The objects of our culinary affections

REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT

If Barbara Kafka, influential author of many fine cookbooks, were to respond to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's immortal line, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," she'd probably start with artichokes and count her way down to zucchini. That's because the object of her affection is the world of vegetables, and Vegetable Love: A Book for Cooks is her culinary love letter to leeks and lettuces, pak choy and parsnips, beans, bamboo shoots and beyond. A Kafka cookbook is always inventive, thorough and filled with her passion for cooking, and Vegetable Love is no exception. It's big (more than 700 pages), bountiful (750 original recipes), and has an all-inclusive "Cook's Guide" for buying, storing and preparing all the vegetables and herbs used. Though her primary focus is veggies, Kafka cooks with butter and cream and uses meat, chicken, shellfish and fish in many recipes. It's hard to find a recipe that doesn't make you want to rush into the kitchen—and the range of recipes is fantastic (I guess it's obvious that I really like this book) from Risotto with Radicchio and Vermouth, Duck Breast with Rhubarb Sauce, Eggplant and Chickpea Fritters, Parsnip Flan to Thanksgiving Squash Muffins and gingery Carrot Sorbet. This is unconditional love at its tastiest—vegetables never had it so good!


Foo fusion
"Fusion" cooking has been popular for a while and I've sampled some that works and some that doesn't; these cross-cultural combos can often seem forced and too far-out. That will never be said about the food created by award-winning restaurateur and cookbook author Susanna Foo. Foo grew up in China and began her career by re-creating the flavors of her natal country. But, as you can see in Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration, her "culinary horizons suddenly expanded," radically changing her cooking style. Foo never calls her food "fusion," yet her dishes integrate many cuisines. By incorporating seasonal vegetables with traditional ingredients (check out the Truffled Potato Dumplings, White Corn Soup, Butternut Squash Goo Lai), blending the cooking techniques of both East and West (Slow-Roasted Salmon primed in a sake-ginger brine), and opening herself up to Asian and European influences (Chinese-Style Ratatouille, Rice Noodle Flan), she takes the best of the best and leaves us with simple recipes for simply fabulous food.


Olé everyday
Rick Bayless has become this generation's maestro of Mexican cooking, unlocking the mysteries of molé, revealing the complex pleasures of slow-roasted pork, making guacamole with a modern twist, teaching us to cook and appreciate great Mexican food. But great food can take time and that's what we don't have. Rick's new book, Mexican Everyday, solves that problem by offering 90 "thoroughly Mexican-tasting" recipes that he cooks at home on weekdays. These are streamlined, full-flavored dishes, fast to fix, fresh, nutritionally balanced and guaranteed to win you shouts of olé! at the dinner table. Buen provecho!


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