Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Two books this week:

Indonesian Street Food Secrets
2.5 out of 5
Would not buy

The Cooking of Indonesia and the Phillipines
3.5 out of 5
Would buy: used/discounted

As you can see, I had a mind to cook Indonesian.

Combining recipes from the two books, I made Gado-Gado (vegetables with peanut sauce) with deep-fried tempeh.

Indonesian Street Food is very accessible and a fun read. However, the recipes tend to be on the oversimplified side, and depend heavily on exotic ingredients, making substitutions for hard-to-find indonesian seasonings and vegetables difficult. While this is probably authentic for street food, it doesn't work that well in my kitchen. Has a nice glossary. Also comes with a CD-ROM which requires some obsolete version of Windows, so I don't know what's on it; presumably more or less what's on the website.

The Cooking of Indonesia, on the other hand, is a glossy book with well-explained recipes and lots of pictures. Better glossary than Street Food, and recipes depend less on stuff I can't easily buy. After comparing the two gado gado recipes, for example, I used the one in Cooking of Indonesia. This book also has Philippino recipes (about 40%), and I do wish the author was clearer about which are which. Still, there are a few more recipes I want to prepare from it.

All,

I decided to blog this one: http://www.fuzzychef.org/archives/Flatb ... -2011.html

Thanks Josh! I particularly like when I can find your recommendations in our library system. It's been requested!

Amy

I've had this one for awhile and not gotten to it. Thanks for the poke to use it!

Salad as a Meal, Healthy Main-Dish Salads for Every Season by Patricia Wells 3.5 out of 5 stars

Not exactly known for "healthy" cooking, Ms. Wells is riding a trend towards more healthful eating. But, as you would expect from someone known for writing about classical French cuisine, there are still plenty of things like cream in some of her recipes, albeit light cream.

This isn't a rabbit food cookbook. Many of her "salads" are things like tartines (open-faced sandwiches), and even terrines. She covers the classics, e.g., Salad Nicoise, Cobb, etc., but also includes Asian-inspired fare as well.

Last night I made Chicken Salad with Peas, Feta and Mint. It also has scallions, cherry tomatoes, avocado, romaine, chives and radishes. (Yes Mary, I actually bought and ate radishes. I think I'm beginning to appreciate them more...) I did not make her creamy lemon-chive dressing, as the recipe called for cream, and that felt over-the-top and unnecessary to me. The salad was excellent...perfect for a Spring day.

I look forward to trying more out of this book.

Amy

P.S. Josh, there is a recipe for Cod, Herb and Potato Salad you may want to check out...looks really good.

Amy, thanks for the review! I have that book on my Amazon list. Let me know if it's worth it....

KSS,

I'm going to buy this book. I really like the looks of many of the recipes.

Amy

Josh,

That book looks great -- thanks for the recommendation.

Amy,

I'll add it to my library list. Actually, kinda based on your mention last night I made panzanella salad for dinner.