Party time, down South

REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT

For Paula Deen, TV queen of the Southern cooking scene, entertaining is second nature (maybe first, if that's possible) and her new cookbook, Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style is an invitation to party with her—and y'all better be there! To Paula, and many of us, the hardest part of entertaining is not the cooking but the menu planning. Fear not, the party plans are laid out, the scene is set and Paula guarantees that you'll like the food—"I think our party food is definitely food for the gods." A small caveat here: this is not low-fat, low-carb, or low-cholesterol cooking. Paula does not shy away from cheese—especially cheddar—cream, cakes or cookies, not to mention grits and cornbread. "Southerners," Paula allows, "will find any excuse to share food with loved ones," and here she offers menus and recipes for 24 festive excuses from a Birthday Bash, a BIG Cocktail Buffet for Out-of-Town Wedding Guests and a Georgia Bulldawg Parking Lot Tailgate to a Cookie Swap, Weekend Campout and a warming array of comfort food. You can prepare the whole menu or mix and match recipes and never go wrong—Shrimp and Grits, Green Chili Corn Muffins, marinated Minted Lamb, Savannah Bow Ties served with Chocolate Dipping Sauce are stand-alone standouts or Southern sensations when surrounded by their culinary compatriots.


The veggie version

Deborah Madison is a queen, too; she's the queen of vegetarian cuisine with a bevy of best-selling cookbooks that have pleased thousands. Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen, her latest celebration of meatless meals with great appeal, is also a celebration of supper, a meal she dearly loves—friendly, relaxed, without the formality of "dinner," a time to cook and eat simply but superbly. For Deborah, supper can be an open sandwich of toasted country bread spread with olive paste and a shaving of cheese then heaped with garlicky sautéed broccoli rabe, an omelet made with corn kernels, smoked mozzarella and fresh basil, a rustic cabbage and leek gratin with a tangy mustard sauce, zucchini skillet cakes with capers and pine nuts or polenta squares with gorgonzola cream, braised greens and cannellini beans. Many of her main dishes can be "deconstructed" to serve as first courses or sides and many can be paired to make super suppers. Suggestions for accompaniments and desserts are offered, as is advice on wine pairings. Vegetarianism has gone from far out to fashionable to fully accepted and Deborah Madison's "vegophile" philosophy has shown the way.


La cucina Giudeo-Italiana

I've reviewed lots of Jewish cookbooks over the years, but never one solely on Italian Jewish cooking. Now, just in time for Passover, we have a real treat, Classic Italian Jewish Cooking: Traditional Recipes and Menus, an authentic guide to the rich legacy of this ancient, elegant cuisine by Edda Servi Machlin, who grew up in Pitigliano, a medieval village in Tuscany, home to a prominent Jewish community. Jews have lived in Italy for more than 2,000 years, coming in waves from the Near East, North Africa and Spain, adapting their ancestral dishes to local ingredients and evolving a wonderfully appealing culinary tradition unlike the Central and Eastern European cooking most Americans are familiar with. There's no gefilte fish, but there are golden fried Passover Fish Croquettes and sweet-and-sour red snapper served after the Yom Kippur fast. You'll find a fabulous saffron rice dish for Shabbat, spinach ravioli for Purim, Baked White Corn Polenta with layers of mozzarella and parmesan for Shavuot, and vibrant, imaginative dishes to make for everyday eating—dishes that underscore the fact that you don't have to be Jewish or Italian to like Italian Jewish cooking.


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