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Champions of Chinese cuisine
REVIEWS BY SYBIL PRATT
By Martin Yan Chronicle, $24.95 240 pages, ISBN 9780811863964
By Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid Artisan, $40 376 pages, ISBN 9781579653019
"Get a load of that tomato!"— a retro remark uttered in praise of a gorgeous gal? Probably not, especially if you're at the farmer's market. I'd bet it's about the curves of a gorgeous heirloom tomato: small, large, pear-shaped, heart-shaped, smooth, ribbed, striped, scarlet, pastel yellow or verging on violet. These fabulous, fabulously flavored non-hybrids, back from near-oblivion and now thriving, have wonderful shapes, colors and textures and can be the basis of divine dishes. Doing what she did for melons and squash, renowned gardener and food writer Amy Goldman serves up another glorious tribute to Mother Nature's edible extravagance in The Heirloom Tomato, with more than 200 luscious color photos. It has all the info you need to grow your own heirlooms, appreciate their diversity, and make the most of the harvest from your own garden or your local farm stands and markets. The 55 recipes offer an international approach to using this beautiful fruit, from Smoked Tomato Soup; Fattoush, a Lebanese-style tomato salad perfect for end-of-summer eating; spicy Puttanesca pasta sauce; Indian Tomato Salsa; and Roasted Tomato Crunch Sicilian Style, a stupendous, sweet tomato dessert garnished with vanilla ice cream.
By Amy Goldman Bloomsbury, $35 272 pages, ISBN 9781596912915 |
Whatever you think of the politics, sports rivalries and media hoopla surrounding the Beijing Olympics, the intense focus on China has brought us two fantastic cookbooks. In Martin Yan's China, the photo-filled companion volume to his new PBS series, Yan—master chef, restaurateur, author of 26 cookbooks and star of the celebrated "Yan Can Cook" show—takes us on a cook's tour of the four established regional cuisines, with side trips to the cooking of China's ethnic minorities. And he seasons it all with memories of the "old China" of his youth and impressions of the extreme contrasts and excitement of today's rapidly changing China. The recipes, as expected, are the highlight, ranging from the very easy ginger-spiked Carrot Rice, now one of my quickie weeknight favorites, to the more complex such as crispy Green Onion and Garlic Pancakes, comforting Fortune Noodle Meatball Soup, elegant Lacquered Black Bean Salmon and bright Tangerine Peel Chicken. Yan, perhaps the Julia Child of Chinese cooking, is a terrific teacher; his instructions are simple to follow, with techniques explained and ingredients explicated. Don't try to hurry through these dishes: half the fun is in the prep, and the end results are more than worth the effort.
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's cookbooks are in a class by themselves: the recipes are authentic, yet enticingly accessible; their photographs of the extraordinary places they travel to, the people they meet and the food they eat are beautiful; their research is extensive; and their stories evoke an exotic world most us can experience only in books. Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China takes them back to China and Tibet, where they met and fell in love many years ago, to the regions that are home to the distinctive cultures and cuisines that lie beyond Central China. Jeffrey and Naomi travel, taste and savor: Dai Chile-Fish Soup with Flavored Oil made by a sarong-clad Dai cook in the mountainous, subtropical Southern Yunnan province; crunchy Beef-Sauced Hot Lettuce Salad in a small town on the vast inland plateau of Inner Mongolia; Pork and Spinach Stir-Fry and Tibetan honey-drizzled Rice Pudding in Lhasa; Chicken Pulao with Pumpkin fit for a Uighur feast in foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains. Their portrait of the "Other China" makes for great armchair travel. But this isn't armchair cooking, you really can make these recipes in your kitchen and take this fabulous culinary trip without packing a bag, or making a reservation.
Tomato time