Eat, Drink, and Be Merry in Maryland
Author: Frederick Philip Stieff
Frederick Philip Stieff, son of the piano-making Baltimore family, was a celebrated amateur chef and a sort of menu historian. He made a personal crusade of collecting -- mainly using hand-written family papers and the memories of aged cooks -- old Maryland recipes. This volume, he declares in his foreword, offers merely "a generalization, a diversification of the receipts [as he calls them] which have for decades contributed to the gastronomic supremacy of Maryland."
Cooking and mixing instructions cover, in separate chapters, everything from oysters, a specialty of the counties bordering on the bay, to buckwheat and maple syrup, indigenous to western Maryland. Stieff fills out the stories behind many of the recipes in accompanying headnotes: the recipe for Ellin North Pudding, for example, was handed down by Ellin North, born in Baltimore in 1740 and later married to John Moale, the Colonel of the Baltimore Town Militia, to her great-grandson, Walter de Curzon Poultney. There are also several interesting appendices: one gives us the menu for a traditional hunt breakfast at Elkridge; another spells out what was served at the Maryland Institute's "Grand Banquet of the Railways Celebrations" in 1857; yet another itemizes the food that George Mann (of Mann's Tavern, Annapolis) procured in December 1783 to stage a dinner celebrating the end of war with Britain.
"Eating in Maryland was a continuous feast, not alone because of the prodigality of its table, but because of the warmth of its ever welcoming hospitality. And certainly it seems to be that in this book... the traditions of Maryland's hospitality, no less than those merely of its kitchens, will be preservedfor all time." -- Emily Post
Books about: Planetwalker or Why We Cant Wait
Amazing World of Rice: With 150 Recipes for Pilafs, Paellas, Puddings, and More
Author: Marie Simmons
Today's market shelves are lined with unique varieties of rice from all over the world. Join noted cookbook author and Bon Appétit columnist Marie Simmons on a journey through the amazing world of rice -- from learning how to select the right type of rice for every dish to the best ways to prepare each kind.
Publishers Weekly
Simmons, the author of a host of user-friendly cookbooks and the "Healthy Cooking" column in Bon Appetit, here puts to rest the stereotype of rice as a bland starch served alongside Asian food. For those who thought a rice cookbook could only be a treatise on 1950's-style rice salads or a primer on How to Boil Rice, this vibrant, multicultural collection of original recipes should come as a welcome treat. Simmons's range is broad: Black Bean Chipotle and Rice Soup with Cilantro Cream rubs shoulders with Lamb Kebabs on Persian-style golden rice, Curried Coconut Rice with Cauliflower, Butternut Squash, Green Beans, and Cashews, and Hoppin' John; she also concocts a vast array of risotto and paella variations. An intriguing rice glossary covers the relatively familiar territory of basmati, Arborio and jasmine and introduces readers to the more obscure Bomba, Camargue and Rosematta grains. And while Simmons has built a reputation on lean, low-fuss recipes (such as her 365 Ways to Cook Pasta), she takes a detour with this book: these meticulous recipes often require several read-throughs and thorough preparation to succeed (the book also would have benefited from photographs). Still, despite its format problems, the book offers dazzling proof that rice will always be much more than a staple. (Jan.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
No comments:
Post a Comment