|
12-03-2013, 09:22 AM
|
#1
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 143
|
Calling all cooks
My oldest son has an "interesting cookbook" on his Christmas list. Anyone have any ideas? He'd probably like bbq, comfort food, Italian, Mexican, etc. Not anything too out there.
|
|
|
|
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!
Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
|
12-03-2013, 09:27 AM
|
#2
|
Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern Maine
Posts: 672
|
This is my favorite...
Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen: Paul Prudhomme: 9780688028473: Amazon.com: Books
Quote:
Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen
Here for the first time the famous food of Louisiana is presented in a cookbook written by a great creative chef who is himself world-famous. The extraordinary Cajun and Creole cooking of South Louisiana has roots going back over two hundred years, and today it is the one really vital, growing regional cuisine in America. No one is more responsible than Paul Prudhomme for preserving and expanding the Louisiana tradition, which he inherited from his own Cajun background.
Chef Prudhomme's incredibly good food has brought people from all over America and the world to his restaurant, K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, in New Orleans. To set down his recipes for home cooks, however, he did not work in the restaurant. In a small test kitchen, equipped with a home-size stove and utensils normal for a home kitchen, he retested every recipe two and three times to get exactly the results he wanted. Logical though this is, it was an unprecedented way for a chef to write a cookbook. But Paul Prudhomme started cooking in his mother's kitchen when he was a youngster. To him, the difference between home and restaurant procedures is obvious and had to be taken into account.
So here, in explicit detail, are recipes for the great traditional dishes--gumbos and jambalayas, Shrimp Creole, Turtle Soup, Cajun "Popcorn," Crawfish Etouffee, Pecan Pie, and dozens more--each refined by the skill and genius of Chef Prudhomme so that they are at once authentic and modern in their methods.
Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen is also full of surprises, for he is unique in the way he has enlarged the repertoire of Cajun and Creole food, creating new dishes and variations within the old traditions. Seafood Stuffed Zucchini with Seafood Cream Sauce, Panted Chicken and Fettucini, Veal and Oyster Crepes, Artichoke Prudhomme--these and many others are newly conceived recipes, but they could have been created only by a Louisiana cook. The most famous of Paul Prudhomme's original recipes is Blackened Redfish, a daringly simple dish of fiery Cajun flavor that is often singled out by food writers as an example of the best of new American regional cooking.
For Louisianians and for cooks everywhere in the country, this is the most exciting cookbook to be published in many years.
|
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 09:30 AM
|
#3
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: NC
Posts: 21,305
|
I enjoy cooking and I wish I could help, but that's still a very broad set of criteria. Can you narrow it down any, and is he looking for beginner-intermediate-advanced? I assume you've already tried Google, there are endless lists.
We like Giada de Laurentis recipes (Italian) and Rick Bayless (Mexican) - they all seem to work very well, TV personas aside. I don't tackle BBQ at home and comfort food is subject to lots of interpretation.
We still have quite a few cookbooks, but we threw out all but the classics and don't buy them anymore since you can get unlimited recipes online now.
__________________
No one agrees with other people's opinions; they merely agree with their own opinions -- expressed by somebody else. Sydney Tremayne
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 50% equity funds / 45% bonds / 5% cash
Target WR: Approx 1.5% Approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 09:42 AM
|
#4
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NC Triangle
Posts: 5,807
|
There's also an ER Forum cookbook under Other Topics/Stickies. It appears TromboneAl stepped up to assemble it (thanks!). Good cooks here, but I am not one (yet).
__________________
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 12:01 PM
|
#6
|
Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 7,945
|
If he is interested in "authentic" Italian, I recommend
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: Marcella Hazan, Karin Kretschmann: 9780394584041: Amazon.com: Books
She was an American who lived in Italy for many years - she just died this year. I got the book last year and have really enjoyed it.
__________________
"One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute." William Feather
----------------------------------
ER'd Oct. 2010 at 53. Life is good.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 01:40 PM
|
#7
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Pittsburgh, PA suburbs
Posts: 1,796
|
One of my favorites is Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything; Simple Recipes for Great Food"
I am looking at my copy and the Washington Post describes it on the cover as "a more hip Joy of Cooking". It has won a Julia Child cookbook award and also the James Beard Foundation cookbook award.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 01:50 PM
|
#8
|
Moderator
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: San Diego
Posts: 14,212
|
Seconding Midpack's recommendation for Giada cook books. Her recipes are tested and easy to follow. And my Sicilian in-laws haven't criticized the results. (And they can be critical if the recipe is a miss.)
I find having 1 or 2 traditional cookbooks (Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker) supplemented with specialty cookbooks and the internet works for me. I double check more theoretical things in Joy of Cooking (how long per pound to cook cuts of meat...) It acts as a sanity check. Over time I've gotten better at judging whether a recipe makes sense or not. As I modify and/or develop recipes to our family's taste, I take notes and print it out in a 3 ring binder.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 01:50 PM
|
#9
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Lawn chair in Texas
Posts: 14,183
|
A few BBQ books listed here:
Top 10 Books on Grilling
__________________
Have Funds, Will Retire
...not doing anything of true substance...
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 01:53 PM
|
#10
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,440
|
LOVE this book more than any "recipe" book I've ever had for everyday cooking. "How to Cook without a Book" by Pam Anderson.
Here is the synopsis:
After a long day, who has the energy to look up a recipe and search for the right ingredients before ever starting to cook? To make dinner night after night, Anderson believes the first two steps--looking for a recipe, then scrambling for the exact ingredients--must be eliminated.
Understanding that most recipes are simply "variations on a theme," she innovatively teaches technique, ultimately eliminating the need for recipes. Once the technique or formula is mastered, Anderson encourages inexperienced as well as veteran cooks to spread their culinary wings. For example, after learning to sear a steak, it's understood that the same method works for scallops, tuna, hamburger, swordfish, salmon, pork tenderloin, and more. You never need to look at a recipe again. Vary the look and flavor of these dishes with interchangeable pan sauces, salsas, relishes, and butters.
Best of all, these recipes rise above the mundane Monday-through-Friday fare. Imagine homemade ravioli and lasagna for weeknight supper, or from-scratch tomato sauce before the pasta water has even boiled. Last-minute guests? Dress up simple tomato sauce with capers and olives or shrimp and red pepper flakes. Drizzle sauteed chicken breasts with a balsamic vinegar pan sauce.
Anderson teaches you how to do it--without a recipe. Don't buy exotic ingredients and follow tedious instructions for making hors d'oeuvres. Forage through the pantry and refrigerator for quick appetizers. The ingredients are all there; the method is in your head. Master four simple potato dishes--a bake, a cake, a mash, and a roast--compatible with many meals. Learn how to make the five-minute dinner salad, easily changing its look and flavor depending on the season and occasion. Tuck a few dessert techniques in your back pocket and effortlessly turn any meal into a special occasion.
There's real rhyme and reason to Pam's method at the beginning of every chapter: To dress greens, "Drizzle salad with oil, salt, and pepper, then toss until just slick. Sprinkle in some vinegar to give it a little kick." To make a frittata, "Cook eggs without stirring until set around the edges. Bake until puffy, then cut it into wedges." Each chapter also contains a helpful at-a-glance chart that highlights the key points of every technique, and a master recipe with enough variations to keep you going until you've learned how to cook without a book.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 02:35 PM
|
#11
|
Gone but not forgotten
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,924
|
__________________
"Knowin' no one nowhere's gonna miss us when we're gone..."
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 03:01 PM
|
#12
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,331
|
The Best Slow & Easy Recipes from Cook's Illustrated. It has some great recipes and educates you as to why they work.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 03:09 PM
|
#13
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Pittsburgh, PA suburbs
Posts: 1,796
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by donheff
The Best Slow & Easy Recipes from Cook's Illustrated. It has some great recipes and educates you as to why they work.
|
Hmm. I might have to get this for myself as it is right up my alley. I don't own a crockpot, but I do lots of simmered-on-the-stovetop and slow-baked in the oven recipes at least once a week that I then eat for several days. I don't mind eating repetitively for dinner if it is something I like.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 03:25 PM
|
#14
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 143
|
Thanks for all your replies. I knew someone here would have great suggestions. Now off to Amazon for further research.
|
|
|
12-03-2013, 04:28 PM
|
#15
|
Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 855
|
Diana Kennedy's books on Mexican cooking are superb. The Essential Cuisines of Mexico and the older The Cuisines of Mexico are both excellent. Oaxaca al Gusto is more of a coffee table book and not a practical cookbook. I like Rick Bayless, too, but Kennedy is my #1 choice for Mexican cooking. Lidia Bastianich's Italian cookbooks are excellent. I find myself using her books more often than Marcella Hazan's, but Hazan knew her stuff.
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Quick Links
|
|
|