not the cuisine. Because there are eight regions and the weather, the culture and the people are different. The cuisine is completely different from one region to another. The Northern part of Mexico doesn’t have the range of ingredients you find in the South but all they have some great recipes. Some regions have indigenous people with very strong food traditions. We have influences from many different countries--France, Spain, the Philippines. We had trade relations with Asia going back hundreds of years ago. 

1. That it’s unhealthy, greasy and cheap

2. That it’s too spicy 

3. That it’s about quantity not quality

4. That Mexican food is served with rice and beans. That’s Tex Mex, not Mexican. 

5. That red rice! It’s often cooked badly. The rice is over toasted and it doesn’t taste good. 

A variety of food, such as the real burritos of Baja which are nothing like what you find in California, and different kinds of beans. Eat at the little places with local flavors. Eat what the locals eat, not just what’s served to tourists. 

1. Start with the easy recipes, ceviches and salsas. 

2. Learn the technique of dry toasting, we toast everything—chiles, tomatillos, onions, garlic, spices. 

3. Try some of the simpler soups 

4. We have lots of egg dishes, try one like Huevos Rabos de Mestiza, a Yucatecan dish of eggs with chiles, tomatoes and tomatillos. 

5. Make a dessert such as arroz con leche. 

Gracias Margarita! 

True to its name, Cooking Light Global Kitchen shares recipes from around the world. There are 150 recipes, 120 of which came from the magazine and another 30 that “fill in the gaps.” They all fit within the magazine’s guidelines for nutrition, ease and speed.

The author/editor David Joachim tapped many chefs to help with the recipes and the results are impressive. The recipes may not be the most authentic but they are certainly user friendly. There are recipes from East Asia and India, Southeast Asia and Australia, The Middle East and Africa, Europe and Eurasia, South America, North and Central America. 

Many of the recipes take classics in a new direction like tabbouleh salad with chicken or a salad nicoise with seared tuna. And frankly many seems like improvements on the original such as lobster rolls freshened up with shaved fennel and citrus. I like that there are photographs on every page, for every recipe. I’ve bookmarked Quinoa Pudding, Cape Malay Curry (with warm spices, buttermilk, beef, peppers and apricots)  Quick Lamb Kofta with Harissa Yogurt Sauce, Champagne Browned Butter Chicken and Fennel Cured Halibut Gravlax. 

Bottom line? KEEPER especially if you're looking for healthier international recipes. You could find most of these recipes online or in the magazine, but this it is convenient to have them curated this way.

I was very excited to hear about Cooking Light Mad Delicious:The Science of Making Healthy Food Taste Amazing, but I’m rather disappointed with it.

My issues with the book, I’m going to just give you just a few, start with Culinary School Chicken. It’s a basic roast chicken recipe. But one of the very first instructions says “Rinse your chicken under cold running water. Allow to air dry or pat dry with good quality paper towels. Use the cheap ones and eat paper.” Uh I have a better idea. DON’T EVER RINSE RAW CHICKEN! Sorry for shouting but the author really should have known better. This is just bad advice. Rinsing does nothing but spread bacteria and is widely discouraged.

Next in the Lower East Side Brisket recipe there is a visual tutorial called Step by Step: Creating a crusty exterior. Basically it says season the meat with spices, heat the oil until hot and brown the meat. Really? That seems pretty obvious.

The author uses potentially hard to find ingredients like sorghum syrup, espelette pepper and Turkish red pepper paste, all without suggestions for substitutions. The book also has instructions for making your own sriracha sauce which will keep for a week to 10 days in the fridge. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to use 2 cups of sriracha in 10 days. 

Sadly I just didn't find the recipes all that compelling. All in all the book was a good idea, but it misses the mark.  

Bottom line? SKIP IT Science geeks will be disappointed and newbies will be overwhelmed.