Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Thanks, Amy. I learned a lot from the book already.
Nancy

btw Nancy,

Bo it an absolute sweetie. Met him a few times, and as the saying goes, "I could lick him with a spoon." (Minds out of the gutter peeps.)

Amy

Might that more appropriately be, "Lick him like a spoon."? And a helluva lot more fun...
I'm just sayn'

Whose young relative liked to say "get a 'poon and eat it up!"? Darcie, was that you?

Nope, not me!

I love this board

Creole, Babette de Rozieres, Phaidon 2007

The "Creole" of the book refers to the cooking of the French-speaking West Indies, not the cooking of French New Orleans, although there is some overlap.

Like other Phaidon books, this collection of recipes from a restaurant chef in Guadeloupe has more pictures ... huge, colorful, full-page pictures ... than recipes. Not that it is short on recipes; I'd guess that there are 150-200 in the book, primarily seafood and desserts. While you might be in doubt about some of the instructions or ingredients (descriptions are terse, and there's no narrative text), you will never be in doubt as to what anything is supposed to look like.

Overall, 3.5 out of 5; I'd recommend it for someone who wants to get into Carribbean cooking, and it's certainly pretty and would make a good gift. The range of ingredients is a bit narrow to be your only caribbean cookbook ... especially if you live somewhere the specialty ingredients are hard to find ... but it would be a good book to round out your Islands cooking. Also, not recommended for spicy food haters; everything has peppers in it.

Recommended for Dave, though.

Pintxos, Gerald Hirigoyen

This is the second cookbook from Hirigoyen, the Basque chef of San Francisco, that I've cooked from. Of the two, this cookbook was less useful to me, and I wouldn't buy it .... not because of the quality of recipes, which are excellent, but because of the limited range of a cookbook devoted entirely to Basque appetizers.

The "Pintxos" after which the book is named are little skewers, a popular bar food in Catalonia. Included in the book are 8 recipes for skewers (such as anchovy, tomato and garlic pintxos), as well as pan-fried, deep-fried, and stewed appetizers, and bocadillos (sandwiches). Interestingly, there's a whole chapter on small plates made with organ meats.

Overall, the recipes tend to be simple to moderately complex, with short cooking times and requiring only a couple of exotic ingredients per recipe. The one I tried (mushroom, pepper and calamari saute) was delicious, and easily adjusted for the requirements of my small kitchen.

I have the individual problem that 80% of the recipes in the book contain ingredients which either I or my wife won't eat, so I'm returning it to the library now. Particularly, I wouldn't recommend the book to a vegetarian.

Overall, 3.5 out of 5. This would be a good cookbook to give someone who already has several Spanish and Portuguese cookbooks, but a poor introduction to Iberian cuisine. It would also be good for someone who entertains a lot and like "theme" parties.

Josh,

I just requested a copy of his first book from the library. btw, for anyone searching their library system for this, the spelling of his last name is Hirigoyen.

The book you reviewed isn't available through our library system, but I'd really like to look at it. Skewers are a definite must in the repertoire of a caterer.

Amy

Amy,

Yeah, the Pintxos cookbook would be a lot better for a caterer than it is for a home cook. A lot of the recipes would be far more efficient in large quantities, and many things had rather fussy presentation.