Alvah's Books

Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day
By Diana Henry, photography by Jonathan Lovekin
Ten Speed Press, 2007
192 pages
$21.95 

Yes, the cookbook reviews are back and with one little treasure that we discovered at our local library: Diana Henry’s Pure Simple Cooking! 

The title says it all. There’s no doubt that you will love how easy the recipes are to prepare, how tasty they are, and how beautiful the finished meal looks.

After testing out four recipes, I knew that this book was a keeper and I had to get my very own. So off I went to Amazon, bought it and I’m expecting my copy to arrive in the mail any day now. In the meantime, I am hoarding the library’s copy.

What’s to like about Pure Simple Cooking? Is it Jonathan Lovekin’s photography? Oh yes, and everything I made looks just like his photographs! This is a great feat for me because whenever I make something from a recipe it tastes good, but it always lacks the pretty factor.

For those not familiar with Diana Henry she is the food columnist for Britain’s Sunday Telegraph and the author of five cookbooks. In addition she co-hosts a popular UK television show and was also named Cookery Writer of the Year in 2007. Not too shabby, eh?

Pure Simple Cooking consists of 13 chapters that cover chicken, chops, sausages, leg of lamb, fish, pasta, greens and herbs and a good variety of the seasonal fruits and vegetables.  For the most part, it appears that Ms. Henry’s palate is inspired by cuisines of the Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Levant and that is fine here at chez moi since we do have a predilection to those types of recipes.

If you like sausage, specifically Spanish chorizo, then you’re in luck. Ms. Henry section on sausages has a handful of recipes that include this savory and smoky sausage. The one recipe that I we tried Spanish Sweet Pototato with Chorizo, Peppers and Fried Egg.  This was the perfect meal for a coldish night and because we had so much of it leftover, I discovered that it’s just as good for breakfast as it is for dinner.

Our actual first venture was an evening that we really wanted something light, but savory and healthy. I’m a big zucchini fan and so we decided that Zucchini with Ricotta, Mint and Basil would be the perfect dish. The mild flavor of the zucchini along with ricotta salata were perfectly combined along with a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of a lemon. Paired with some crusty bread the meal left you feeling more than satisfied. 

We’re big pasta eaters and so far we’ve repeated one dish: Trofie with Shrimp, Feta, Parsley and Lemon. Trofie is essentially gemilli—tight and thinner corkscrew pasta. The pairing of the shrimp and feta make a great combination and play off each other in a delightful way. There’s also enough garlic in the recipe to give it some bite, but it doesn’t overwhelm or upstage the feta’s flavor.

As someone with a notorious sweet tooth and a penchant for brûlée, I couldn’t resist the Summer Berry Brûlé. Easy as pie to make this dessert only required cream, Greek yogurt, berries and sugar. Combining the yogurt with the cream gave the dessert a wonderful consistency and cut down (a tad) the richness of the two ingredients. To get the sugary sheet that all brûlées share the only thing you need to do is to carmelize the sugar. One thing to note: make sure your broiler is very hot; if it isn’t you’ll have cream/yogurt soup.

As we wait for our copy to arrive, we’re already checking off what we want to try next. I’m already eyeing the Roast Lamb with Prosciutto and Garlic while my husband is making noises about Lamb Stuffed with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, and Basil.

Tonight’s menu is the leftover Trofie, but maybe tomorrow’s dinner will be one of the lamb dishes.

World Cook’s Collection: Mediterranean Kitchen
By Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow
Barnes & Noble Books
256 pages

We’ve all heard of the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet and there was a period that we ate nothing but Mediterranean-inspired recipes. Not for health reasons, but to add more variety to our meals.

Similar to the Soup Cookbook, World Cook’s Collection: Mediterranean Kitchen is beautifully photographed with step-by-step instruction. Chapters range from basic ingredients typically used in Mediterranean cuisine to recipes for shellfish and fish, poultry, meat, vegetables, grains and beans, and desserts.

My favorite part of the book is the appetizer or tapas section. I like to nosh and many of these can easily make a meal with small salad on the side. If you like garlic, shellfish, chorizo and lots of olive oil, you might want to consider these along with a nice crusty loaf of country bread to sop up the deliciously flavored olive oil:

• Sauteed Mussels with Garlic and Herbs,
• Garlic Shrimp
• Chorizo in Olive Oil

 However, if you want something more substantial to eat and you don’t mind spending more time preparing a meal, below are some of my favorites:

• Moroccan Pigeon Pie or Pastilla. This recipe consists of phyllo pastry pie filled with a mixture of squab (or chicken) eggs, spices (cinnamon, ginger, turmeric) spices and nuts. It’s a bit labor-intensive, but well worth the effort to make.
• Black Pasta with Squid Sauce. You can find tagliatelle flavored with squid ink in Italian food stores. The combined of squid, white wine, fresh tomatoes and garlic is amazing.
• Turkish Lamb Pilaf. Delicious combination of lamb, rice, spices, nuts and fruits.
• Spiced Vegetable Couscous. This is a combination of spices, and a wide variety of veggies and legumes including chick peas, zucchini, cauliflower, carrots, and tomatoes.

When it comes to dessert or sweet treats, I can never say no to these: 

• Churros. This a variation of fried dough, but the consistency is different than a Zeppole or a doughnut. Churros are deep-fried in coils. Once fried, they’re dusted with a combination of cinnamon and sugar. They’re more of a snack with thick hot chocolate or with coffee.
• Crema Catalana. This is a cross between crème brulee and crème caramel. The best part is the caramelized sugar topping.
• Coffee Granita. This is a semi-frozen sherbet, but the ice particles are larger. Ideal for the summer. You can also make these with fruits. In Spain, they make a quasi gelato/granita flavor include almond, hazelnut (my favorite) chocolate, coffee and more.

The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup
Edited by Debra Mayhew
Lorenz Books, 2001
$14.95

No Soup for You. If you’re a Seinfeld fan, you know all about the Soup Nazi and that famous line that’s uttered to George and Elaine. And there really is a Soup Nazi who has franchises in New York City and has licensed some of his recipes; you can buy them in some supermarket chains like Key Food in Park Slope.

Here on the east coast, we’ve been having some fairly wet and coolish weather. Soup and a salad seem to be the dinner of choice in our household. This week I decided to highlight a cookbook that I bought several years ago when we were going through a soup phase. In my travels to the bookstore and browsing through the cookbook section, I came this little gem, The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup.

It’s a lovely soft-covered book with a sedate blue/lavender color with one small picture of a vibrant orange-red bowl of Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup.

The book consists of six sections that include recipes for:

• Light & Refreshing Soups

• Rich & Creamy Soups

• Warming Winter Soups

• Hearty Lunch & Supper Soups

• One-Pot-Meal Soups

• Special Occasion Soups

Each recipe is broken down by ingredients and steps that are accompanied by color photographs of each phase from start to finish.

I’m partial to soups that have some kick and consistency. Some of my favorites include Jalapeno Soup made with chicken broth, chicken breast, jalapenos and an avocado. If you’re like me and like cream and butter, Jerusalem Artichoke Soup is wonderful for a chilly day.

One of my favorite is garlic and because I am half-Spanish, it’s no surprise that I’m a big fan Spanish Garlic Soup—simple to prepare and quite aromatic.

Although I’m not a fan of eating peanut butter straight from the jar or to spread on bread, I love cooking with peanuts and peanut. One of my top five soups is Spicy Peanut Soup, a hearty soup with carrots, corn, peppers, potatoes and cayenne pepper. There’s an African variation of this recipe with yams and okra.

However, I’m leaving the best for last. For me (and for Seinfeld’s Kramer) the king of soups, is the imperialistic Mulligatawny Soup. This rich soup has chockfull of ingredients from curry powder to raisins and it is the ideal lunch or dinner soup.

Unlike the Soup Nazi, I say, “Here’s some soup for you!”

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book
By Alice B. Toklas
Penguin Books, 1961
336 pages, prices vary

My goal this week was to review a cookbook that would tie-in with this month’s Alvah Bessie theme. Since Alvah was so enchanted by Spain, I thought a Spanish cookbook would make sense. Unfortunately, none of my Spanish cookbooks are very impressive or exciting to review. So I was in a bit of a quandary in figuring what today’s selection for “What’s Cookin’” would be and then I came across a little gem that’s been in the family since I was born.

I discovered The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book during my “Lost Generation” phase. This was a time when I wanted to escape to Paris and live the life boheme (in relative comfort, of course), writing, eating, and enjoying everything Paris had to offer a thirteen year-old girl.

Now, in all honesty, I have to admit that I found Ms. Toklas very intriguing not so much for her great gastronomic skills, but because of her alternative lifestyle with Gertrude Stein. Remember, I was thirteen and curious.

The recipes (or its variations, including the famous Hashish Brownies) in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book can easily found in other top-notch cooks books, but what’s remarkable about this little book are Ms. Toklas autobiographical  anecdotes that are generously sprinkled throughout. In the section “Dishes for Artists”she writes of the time she prepared a striped bass for Picasso, which she decorated for his amusement:

A short time before serving it I covered the fish with an ordinary mayonnaise and, using a pastry tube, decorated it with a red mayonnaise, not coloured with catsup – horror of horrors-but with tomato paste. Then I made a design with sieved hard-boiled eggs, the whites and the yolks apart with truffles and finely chopped fines herbes. I was proud of my chef d’oeuvre when it was served and Picasso exclaimed at its beauty. But, said he, should it not rather have been made in honour of Matisse than me.

In “Beautiful Soup” she writes of the finer points and variations of the Spanish gazpacho and then goes on to provide four different recipes from Malaga, Segovia, Sevilla,and Cordoba, along with the Polish, Greek, and Turkish variations of this cold soup.

Food historians might have a special interest in the chapter titled, “Food in the United States in 1934 and 1935. Toklas writes of Stein’s concern about food in America and whether it would be “to her taste.” Here, Toklas describes the different cities and restaurants and all the delicious meals that surpassed both their expectations.

The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book provides readers with a fascinating  and entertaininglook at the eating habits and tastes of two American expatriates who broke bread with Europe’s and America’s leading artists. It’s a worthwhile read, if not for the recipes, but for Toklas’ observations.

Until I was in grad school, I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker. I drank mostly Lipton’s tea with milk and sugar until one day the red Twinnings tin of loose English Breakfast tea caught my eye and I thought I would try it. Well, I’ve never touched Lipton’s since then.When I spent a semester abroad in France, I became very friendly with a Canadian fellow who was an avid tea drinker and enjoyed formal afternoons teas. One afternoon, we discovered a little tea shop that had a little restaurant that served “Afternoon Tea” to the British ex-pats. I always looked forward to 4:00 pm when we’d make our jaunt, settle in to have tea, and try all the assorted sandwiches and pastries. It was such a civilized way to spend the afternoon.

When I returned to the States and told my mother about my love for afternoon tea, we decided to start our own tradition and stock up on different types of tea, which included, Early Grey, Irish Breakfast, Ceylon, Jasmine, Orange Pekoe, Oolong. Every afternoon, we’d take out our good tea set and sip that day’s choice and savor the tiny sandwiches and pastries we made.

In one of my weekly forays to our local independent bookstore, I discovered Having Tea by Catherine Calvert, and I knew that I had to buy this book just by looking at the cover. I’ve had this book for 22 years now and it’s still one of my favorites.

Having Tea: Recipes & Table Settings
By Catherine Calvert, photographs by Keith Scott Morton
Clarkson. N. Potter Inc./Publishers, 1987
87 pages, $22.50

If you want to go beyond dunking a teabag in a mug and enjoy a civilized “cuppa,” Calvert’s book gives you five option on how to be civilized and a slew of recipes. And chuck away that all chipped mug, because you’ll need a proper tea service if truly want to enjoy tea.

If I had to pinpoint what I like so much about Having Tea, I’d have a hard time. As I leaf through the book, I ooh-and ahh at the tea services that have been photographed. These range from traditional white porcelain sets to 1930s Art-Deco geometric designs. Others include delicate flowered porcelain sets (we had those, my mother was partial to egg-shell thin porcelain with an ornate flower design), to Asian-inspired services.

But my oohs soon change to stomach grumblings  as I read through the recipes, I suddenly get a hankering for “Brunch in the City” which consists of the following:
• Toasted Cornmeal Muffins with Apple Butter
• Slow-Scrambled Eggs with Cream and Chives
• Pan-Fried Tomatoes with Fresh Tarragon
• Honey-Dew Melons Wedges with Lemon
• Bloody Mary’s and English Breakfast Tea.

Now that’s how you kick off a Sunday!

What if you’re in the mood for a picnic? Try “Summer Harvest Picnic” which includes:
• Honey-Glazed Chicken with Rosemary
• Red Potato Salad
• Vine-Ripened Tomatoes with Fresh Basil
• Crusty White Peasant Bread
• Old-Fashioned Peach Pie
• Fresh Peaches
• Mint Iced Orange Pekoe Tea

In addition to the recipes, Calvert includes a section on tea tasting and lists the major types of tea and their individual characteristics. Like wine, the qualities in tea reflect the region they’re cultivated, the soil, the altitude, and the climate.

Once you’ve decided what teas you like, you need to stock your tea larder. Some items you might want to consider:
• Crystallized Ginger (sweet, but with a little kick)
• Honey
• Lemon
• Preserves (stir in the preserves in your cup in the fashion of the Russians or Hungarians)
• Sugar

Short on tea sandwich ideas? Calvert offers the following:
• Stilton Cheese crumbled over pear slices on oatmeal bread
• Asparagus spears with lemon mayonnaise on wheat bread
• Smoked turkey with raspberry mayonnaise on cracked what bread

Next time, when you need a pick me up of sorts, skip the Starbucks. Instead, have a nice cuppa with a few shortbread biscuits and enjoy your tea time.

The Settlement Cookbook: The Way to a Man’s Heart
by Mrs. Simon Kander
The Settlement Cook Book Co., 1949. 623 pages.

I come from a long line of cooks. My paternal grandmother was famous for her chocolate cakes, and my father was always trying out a new recipe and tweaking old ones. One of his favorite cookbooks was Mrs. Simon Kander’s The Settlement Cook Book.

The edition I have is from 1949. It could have well been my grandmother’s. The yellow cover has faded, the binding is torn and has been taped. The pages are yellow and there are several thumbstains. It’s a book that’s been used over and over again. According to the cover page this is the 29th edition–enlarged and revised. The first one was published in 1901!

Not knowing much about Kander, I went ahead Googled both her and the cookbook. What I learned from the Historic Cookbook Projects was that her full name was Lizzie Black Kander, a community service leader and cookbook author. Below is her full bio along with information about the cookbook:

In her twenties, Kander began working to help Jewish immigrants -comprised mainly of Russian Orthodox Jews arriving in large numbers-overcome poverty and adjust to American ways. She joined the Ladies Relief Sewing Society, where she collected used clothes and repaired them for needy families. As president of the society in 1894-95, she expanded the group’s activities and philosophy, making personal contact between volunteers and immigrants a priority. Their name changed to the “Keep Clean Mission” in 1895 and quickly changed again to the Milwaukee Jewish Mission (1896) as activities expanded beyond lecturing children on cleanliness, to include industrial education, sewing, paperwork, painting and drawing. In 1900 the Mission, under Kander’s direction, merged with another Jewish charity, the Sisterhood of Personal Service, to form Milwaukee’s first settlement called simply “The Settlement.” Settlements — institutions founded by educated, affluent citizens to provide services within a congested urban area – were already established by this time in Chicago (Hull House) and New York City (University Settlement). Kander succeeded in attracting financial and volunteer support for “The Settlement” from Milwaukee’s Federated Jewish Charities. As president from 1900 to 1918, she expanded the educational services to assist children and adults, recent Jewish immigrants and long-time citizens. There were night classes in English and American history, instruction in Hebrew, a mothers’ class, athletic and cultural clubs for children, a lending library, a savings bank, a gymnasium and public baths.

The first edition of 1,000 copies of The Settlement Cookbook: The Way to a Man’s Heart appeared in 1901, and was an immediate success. Since assimilation necessitated adjustments between Jewish and American culinary traditions, the cookbook contained Jewish and American recipes, and recipes that were amalgams of these traditions. In this way the cookbook reflected some of the foods and recipes that Jews brought with them, foods they encountered for the first time, and variants from other parts of Europe, all presented within an up-to-date domestic science framework. Also, given the anecdotal evidence that poor cooking was responsible for much marital discord, the readers of the day probably took the sub-title quite seriously.

The second edition appeared in 1903, and sold 1,500 copies. To date the book has gone through more than 40 editions and has sold more than two million copies, which makes it the most profitable charity cookbook ever. Kander served as cookbook editor from 1914 until her death, revising each edition and adding new recipes. The skeptical trustees – who once joked that they would gladly share in any profits should the ladies publish a cookbook without their financial support – would see cookbook royalties provide more than a quarter of the sum paid for a brand new building in 191l; the Settlement values of service and education would endure, even as the needs of Milwaukee Jews changed. Immigration tapered off in the 1920s, and by 1931 the group had changed location again, to a building five times larger; now called the Jewish Community Center, it offered an expansive program of vocational, cultural and communal activities, as well as sports and social events. The cookbook royalties, again, covered a large portion of the building’s cost.

Sections include:

• How to feed a family
• How to set a table
• Directions for serving with a maid, no maid, in the Russian style, platter service, buffet style, etc.
• Cooking for invalids (Pre-politically correct days)
• Menus and food combinations
• Cooking for camping and how to build a campfire

Some of my favorite, but not heart-healthy, recipes are the following:

• Berliner Pfann Kuchen (Filled Dougnuts)
• Chocolate Icebox Cake made with Lady Fingers, lots of butter, eggs, and cream
• Potato Cakes made with cold mashed potatoes
• Chicken Liver Timbale
• Cheese Sticks

FInding these recipes takes me back to a time when I was an underweight kid and my mother insisted that my father make something to fatten me up. He tried, I ate massive quantities of doughnuts, cheese sticks, and cake, but I never gained any weight.

Now, well, that’s a different story. I never make any of these recipes, but maybe when I start picking wild raspberries I’ll get a hankering for Berliner Pfann Kuchen, make a dozen, and take my cue on how to serve them.

Here’s a confession: I’m a carbohydrate junkie. I can’t live without my two main dietary staples: Noodles and rice. When I lived in San Francisco in neighborhoods that were either Chinese or Italian, I got in the habit of always having rice or noodles as a side dish or having the entire meal based on either one.

When my husband and I moved to upstate New York, far from our stomping grounds in Little Italy and Chinatown, we decided since we couldn’t find any decent fresh pasta that we would make our own. We bought a traditional pasta machine, the kind that you crank out the dough and made some amazing fettucine. We only made it once. Did our pasta-making adventure sway me from eating carbs? Not at all, we moved to Park Slope where you can find Italian gourmet shops with freshly made noodles.

But I have moved on from the Italian pastas and I’ve become a fan of Asian noodles, especially the Japanese variety. And because I live far away from my favorite New York City Japanese resturants, once again, I’ve decided to make my own noodles and I’ll be using as my source for recipes Terry Durack’s Noodle

Noodle
by Terry Durack with photos by Geoff Lung
SOMA Books, 1999
201 pages, $19.99

When I was shopping around for a noodle cookbook that leaned towards Asian cuisine, Noodle instantly seduced me. Visually this book is a gem. Full page photos provide a “Noodle ID” on how to prepare them and which recipes work best. Durack offers over 100 recipes–tradtional and contemporary–from a variety of Asian countries and regions, and introduces each recipe with an anecdote. Also included are the basic recipes on how to prepare Homemade Egg Noodles, Udon (my current favorite), Soba, Chinese Chicken Stock, Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese Dipping Sauce).

Tonight’s meal is most likely Japanese Curry Udon. If anyone is interested in the recipe, leave a comment with your email and I’ll be happy to forward it along.

As I previously posted, Sundays have become a day of fancy cooking and I thought that this would be an appropriate introduction to a new category: Cookbooks.

I love my cookbooks as much as my other books, and I’ve separated the ones I use often and keep them on a shelf, within easy reach, in the kitchen. My favorite one is an Italian cookbook that I was introduced to at a dinner party nearly 20 years ago. And that’s Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table.

The name might be familiar to you if you’re a listener of NPR. Kasper has a radio show with the same title.For readers who don’t know Kasper, she was named one of the twelve best cooking teachers by the James Beard Foundation. Her research for the books began in the 1980s while Kasper was living in Europe. She explored Emilia-Romagna, working with home cooks, chefs, historians, and the culinary artisans who still prepare traditional foods
in the old way

The Splendid Table:Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food
by Lynn Rossetto Kasper
William Morrow and Company, 1992
530 pages, illustrated with 24 pages in full color
$39.95

I’m departing from third person reviews since cooking and eating is such a personal venture. I can emphatically state that The Splendid Table is my favorite cookbook. And becasue I love it so much, I’ve given it as a gift for Christmas, birthdays, Mother’s Day, anniversaries, and wedding showers.

If you like pasta then you’ll flip over the 56 recipes that are included in this book. But if you’re looking for more than just pasta, you’ll find something for meat, game, poultry lovers, and even vegeterians. Not sure what wine to serve? Kapser offers some terrific suggestions, as well as menu recommendations. Like some history to go with your meals? Kasper provides wonderful historical anecdotes about the Borgias, Rossini, Verdi, Toscanini, and Napoleon’s Empress Marie Louise and their devotion to the region’s food.

The first recipe I tried almost 20 years ago was Garganelli with Roasted Peppers, Peas, and Cream. As Kasper writes,

There is a lovely play of sweet, flavors here–roasted peppers, peas, cream and prosciutto. The dish is made in no time. By not reducing the cream, but merely heating it, the pasta maintains an unexpected lightness.

In terms of flavor and texture, it is very light. However, if it does become a favorite and you make it often–as I did years ago, don’t be surprised by your expanding waistline.

In recipes that require butter, olive oil or cream, Kasper doesn’t skimp or substitute with margarines or non-fat yogurts. Sometimes, she writes that you can subtitue butter with olive oil, but, in general, she always sticks to the traditional recipe.

And that’s the beauty of The Splendid Table–the ingredients. I love going to the green market and getting fresh herbs and vegetables (organic is even better). and I’m in absolute heaven shopping at specialty gourmet stores for cheeses, prosciutto, and pancetta.

When the book was first published, some of the key ingredients were difficult to find if you didn’t live in or a near a metropolitan area, but now just about every supermarket carries Prosciutto di Parma, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese or balsmaic vinegar. If you have questions of how to select ingredients, Kasper includes, “A Guide to Ingredients” that shares the secrets of how to select, use, and store fresh herbs, mushrooms, prosciutto, olive oils and much more.

Some of the recipes can be a challenging to make. I’ve shied away from the ragus, making fresh pasta, and the
desserts mostly because of time-constraints (but let’s face it, none of these recipes are waistline friendly)

As for tonight’s dinner, it’s one that I’ve made on several occasions: Salad of Tart Greens with Prosciutto and Warm Balsamic Dressing and Spaghetti with Anchovies and Melting Onions. Here’s what Kasper has to say,

From Ferrara’s Po delta, this in one of those easily-put-together dishes, a typical Sunday-night supper of the area. I have found that even those who claim to dislike anchovies enjoy their mild flavor, where their assertiveness is tamed by the sweet carmelized onions. Traditionally, pastas with fish are served without cheese. In this dish a few spoonfuls of olive oil season the pasta just before serving.

Later this evening, I’ll post photographs of the finished dishes. If you want the recipes for the dishes mentioned, leave your name and email in the comments section.

My husband and I are have gotten in the habit of making some pretty fancy meals on Sundays. This past Sunday was roast pork loin stuffed with figs, almonds and green olives accompanied by sauteed spinach with coriander and rosemary garlic roasted new potatoes. The week before was my version of a poor man’s paella with shrimp and zucchini.

We have a nice collection of cooksbooks that we use often and I thought, maybe since we love to cook and we love adding to our cookbook collection, so why not include reviews of our favorites and upcoming cookbooks?

The plan was to announce this on Sunday or closer to the weekend, but I’m simply too excited by this new event that I wanted to announce it today. Cookbook reviews will be posted every Sunday and I’ll include a favorite recipe with an accompanying photo of my culinary creation.  

Stay tuned and I hope that I inspire you to some gastronomic adventures in your own kitchen (and don’t blame me if you gain weight!)