STIRRING PASSIONS; COOKBOOKS MAKE GREAT LAST-MINUTE GIFTS.Byline: Staff and Wire Services Whether the intended recipient is an expert or a beginner, cookbooks make useful gifts for the holidays. If you have an avid reader on your Christmas list who also happens to be a cook, you may be able to kill two birds with one stone. After all, who needs a Danielle Steele romance when you've got Julia (Child) and Jacques (Pepin) paired in a cookbook? Why waste money on a Tom Clancy For the member of the Irish folk band The Clancy Brothers, see Tom Clancy (singer) and for the American Celticist, see Thomas Owen Clancy. Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (born April 12 1947), better known as Tom Clancy techno-thriller when you can wrestle with the complex recipes in ``The French Laundry  This article or section reads like a and may need a .Please help [ to improve this article] to make it in tone and meet Wikipedia's . Cookbook''? And why invest in the latest self-help tome when you can eat your way to health through ``A Spoonful of Ginger''? If there is a thread that connects many of the books on our holiday gift list this year, it is a focus on warm, fuzzy, rustic foods. Some come from Carolina's Low Country and New England New England, name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States—Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. , others from Chile, Mexico and Italy. This year's crop also is considerably more consumer-friendly than in previous years, even those volumes created by restaurant chefs. The books are not unanimously homespun, though. Several spotlighted are remarkably sophisticated and beautiful - and you wonder if they will ever get taken into the kitchen and exposed to splashes and splatter. Here's a look at some of the cookbooks released in 1999 that might find their way under a Christmas tree Christmas tree Evergreen tree, usually decorated with lights and ornaments, to celebrate the Christmas season. The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands as symbols of eternal life was common among the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. . American and American regional ``American Home For the American mortgage lender, see . The American Home is a center of intercultural exchange located in Vladimir, Russia. The home is designed to model a typical American suburban home and its main focus is the ESL school that provides lessons for Russian students. Cooking'' by Cheryl Alters Jamison & Bill Jamison (Broadway Books; $30). The Jamisons, who have earned a reputation as cookbook writers with their doable and delicious recipes for smoked and Southwest foods, travel from coast to coast in this volume. Undaunted by the vastness of their canvas, they present a delightfully unpretentious collection of recipes along with informative and enjoyable cooking notes and commentary. There are no fusion fantasies here. The food, including shrimp cocktail, pot roast with root vegetables, grilled cheese sandwiches and cornmeal corn·meal also corn meal n. Meal made from corn, used in a wide variety of foods. Also called Indian meal. Noun 1. poundcake, is hearty, homespun and good enough to eat. ``A Gracious Plenty, Recipes and Recollections from the American South,'' by John T. Edge (Putnam; $30). The old South may not rise again, but it lives on in the exceptional regional food creations captured and recaptured in books such as this one. The author collected reminiscences from some folks who are pretty famous and others who are less so. To them, he added recipes from community cookbooks, evocative black-and-white photos and his own elegant commentary. ``Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, Limited Edition'' (Better Homes and Gardens; $26.95). OK, so it's not flashy. It looks like it has for decades - like your grandmother's tablecloth. It's chock-full of the same advice your grandmother would give you, too - if she happened to have an encyclopedic en·cy·clo·pe·dic adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an encyclopedia. 2. Embracing many subjects; comprehensive: "an ignorance almost as encyclopedic as his erudition" knowledge of American cooking. With more than 1,200 tried-and-true recipes, the editors' boast that it will become ``dog-eared and food-stained'' is no exaggeration. ``Butter Beans to Blackberries: Recipes From the Southern Garden,'' by Ronni Lundy (North Point Press; $27.50 hardcover). Louisville-based food writer Lundy presents some of the best recipes from the Old and New Souths, from fried green tomatoes and cornbread to hush puppies Hush puppies may refer to:
``The New England Cookbook'' by Brooke Dojny (Harvard Common Press; $18.95). Here's a book that is erratic to the extreme but so sincere and personal that it deserves respectful attention. How did the author find 350 recipes in that agriculturally sparse, chilly region? By spreading a wide net. The first recipe is ``Yankee Summer Salsa''; later you will find ``Dried Cranberry A dried cranberry is a cranberry which has been dried. They are similar in texture to a raisin but more tart in flavor. The vast majority of dried cranberries sold in the world are marketed by the Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative under the trade name "Craisins", a portmanteau Rouille Rouille (French, 'rust') is a sauce that consists of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chile peppers. [1] It is served as a garnish with fish and fish soup, notably Bouillabaisse. Rouille is most often used in the cuisine of Provence. .'' But there are plenty of chowders, pies and other traditional preparations. Welcome to Junior's, Remembering Brooklyn with Recipes and Memories From Its Favorite Restaurant, by Marvin and Walter Rosen with Beth Allen For other persons named Elizabeth Allen, see Elizabeth Allen (disambiguation). Elizabeth Allen (born May 28 1984, Auckland, New Zealand) has been acting since an early age and has appeared in several small productions and commercials since 1993. (William Morrow
You can take a nostalgic tour of Brooklyn from the 1930s to the '90s with reminiscences and recipes from this neighborhood restaurant known for its cheesecake. It's filled with a slice of Americana and 100 reciks like it has for decades - like your grandmother's tablecloth. It's chock-full of the same advice your grandmother would give you, too - if she happened to have an encyclopedic knowledge of American cooking. With more than 1,200 tried-and-true recipes, the editors' boast that it will become ``dog-eared and food-stained'' is no exaggeration. ``Butter Beans to Blackberries: Recipes From the Southern Garden,'' by Ronni Lundy (North Point Press; $27.50 hardcover). Louisville-based food writer Lundy presents some of the best recipes from the Old and New Souths, from fried green tomatoes and cornbread to hush puppies stuffed with shrimp provencal. ``The New England Cookbook'' by Brooke Dojny (Harvard Common Press; $18.95). Here's a book that is erratic to the extreme but so sincere and personal that it deserves respectful attention. How did the author find 350 recipes in that agriculturally sparse, chilly region? By spreading a wide net. The first recipe is ``Yankee Summer Salsa''; later you will find ``Dried Cranberry Rouille.'' But there are plenty of chowders, pies and other traditional preparations. Welcome to Junior's, Remembering Brooklyn with Recipes and Memories From Its Favorite Restaurant, by Marvin and Walter Rosen with Beth Allen (William Morrow; $25). You can take a nostalgic tour of Brooklyn from the 1930s to the '90s with reminiscences and recipes from this neighborhood restaurant known for its cheesecake. It's filled with a slice of Americana and 100 recipes like Chocolate Egg Cream, Baked Meat Loaf, Cheese Blintzes and Junior's Famous No. 1 Pure Cream Cheesecake. ``Louis Osteen's Charleston Cuisine'' by Louis Osteen (Algonquin Books; $24.95). An intelligent, folksy folk·sy adj. folk·si·er, folk·si·est Informal 1. Simple and unpretentious in behavior. 2. Characterized by informality and affability: a friendly, folksy town. 3. chef offers his take on low-country cooking. The results are both accessible to the home cook and tasty enough to bring requests for second helpings. ``Recipes From the Vineyards of Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern : Appetizers, Main Course, Desserts'' by Leslie Mansfield (Celestial Arts; $9.95 each). More than 60 Northern California vineyards contributed recipes to each volume in this series, often incorporating wine as an ingredient and with suggestions for wine to accompany them. ``The Best American Recipes 1999'' by Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin (Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Company is a leading educational publisher in the United States. The company's headquarters is located in Boston's Back Bay. It publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers ; $26). The writers of this book made their selection from the year's outpouring of recipes from books, magazines, newspapers and the Internet. They cooked up a storm and settled for 110, a lively variety that includes Birds in Grape Sauce, Shrimp and Grits, and Marion Cunningham's Buttermilk Pancakes. ``The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink'' by John Mariani (Lebhar-Friedman Books; $29.95). The updated and expanded revision of a valuable reference first published in 1983. International ``A Mediterranean Feast,'' by Clifford A. Wright (Morrow; $35). If there is a cookbook of the year, this is it. A remarkably ambitious work, it presents 1,000 years of food history and 500 recipes in a single 800-page volume. The subject is vast, the scope of time daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin , but Wright comes across as a cheerful, dedicated scholar who was sorry when he had to stop. Recipes are written to be accessible to contemporary cooks. ``The Italian Country Table'' by Lynne Rossetto Kasper Lynne Rossetto Kasper is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and host of the American Public Media radio show The Splendid Table. Kasper's popular and long-lived radio show, targeted toward those "who love to eat," features a series of interviews with chefs, restaurateurs, and (Scribner; $35). Milan is invisible and Rome far away as Kasper, who established her right to deliver commentary on Italian cooking with the book ``The Splendid Table,'' leads a tour through the Italian countryside in search of ``unadorned cooking that delivers an immediacy of taste.'' Intelligent and dedicated, she provides lively vignettes and, even more rare, captivating cap·ti·vate tr.v. cap·ti·vat·ed, cap·ti·vat·ing, cap·ti·vates 1. To attract and hold by charm, beauty, or excellence. See Synonyms at charm. 2. Archaic To capture. introductions to the individual recipes. ``Saveur Cooks Authentic French'' by the editors of Saveur Magazine (Chronicle Books; $40). French food, French faces, French land- and tablescapes. Will we, or the camera, ever tire of them? The evidence presented in this photo-filled volume adds up to a convincing non. Intricate but authentic recipes. ``Savoring France'' by Georgeanne Brennan (Time-Life Books; $39.95). The photography, by a two-man team, delivers a portrait of France that is more lyrical and timeless than the ``Saveur'' book. The recipes here are less demanding. ``Nick Stellino's Family Kitchen'' by Nick Stellino Nick Stellino (b. circa 1958 in Palermo, Sicily) is an Italian-American television chef and author. He hosts the cooking programs "Cucina Amore" and "Nick Stellino's Family Kitchen" on public television station KCTS in Seattle, Washington. (G.P. Putnam's Sons; $27.95). A book may be the best way to enjoy this unctuous unc·tu·ous adj. Containing or composed of oil or fat. unctuous greasy or oily. TV chef's work. Skip the text and go straight to recipes for what Stellino inevitably describes as ``robust'' Italian fare. ``Keo's Thai Cuisine'' by Keo Sananikone (Ten Speed Press; $19.95). Excellent collection of recipes from cuisine that continues to increase in popularity. Informative sections on ingredients, equipment and techniques. ``The Chilean Kitchen'' by Ruth Van Waerebeek-Gonzalez (HP Books; $16.95 paperback). A Belgian professional cook married to a Chilean, the author brings an honest eye and keen palate to her adopted country's cuisine. Acknowledging that ``Chile has always kept a low profile on the culinary level,'' she writes, ``new food trends will not be the focus of this book.'' Instead she explores the home cooking of Chile's towns and countryside and brings back tasty comfort foods made with prime ingredients including seafood, potatoes, grilled meats, beans, wine and honey. ``A Spoonful of Ginger: Irresistible, Health-Giving Recipes From Asian Kitchens'' by Nina Simonds (Alfred A. Knopf; $30). One of the year's hottest cookbooks thanks to the twofold interest in Asian cuisine Asian cuisine is a term sometimes used in the West as an umbrella term for the various cuisines of East Asia and Southeast Asia and for fusion dishes based on combining them. It does not usually include Polynesian, Central Asia or Middle Eastern cuisine. and food as preventive medicine preventive medicine, branch of medicine dealing with the prevention of disease and the maintenance of good health practices. Until recently preventive medicine was largely the domain of the U.S. . There are long sections on determining your ``body type'' (yin or yang) and cures for everything from high blood pressure to hangovers. Does it work? I wouldn't drop your HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, . Fortunately, Simonds also includes a bevy bevy a flock of birds. of reliable recipes from across the range of Asian cooking. Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian,'' (Clarkson Potter; $40). Jaffrey draws on more than four decades of culinary adventures and travels for the 650 recipes - dishes from five continents - that she has created in this volume. This is her eighth cookbook - and the recipes appear user-friendly. Vegetarians are bound to find a wealth of ideas in these meatless recipes. ``Noodle'' by Terry Durack (SOMA; $27). Enriched by strikingly stark and beautiful still-life photographs, this useful primer is an introduction to 20 types of Asian noodles noo·dle 1 n. A narrow, ribbonlike strip of dried dough, usually made of flour, eggs, and water. [German Nudel. . Each is presented in a ``What, Why, Where, Which, How and Whatever'' format that concludes with page references to recipes in which the noodle is used. ``Seasons of My Heart'' by Susana Trilling Tril·ling , Lionel 1905-1975. American literary critic whose works include Beyond Culture (1965) and Sincerity and Authenticity (1972). Noun 1. (Ballantine Books; $25). This is a companion volume to the public television series of the same name. Trilling, an American chef transplanted to the remarkable region of Oaxaca, Mexico, has collected lively, not-too-complex recipes and tales from the best cooks she has met and added some of her own. Sources for special ingredients are given, though most will be available in local stores carrying Latino foodstuffs foodstuffs npl → comestibles mpl foodstuffs npl → denrées fpl alimentaires foodstuffs food npl → . ``Steven Raichlen's High-Flavor, Low-Fat Mexican Cooking'' (Viking; $29.95). A veteran cooking teacher and author, Raichlen is a no-nonsense alchemist who specializes in providing straightforward recipes from which he has removed complications, cholesterol and calories while retaining their distinctive flavors. ``If ever there was a cuisine in need of a heart-healthy makeover, it's Mexican,'' he writes. He does this by using Mexican dishes already low in fat, reworking others and creating some originals. A lot more often than not he succeeds. General ``Chocolate Passion: Recipes and Inspiration from the Kitchens of Chocolatier choc·o·la·tier n. 1. One who makes or sells chocolate. 2. A place where chocolate is made or sold. [French, from chocolat, chocolate, from Spanish chocolate Magazine'' by Tish Boyle and Timothy Moriarty (Wiley; $39.95). This will no doubt prove irresistible to chocoholics and those who love them. It has helpful text on basic techniques and equipment. But what will really inspire devotees of the choc-lit genre will be the recipes, illustrated by John Uher's photos. Recipes appear mostly complicated and are for those who don't mind spending lots of time in the kitchen. ``The Best of Craig Claiborne'' edited by Joan Whitman (Times Books; $35). Editor Whitman combed the food writer's New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times clips and four cookbooks to assemble this 1,000-recipe menu. ``The Best Recipe'' by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Cook’s Illustrated is a bimonthly American cooking magazine founded and edited by Christopher Kimball and published by Boston Common Press in Brookline, Massachusetts. magazine (Boston Common
Boston Common is a popular public park in Boston, Massachusetts. Dating from 1634, it is the oldest city park in the United States. Its area is 50 acres (202,000 m²). Press; $29.95). They tested 38 versions of creme caramel crème car·a·mel n. A custard that is baked in a caramel-lined mold and served chilled with the caramel side up. Also called flan. [French : crème, cream + caramel, alone, they say, en route to opting for the 700 recipes included here, from soups to souffles, all presumably pre·sum·a·ble adj. That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. just about foolproof. ``Family Circle All-Time Favorite Recipes'' from the editors of Family Circle magazine (Doubleday; $29.95). Here are some 600 of the recipes that have proved most popular with the magazine's readers, starting with appetizers and on through cakes and cookies, many shown in color photos. ``The Great Margarita Book: A Handbook With Recipes'' by Al Lucero (Ten Speed Press; $15.95). Lucero, owner of Maria's restaurant in Santa Fe Santa Fe, city, Argentina Santa Fe, city (1991 pop. 341,000), capital of Santa Fe prov., NE Argentina, a river port near the Paraná, with which it is connected by canal. , gives 85 recipes for margaritas - and that doesn't even include the frozen kind, which he considers a blasphemy blasphemy, in religion, words or actions that display irreverence toward or contempt for God or that which is held sacred. Blasphemy is regarded as an offense against the community to varying degrees, depending on the extent of the identification of a religion with . Includes a handful of recipes for other tequila drinks and margarita-friendly food. ``Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home'' by Julia Child Julia Child (August 15, 1912–August 13, 2004) was a famous American cook, author, and television personality who introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programs. and Jacques Pepin (Alfred A. Knopf; $40). America's best-known cook teams with one of its better-known chefs in this book, interesting because of it gives both of their comments/tips/recipes in each section. Recipes range from the basic - potato leek soup Leek soup is a kind of soup that is made out of salt, water and leeks. Because of its inexpensive cost it is often used in soup kitchens. It is often made with wild leeks. It is often considered to be a Welsh national dish. - to the incredibly complex - turkey galantine gal·an·tine n. A dish of boned, stuffed meat or fish that is poached and served cold coated with aspic. [Middle English galauntine, a kind of sauce, from Old French (a turkey that has been deboned deboned carcass meat from which the bone has been removed. , filled with a forcemeat force·meat n. Finely ground and highly spiced meat, fish, or poultry that is served alone or used in stuffing. [force (alteration of farce) + meat. mixture and cooked). ``The Best Grill Pan Cookbook Ever,'' by Marge Poore (HarperCollins; $16.95). If you love cooking with a grill pan, you'll delight in this little book which is filled with 150 recipes with chapters on starters, grilled salads, seafood, chicken and meats, grilled vegetables, grilled sandwiches, tortillas and pizzas. Plenty of tasty and easy ideas to keep that pan cooking. ``Great Bean Book'' by Elizabeth Berry (Ten Speed Press; $15.95). Thirty-five varieties of common and exotic beans are profiled, photographed and accompanied by a recipe, some from such well-known chefs as Alice Waters Alice Louise Waters (born 28 April 1944 in Chatham, New Jersey), one of the best-known and most influential American chefs since the 1970s, is credited with single-handedly creating a culinary revolution in the United States. of Berkeley's Chez Panisse Chez Panisse is a Berkeley, California restaurant known as the birthplace of California cuisine, a style credited to its co-founder, Alice Waters. The restaurant is located in the north Berkeley neighborhood known locally as the "Gourmet Ghetto". and Bradley Ogden of the Lark Creek restaurants in Northern California. ``Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room Cookbook: How to Have People Over Without Stressing Out'' by Kevin Mills and Nancy Mills (Houghton Mifflin; $16). This Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. based mother-and-son duo (who also wrote the ``Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen Cookbook'') tell the beginner everything they need to know about serving food to company, and they do it in a fun way. The ``mom tips'' and warnings that accompany most recipes offer the beginner all the know-how that experienced cooks had to learn the hard way. Chapters like ``Wine Without Foolishness'' and ``Barbecuing in Front of People'' might even offer a few ideas for the seasoned entertainer. ``Weber's Art of the Grill: Recipes for Outdoor Living. (Chronicle Books; $35). Put out by the folks who make Weber grills, though the recipes work just as well with cheap-o models, the book is geared toward entertaining, with a fine section on side dishes and desserts. ``The Mindful Cook'' by Isaac Cronin (Villard; $19.95). ``Finding Awareness, Simplicity and Freedom in the Kitchen'' is the subtitle of a volume intended to help us transform ``raw ingredients into physical, emotional and even spiritual nourishment.'' The focus is on feeding the mind. The down-to-earth recipes (there are fewer than 30) illuminate the author's homilies. ``Fast Appetizers'' by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison (Ten Speed Press; $17.95). Addresses that age-old question: What can I cook - fast - for entertaining? This is the seventh book by the husband-and-wife authors. ``Learning to Cook With Marion Cunningham'' by Marion Cunningham Marion Cunningham can refer to:
A fine primer for the beginning cook, with a nicely chosen 150 recipes accompanied by lessons on the techniques needed to prepare them. Cunningham is a food columnist and current editor of the Fannie Farmer Noun 1. Fannie Farmer - an expert on cooking whose cookbook has undergone many editions (1857-1915) Fannie Merritt Farmer, Farmer Cookbook. ``An Apple Harvest: Recipes and Orchard Lore'' by Frank Browning Frank Browning (1882-1948) was a baseball player. He played one MLB season for the Detroit Tigers in 1910. In 1909 he led the minor leagues in wins while pitching for the San Francisco Seals. External links Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis and Sharon Silva (Ten Speed Press; $17.95). The text is full of interest, the recipes encompass old favorites and new ideas, and the book is nicely illustrated with color photos. ``Great Kitchens: At Home With America's Top Chefs'' by Ellen Whitaker, Colleen Mahoney and Wendy A. Jordan (Taunton Press; $34.95). In this volume you get a wonderful tour of kitchens-to-dream-for. Vivid color photos by Grey Crawford show the kitchens and the 26 chefs whose domains they are. Floor plans are included as well as an appendix with favorite recipes for the action-minded. Restaurants and chefs ``The French Laundry Cookbook'' by Thomas Keller (Artisan; $50). One of most hyped cookbooks of the year - and definitely among the most elegant. This beautifully photographed book, with its extensive commentary about the ethics and aesthetics of food, would be perfect for any foodie who's secretly dreamed of opening a restaurant like Keller's French Laundry in California's Napa Valley. (And what foodie hasn't?) But don't go looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. quick fixes. ``Cooking is not about convenience and it's not about shortcuts See Win Shortcuts. ,'' Keller says in the foreword. ``Cafe Boulud Cookbook'' by Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan (Scribner; $35). Fresh takes on old favorites, seasonal treats and recipes outside the French milieu from the chef/owner of a pair of highly regarded New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. restaurants. For once, the promise ``recipes for the home cook'' seems valid. ``Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook,'' by Alice Waters (HarperCollins; $34). Exquisite informal food from the famous Berkeley restaurant. Included in the 140 recipes is a wonderful assortment of vegetable, egg, meat and seafood dishes with a range of size ingredient lists and a refreshingly un-fusioned sensibility.But enthusiastic cooks may stumble in locating the fresh sardines, green garlic (``available at farmers markets in the spring''), live Dungeness crab and whole fresh squabs that are the cornerstones of other dishes. Waters doesn't make apologies for her ingredient requests, nor is she quick to offer substitutes. But the book includes a list of sources for ordering the hard-to-find products. ``Red Sage, Contemporary Western Cuisine,'' by Mark Miller (Ten Speed Press; $40). If you're a Miller and Southwest food fan, you'll relish this beautiful book which embodies the American West. It celebrates the cuisine and vision behind the wonderful Red Sage restaurant in Washington, D.C., with more than 100 recipes including Green Garlic Soup with Tabasco Wings, Jalapeno Crusted Halibut halibut: see flatfish. halibut Any of various flatfishes, especially the Atlantic and Pacific halibuts (genus Hippoglossus, family Pleuronectidae), both of which have eyes and colour on the right side. on Smoked Mussel mussel, edible freshwater or marine bivalve mollusk. Mussels are able to move slowly by means of the muscular foot. They feed and breathe by filtering water through extensible tubes called siphons; a large mussel filters 10 gal (38 liters) of water per day. Grits With Cilantro Aioli ai·o·li n. A rich sauce of crushed garlic, egg yolks, lemon juice, and olive oil. [Provençal : ai, garlic (from Latin allium) + oli, oil (from Latin oleum , Spiced-Rubbed Chicken Breast on a Bed of Heirloom Beans and Steamed Pumpkin Pudding. Some recipes are more doable than others for home cooks. ``Alan Wong's New Wave Luau: Recipes From Honolulu's Award-Winning Chef'' by Alan Wong (Ten Speed Press; $35). Many of Wong's offerings look too pretty to eat - and too complicated to prepare. But if you're an ambitious, seafood-loving cook who doesn't mind a trip to the Asian grocery to track down ingredients, this book could be for you. ``The Campagna Table,'' by Mark Strausman (William Morrow; $30). Strausman, the chef/owner of Campagna in Manhattan, serves up unpretenious, friendly Italian food in his dozens of recipes designed with home cooks in mind. Many are quick and easy while others are slow-cooking and would be ideal to cook on a leisurely weekend. If the recipes taste as delicious as some of his creations at the restaurant, you're in for a treat. ``Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special: More Than 275 Recipes for Soups, Stews, Salads & Extras'' (Clarkson Potter; $35 hardcover; $24 paperback). Another cookbook from a celebrated restaurant, this one specializing in vegetarian fare. Features recipes for the Moosewood daily specials - soup, salad and bread - that have made the Ithaca, N.Y., establishment a food mecca. ``The Rose Pistola Cookbook,'' by Reed Hearon and Peggy Knickerbocker (Broadway Books; $35). Chef Hearon presents a salad of down-to-earth San Francisco Italian fare dressed with a generous dollop of nostalgia. Tell it like it is, or was, and cook the same way. ``Spago Chocolate'' by Mary Bergin and Judy Gethers (Random House; $35). One of this book's charms as a gift is that it comes in a rich gold jacket that resembles an elegant wrapper on a box of chocolates. The real treat, however, is the recipe selection inside. The desserts - cakes, tarts, cookies and more - are cozy, endearing and remarkably uncomplicated. They are truly directed to home bakers, not to other pastry chefs. ``Kitchen Suppers, Good Food to Share with Good Friends'' by Alison Beckert Hurt (Doubleday; $27.50). A homey, heartfelt volume about meals that are ``cooked with love and ease.'' Hurt, owner of New York City's Alison on Dominick Street and other restaurants, offers tips on ingredients, explanations of techniques, thoughts on table settings, a pantry roster and, of course, recipes. Her ingredients - leg of lamb, duck breast and shrimp, among them - are fairly upscale and require hands-on cooking. But, one senses, she believes that is the reason to go into the kitchen in the first place. ``Australian Food: In Celebration of the New Australian Cuisine'' by Alan Saunders (Ten Speed Press; $24.95). Anticipating the attention the next Olympic games will focus on Australia, Saunders features more than 50 chefs, purveyors and food writers in this wide-ranging, gorgeously photographed book. Lots of seafood and Asian influences. ``The Tra Vigne Cookbook: Seasons in the California Wine Country'' by Michael Chiarello (Chronicle; $35). You can bring the dishes from Tra Vigne restaurant in St. Helena to your table with this book. The recipes weave through the seasons and present a variety of ways to use ingredients. ``Simply Sensational Desserts'' by Francois Payard (Broadway; $35). Payard, chef/owner of New York's Payard Patisserie pa·tis·se·rie n. A bakery specializing in French pastry. [French pâtisserie, from Old French pastiserie, from pasticier, to make pastry, from *pastitz, and Bistro, promises a book that makes ``sophisticated desserts easy to do.'' Can he do it? While the desserts aren't always what we'd call simple, they are classic and professional and with clear directions. This is for the baker who wants to move beyond beginner but not into insane. ``Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen'' from the Culinary Institute of America (Wiley; $54.95). This book provides a complete course in the preparation of every kind of cold food: simple sandwiches, smart hors d'oeuvre, cheeses, sausages, salads and sauces and more. The range includes a Whole Smoked Ham and a Vegetable Burger. There are more than 400 recipes, with careful explanations of basic preparation techniques; color photos illustrate step-by-step methods and finished dishes. Fish and seafood ``Fish: The Basics'' by Shirley King (Houghton Mifflin; $20). The new edition of this seafood primer was published to rave reviews in 1996. The first part contains 100 recipes (each listing many choices of fish to use), the second an illustrated encyclopedia of more than 200 fish and shellfish. ``The Seafood Cookbook'' by Jean Paul Grappe (Firefly Books; $29.95). Another excellent and comprehensive book on choosing and preparing seafood, although finding some of the more exotic varieties listed could be problematic. William Rice, Chicago Tribune, Joe Stumpe, Witchita Eagle, Joan Brunskill, the Associated Press and Daily News Food Editor Natalie Haughton contributed to this story. CAPTION(S): 7 photos PHOTO (1 --2 -- color) Cookbooks make useful gifts for Christmas and other occasions, whether the intended recipient is an expert or beginner. Rustic foods from many parts of the world made an impact in several of this year's best cookbooks. Brian Corn/ Wichita Eagle Bob Fila/Chicago Tribune (3 -- 7) no captions (various cookbooks from story) |
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