Cookbook Review: Tyler Florence Fresh

The flap says: "In Tyler Florence Fresh, real unprocessed foods shine in simple yet creative recipes designed to maximize the flavor of each component.  Using easy techniques like quick pickling, searing, and dehydrating to heighten tastes and textures, Tyler masterfully mixes and matches flavors to create plates of elegant simplicity that are naturally brimming with wholesome nutrition."

I have really enjoyed Tyler Florence's TV shows on the Food Network, and he is one of the nicer celebrity chefs to look at - as the cover of his latest cookbook can attest to! - so I was super excited to get ahold of this new release.  But I have to say, very sadly, that I was disappointed with the cookbook overall.

I love the earth-to-table movement.  I love the concept of using fresh, locally procured ingredients and doing as little as possible to them to create spectacular stuff, and it on the surface appears that that's what Tyler has done with this book, so that's not my main beef.

My main beef is the presentation of the food in this book.  I'm not a fan of deconstructionism in food; I think it's unappealing, I think it's very fussy and pretentious, and I think meals made up of several components need to blended together to show how they work together, rather than dissected on the plate to show how separate everything is.  And this is what the presentations in this book do; they remind me of biology class where we had to dissect things and splay them out in their bare parts so we could analyze all these parts and pass the lab.  So I found many of the photographs didn't show the food off in an appealing manner and it really put me off.  It mad the food look broken and uncohesive.

And some of the food just looked plain unappetizing.  For instance, the yogurt foam on page 89 is one example.  I hate foam on foods - it's gross.  And there are a lot of sauces in this book that looks similar, and of course, since everything's broken down into its components it looks even worse.  Even the Key Lime Pie - a dessert I love! - is reduced to a puddle of green puree on a plate with crumbs of graham crust sprinkled on top and some little blobs of meringue dabbed here and there.  This did not inspire me at all to make the recipe!

I liked the concept of the hero ingredients Tyler used in this book, ingredients that are the nutritional star of each dish, like asparagus, salmon and tuna.  But the recipes overall seemed - despite what the flap says - overly fussy and too chi-chi for my tastes.  Plus, there are a lot of ingredients on here that fall outside my budget: truffles, fresh tuna, octopus, and squab, for instance.  This leads into my main complaint about the whole buy local/earth-to-table/sustainability movement: some chefs take it a bit far and turn simple things into elaborate haute cuisine dishes that the average person can't afford to make because some of the ingredients, while healthy and sustainable, are too expensive for the average joe.

I have gone through this book a few times, and I just don't feel there is anything in here I would consider making.  Even the chocolate cake would cost me a fortune to make, with 9 eggs and a pound of decent chocolate in it.  I'm sure it's divine, but that's a huge investment for a dessert for me.

So conceptually, a great idea for a cookbook.  Execution-wise, a totally different story.  I don't think I'll be keeping this cookbook around on my already overfilled cookbook bookcase. :(

Magazine Monday #79 (on a Saturday): Guy Fieri's Soft Pretzels

Strange cravings are upon me these days, and while going through a pile of magazines taking up space on my coffee table, this soft pretzel recipe by Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives host Guy Fieri caught my eye. I have recently become a Triple D (or, as I like to call it, D3) fanatic. I don't know why it took me so long! Where has this show been all my life! It took a while for Guy to grow on me, but grow on me he has, and now I am addicted. This is probably another reason I wanted to make this recipe.

Unfortunately, I didn't think too much of Guy's soft pretzel recipe, which came in the January/February issue of Food Network Magazine. The recipe is here.

Lately, I have been practicing making bagels, which are boiled. I have posted before (here and here) about some pretzels I've made that are also boiled. I have to say, I much prefer that recipe and the boiling method over this non-boiled pretzel by Guy. Guy's are tasty for sure, and I enjoyed the stuffed ones (I used homemade pesto and mozzarella cheese to stuff mine), but they are, essentially, a pretzel-shaped bun without that nice chewy texture.

So, I'd give this a miss. Sorry, Guy! I love you, but this wasn't my cup of tea!

Sunday Smile

I just HAD to post this!

Cookbook Review: Giada at Home

I am a huge fan of Giada de Laurentiis, so I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of her new cookbook, Giada at Home: Family Recipes from Italy and California.

As usual, Giada's slim volume is packed with drool-worthy recipes and cool ideas that never fail to inspire me. This book, as the flap states and as the title indicates, incorporates traditional Italian dishes with the fresh, clean flavours of California. In typical Giada style, this new book also heavily features pictures of warm get-togethers with friends and family, with a heavy emphasis on Giada's new baby daughter, Jade. I have to admit, I was a smitten with the baby as I was with the recipes!

Giada always uses clean, whole ingredients in her recipes, focusing on fresh veggies and seasonality. Divided into the usual cookbook categories of appetizers, soups & sandwiches, desserts, etc., there is also a brunch chapter with some recipes I can't wait to try. The Pancetta & Cinnamon Waffles on page 228 being at the top of my list. My new waffle iron is going to get a great workout with this one. The dessert chapter also tantalized me with a very mouthwatering take on tiramisu, this one using lemon and hazelnut instead of the traditional coffee flavours. I cannot wait to make that.

The one recipe I have tried was the Rigatoni with Creamy Mushroom Sauce on page 80. I had a friend over for dinner last week and I thought this was the perfect time to try a new recipe out. This was a simple dinner, though I had to make some substitutions because marscapone cheese is way too cost prohibitive for me; I used some light cream cheese instead and it worked fine. For the mushroom assortment, I used a portabella, some regular button mushrooms, and some enoki mushrooms. Instead of white wine, I used some cooking sherry. This was a great dish! I wouldn't spend the money on enoki mushrooms again, though; they didn't really add any big flavour to this. The portabella mushroom was totally worth it, however!

This is the third Giada book I have on my cookbook shelves, and once again, it's well worth the precious space there!

Book Review: My China, by Kylie Kwong

I treated myself to this weighty tome for Christmas, being a fan of Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, which launched my series Cooking with Kylie.

My China's subtitle is "A Feast for the Senes" and that it definitely is.

Kylie is a fourth generation Chinese Australian, born in Sydney. This book is her homage to her Chinese heritage, and recounts her travels through much of China and Tibet, cooking and eating as she goes. She starts off in the village of her ancestors, where she is greeted like a long lost relative and where she cooks up the first of many feasts featuring local ingredients in rustic cooking conditions. My China takes the reader everywhere: up the Yangtze, along the Silk Road, the Great Wall, to the great cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing, to Lhasa in Tibet, and to a place that really fascinates me Xi'an, where the Terracotta Army resides. Interspersed with food history and stories, are cultural vignettes featuring Chinese history written with Kylie's sense of wonder, respect, and enthusiasm.

Kylie's descriptions of her experiences are a feast for all the senses. She is a great writer, I discovered, incorporating sound, taste, touch, and smell into her narrative so well I could imagine myself there with her. And there are plenty of large, colourful photos to feast the eyes on.

There are over 80 new recipes in this book, and I have yet to try them. But I will!

This is a great companion book to Beyond the Great Wall, which I reviewed here. There were many similarities between the two books, both being a great mixture of travelogue, photographs, recipes, and personal stories.

If you are fan of Kylie Kwong and Chinese food, history, and culture, you cannot go wrong with My China!

Cookbook Review: Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes

This month's issue of Food Network Magazine had in it a very mouthwatering article about Bobby Flay's new book. In fact, I made the avacado relish recipe from it and was very impressed. Luckily, I was able to score a review copy and it arrived last week. Over the past couple of days, I've made a few more things from the cookbook that have converted me over to Bobby Flay fandom.

The flap reads: "After a long day spent in one of his restaurants or taping a television show, what Bobby Flay craves more than anything else is … a crusty-on-the-outside, juicy-on-the-inside burger; a fistful of golden, crisp, salty fries; and a thick, icy milkshake. Given the grilling guru’s affinity for bold flavors and signature twists on American favorites, it’s no surprise that he has crafted the tastiest recipes ever for this ultimate food trio."

Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes is a really fun book to have around. I totally enjoyed the photos and the write-ups, and the recipes were simple enough on their own, but what I particularly liked was that it inspired me in so many ways. I've had a lot of burgers in my life, and some of them have been pretty great. But this book really opened my eyes about all the different things one can do with a burger.

I made three recipes - two burgers and the Buttermilk Onion Rings on page 101. Bobby doesn't believe in adding fillers to burger meat, like eggs and breadcrumbs, because then you're essentially making meat loaf. I grew up on burgers made this way, as my mom was always trying to stretch the meat more to feed the family. What Bobby instructs is to just make a patty and season it with salt & pepper on both sides. Ah, the freedom! Simple is best, truly! I used lean ground beef that was locally procured, and it was tasty enough on its own.

The first burger I made was the Greek Burger on page 46. Yes, I cheated and bought tzatziki from the local overpriced grocery store. I skipped the olives. I don't like tomatoes. But the feta and tzatziki was enough on its own to create a wonderful burger. I had intended to make the onion rings to go with it, but I found that all my onions had gone rotten! I was ticked! So I served this burger with fingerling fries.

The second burger I made was the Miami Burger on page 51. I even splurged on Swiss Cheese, which is ludicrously expensive here and not something I buy very often. This was the best burger ever! I mean, anything with ham & swiss on it is going to be amazing, but I really loved this burger. In fact, I'm going to have it for dinner again tonight since I have one patty left over.

Yesterday, I got some not rotten sweet onions and made the Buttermilk Onion rings to go with the Miami Burger. The instructions say to remove the papery membrane between the layers of onion, but that got really annoying really fast and I was overcome with onion-induced tears very quickly after beginning. So, I gave that up soon enough and I found that the onion rings didn't suffer for that at all. These were awesome! They were easy to make and very, very tasty. I use my wok to deep fry and it works well, though I had to fry in several batches. It didn't matter. The onion rings were fab, and I'll definitely be making them again.

Here is the final result:So, this was last night's meal:

I didn't get around to making any milkshakes, but that's definitely on my to-do list, since some of his shakes are just too decadent NOT to make!

All in all, a great little book! Definitely a keeper and a recommend!

Cookbook Review: Curtis Stone's Relaxed Cooking

For some folks, it's Tyler Florence.

For some, it's Michael Chiarello.

For some guys, it's Nigella.

For me, it's Curtis Stone.

Of course, we're talking about celebrity chefs who get us a little hot under the jacket - or celebrity chefs whom we'd love to have cook naked for us in our own kitchens - perhaps a little "dessert" included. So, you can imagine I was totally stoked to get the opportunity to review Curtis's new book, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone.

The subtitle is Recipes to Put You in My Favourite Mood. Um-hmmm. I definitely got into a mood while going through the book, I can tell you that.

Seriously, though, this book is about just what the title indicates, relaxed cooking, and despite the double entendres, being relaxed is Curtis's favourite mood. In his own words, "For me, there are few things that are more relaxing than lingering at the table with good friends...But I know that for a lot of people, putting together a meal, especially for guests, is the opposite of relaxing..."

With that in mind, the recipes in this book are all quite simple and don't use lots of complicated ingredients. The focus is on fresh, seasonal ingredients. The chapters cover everything from breakfast to brunches, to party foods, and of course a dessert chapter entitled "Sweet Dreams." There are lots of beautiful colour photos, some of them even containing Curtis himself (though it might be said that for some of us, the fact that he isn't in every photo is one of the book's weaknesses).

I started out by making the granola on page 18, and it was pretty good. It's not as good at this recipe, but still, it is worth trying out. I also made the Crumbed Chicken Breasts Filled with Swiss Cheese on page 156 because it reminded me a lot of Donna-FFW's awesome Chicken Mutz. It was simple to put together and quite tasty - and it was relaxing, come to think of it; I got to read while it was cooking.

Would I recommend it? Sure. If you're a beginner cook, the simplicity of the recipes are an asset to have around. The desserts alone look worth it - in addition to all the pics of Curtis, of course! There's Banoffee Pie I can't wait to try that looks super easy and totally decadent. This book is definitely worth a look.

Tyler Florence's Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently discovered Donna - FFW's Tasty Treasures blog, and I am so glad I did. She is hilarious, and doesn't bother to hide her...um...enthusiasm for various hot celebrity chefs at all. One of her crushes is Tyler Florence, who, I have to admit, is one of the hotter chefs on the Food Network that I wouldn't mind having a nice intimate cooking date with (I also kind of like Ned Bell, who is a Canadian chef in Calgary whom I really enjoyed watching prepare various fish dishes on a recent episode of Cook Like a Chef, a show I just love).

Anyway, Donna posted about Tyler's My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies, and, with a name like that, how could I resist? I printed out the recipe and made it the other day. Perfect PMS and time-of-the-month food, I must say. I made the cookies quite large, and it felt so decadent to bite into a cookie that had more than two bites to it! Normally, I scoop my cookies with my #70 cookie scoop, which is about a TBSP. For these, I used my #12 scoop, which is almost 1/2 a cup, and then divided each scoop in half to get about 1/4 cup's worth of cookie dough per cookie. I think I need to do this more often! Down with piddly-sized cookies, man!

The recipe is here.