s/d: cookbooks!

Topopo Chicken Salad is a classic

this one, pray tell?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Border-Cookbook-Authentic-Southwest/dp/1558321039/ref=zg_bs_4315_24

been tryna up my SW game since I realized all I ever cook is like pasta

should be taking delivery of Jerusalem today --- any recs on what to start with

not sure if its in that one but the meatballs in tahini sauce are amazing

yea that's the one stevie

xxp

i'm gonna get it

cool! iirc there are copies on amazon for like a buck

Just snagged it for $0.01 with $3.99 shipping and it was freeeee bcz I had Amazon credit!!! v cool

should be taking delivery of Jerusalem today --- any recs on what to start with

― jason waterfalls (gbx), Tuesday, September 29, 2015 11:56 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

***parsley and barley salad***
salmon steaks in chraimeh sauce
beef meatballs with fava beans and lemon (best in spring with fresh favas but make it anyway)

kewl

may have to pick up supplies on the way home

everyone should get the honey & co cookbook btw fyi

hey has anyone fucked w/ Thai cookbooks Pok Pok or Simple Thai Food? From what I understand David Thompson's Thai Food was the definitive text but was also idk like crazy complex? I've never fucked w/ it. I want something that is authentic and NOT Americanized w/ curries that actually use tamarind, cane sugar, kaffir lime, etc., but I am fine if they don't take 6 hours and an entire afternoon to prepare.

also should I get the Smitten Kitchen or The Kitchn cookbooks? Also ppl just give me tips for quintessential cookbooks always, I want all of the best cookbooks!!!

Might be worth looking at Jean-Pierre Gabriel's Thailand: The Cookbook as well. I find Thompson's books too much work but from what i've seen of the Gabriel one, it's less fiddly.

i was curious about pok pok but i imagined it would be one of those impractical books where you never use it.

i recently bought claudia roden's spanish book and it's brilliant, had been looking for something like this for some time, really recommend it.

I want the Pok Pok book, a chef friend of mine has it. I will ask her abt it next chance I get.

This is my favorite and most used Thai cookbook: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0962878308?keywords=thai%20cooking%20ravadi&qid=1445534366&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2
Written by the owner of the Emerald of Siam in Richland WA (I used to eat there all the time).

Instead of smitten kitchen or thekitchn get Kenji Lopez-Alt's Food Lab cookbook, he's the guy behind Serious Eats Food Lab section

we found these in a thrift store last weekend:

https://www.whisknyc.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_3983.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5103KJYfN-L._SL500_SX350_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

i would never call kenji's book an either/or with something like the smitten kitchen cookbook, like it's a technique-driven book mostly for carnivores with no sweets, so pretty much the opposite of what smitten kitchen is up to.

chef friend re: Pok Pok:

"It's complicated but really pretty. I have it but have never cooked out of it yet. If I had time to execute the recipes in there I would."

That's how I feel about the Thompson Thai book - really pretty but everything's waaaaay too complicated, like "how dare you use a food processor to make this curry paste, you need to do everything in a mortar and pestle and IN THIS EXACT ORDER". I just don't care enough anymore.

the pok pok is less ridiculous than the thompson book (which is just crazy)

also pok pok book has some recipes that take multiple days; but also quite a few that dont.

i recommend it!

but thai food is my favourite food; i might have more patience than others

I think I've already promoted it here, but Steve Raichlen's "Miami Spice" is a little gem.

I also really like Deborah Madison's original "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" (haven't seen the updated version). It is my go-to when I come home from the farmer's market with something I don't have a clue what to do with.

"Rice & Curry: Sri Lankan Home Cooking" is great for weekday curries! As long as you have access to fresh curry leaves you are all set (I go to a Sri Lankan market, but I also see them at Indian grocers and large international grocery stores like Grand Mart, Lotte, etc.)

I'll rep for Rick Bayless's Mexican Everyday, which I just gave to my mom for Christmas. His more authentic book is very good too, but the former is great for people with less access to all the ingredients and less time on their hands to screw around making sauces that take all day to prepare or pressing tortillas and the like.

yeah, I got this one a few weeks ago and everything has been really solid that I've made so far.

I promised to get a colleague who a) can't boil and egg and b) lives in Serbia a basic cookery book.

What would be a good, simple, Italian-leaning, not-particularly-adventurous-with-ingredients option? Nigella Lawson?

*an egg

marcella hazan, as vaunted upthread, might be a good bet. I've only learnt her recipes second hand from my brother who is a devotee, but some very simple & extremely delicious stuff which is v satisfying to cook

Thanks! I will investigate.

Delia.

maybe even Jamie Oliver?

i reckon nigel slater 100 per cent. real fast food is like a paperback, really basic, cheap good dishes, it's like "how to cook" but still has some brilliant recipes, basic use of herbs and spices, all the foundations.

maybe the 30-minute cook or real cooking if you want something a bit fancier. think real fast food actually has how to boil an egg, or close to it anyway.

he cooks across cultures p well and he goes through store cupboard stuff and that kind of thing. the paperback real fast food (like the shape of a novel) might be a bit low key as a gift, is the only thing, dunno if it comes in a nicer form.

I do love Real Fast Food but it's got no pictures, which I think of as being useful for a beginner.

thats true... some of his books have photos tho. and i agree w/ localgarda they are great

i don't find pics mad useful personally, though i got a copy of claudia roden's italian book recently that was a small paperback and the size of the pages compared to the complexity of the recipes has ensured i've barely opened it. don't think real fast food has this problem.

i guess i just find i've prob used the slater books more than any others, especially when i was first beginning to cook a lot.

Delia's complete cookery thingamabob was my bible when I first started out; a decent size to prop open on a worktop, and easy-to-follow instructions for pretty much everything you might thing of. Like a book of platonic essence recipes.

Slater's probably my favourite overall. Jamie Oliver feels like a younger, hipper, slightly less sophisticated version of him. I love Ottolenghi too but he's fiddly as fuck.

yeah ottolenghi has way too many ingredients always. he did a piece in the guardian last year that was like "lol i know i always have too many ingredients so try these shorter recipes!" and it was still way too many ingredients.

i don't mind cooking something that takes time and effort, i have no real upper limit on it especially if entertaining. but for the amount of ingredients used i never want to cook any of ottolenghi's dishes.

i might argue real fast food not having pictures is actually a plus bc it deemphasises set-piece cookery. as for many it was my genuine total beginner book too and in retrospect what it was rly good at was just nudging u to appreciate that an extra 5% effort is nbd and can be v rewarding

interesting to think about whether and in what ways it might seem dated now

last several years of slater are bad btw dude fell the fuck off

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Things-Eat-Lucas-Hollweg/dp/0007364075?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

big fan of lucas hollweg who was the (scandalously deposed for gizzy bloody erskine) sunday times cookery guy now waitrose magazine columnist (probably for best as he is an awful toff who should never be on tv). like slater but much more refined and low key creative in engaging encouraging ways, very well considered recipes, never too many outre ingredients, totally underrated

yeah true about slater, even his recipes in the paper, once a must-read, are kinda weird now, i liked his old knack of taking stuff that's in vogue and tweaking it for your store cupboard but the recipes just seem a bit weird now.

must take a look at hollweg. there isn't much in the papers i rely on anymore, but i tend to just improvise simple things a bit more in the last year, with nice ingredients.

ottolengman gets a cliche bad rep at this point imo... his books are still really good, only getting better in fact. his recipes are the best possible version of the given idea but they give you plenty of room for compromise if u don't use them like a car repair manual

still yet to see a fucking aleppo chilli in my entire life tho

if u want a hollweg testimonial i once attended a bbq thing an ex of mine i hadnt seen since was at and i'd noticed she'd brought along one of the salads out his book which i knew she did not own at the time of break up. the fury inside of me that day

florence knight i also like in that general vein, small notch up in terms of difficulty/being arsed though

i like the us website serious eats - it can be pretty simple and good, among all the recipes for burgers or ribs or whatever.

yeah the kenji-lopez-alt-ctrl-delete science bits there are v interesting occasionally. his method for making store-bought mozzarella not be a big ball of used chewing gum is a lifechanger