Search Results for: All Under Heaven

 

Carolyn Phillips is the brilliance behind Madame Huang’s Kitchen, a website devoted to her vast research and experience with Chinese culture and cooking. Her long anticipated cookbook, All Under Heaven, is the first book to examine all 35 of the cuisines of China and is set to be released on August 30th.

Not only is the multi-talented Phillips an award-winning writer but she also illustrated this 500 gift to those of us who crave knowledge of Chinese cuisine. The vast research necessary to write All Under Heaven resulted from studying ancient culinary texts, talking with restaurant owners in China to glean their family recipes along with her own extensive background of working, eating and cooking in China. I forgive Phillips for making us wait so long now that I have seen the genius of her work.

There are no photographs in the book because it is so jammed packed with narrative, recipes and illustrations. Organized by regions beginning with a background of that area, Phillips heart and soul can be felt in every word. The book is massive but perfectly laid out with stark white pages, easy to follow instructions with maps and drawings that speaks to her story. She highlights extra information to perfect each dish in red font after each recipe. It is as if she is in the kitchen with us working beside us to make sure we achieve the best results.

I’ve been reading the book and have enjoyed soaking up the rich history of China. The recipes are, for the most part, are totally accessible. Hainan Chicken and Rice, Sticky Rice Two Ways, Savory Crab and Cellophane Noodles and Meaty Bone Soup are all examples of recipes that can be made in our kitchens. We may need to stop at an Asian market for some ingredients or procure those hard to find ingredients online, however, most of the items needed are already in my pantry.

Phillips’ illustrations are not only art but also serve as tutorials: how to make “tiger’s mouth” balls, wrapping wontons, and cutting squid blossoms are drawn out for us step by step.

This book is sure to be this year’s best cookbook, I have no doubt.

Phillips’ second book The Dim Sum Field Guide is set to be released on the same date. The perfect guide for those who are not completely immersed in the art of dim sum. The book shares over 70 profiles and illustrations of various types of dim sum dishes from what the typical ingredients are in the dish, origins, sauces and more.

GIVEAWAY: I love this book so much, I want one of you to have a copy of All Under Heaven. To enter this giveaway leave a comment here telling me about your favorite Chinese dish. You may return daily to enter another comment for a chance. For a second entry, please share this post. The giveaway is open to U.S. addresses only and a random winner will be chosen on September 5th. Good luck!

Random Number Generator picked #99 Angela Motta.

The links to Amazon are affiliate links and your Amazon purchases help to support this site and help with giveaways. Anything you purchase through my Amazon link (also located on the right side bar) is greatly appreciated.

Special thanks to Ten Speed Press and McSweeneys for providing me with a copy of this magnificent book for review.

Cookbooktober is right around the corner! There are many great cookbooks that are coming our way that I’m excited about. This seems to be a recurring theme every year. (And I’ve already been peeking at Spring 2017). A cookbook lover’s job is never done.

My goal here is to make you aware of what is coming with a few words about each title. The last paragraph contains links to Amazon on other Fall releases that I am excited about but did not to overwhelm anyone with this list.

I did not include photographs of the covers of these titles, but you can check them out by clicking the link under each title. This should help the page load faster for everyone. While you are here, be sure to scroll through the posts and leave a comment on the other giveaways.

I’d like to apologize in advance for my abuse of the exclamation point. The post is organized with savory, restaurant titles first and baking bringing up the rear. Grab a snack, sit back and relax!

All Under Heaven Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China – Carolyn Phillips’ long-awaited book is so close. 300 recipes and over 500 pages of Phillips’ vast knowledge of Chinese cuisine! (More details and a giveaway for this book here.) A must have. Immediately after this release will be her second title: The Dim Sum Field Guide: A Taxonomy of Dumplings, Buns, Meats, Sweets, and Other Specialties of the Chinese Teahouse. Truly it will be Christmas in August!

Taste & Technique I have been waiting for Naomi Pomeroy to release a cookbook forever – 140 recipes to elevate home cooking! This book is stunning. Totally upscale cooking that should be approachable to the home cook. Details on every aspect of cooking: ingredients, equipment, techniques and totally pop off the page photographs. Everyone needs this book and everyone needs to work through this book to hone their mastery in the kitchen. I’ll definitely be doing that! I expected greatness and I am not disappointed!

Victuals by Ronni Lundy is a glimpse into the people and food of the Appalachian Mountains with recipes. I love titles that explore a region in depth and brings us closer to understanding that area’s culture and people. This book is truly beautiful – gorgeous photos and beautiful narrative. This book is culinary greatness as its best. A James Beard award winner in the making.

Deep South New Southern Cooking by Brad McDonald. I’ll be reviewing this title for TasteBook and have seen the book! It’s great, beautiful and will make you crave Southern food with McDonald’s British twist!

Big Food Big Love – I love restaurant cookbooks, I love Seattle and I love Southern food – this book hits all three. Heather Earnhardt is known for her biscuits at her cafe, The Wandering Goose, and in this title, she shares 130 recipes that are geared for sharing with our family and friends!

Big Bad Breakfast – John Currence’s first title Pickles Pigs and Whiskey is a great book and now the acclaimed chef tackles breakfast! 75 recipes inspired by his restaurant in Oxford, Mississippi – this is a great one. It’s breakfast food ramped up and has me thinking I’ve been doing breakfast wrong for years. You can try three recipes from the book now at Eat Your Books and check that post for a giveaway link as well!

China The Cookbook– Touted as the definitive book of the world’s most popular and oldest cuisine. This title by Phaidon is another must have for those of us who love Chinese food and culture.

C’est Bon: Recipes Inspired by La Grand Epicerie de Paris 80 original recipes inspired by the gourmet ingredients at La Grande Epicerie de Paris – the famous gourmet food shop in Bon Marché department store. We visited this shop while in Paris and I wanted to take the shop home with me. Judging this book by its cover, it should be beautiful!

Tacos of Texas is a guidebook and cookbook all rolled into one. The authors visited taco establishments throughout Texas and share what makes each location a must try.

Alton Brown EveryDayCook Love Alton Brown? Want to know what he eats every day? This book is written for the Alton Brown stalker in all of us — Brown shares recipes that he makes frequently with his usual dash of humor and a nod to science.

Poole’s Modern Diner – we’ve all read about or tried the famous Poole’s macaroni and cheese. Now chef, Ashley Christensen, delivers the ultimate Southern food cookbook, diner style.

Simple by Diana Henry Effortless Food, Big Flavors – Diana Henry is a spark of brilliance who can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Nigella Lawson states: “This is everything I want from a cookbook”. We agree. Henry does it again – gorgeous book with beautiful recipes.

Donna Hay Life in Balance in typical Donna Hay style – stunning photographs that grab you and recipes that keep you turning pages – this book focuses on a fresher approach to eating. See my review and giveaway here.

Taste of Persia: A Cook’s Travels Through Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Kurdistan it’s Naomi Duguid – and I’ve enjoyed everything she has written. Her books with Jeffrey Alford are spectacular as well. There are 125 recipes in this 400-page book – her titles are exciting reads with the added bonus of recipes.

Cuba!: Recipes and Stories from the Cuban Kitchen. All things Cuban are hot right now – and I am truly looking forward to this title. I need to build up my Cuban food knowledge and this promises to be the book to do that.

The Saffron Tales – Recipes from a Persian Kitchen – Yasmin Khan visited Iranian home kitchens to share their stories through photographs and recipes that have been revamped for the modern kitchen. Very anxious to learn more about the rich culture of Persian cooking. Gorgeous photographs and beautiful narrative!

Herbarium – An encyclopedia that will be the go-to-guide for understanding herbs and their use. This isn’t your typical encyclopedia – this is a beautifully designed book that will enhance your knowledge of herbs which will transform your everyday cooking. See my review and giveaway here.

The Good Fork Cookbook for a decade The Good Fork in Brooklyn has been a favorite hot spot. Chef Kim shares her global fusion recipes in this new title.

Deep Run Roots – Vivian Howard – as long as we’ve been waiting for Carolyn Phillips’ cookbook – we have been anticipating Vivian Howard’s debut! 200 recipes and stories will make it worth the wait.

Everything I Want to Eat – Sqirl and The New California Cooking. The debut cookbook from Jessica Koslow, award-winning chef of L.A.’s hot spot, Sqirl, delivers 100 fresh, healthy, flavorful recipes.

Big American – Mario Batali and Jim Webster share 250 recipes from around the United States. Anything Batali and Webster serve up is always good.

Central – another Phaidon must have from Peruvian chef, Virgilio Martinez with recipes from his signature restaurant in Lima.

My Two Souths – Blending the Flavors of India into a Southern Kitchen. I’m a sucker for fusion food — Indian cuisine and Southern — I need not say more.

Red Rooster – Marcus Samuelsson’s famous Harlem restaurant in book form! Yes. Features Southern comfort food and multicultural dishes that the Harlem restaurant is known for. I will be reviewing this book for TasteBook soon.

Eataly – another must have from Phaidon – 300 recipes for Italian contemporary home cooking from the folks at Eataly.

Italian Street Food – Another  must have for me are cookbooks that celebrate street food. 85 recipes from Italy’s streets await us in this title.

Adventures of Fat Rice Recipes from the Chicago Restaurant Inspired by Macau. I was able to take a peek at this title and it looks fabulous – vibrant, exciting and unique! I will be covering this book for Eat Your Books soon.

Mozza at Home – Nancy Silverton’s next title features 19 menus with 150 recipes for eating and entertaining at home.

Far Afield Rare Food Encounters from Around the World – a stunningly photographed culinary travel book concentrating on food farming, fishing and herding methods – with 40 recipes written by a Saveur contributing editor. A must have for me – being able to travel the world of food all in one book.

The Del Posto Cookbook – Mark Ladner the celebrated chef of Del Posto releases his debut cookbook! A New York restaurant book – I can’t say no.

Land of Fish & Rice – it’s Fuchsia Dunlop. Must have. Every title she has written has been a keeper and her recipes always work. I just received this title and it is another title that you will have to squeeze on your bulging bookcases. In this title, Dunlop concentrates on the beautiful Lower Yangtze region. A travelogue and cookbook with in-depth details into the cuisine of this special location.

Food52 – Dinner – Food52 consistently puts out the best of the best. This book focuses on strategies for planning meals in advance.

Art of the Pie by Kate McDermott – This book is #1 in Pie Baking on Amazon and Kate is the ultimate pie lady. So excited for her book! It received rave reviews at Publishers Weekly, too! It’s a gorgeous book that will up your pie game to championship levels. Congratulations, Kate.

Butter & Scotch – Recipes from Brooklyn’s Favorite Bar & Bakery. “A Dominique Ansel’s meets Broad City”  book. I confess I had to look up Broad City (I am so not on fleek), but I didn’t need to Google the talented Ansel! I am drawn to New York titles and especially bakery books – the booze is just gilding the lily. Butter & Scotch is quirky, fun and exciting. Will be doing a full review and giveaway soon.

French Desserts – Hillary Davis is a beautiful recipe developer and expert on all things French. Each of her books has a special place on my shelf and there is always room for dessert! Update: I just received the book Monday – Hillary has outdone herself – full review, recipe and giveaway here!

The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg is a must have for the serious baker according to Peter Reinhart. Reinhart knows his stuff. Seventy recipes from around the world with all the details you will need to make classic breads. Conversions tables, scalding instructions and master techniques along with stunning photos will have every baker’s oven turning out exquisite loaves in no time.

Bobbette & Belle Classic Recipes from the Celebrated Pastry Shop – the pastry queens from Toronto share 100 recipes from their acclaimed bakeries. Their website is beautiful, so I’m trusting this book will reflect that as well.

Soframiz: Vibrant Middle Eastern Recipes from Sofra Bakery and Cafe. So many baking books and I want them all – but I have a special place in my heart for baking books that focus on international flavors.

Classic German Baking – As I stated before, anything that deals with international baking – I must have. German baking is especially interesting to me as I don’t seem to have a great deal of knowledge in that field. I don’t need another recipe for Snickerdoodles — I want books that bring uniqueness to the table. Update: Wow, this book. I just received it 9/16 and haven’t reviewed it entirely but it is a must have in every baker’s kitchen.

Breaking Breads – Uri Scheft has two successful bakeries – one in New York, Breads Bakery, and another in Tel Aviv, Lehamim, his Israeli baked goods are featured in this book and it looks promising.

Dories Cookies – Dorie Greenspan – cookies! Dorie is the number one name that we all agree is one of the brightest stars in the baking field. This extensive tome devoted to cookies is a must have for any baker or wanna be baker. The perfect gift for this holiday baking season as well! Join the #cookiesforkindness movement.

Marbled Swirled & Layered  – Irvin Lin is a friend and I am really happy and excited for his debut book with “150 Recipes and Variations for Artful Bars, Cookies, Pies, Cakes, and More”. I’ve made a few of Irvin’s recipes and they work! Get this book!

The Italian Baker by Melissa Forti – 100 recipes with a modern twist – a beautiful book with recipes from Torta A Strati Cocco E Ananas (Coconut Pineapple Layer Cake), Torta Di More Alla Scozzese (Scottish Bramble Cake) to Loaf Alla Cannella (Cinnamon Loaf). Each dessert and photograph more beautiful than the next.

Golden: Sweet & Savory Baked Delights from the Ovens of London’s Honey & Co. – the U.S. release of their Baking book by the famous husband and wife team behind the wildly popular Honey & Co. Restaurant in London. This couple and their food won my heart back in 2014 with their first title, Honey & Co. Food from the Middle East. I reviewed this book (the U.K. version), Honey & Co. The Baking Book for TasteBook and am still making recipes from their books. If you didn’t nab the baking book, now is your chance!

Other books to check out that I am just as excited about but didn’t wish to go on and on: The Aleppo Cookbook (focusing on the beautiful food of Syria), Better Baking (wholesome ingredients and still decadent desserts), Ingredient, Gennaros Italian Bakery (also titled I believe Panetteria), Slow Dough, A Cooks Tour of France, A Kitchen in the Valley (Tazmanian cooking), Dinner at the Long Table, The Indian Cooking Course, Taco Loco Mexican Street Food from Scratch (I ordered this book and just received it – cool, fun and totally delicious recipes), Cinnamon Square (baking), The Italian Baker (absolutely gorgeous book!), The Pie Project, The London Cookbook, Grain Bowl, Brindisa True Food of Spain, Vij’s Indian (this looks like a paperback reprint), Cooking for Jeffrey (it’s Ina!), Appetites – A Cookbook (Bourdain) will be covering for TasteBook, The Chef’s Library: Favorite Cookbooks from The World’s Great Kitchens (this is wonderful more on it later!), Forest Feast Gatherings (just as beautiful as the first title), Curate Authentic Spanish Food from an American Kitchen,  My Abuelos Mexican Feast, Sweet Sugar Sultry Spice, and Black Trumpet.

Random Number Generator picked #17 Jesse – email has been sent.

GIVEAWAY:  Who wouldn’t love $25.00 to go towards ordering one of these titles. This giveaway will be open to U.S. and Canada residents – and the prize will be a $25.00 Amazon.com or Amazon.ca gift card via email. To enter the giveaway, please share this post on one of your social media venues. Leave a comment here letting me know you did. You may enter this giveaway daily (but only need to share once) until a random winner is chosen on August 25th. Good luck.

This giveaway is sponsored by The Cookbook Junkies. The links here are affiliate links and help to pay for giveaways and maintaining this site. I appreciate your support.

 

A few years back, I was not a lover of Italian food or at least the Italian food that I had experienced.  To me it was all the same pasta, cheese and tomatoes; pasta, cheese and tomatoes.   I’ve learned that there is so much  more to authentic Italian food.  I credit some of this to my good friend, Marc and to the Extra Virgin cooking show, a show I thought I would hate and ended up loving and enjoying — kind of the same way I felt about Marc.

I’m a sucker for restaurant cookbooks and specifically New York restaurant books and Patsy’s Italian Family Cookbook hits both of these notes.   There is a dash of old New York in the photos and narrative that I love and —  Frank Sinatra — who doesn’t love Frank Sinatra?

There are some of the usual recipes as in any Italian restaurant cookbook — meatballs, marinara, mussels but these are Patsy’s recipes – folks – Patsy’s!   The secrets and recipes from the wildly successful restaurant.

Some of the recipes that stood out to me were the Meatball-tini — cute tiny meatballs served in a martini glass, shrimp casino – a play on clams casino, I love their version of Italian wedding soup with meatball-tini’s, sopressata and broccoli, Pavese soup a simple soup with chicken stock, Italian bread and a fried egg, steak oreganata, veal scaloppini besciamella, the Pork Rollatini looks incredible, and flounder milanese. Truthfully, everything looks like something I would enjoy making and feeding to friends and family.

The chapter on breads — includes St. Joseph’s Bread, zeppole (my favorite), ricotta and wheat berry cheesecake — and the dessert chapter – anise biscotti, panettone bread pudding, fried bows, Grandma Josie’s cream puffs, peach crostata and apple fritters.   Dessert making is on hold during Lent – but come Easter – I’m going to be baking up a storm.

Today I am preparing the scaloppini besciamella but with chicken instead of veal – the recipe takes a little prep work  but it promises to be delicious.  I’ve never made a dish like this before – and the instructions were wonderful — the besciamella and cutlets are chilling and later I will finish the preparation.  I will edit the post this evening with photographs of the dish.

Update:  The chicken besciamella is heavenly.

The inside view — this dish will go into our rotation.

If you can’t have dinner at Patsy’s, you have the comfort of being able to re-create their legendary food at home with this wonderful cookbook.  If you do decide to order, I would appreciate your using the link above the banner to help support this site.

GIVEAWAY

Random Number Generator picked number 67 — Pam Green – Pam please e-mail your address to icywit@gmail.com by Friday the 20th.  If I don’t hear from Pam, another random winner will be chosen on Friday.

My friends at St. Martin’s are offering one of you a copy of this fabulous new book set for release on March 24th.  Please leave a comment here letting me know if you have ever eaten at Patsy’s.   For a second chance, please register here on the forum and leave a comment telling me you did.  (Folks who are already registered – leave me a comment stating so!) The giveaway is open to US addresses only.  A random winner will be chosen on March 17th.  Good luck.  (Be patient with your comments – all comments must be moderated and will show up.)

Thank you St. Martin’s!