Cookin' the Books
Some of my favorite cookbooks:
The Joy of Cooking
why: Want to make a struedel? A roast? Peas with those little pearly onions? Babaganoush? German chocolate cake? It's all in there. Anything you could want to make, anything you could dream up (and some things you couldn't) is in this weighty tome, outlined in clear steps.
drawbacks: If you don't already know what you want, this book ain't gonna help. No photos, no delectable descriptions, just black-and-white, all text pages of multiple versions of omelets, souffles, hush puppies, meatloaf, pancakes...
Cooking Light
why: It shows up every month, a glistening magazine collection of new recipes with enticing color photographs. Highlighted ingredients are usually seasonal. Every issue has a whole section of 20-minute recipes. Oh yeah, and everything's flavorful despite being low-cal and low-fat.
drawbacks: The ingredients can get pricey.
Recipes for Self-Healing
why: Clearly and compassionately explains the principles of food energetics and outlines the energetic properties of each Westerner-friendly dish. (Yay, food energetics without the slimy, weird Japanese dishes!) Recipes are delicious and generally easy to make. Written in a warm, often witty, style.
drawbacks: Some ingredients are difficult to find without a well-stocked Whole Foods nearby. Measurements are sometimes strange.
Eat and be well!
posted by kStyle @ 5:27 PM
1 Comments:
I LOVE JoC--I recommend it constantly, and it's one of the best references ever. I particularly like the version I have, which predates the current version, because it has lots of info about freezing and canning and odd meat (like squirrel) that I think they removed for this revision. I also found, in the "take me" shelf in the building's laundry room, a version from the 1930s--it's an amazing sociological work. Two other recommendations:
Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook. Some really great recipes, easy to make, and it eliminates a lot of the exraneous fat to be found in the New Moosewood Cookbook (which I also love; my copy is bound with duct tape). These two are probably my two favorite Moosewoods, though I own at least five.
Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking. (I think that's the name.) Despite her somewhat imperious style, she provides extensive directions for making a lot of stuff from scratch, and a lot of it is really, really good.
And, of course, Cooks Illustrated, a.k.a. Food Porn Monthly. Though many of the recipes are too high-calorie/high-fat for me, everything I've made has turned out extremely well. The stuffed pork loin, the pear tart, etc. And, like the others mentioned above, lots of good directions.
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