Every year Good Food Revolution presents Dean Tudor’s Holiday Cookbook (and Drinkbook) reviews. Watch for new categories every week, or click here to see them all.
DEAN’S LIST 2017 PART V: STOCKING STUFFERS
Stocking stuffers should be at the very top of everybody’s gift list: something affordable from under $10 up to $25, and that can also double as a host gift, being something small and lightweight. Most of the books here are paperbacks. And of course, they can all stuff an adult stocking.
EATING (Vintage Classics Minis, 2017, 132 pages, $5.99 CAD paperbound) is by Nigella Lawson. It is a collection of extracts from her 1998 title “How to Eat” and her 2010 title “Kitchen”. There are a handful of recipes plus advice on how to handle food in season, such as grouse or white truffles. As if…There is also text on cooking in advance, cooking for one or two, and weekend lunches and dinners. Solid read, if you don’t already have her books.
SALAD IN A JAR (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 160 pages, $19.99 CAD softcovers) is by Anna Helm Baxter; it was originally published in France in 2015. Her collection of 68 recipes are nifty for layering as green and gourmet salads to “take and shake” on the go. Only wide mouthed brims need apply for this great enhanced salad package to take to work.
MY ZERO-WASTE KITCHEN (DK Books, 2017, 72 pages, $11.99 CAD hardcovers) is by Kate Turner and Ruth O’Rourke-Jones. It’s a great book for Christmas time as it emphasizes how to deal with food waste. “Easy ways to eat waste free”, the publisher says, with material on how to re-grow veggies, bake a fruit peel cake, freeze avocados, layer leftover lunches into a salad jar, use last night’s pasta into today’s salad. Excellent tips on storage and freezing.
THE AVOCADO COOKBOOK (Ebury Press, 2016, 112 pages, $21.99 CAD hardcovers) is by Heather Thomas. She’s captured 50 preps inspired by the fruit: arranged by courses of breakfasts, brunches, snacks, starters, mains, and desserts. It’s global in scope, ranging from Mexico to Japan to Italy. Shrimp-noodle-avocado salad is a real winner.
THE WORLD’S BEST SPICY FOOD (Lonely Planet, 2017, 224 pages, $20.95 CAD paperbound) is edited by Lucy Doncaster and Christina Webb, with a slew of contributing writers. There are 100 preps from around the world, all of them spicy, most of them hot, but with notes on how to slide the heat scale. The range is from Szechuan hotpots to Malaysian laksas, curries, and Mexican salsas. Arrangement is alphabetical by domestic name of the dish, and each prep comes from origin notes and tasting notes.
