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Cookbooks Make
Great Gifts

CARON GOLDEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

risotto, the book translates tradi-
perature starts to fall and tional French cuisine into a more
the idea of actually turn- contemporary American kitchen
ing on the oven doesn't language.
North Africa, the Vegetarian
send me running instead to a cold
shower, cooking reasserts its ap- Table by Kitty Morse (Chronicle
peal. It's like the beginning of a Books). I know, more vegetables,
new school year — summer fruits but this beautiful book is as much
and veggies are still hanging on a window into Moroccan life as a
but fall's harvest is an invitation cookbook. Morse, born in Casa-
to try new recipes and learn new blanca, pulls together a list of spe-
cial ingredients and equipment,
techniques.
So rather than pass out dull dining customs and entertaining
textbooks for the coming year, here traditions before introducing the
is an assortment of cookbooks and recipes. Check out the Cashew
cooking software that offer new Bastila, a cashew phyllo pie made
and useful approaches to playing with sweet paprika, cinnamon and
cilantro.
with your food.

F 4

Shop the merchants of Applegate Square
for great savings of up to 50% off at participating stores.

■ Coming Soon –
Little Daddy's Parthenon

■ Don's Salon

■ Empire Szechuan Garden

■ MB Jewelers

■ Mira Linder Spa In The City'

■ Roland Optics

Northwestern Highway Between 12 & 13 Mile Rds. • Southfield

very year, once the tem-

COOKBOOKS
French, Moroccan, Mexican,
vegetarian — so many cuisines
and so many cookbooks. Here are
a number of newcomers that de-
serve a place in the kitchen:
Chez Panisse Vegetables by Al-
ice Waters (HarperCollins). With
the explosion of interest in fann-
ers' markets and quality produce,
it's no surprise that Waters has
added to the growing library of
vegetable cookbooks.
The book is divided alphabeti-
cally into chapters by vegetables,
some obviously familiar — avoca-
dos, cauliflower, peppers — and
others waiting for an introduction,
like cardoons (a relation of the ar-
tichoke that looks like a mutant
celery stalk). Waters provides a
good introduction to each vegetable
and the recipes range from step-
by-step precision to free-flowing.
Red, White & Green by Faith
Willinger (HarperCollins). This
continues the vegetable theme,
only with an Italian twist. Its or-
ganization is similar to Waters'
book but incorporates an Italian
history of each vegetable, its Ital-
ian name and a good introduction
to the produce before offering the
recipes. The recipes include dish-
es like Ezio's Eggplant Caviar,
Wild Greens Risotto and Mas-
caron's Octopus and Celery Salad.
French Food /American Accent
by Debra Ponzek and Joan
Schwartz (Clarkson Potter). In-
cludes 160 recipes from the own-
er of Aux Delices in New York.
Ranging from classic ratatouille
and coq au vin to a chilled sweet
potato vichyssoise and pan-roast-
ed squab with wild mushroom
Caron Golden is a writer with
Copley News Service.

Nancy Silverton's Breads From
the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Sil-
verton (Villard). This is for true
bread junkies, a course in bread
baking between two covers. Sil-
verton, owner with husband Mark
Peel of the venerable La Brea Bak-
ery and Campanile restaurant in
Los Angeles, is thorough in her ex-
planation of bread alchemy and
describes the necessary tools as
well as different kinds of flour and
the kind of breads they produce.
These recipes require time —
time for the starter to bubble and
foam, and time for the breads
themselves to use and take shape.
The results, however, are magnif-
icent. Try the olive bread, made
with white starter, as well as the
Normandy rye and the raisin
brioche.
Hot & Spicy Mexican by Dave
DeWitt, Mary Jane Wilan and
Melissa T. Stock (Prima). No ton-
ing down the peppers here. The
editors of Chile Pepper magazine
pull off their fifth Hot & Spicy tome
with a devotion to all the ways in
which chilies are used as food
south of our border. Agua Chile
(Chili Water) is a simple soup
made in the state of Sinaloa with
chiltepines peppers, garlic, toma-
toes and a pinch of oregano.
Also recommended are two lit-
tle books from Prima: The Art of
Chinese Vegetarian Cooking by
Joan Hush with Paul Hush and
The Art of Japanese Vegetarian
Cooking by Max Jacobson. These
two books celebrate vegetables
with the subtle culinary traditions
of the Far East.

COOKING SOFTWARE
Cooking software can be an
anomaly. Even the most high-tech-
COOKBOOKS page 28