Lt vuide

Cookbooks Make
Great Gifts

_I'.'1111Eff' 7111k

CARON GOLDEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

E

very year, once the tern-
perature starts to fall and
the idea of actually turn-
ing on the oven doesn't
send me running instead to a cold
shower, cooking reasserts its ap-
peal. It's like the beginning of a
new school year — summer fruits
and veggies are still hanging on
but fall's harvest is an invitation
to try new recipes and learn new
techniques.
So rather than pass out dull
textbooks for the coming year, here
is an assortment of cookbooks and
cooking software that offer new
and useful approaches to playing
with your food.

SAYI N G S

Up To 50% Off

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

■ Baggit

■ Le Metro Restaurant

■ Sew Biz

■ Clipper's Unisex Salon

■ Shanna's

■ Don's Salon

■ Coming Soon –
Little Daddy's Parthenon

■ Empire Szechuan Garden

■ MB Jewelers

■ Slades Gift Shop

■ First Discount Travel

■ Mira Linder Spa In The City'

■ Tennis Plus

■ Hamilton Gallery

■ Roland Optics

■ Valentina

■ lmaginknit

■ Scott Gregory

■ The Waiting Game

THE DETR O

Exclusive Apparel

Northwestern Highway Between 12 & 13 Mile Rds. • Southfield

risotto, the book translates tradi-
tional French cuisine into a more
contemporary American kitchen
language.
North Africa, the Vegetarian
Table by Kitty Morse (Chronicle
Books). I know, more vegetables,
but this beautiful book is as much
a window into Moroccan life as a
cookbook. Morse, born in Casa-
blanca, pulls together a list of spe-
cial ingredients and equipment,
dining customs and entertaining
traditions before introducing the
recipes. Check out the Cashew
Bastila, a cashew phyllo pie made
with sweet paprika, cinnamon and
cilantro.
Nancy Silverton's Breads From
the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Sil-
verton Willard). 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 rise 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.

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- COOKING SOFTWARE
ed squab with wild mushroom
Cooking software can be an
anomaly. Even the most high-tech-
Caron Golden is a writer with
Copley News Service.
COOKBOOKS page 28