Christine McFaddenReseñas

Simple and delicious easy to make recipes.

If you happen to be a Chocolate Fanatic, then you might like this book quite a bit more than I did....

Introduction; The History of Chocolate; Cultivation & Processing; Taste, Quality & Presentation; A World of Chocolate (Chocolate around the world); Physiology and Psychology; and The Recipes: Types of Chocolate; Techniques; Tea-Time; Cakes & Gateaux; Special Occasion & Novelty; Hot Desserts; Tarts, Pies & Cheesecakes; Chilled; Ices & Sorbets; Biscuits & Cookies; Little cakes, Slices & Bars; Sweets, Truffles & drinks; and sauces, Frostings & Icings... Addresses & Acknowledgements and Index.

Quite a lot of information, great photos, a wide variety of recipes using a wider variety of ingredients. These recipes are not for the first time baker, but are for someone more accomplished......

For my taste, there weren't enough recipes w/ coffee as an additional ingredient, but I did like the: Chocolate Coconut Roulade, Baked Chocolate & Raisin Cheesecake, and the Luxury White Chocolate Cheesecake.

A little bit oversized, each recipe with its own beautiful & simple photo. One recipe per page large font titles, easy to read ingredient lists placed well above the instructions which are numbered (1, 2, 3...) and never more than 5 simple steps.

Contents include: Introduction 4 recipe sections, & Index

Introduction includes: Regional cooking, fundamental techniques, Cooking equipment, & Ingredients

Meat & Poultry Dishes include: Wonton soup, Ants climbing a tree, Hoisin pork w/ garlic noodles, Fried rice w/ pork & shrimp, Pork ginger dumplings, sweet & sour spareribs, Stir fried lamb w/ orange, Beef chop suey, Gong bau chicken, Cross the bridge noodles, Peking duck, & Turkey w/ bamboo shoots & water chestnuts

Fish & Seafood Dishes include: Seafood chow mein, Five willow fish, Salmon & scallops w/ cilantro & lime, Monkfish stir fry, Sweet & sour sea bass, Wok fried jumbo shrimp in spicy sauce, Shrimp foo young, Drunken fish, Chilies stuffed w/ fish paste, Crispy crab wontons, Scallops in black bean sauce, Clams in black bean sauce, Sweet chili squid & Baby squid stuffed w/ pork &; mushrooms

Vegetable Dishes include: Mushroom & ginger soup, Spicy tofu, Oyster mushrooms & vegetables w/ peanut chili sauce, Broccoli & snow pea stir fry, Stuffed eggplant w/ spicy sauce, Sweet & sour vegetables w/ cashews, Mushroom & tofu firepot, Braised straw mushrooms, Vegetable & coconut curry, & Chengdu noodles in sesame sauce,

Side Dishes & Desserts include: Pork & shrimp egg rolls, Vegetarian egg rolls, Shrimp toasts, Stir fried bean sprouts, Spicy green beans, Hot & sour cabbage, Tea scented eggs, Mango pudding, Toffee bananas, Toffee apple slices, & Banana coconut fritters

A Great beginning cookbook.

Nice layout with good images of prepared foods. The book lays flat and has all instructions on a single page in an easy-to-read font. The recipes are fairly simple and include serving sizes. Each dish and a short one-paragraph introduction describing appeal, cultural significance, and sometimes texture and appeal.

It is organizes by courses, with four sections:
Appetizers and Snacks
Entrées
Vegetables and Sides
Desserts and Drinks

Lekkerst boek ooit. Alles staat erin!

The first 60 or so pages describe the history of chocolate, the cultivation process, the types of chocolate used in different countries, and is quite interesting. The rest of the book is recipes which are... not very inspiring or appealing.

Books like this one that focus on a particular ingredient always look great, have great photographs, and make me salivate. But often are impractical, and I rarely use this.

Quick and simple pasta recipes that I believe anyone can make. One of the best things about this cookbook as opposed to others is that every recipe has a picture of what the final product is supposed to look like. Most cookbooks do not have this and just give you a picture after every few recipes. I personally find seeing the pictures next to each recipe very helpful as I see what each dish is supposed to look like. The pictures in the book are very well photographed and detail oriented. The one drawback of this book may be the fact that it does not have the caloric content of each meal listed. But that is a minor quibble as it is actually nice to see a cookbook that does not obsess over every ounce. Great cookbook in my opinion.½

A decent history of chocolate by McFadden, followed by recipes by France. But for one McFadden turkey mole poblano, the recipes are sweet, not savory. France's recipes have very good photographs of technique steps. For those on the left side of the pond, be aware that many of the English ingredients might not be available at your local supermarket. Nut and Chocolate Chip Brownies, p. 221. Very yummy.