Episode 24: Recipe Roundup #5

Episode 24: Recipe Roundup #5

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The good recipes and the bad recipes both teach, inspire, and help you focus on the ultimate goal – being a better cook in your kitchen. This month our testing community – you might say – had their share of both.

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This episode features recipes from the following cookbooks:

By Jami Curl

Available at Amazon.com

From Chef Donna Desfor's Review

This is not an ordinary cookbook. Candy is Magic is a confections cookbook with more than 200 recipes that use real, natural ingredients to make lollipops, marshmallows, caramels, drinks (of both the soft- and hard- varieties), chews and more. Yes: candy, natural ingredients, made in your home kitchen. Beyond the candy-making magic, though, this book is a handbook of ideas about flavoring and building flavor and including or adding flavor to your favorite confections – be it candy, or cakes and brownies, ice creams and sauces. Were you to never make any of the candy recipes between the covers, you’d still be glad you had the ideas and recipes to improve what you already consider your sweet treats.

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By Gonzalo Guzmán with Stacy Adimando

Available at Amazon.com

From Chef Donna Desfor's Review

It’s never easy to convince someone to try a cultural cuisine, let alone cook it. But if you were to consider Nopalito as California-style fresh cuisine with regional Mexican flavors and ingredients woven in perhaps just maybe you’d give this book more than a passing glance. Inspired by his familial roots in Mexico and then his professional career in San Francisco, California , chef and Nopalito owner Gonzalo Guzmán takes you thoughtfully his family-style recipes that he cooks and serves in his restaurants. Fresh and vibrant like the market foods they are prepared from, and wistfully nostalgic for the land and memories that inspire them. You will cook and delight in it all. And add a healthy dose of cultural cuisine to your kitchen repertoire.

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By Fern Green

Available at Amazon.com

From Chef Donna Desfor's Review

If you’re a fan of fruit or vegetables or both, and you’re a fan of refreshing drinks, you’ll be a fan of Super Smoothies: 61 Recipes and 12 Detox Plans. Though titled as if it were a guide to healthy living and detoxing, the recipes are more delicious-sounding than medicinal. And while each of Fern Green’s 61 recipes are categorized to aid in your overall health, with chapters like Metabolism, Digestion, Stress Buster, Summer Booster and more, you’ll find the colors and ingredients appealing on their own. That they are good for you and your body is the added bonus.

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By Elisabeth Prueitt

Available at Amazon.com

From Chef Donna Desfor's Review

“It’s said that limitations often become the best teachers.” And from there, Elisabeth Prueitt in her new cookbook, Tartine All Day pulls you in to her belief that you can cook from a cookbook whilst you live your busy life. You may disagree with that sentiment at least half of the time paging through her book. But, if you keep going you’ll ultimately agree there is no way around what she says: cooking is work. It requires you to think and plan ahead; it requires a bit of skill, and most of all it requires time. If you can accept that premise – it is, after all, truth – then you will find that Tartine All Day can become a modern handbook for your kitchen and all the things you want to-, love to-, and intend to-cook.

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By Chitra Agrawal

Available at Amazon.com

From Chef Donna Desfor's Review

Light, fresh and satisfying vegetarian meals – many vegan and gluten-free – await anyone curious enough to indulge in the exercise of scouting some hard to find ingredients in Vibrant India: Fresh Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Brooklyn. Adapting family South Indian recipes for the home kitchen, chef, blogger and owner of Brooklyn Delhi (an award-winning Indian condiments line) Chitra Agrawal shifts our conventional thinking of Americanized-Indian cuisine toward seasonal vegetables and fruits and unprocessed whole grains, nuts, seeds, oils, and dairy products. The food is vibrant in color and flavor and diverse. Patience and perseverance helps you get started. Once you have, your sensed will be delighted and your appetite satisfied.

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