Classic cookbooks are always in style, and the four here prove the point. These retooled reissues are mini-courses in themselves, and they have plenty to offer a new group of cooks hungry for knowledge–and recipes.
– When Bruce Cost wrote “Asian Ingredients” in 1988, his aim was to introduce cooks to the foods that define the cuisine of Thailand, Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan. Asian foods continue to forge into the mainstream–Brinker International’s Big Bowl restaurants, where Cost is executive chef, are just one example of their growing popularity (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Cost’s wide-ranging guide (re-issued by Quill, $18) continues to help rookies make sense of often exotic ingredients. Want to know how to make Chinese-style chicken broth? Interested in the difference between powdered wasabi and wasabi paste? The answers are here, as are many photographs to help identify ingredients at the market. The book’s 130 recipes include Asian radish braised with ginger and orange peel, Laotian braised chicken with shallots and cracked black pepper, and mango and coconut cream tart.
– In a sense, “The Essential Cuisines of Mexico” (Clarkson Potter, $35) is a brand-new book; Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy combined the information and recipes from her earlier cookbooks to produce this compilation. Kennedy began her travels and research in 1957 and eventually produced three highly regarded cookbooks in the 1970s: “The Cuisines of Mexico,” “The Tortilla Book” and “Mexican Regional Cooking.” It’s a testament to Kennedy’s efforts that this collection still looks and sounds exotic decades later. Though she has updated much of the information, she kept the recipe precedes, which tell of the people and places linked to each food or dish. Of the 330 recipes here, 30 are new; options include asado placero Sinaloense (meat and vegetables with tomato sauce Sinaloa), arroz a la tumbada (rice with shrimps), and mangos flameados (flambeed mangos).
– Its sheer size–more than 600 pages–gives the first clue that James Peterson’s “Splendid Soups” (Wiley, $45) will be a definitive resource on its topic. (Which makes you wonder why the original 1993 version went out of print.) Purees, broths, fish soups, vegetable soups, meat soups, bread soups, fruit and dessert soups are just some of the topics covered. Ingredients are explored and techniques are explained in the course of sharing more than 400 recipes, 50 of them new. Recipes include Cajun shrimp soup with smoked salmon; Japanese quick-simmered beef with vegetables (sukiyaki); medieval pea soup with ginger, saffron and almonds; and hot peach soup with creme fraiche. Pass the spoon.
– “Sweet Miniatures: The Art of Making Bite-Size Desserts,” by Flo Braker (Chronicle, $22.95), may not be the most scholarly book of the four here, but each page produces one mouthwatering treat after another, all to be devoured in a single mouthful. Gorgeous photos by Michael Lamotte distinguish this reissue from the original 1991 version. (That book won the single-subject award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.) The more than 125 dainty, delectable desserts–perfect, incidentally, for spring entertaining–include candied lady apples, s’more squares and Neapolitan wedges. Information on baking techniques, and a freezing and storage chart add to the book’s value.
