book reviews

Pick Your Poison: Edible Cocktails vs the New Old Bar

Sips

To say that I love books is an understatement: in our current home what was meant as the dining room serves as our “Library” and doesn’t even come close to holding our combined collections. And my cookbook bookcase is full to overflowing.

And, yet, I’ll seldom pass up the chance to meet a new book (though more and more and showing up on my Kindle, these days).

But, just like people, not every book was meant for every person. Today I’ve got two books that I wanted to love, but only found that bosom companion in one.

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First up, Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass – Seasonal Cocktails with a Fresh Twist by Natalie Bovis, The Liquid Muse.

With a name like Edible Cocktails, at first I expected something that took the flavor profiles of cocktails and put them into foods as opposed to beverages. The subtitle turned me around and then had me thinking that the cocktails would be arranged by season, to take advantage of fresh fruits, herbs and juices in-season.

It didn’t really do either per se.

What it did was spend the first third of the book touching on everything from types of spirits to gardening to composting. Yeah, I don’t want composting anywhere near my cocktails; thanks but no thanks. And it did all of this while coming off a bit pretentious. I kept thinking it was the Portland or Austin of cocktail books. Not a bad thing if that’s what you’re looking for, but not necessarily my cup of tea.

The true thrust of this book leans towards the syrups, jams, purees, and infusions that pepper the book and are then used in the cocktails that make up the other half of the book’s recipes. Even though I have a confirmed black thumb and have no interest in gardening whatsoever, I do appreciate the inventive flavor combinations her recipes suggest.

Another niggling detail was that each of the purees, etc. require refrigeration and last only a week. And that’s after you’ve gone to the trouble of making and seeing how much you have because the recipes are sorely lacking in any sort of yield information (okay for cocktails, they usually make 1, but not for other items). I also didn’t really appreciate the brand-name-dropping that went on throughout the book. Things like that stick in my craw, but others may not care about them so much.

The photos in the book are breathtaking, though–this could have been nothing but the photos in a hardback coffee table-sized edition and I would have loved it as is. No recipes required. And I would love to have their assortment of barware.

Best bet is to gift this book to a friend who does garden, drools over the Anthropology catalog, and shops thrift stores for vintage finds.

(And just a note to say that while I may not have thoroughly enjoyed Edible Cocktails, Bovis is a partner in the O.M. line of organic cocktail mixers which I adore.)

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By contrast I truly adored The New Old Bar: Classic Cocktails and Salty Snacks from The Hearty Boys. This fun, fast-reading book by Steve McDonagh and Dan Smith (whom you may know if you are a fan of the Next Food Network Star) was an absolute pleasure to read. There’s a healthy smattering of cocktail photos as well as many photos of cocktail ephemera and neon signs. It’s just plain fun.

In addition to quite a long list of cocktails (listed alphabetically on their own, but organized by base spirit in the index), along with tips or anecdotes on many, there’s the promised chapter on snacks that really makes you want to get into the kitchen. Fried, pickled, or baked and, yes, salty, these nibbles are intended to whet the appetite of a bar patron or your guest for some liquid refreshment. The Cheesy Monkey Bread in particular caught my eye.

The New Old Bar rounds out its offerings with a chapter on toasts. While its true you can drink any time, having a reason–be it loves lost or gained, life’s milestones, or holidays–makes the libations even more meaningful with a few choice words said over them.

A bon vivant of the first order would love this book, as would any burgeoning cocktail enthusiast interested in the classics as well as some more modern drinks.

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I was provided copies of each book for purpose of review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own. Have a cocktail book coming out that your brave enough to let me see? Email sipsandshots@gmail.com for my mailing information.

Fueling the Trader Joe’s Desire

Nibbles

While Todd and I consider ourselves firmly in the omnivore camp, we dabble with flexitarianism from time to time, too. And with the recent announcement that a Trader Joe’s is coming to our town (date TBA, but you can bet I’m checking out that shopping center every time I drive by), I was particularly excited to get my hands (and sticky notes) on The I Love Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Cookbook by Kris Holechek Peters.

The I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook by Kris Holechek Peters

The book aims to make the best use of the TJ’s-branded consumables and just whet my appetite even more for one of their shops opening its doors not 5 minutes from my home (under 2 if I catch the lights just right). Of course, without one nearby, I had to concentrate on the recipes that didn’t depend on branded items as much as general staples, and we still managed to give the book a fair shot.

4 dinners cooked from the I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook

(apologies for the photo quality–my computer ate all but some thumbnails of this week)

(top left) The first recipe I just had to try was the Hawaiian BBQ Sandwich. Using chickpeas for protein and pineapple along with a Kansas City-Style barbecue sauce sounded pretty genius. Unfortunately it was very tough to eat as a sandwich–knife and fork recommended. The flavor was good, though, so I think if I make these again I’ll puree or at least partially mash some of the chickpeas to help the insides stay together. The Sweet Brussels Sprouts Saute, on the other hand, was quite good with its dried cranberries and shredded apple adding a nice hint of sweetness to the very pronounced flavor of the Brussels sprouts.

(top right) Tuesday night saw our favorite recipe of the book, hands down: the Roasted Carrot Risotto totally fulfilled the image that name planted in my head. Smooth and creamy and that extra depth of flavor from roasting the carrots just made it a perfect meal for a lackluster Tuesday. To go with it, I used the Snap Cashew Crunch recipe from the same chapter and just eliminated the “serve over rice” bit to make it a bright green counterpoint side to the rich risotto.

(bottom left) Wednesday night is game night for Todd, and that means a quick supper is needed before he has to dash out the door. These Sweet and Sunny Flatbreads from the appetizer chapter made great main-dish open-faced sandwiches and really did come together rapid-fire. I served them up with the Apple Mallow Sweet Potato bake I told you about, and it made for a colorful and tasty plate.

(bottom right) Vegetable soups tend to be hit-or-miss in my book; so often they end up too watery for my taste. The Herbed Veggie Stew was surprisingly tasty, rich and hearty with two types of potatoes, beans, and plenty of fresh herbs (hence the name). All it needed was a side of biscuits and it was a perfect supper for the dark and dreary day we were having.

Banana Cinnamon Rolls from the I Love Trader Joe's Vegetarian Cookbook

Our final dip into the book gave us these delectable Banana Cinnamon Rolls that featured bananas both in the filling as well as in the yeast dough. They were delicious with or without the Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Peters suggests topping them with. Intended as breakfast, we served them as dessert when we had company for dinner Sunday night, then had the rest of the pan as morning snacks during the week.

As the author is a vegan blogger and cookbook author, I learned quite a bit in the opening sections about ingredient selections for special diets. For instance, did you know that it’s possible for sugar to be non-vegan?! Go figure! Peters is also careful to offer vegan variation notes with each recipe, along with frequent gluten-free tips, as well.

I did have a couple of small quibbles with some of the instructions–often it would read to heat the oil over medium-low heat and then saute. You can’t really saute at medium-low, you need high heat for that cooking method, so that’s a little misleading for beginner cooks. Also, the instructions for the risotto were to add the stock 1 cup at a time and I’ve found that you get the best benefit by only adding half a cup or less at a time.

But those were small quibbles compared to the delight of the variety of recipes included in this book. I still have plenty of sticky notes for recipes we couldn’t fit into the week I cooked from The I Love Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Cookbook that I’m looking to try. Especially once our local store opens!

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I received a copy of The I Love Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Cookbook for purpose of review. The images and opinions above are entirely my own.

The Taste of Tremé Tastes Good!

Nibbles

While I usually eye any book on Cajun or Creole cuisine with a healthy dose of skepticism, I was pleasantly surprised by Taste of Treme, by Todd-Michael St. Pierre.

It helps that St. Pierre is a native of New Orleans, but that’s not always enough to carry a book on its own. The writing is fun and fresh, the recipes uncomplicated, and the little bits of history and culture St. Pierre intersperses make me more than a little homesick for Louisiana.

Tremé, a New Orleans neighborhood, is the setting for an HBO series of the same name, following the lives of residents picking themselves up after Hurricane Katrina. If you’ve seen the show, the book will act as a companion to many of the characters and situations you’ve become fond of. But if you’ve never seen the series (as I haven’t), it doesn’t take away anything from your enjoyment of the book.

The real test, of course, is in the recipes. While I flagged many more in my first pass through the book, I fit 4 into a recent week’s menu and it was quite the feast!

First up was Quinn’s Quaint Crab Quiche.

My only quibble with this dish is that it’s supposed to serve 4 from an entire pie, and that’s an awful heavy serving. I’d suggest you serve 6-8 people with this savory, rich quiche and add a nice salad for color and texture contrast. While it’s tough to admit it, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Being a coastal city, it’s no surprise that fish and shellfish feature quite prominently in the cuisine of Tremé. Still, there were a handful of each beef, pork, and chicken recipes to be tried, and we went with Kaki’s Cajun Lemon Stir Fry.

You might wonder what stir-fry has to do with Louisiana cuisine but (and I was surprised to learn this, too) apparently there’s a sizable Vietnamese population that immigrated after the Viet Nam war. Between the ports and the strong Catholic ties, it made sense for them. So, yes, stir-fry in a Tremé cookbook. And one of the tastier stir-fries I’ve made at home, too.

Soups and stews are fabulous fare, no matter what part of the country you’re cooking from. I considered trying one of St. Pierre’s gumbos but then I came across Davis McAlary’s Crab and Corn Soup and I new it had to go on the menu.

This soup could easily work without the crab, if the cost is prohibitive or you just don’t feel like picking through the crab meat (a tedious part of every crab recipe, but better to do it than not). I served it with my own Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits though a loaf of French bread would do easily as nice. Servings are generous on this recipe, too, as the stated 4 could easily stretch to 6 or even 8.

Finally we rounded out the week with Everette’s New Orleans-Style Barbecued Shrimp.

I’m almost ashamed to say I’ve never had the New Orleans take on BBQ Shrimp and it’s nothing like what you would expect, if you hadn’t had it before. These shrimp go nowhere near skewers, grills, or any sort of traditional BBQ sauce. Instead, they marinate for a time in a flavorful butter sauce, get cooked on the stove until done, and the resulting sauce is then bolstered by beer and more butter and poured over the shrimp.

All that’s left is to roll up your sleeves, grab a big stack of napkins (or a roll of paper towels) and some thick slices of French bread (to sop up the wonderful sauce). The shrimp are marinated and cooked with the shell on, so eating is a messy proposition, but all kinds of tasty. It’s not something we’d ever eat on the regular, but for a Friday night treat it was amazing.

There are so many other recipes caught my attention but there’s only so much decadence we can take in a week–the other’s will keep. Taste of Tremé has taken the top spot of my favorite New Orleans cookbooks, and the next time I head to the Big Easy, I’ll make sure to venture a little farther afield than the French Quarter proper.

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I was provided a copy of Taste of Tremé for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Oh Dear, Oh “Dearie” Me

Nibbles

My poor Kindle has been feeling quite neglected this past month as my bedtime reading was restricted to an absolute doorstop of a book, Dearie, the Julia Child biography by  Bob Spitz.

Biographies are one of those hit-or-miss things for me. I’ve picked up random tomes on people I know nothing about and been utterly engrossed, re-reading them over the years (Galina being a prime example), whereas books on subjects I’m somewhat familiar with have left me cold. The voice of the writer matters quite a bit, and Bob Spitz–who admits a bit of a crush on the grande dame of French cuisine–does an excellent job of narrating her life and the times that helped shape them.

We open with her first stint on public television, and Spitz turns such phrases as

“The shows were dry as toast,” but plans were afoot to inject a little jam into the equation. (p5)

Cooking, like sex, was practiced privately–and, some might say, without much enthusiasm–in the home. (p8)

you never forgot that this was the story of a food revolution but he didn’t hammer away at the point unmercifully. I appreciated his delicate use of imagery as well as his complete picture of Julia Child’s life. Even before, really, as the early chapters go back to the lives of her forefathers, the men who would eventually settle in Pasadena, California, in answer to restless Midwest spirits looking for a respite from their harsh winters–and the gold that California was full of.

While I already knew Julia was no great cook in her earlier years (I’ve seen Julie and Julia, of course), there was so much left out (of my personal knowledge) of how she came to her love of food, French food in particular, and how much Paul had to do with that. She was positively aimless until she met and married Paul Child after many months abroad with him during the war, and even then cooking was something she took up only after many other failed attempts at filling her time when she refused to go back to secretarial work. (And while much is mentioned of how Julia was “a spy”, Spitz is careful to point out that when the opportunity came for Julia to move out of the Registry office she commanded in several foreign locations and actually become a spy, the war would have been over by the time she would have been trained, and it just never happened.)

We also learned much more about Julia’s husband, Paul Child. Any romantic notions I had of him from what was portrayed in the aforementioned movie were mostly dashed as we learn about his struggles with inferiority and his lack of confidence leading to a lack of ambition, but oh did he redeem himself as we learn how integral part  he played in her early television success–his attention to detail rivaled only his wife’s, I’d say, and he really helped her get her TV-legs and keep things running behind the scenes.  (By the  by, did you know Julia was not a fan of Meryl Streep’s back in Streep’s activist days? Julia was, sometimes misguidedly, in favor of the technological advances being made in agriculture, including certain pesticides and Streep’s protest of the use of Alar–later banned–put the actress on Julia’s shit-list.)

And if you’re alarmed by my use of common vulgarity, above, you should realize that to have said it any different would be untrue to the late doyenne’s nature–she who possessed the most mercurial spirit and cursed like a sailor when the mood took her, who pulled no punches with her opinions, would appreciate my turn of phrase, I think.

The entire book was a wile ride of ups and downs, relocations and set-backs, struggles to stay in the public eye against failing health–both Paul’s and, eventually, her own. I respect the hell out of the woman who stopped certain medications because they robbed her of her sense of taste. Who went out of her way to avoid the appearance of sponsors “buying” her good opinion. Who knew when to say enough was enough.

And even though I knew how the story ultimately ended, that the book would more than likely close with her death, the way the author phrased it–with the toast at Olio e Limone…

“Our dear friend and mentor Julia Child passed away today,” she said. A chorus of gasps and cries sifted through the room. “So we invite all of you to raise a glass in her honor.” With great vivacity, she sang out: “Cin cin! Salute, Julia.”

Someone had the good sense to shout, “And bon appétit!”

And damn if I didn’t cry. And teared up again as I told Todd about it the next night over supper. Just as I’m tearing up now, typing out those same words, more than a week after their first reading.

That, my friends, is the mark of a well-written story. One that grabs you, involves you in the subject’s life, and touches you more, now, with their death than you felt at the time in history when it actually happened.

Even though I’d done “the chef thing” by then and was still marginally connected to the food world, her passing was a blip on my radar. Now I grieve that I didn’t grieve more, then. It’s a peculiar feeling to realize what the world “lost” that day, and that more wasn’t made of it.

Last month would have been Julia’s 100th birthday, and much fuss was made over that fact. At first, I admit, a part of me saw it as just another PR move, just another hashtag campaign in the making. But after more fully digesting Julia’s impact on food and cooking, the effects of which are still being felt, I humbly apologize for such a jaded opinion and encourage you all to dust off that copy of Mastering… and cooking something in her memory.

Bon appétit!

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I was provided a copy of Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, by Bob Spitz for purpose of review. All of the above opinions are my own.

Probiotics for Dummies: Health or Hype?

Nibbles

A couple months ago I was approached by the publicist of Dr. Shekhar Challa, M.D., Board-Certified Gastroenterologist and author of Probiotics for Dummies. Knowing a little bit about probiotics, already, and intrigued by the promise of the recipes included in the book, I accepted a digital copy of the book for purposes of review.

This is probably not the sort of review they were hoping for.

To start, let me explain where I was coming from. Already I knew that:

  • Bacteria are not all bad. Probiotics are the good guys, the ones that help our bodies in a variety of ways. Antibiotics, on the other hand, kill bacteria–sometimes both the good and the bad, which can lead to secondary infections.
  • Some of those secondary infections can be prevented by priobiotics, like the active cultures in yogurts, so it’s not a bad idea to up the intake while on broad-spectrum meds.
  • My aunt, holder of a Ph.D. in microbiology and owner of a DNA lab, recommends taking a particular brand of probiotic that helps her with the “Hoover stomach”–what we call the tummy troubles most of our side of the family seems to have.

I, however, take enough pills for the things I have to, if there’s a way to get my probiotics from food I’m much more interested in that method.

First, though, there were the chapters leading up to the recipes that demanded my attention. Unlike most of the For Dummies books I’ve read (and I’ve got half a dozen or so on my shelf), the writing was dry and repetitive. Perhaps it’s the subject matter, but there has to be a way to make this sort of thing more interesting.

Chapter 3, though, starts the pro-supplement rhetoric that would continue throughout the book.

But today, evolving diets and longer lives (age tends to shift the bacterial balance in our bodies) mean that most people need supplements to get adequate probiotics.

Probiotics for Dummies, page 31

I really thought he’d have encouraged a more varied diet before going straight to supplements (this is the note I attached to the above–by the way, my Kindle is awesome for reading books for review purposes).

But let’s talk prebiotics for a moment. These were new to me. Basically, the good bacteria need the right diet of their own, namely fibers they can break down and ferment to feed themselves and make more good bacteria. This is yet another reason to keep a good level of fiber in your diet, to keep the good bacteria happy and plentiful.

Although you can get your prebiotics through foods, the standard American diet–full of processed foods, high in sugar, and low in fiber–doesn’t typically provide enough prebiotics to help the good bacteria in your digestive system. So look for prebiotics in your probiotic supplement. Common prebiotics are inulin and oligofructose.

Probiotics for Dummies, page 39

And now we’re back to the pills. Highlighted with the familiar For Dummies Tip icon, Dr. Challa points out that Probulin is a “good example of a synbiotic, where the two elements, probiotics and prebiotics to work together as a one-two books to your system”.

This is not the only time Probulin is mentioned, or other products that are not food (probiotic straws and chewing gum, for instance), and the probiotic market is also mentioned more than once, about how it’s booming and expected to be worth $32.6 billion by 2014.

I’m sorry, when did this become a investment prospectus?

Getting back to health, Dr. Challa mentions various ailments from eczema to anxiety to obesity that could be helped through the proper administration of probiotics, but the research is still very much in the early stages. So early, in fact, that these ailment-specific chapters are brief and one wonders why not wait until there’s more information rather than writing a book with a lot of theories, maybes, and mights before getting people’s hopes up.

Oh, wait, I know! It’s because you wouldn’t sell as many pills.

So my bs-meter was pinging pretty solid by the time I was halfway through the book, but I was sticking it out. After all, the facts about each bacteria, good and bad, weren’t showing a bias, it was more the treatment and acquisition that was skewed. Finally I got to the food portions of the book: Chapters 11 & 12. But 5 pages in we’re back to “choosing a probiotic supplement.” That’s not adding probiotics to your diet, that’s adding pills to your regimen.

Cue frustration.

And then came the confusion.

You see, in Chapter 11 the fact that heat kills priobiotics comes up in a very real way: Miso, for instance, is a probiotic-rich food, but you’re supposed to add it to a dish after cooking, since heat kills the probiotics. We’re also instructed not to eat or drink anything hot with or within an hour after consuming probiotics, as this could kill them, too.

And the recipes were not much more help. Where I was expecting to see notations on each about which bacteria would be most likely to appear in a dish, there was nothing. Fermenting foods at home is one of those dicey propositions for those of us who’ve taken food safety & sanitation courses, which is why the first recipe, Fermenting with Whey: Sweet Potato Fly, (contributed by Sandor Katz, author of Wild Fermentation) rang a bell or two when step four reads:

Crush the cleaned eggshell into the mixture. The recipe that inspired me called for folding in stiff beaten egg whites at this point; I don’t eat raw eggs so I didn’t try it, but it sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

Most folks avoid raw eggs because of the threat of salmonella, right? So it surprises me that the cook would rather use the shell–which is where the boatload of contamination risk is located–rather than the white, and then ferment the thing for 3 days. Yes, cleaning is stipulated, but you’d have to sterilize it for it to truly be safe, and I doubt most folks are going to do that.

Oh, and many of the non-fermented recipes are cooked in some way, shape, or form, so I’m left still wondering, how does this increase the probiotics in our diet? Are these recipes meant to give us prebiotic fiber instead?

I suggest that if the author had any interest in the readers actually benefiting from the recipes, more information would have been provided and the process would have jived more with the previous text. I also suggest that Probiotics for Dummies might as well be subtitled: Why Probulin is Awesome.

Consider the Source

Back when the Internet was still fresh and young and students were beginning to use websites for research papers, a lot of caution was expressed about the ownership of the websites being for facts. For instance, medical research was considered somewhat suspect if the site was owned or sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, compared to one that was not. In other words, monetary support leads to potential bias.

Now, even though Probulin lists only 2 mentions, according to the Index, the pro-supplement vibe is pretty strong here and I was wondering from early on whether Dr. Challa was a spokesperson or in someway affiliated with a particular probiotic supplement.

When I got through the book and was flipping through the last pages, imagine my lack of surprise to see 4 full-page ads, after the usual For Dummies lists. First was a “Why Choose Probulin” ad, followed by Probulin’s New Profresh Mints, then a Coming Soon advertisement for “everything probiotic”, with the Probulin logo at the bottom. Finally, a split-page ad (again, sponsored by Probulin) for the Probiotics video game (Microwarriors: The Battle Within) and a new DVD documentary (Microwarriors: The Power of Probiotics).

Doesn’t take a genius to put 2 and 2 together and come out with Dr Challa is obviously involved with Probulin.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that: doctors develop treatment therapies and drugs all the time, and endorsing something is a personal and professional choice. I just want the person presenting themselves as an expert to be upfront about it.

No where in the book does is it disclose the relationship between the author and the advertiser or its product. But I was able to find, with a little searching, that the trademark for Probulin was registered by Challa Enterprises, LLC (per the Trademark Electronic Search System) and that Challa Enterprises is owned, at least in part, by Shekhar Challa (per the Kansas Secretary of State). Now, Probulin, according to the label included with the trademark registration, is “Manufactured Exclusively for NutraCenter Enhanced Nutraceuticals”. I had a tough time finding out any ownership or board information for the sites probulin.com and nutracenter.com, but a WHOIS search gives us the information that both sites are registered to the Kansas Medical Clinic, which Dr. Challa is (finally) stated in the book as being the President of. Going back to the Kansas Secretary of State, we find that Dr. Challa is also the Secretary, sole member of the Board of Directors and sole shareholder for the Kansas Medical Clinic.

Again, none of this is technically wrong, bad, or otherwise nefarious. Unless you want your medical guidance from an unbiased source.

If that’s the case, as it is for me, I’d take everything but the basic facts from Probiotics for Dummies with a grain a salt. In fact, I think looking for another source of probiotic information would be in your best interest.

FTC Disclaimer: I was provided with a digital (pdf) copy of Probiotics for Dummies for the purpose of review. All opinions are entirely my own.