Fuller on Food: Feeding the bookworm
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 11:38 PM PST
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E-mail this articleColumn by Don Fuller
For The Daily News
Finding the right gift for your favorite cook can be a tough job. Quite often the giver is attracted to cookbooks as a good choice.
I have shelves of cookbooks, many of them gifts, and I find them a great resource for our menus. Sometimes they lead to a new favorite dish, but other times they help me find a use for a tired ingredient. Even when the cookbooks themselves become tired, I still go back to them for things.
For instance, I have six or seven cookbooks on Asian cooking, and although my Asian “phase” has passed, I still regard them as old friends. They’re there when I need a stir-fry recipe to help shed holiday pounds.
The cookbooks on my shelves are about more than recipes. They’re often beautiful. They have ideas for shortcuts. They give me new ways to think about food and its impact on our lives. They make great gifts.
In that spirit, some ideas and reflections:
Food for the thoughtful cook
An area that interest many serious cooks is books that talk about food, food sources, and chefs. These books often rise to the top of my list of books to buy. I like books that are more than pages of recipes. Instead the authors talk about their philosophy of food and what excites them about cooking. The following books fit this description. Following the publishing information is their availability. To make sure they were available, I got on the Internet and checked Powell’s Books. But I am sure that our local bookstores might have them or be glad to order them for you. If you are looking for a gift for yourself, many of these books are available used on the Internet.
“Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant,” Ferrari-Adler, Jenni, ed. Riverhead Books, 2007
A collection of essays, this book’s subtitle summarizes the book best: “Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone.” The authors are accomplished writers so their essays have substance and humor. The lifestyle of some of the essayists may raise a few eyebrows, but their ideas about living and eating alone is done with grace and insight.
“Don’t Try This At Home,” Witherspoon, Kimberly & Andrew Freidman, eds.,Bloomsbury, 2005
This book is another group of essays. The authors are all successful, well-known chefs and restaurateurs. The premise is that even successful chefs are subject to crises in the kitchen. Most of the essays describe how the author solved a problem. In one case lobster, which was featured in the main course, spoiled overnight by poor handling and threatened a banquet for 1,200 people. Now that’s a crisis.
“Alice Waters and Chez Panisse,” by Thomas McNamee, Penguin Books, 2007
Alice Waters is a major figure in the development of a cuisine which is sensitive to nature, emphasizes simplicity and uses locally produced meat, fruit and vegetables. She was never trained as a chef, was a poor business manager, and depended a great deal on others for verbalizing her ideas. Nevertheless, Waters revolutionized California cuisine by returning to a style that was greatly influenced by French food, particularly southern France, and by paying attention to detail. Her cooking and her cookbooks summarize her philosophy that a healthy land is important for a healthy society.
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” by Michael Pollan, Penguin Books, 2006
I’ve written about this book before. It is a major work about how we can best restore an important balance between the land and society and touches on many of the themes that are also important to Alice Waters.
“The Art of Simple Food,” by Alice Waters, Clarkson Potter, 2007
Her cookbook expresses the philosophy of finding the best flavors in your local area. What is great about the cookbook is that it is a good book for an inexperienced cook. The recipes are uncomplicated and allow some latitude in each dish so that variations are useful in expressing individual tastes. Much advice about cooking is available throughout. Many cookbooks tell you what to do, but Waters often explains why you do it or should do it. I would strongly recommend it for cooks regardless of skill level.
“The Fallingwater Cookbook,” by Suzanne Martinson, with others, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.
This great book has been discussed in The Daily News earlier. Martinson is a former feature editor at this paper who went on to edit the food pages and write for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her cookbook about a famous family, their dramatic Frank Lloyd Wright house and the cook who fed them is one that would make a great Christmas gift.
Good food for us Northwesterners
The second area of interest involves cookbooks that feature Northwest products and foods. In that category, I would recommend the following books.
“Beyond Elephant Ears,” Altrusa International of Longview-Kelso, Morris Press, 2008. New, Available at Paperbacks Galore or from Longview-Kelso Altrusa members
The cookbook has a spiral-bound format, making it easy to use when cooking. The range of recipes is wide, going from recipes that will appeal to the beginning cook to others that are good company dishes and some that are quite unusual. Such cookbooks are great additions to the shelf because you know that all have been tested by experienced cooks, and when they are put together locally, they often involve local specialties. (Also, the largest section is devoted to desserts and cookies.)
Another in this genre is “The Friends of the Library’s Cookie Collection,” still available at the Longview Public Library.
“Oregon’s Cuisine of the Rain,” by Karen Brooks, Addison Wesley, 1993
Karen Brooks often does restaurant reviews for the Oregonian newspaper. Her deep love of the bounty of the Northwest, particularly Oregon, is the basis for this book. All the recipes’ main ingredients are quickly identified with meat, seafood, vegetable, and fruits from our part of the world. The recipes are a step or two above the ordinary with many of them contributed by Oregon’s major chefs. Recipe titles such as Chicken with Morels and Cream, Pears with Brandied Currants, and Lemon Chicken with Stuffed Figs, give you some idea of the level of sophistication here. That said, the recipes are easy to follow and clearly written. She’s a great advocate for the superiority of Northwest food.
“Wandering & Feasting: A Washington Cookbook,” by Mary Houser Caditz, WSU Press, 1996.
Caditz is truly a native Washingtonian with a family history that goes back through four generations of Washington families. Because of her interest and background in food and food production, she developed a cookbook that explores native or commonly cultivated food sources of our state. The recipes are ones that she has tested and reflect various geographical sections of our state. My wife, Judy, often goes to this cookbook for seasonal recipes using available local products. While not only for a gourmet kitchen, her recipes are good company fare: Steamed Clams with Tomatoes and Herbs, Strawberry Brandy Sorbet, and Sautéed Rockfish with Fresh Tomato Salsa.
For the in-a-hurry Cook
Another area of interest for many cooks is sources for idea that are time savers or are make ahead books. I have picked two books in this category.
“Four Ingredient Cookbooks,” by Linda Coffee and Emily Cale, Coffee & Cale, 2002
I have not seen this particular book, but the edition of a similar four ingredient cookbook that I have is an English publication and is no longer available. I am sure that the expectation for Linda Coffee’s cookbook can be equal to my edition with more emphasis on popular American food recipes -- and they have sold over one million books. The method works best if you buy prepared sauces, soups, or pastries rather than working from scratch. However, many of the recipes do use just four common ingredients. And recipes like Filo-wrapped Fish, Cream of Onion Soup, Hot Chocolate Rum Souffles show the potential for four ingredients.
“The Best Make-Ahead Recipes,” Cook’s Illustrated, eds., America’s Test Kitchen, 2007
One of Judy’s pet peeves is dealing with a menu that demands a lot of time in the kitchen after guests arrive. The Cook’s Illustrated cookbook for made-ahead recipes focuses much attention on techniques used in restaurants in preparing a dish by partially cooking the main ingredient in advance and then finishing it in the oven. For example, they recommend pan roasting chicken breasts by browning them bone-in and then create a variety of oven finishes for the breasts. Slow cooking is an important section of the book as well. Traditional dishes, such as casseroles, pot pies, and braised meats are included.
I hope this starts you on your quest for a book for a cook. My original list was much longer, but when I was searching the Internet, I found that when I entered one title, several related titles also appeared. The same happens when you go to a bookstore or the library. Near each title are a series of related topics. Perhaps my suggestions will send you down several interesting paths. It certainly did for me.
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