James Beard Award - Indianapolis

Filled with low-fat cooking tips and hints, along with hundreds of recipes th extract maximum flavor from the least required amount of fat, this revised cookbook teaches every technique used in today's homes and professional kitchens.

When Charlie van Over makes his bread, he breaks all the rules of classic bread baking. He doesn't proof the yeast. He uses cold water instead of warm. He mixes the dough in a food processor for forty-five seconds instead of kneading it by hand. He lets the dough rise in a cool place. The results?
Perfect crusty-on-the-outside baguettes with texture, taste, and aroma. Light brioche with buttery crisp crusts and fluffy, saffron interiors. Chewy bagels with hardy, smooth crusts. A rich walnut loaf studded with nuts and scented with the full flavor of whole wheat. A homey cherry babka with a crunchy cinnamon sugar topping. How is this possible? Like many inventors, Charlie came across his technique by accident. At a party for Carl Sontheimer, founder of Cuisinart, the company that first introduced the food processor to American home cooks, it was suggested to Charlie that he mix his dough in a food processor. Thus began several years of experimentation and, finally, a foolproof method for making perfect bread every time. Now you can re-create Charlie van Over's great bread for yourself. And what's even more amazing is that Charlie's is a hands-off, rather than a hands-on, method. Once the dough is mixed in the food processor, there's no kneading. Just place it in a bowl at room temperature to allow the flavors to develop. Have to run out suddenly for a few hours? No problem. Just put the dough in the refrigerator until you're ready. You won't have to keep baker's hours or become a professional to make wonderful bread at home. Once you've mastered the basic technique, the possibilities are endless. Fougasse, Ciabatta, Semolina Bread, pizza, Danish Twists, and even sourdough Olive Rosemary Bread and Idaho Potato Rolls. Have a favorite bread? Charlie even explains how to convert any recipe to The Best Bread Ever method. The Best Bread Ever provides easy-to-follow instructions for more than sixty breads, step-by-step photographs, helpful advice for troubleshooting your food processor, rich color photographs of Charlie's bread, and recipes for using bread in bread puddings, soups, and other dishes. As Jacques Pepin says in his foreword, "Get your ingredients and equipment together and follow Charlie's remarkable method. You will never be without good bread again."

The food of London's most vibrant culinary destination, Mezzo, is adapted for the home kitchen in this brilliant book.

Dinner parties are back. Cocktail parties are back. Cigars and martinis are back. Before you know it, even pillbox hats may be back! But some things have changed forever. There was a time when celebration meant days of planning, days of cooking, and days of recuperation. But no more! Today, the very thought of preparing one of those sumptuous multicourse extravaganzas has become no more than a fleeting nightmare. For special events, however, there is still nothing quite so welcome as a home-cooked meal. In Entertaining 101,mother and daughter Linda West Eckhardt and Katherine West DeFoyd provide all the information anyone will need to throw a terrific party at home. Each of the recipes has been tested not only by the authors but also by less experienced cooks. Each one has been simplified to eliminate all unnecessary steps. Each menu is accompanied by a carefully worked-out timetable so that every dish will be ready when it should be. And no menu requires more than an hour's preparation time in the kitchen, although some dishes may cook longer unattended--while you set the table or enjoy a cocktail with your guests. The fifty-two seasonal menus--from a Winter Solstice Formal Sage Chicken Dinner to a Summer Supper from the Farmer's Market--will allow anyone to entertain "with style and grace" every week of the year. Each menu includes wine suggestions and useful tips for serving and decorating (although the authors emphasize that there are no absolute rights or wrongs). This may not be the age of Aquarius, but it is certainly the age of liberation--in the kitchen as well as everywhere else.

The secret of Latin hospitality? A magic recipe that combines style and panache with an easygoing, carefree approach. Put out wonderful food, then party today and do the dishes. Fiesta food is vibrant, friendly, generous, and simple. It adds sparkle to casual Sunday dinners, backyard barbecues, informal cocktails, and--certainly--wild Latin parties. No wonder it's the newest culinary craze! In Fiesta!, Anya von Bremzen perfectly captures the zest and exuberance of Latin food and traditions along with the joyous spirit of the Latin people. She presents a rainbow of empanadas and other enticing snacks; folksy meal-in-a-bowl soups, such as Colombian Three-Potato Chowder and Brazilian Bouillabaisse; homey yet elegant entrees from Inca Herb-Wrapped Beef to Basque Tuna in Melting Onion Sauce; and--to top it all off--sweets like Cafe con Leche Mousse, Caramel-Pineapple Cheesecake, and Peruvian Pumpkin Doughnuts. On special holiday occasions, celebrate with a famous Venezuelan Ham Bread, Portuguese Mint-Crusted Easter Lamb, or Latin Party Roast Fresh Ham with Cracklings. Short essays, side notes, and the recipe introductions all evoke the vibrant music, zest for life, and festive traditions that light up not only the small towns and major cities of Latin America, Portugal, and Spain, but also the burgeoning Latino communities of the United States. Photographs by John Welchman in dazzling color and evocative black and white bring Anya von Bremzen's word pictures brilliantly to life, so that reading and looking through Fiesta! will make you want not only to cook these dishes for friends and family but also to turn up the music and dance to a seductive Latin beat.

Since the publication of her first book, The Classic Italian Cookbook, more than 20 years ago, Marcella Hazan has been hailed as the queen of Italian cooking in America. Marcella, whose name conjures up a splendid world of food for the devoted millions who love her books and attend her cooking classes, is back again with her finest book yet, Marcella Cucina. Filled with the passion and personality of its author, it is a book not only of fine food and its careful preparation but of personal reminiscences and penetrating commentary about the sensual pleasure of food and its place in our lives. In vivid introductory essays and seductive headnotes, the narrative of an extraordinary culinary life unfolds. With each memory of a trip, a meal or a flavor, we are treated to the perspective of a great cook and teacher--one who believes that the finest Italian cooking is found in the home. In Marcella Cucina, she focuses on regional cooking, turning her sharp eye to every area of Italy and offering a rich array of flavors and textures from cities and villages alike. Best of all, Marcella cooks at your side with easy-to-follow instructions and lavish full-color photographs that teach you her techniques--from preparing homemade pasta to cleaning artichokes--and allow you flawlessly to re-create her magic in your own kitchen.

Offering the hows and whys of successful cooking, Cookwise, by well-known food writer and culinary sleuth Shirley O. Corriher, tells you how and why things happen in the course of food preparation. The more than 230 outstanding recipes featured not only please the palate, but demonstrate the various roles of ingredients and techniques making Cookwise an invaluable reference for anyone who has ever wanted to improve on a recipe, make a cake moister, or a roast chicken juicier.

Filled with low-fat cooking tips and hints, along with hundreds of recipes th extract maximum flavor from the least required amount of fat, this revised cookbook teaches every technique used in today's homes and professional kitchens.

The land of Terre d' Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay is a woman born with a scarlet mote in her left eye and sold into indentured servitude as a child. Her bond was purchased by a nobleman, and he was the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Phèdre's path has taken a strange and sometimes dangerous course. She has lain with princes and pirate kings, battled a wicked temptress who is still determined to win the crown at any cost, and saved two nations with her courageous actions and sacrifices. Through it all she has had the devoted swordsman Joscelin at her side, who knew from the beginning what she was. Her very nature is a torturous thing for them both, and it is a bane on their lives--but he is sworn to her and by accepting who she is, Joscelin has never violated the central precept of the angel Cassiel: to protect and serve. But Phèdre's plans will put his pledge to the test, for she has never forgotten her childhood friend Hyacinthe. She has spent ten long years searching for the key to free him from his eternal indenture to the Master of Straights, a bargain with the gods that he struck so that a nation could be saved; in doing so, he took Phèdre's place as a sacrifice. She cannot forget, and she cannot forgive--herself or the gods. She is determined to seize one last hope to redeem her friend, even if it means her death. Their search will bring Phèdre and Joscelin on a dangerous path that will carry them across the world, to fabled courts and splendid vistas, to distant lands where madness reigns and souls are currency, and down a fabled river to a land forgotten by most of the world. And to a power so mighty that none dare speak its name. Kushiel's Avataris the concluding volume in Jacqueline Carey's evocative novels about the enigmatic Phèdre nó Delaunay; the third in a triptych of beautifully constructed historical fantasies that combine passion and danger, great battles of the sword and soul, deep eroticism, and mystical enigmas.

Haute Provence in the Midi is the last bastion of the old French way of culinary life. The author, who lives part of the year in Provence, provides personal stories along with traditional recipes.

With 250 luscious recipes, along with eight pages of color photographs, The Splendid Grain dramatizes how you can incorporate extraordinarily healthful grains into your life without changing your lifestyle. Grains can transform taste and texture in unsurpassed ways like these: Nutty, sweet oats form the delicious crust of fried chicken Piquant quinoa heightens and absorbs the savory juices of gingered lamb Hearty buckwheat becomes a sweet, delicate, Parisian-inspired crepe Thai black sticky rice flavored with coconut makes unforgettable exotic banana dumplings. The natural and native history of each grain is also explored along with its health benefits.

The tenth anniversary edition of this landmark cookbook, with more than 325,000 copies in print, includes a new introduction from Deborah Madison, America's leading authority on vegetarian cooking. What Julia Child is to French cooking, Deborah Madison is to vegetarian cooking--a demystifier and definitive guide to the subject. After her many years as a teacher and writer, she realized that there was no comprehensive primer for vegetarian cooking, no single book that taught vegetarians basic cooking techniques, how to combine ingredients, and how to present vegetarian dishes with style. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" teaches readers how to build flavor into vegetable dishes, how to develop vegetable stocks, and how to choose, care for, and cook the many vegetables available to cooks today. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is in every way Deborah Madison's magnum opus, featuring 1,400 recipes suitable for committed vegetarians, vegans (in most cases), and everyone else who loves good food. For nonvegetarians, the recipes can be served alongside meat, fish, or fowl and incorporated into a truly contemporary style of eating that emphasizes vegetables and fruits for health and well-being. "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is the most comprehensive vegetarian cookbook ever published. The recipes, which range from appetizers to desserts, are colorful and imaginative as well as familiar and comforting. Madison introduces readers to innovative main course salads; warm and cold soups; vegetable braises and cobblers; golden-crusted gratins; Italian favorites like pasta, polenta, pizza, and risotto; savory tarts and galettes; grilled sandwiches and quesadillas; and creative dishes using grains and heirloom beans. At the heart of the book is the A-to-Z vegetable chapter, which describes the unique personalities of readily available vegetables, the sauces and seasonings that best complement them, and the simplest ways to prepare them. "Becoming a Cook" teaches cooking basics, from holding a knife to planning a menu, and "Foundations of Flavor" discusses how to use sauces, herbs, spices, oils, and vinegars to add flavor and character to meatless dishes. In each chapter, the recipes range from those suitable for everyday dining to dishes for special occasions. And through it all, Madison presents a philosophy of cooking that is both practical and inspiring. Despite its focus on meatless cooking, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" is not just for vegetarians--it's for everyone interested in learning how to cook vegetables creatively, healthfully, and passionately. The recipes are remarkably straightforward, using easy-to-find ingredients in inspiring combinations. Some are simple, others more complex, but all are written with an eye toward the seasonality of produce. Madison's joyful and free-spirited approach to cooking will send you into the kitchen with confidence and enthusiasm. Whether you are a kitchen novice or an experienced cook, this wonderful cookbook has something for everyone.

The heart of Burgundy, the Côte D'Or, produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines that are unrivaled in their quality, intensity, and ability to age in the bottle. On this "golden slope" in eastern France, with its unique terrains and climats, grow the vines for some of the world's finest wines, among them such heralded names as Gevrey-Chambertin, Vosne-Romanée, Puligny- and Chassagne-Montrachet, and Aloxe-Corton. Clive Coates, Master of Wine, has spent much of the last fifteen years in the Côte D'Or, and this book is the splendid result of his assiduous exploring, tasting, and assessing of the region's wines. With his unique access to each clos and domaine, and to individual negociants and vignerons, Coates may know more about the Côte D'Or and its wines than any other living writer. In Part One, he describes the Côte D'Or's famous villages, introduces every manor grower and his wines, and evaluates each grand and premier cru, recommending the best sources in every climat. Part Two profiles the top sixty domaines, with notes on a vertical tasting of one of their wines. Part Three consists of vintage assessments on the best red and white years since 1945 and includes thousands of detailed tasting notes. Côte D'Or is a work of love and passion, praise and criticism, understanding and scholarship. Above all, it is a celebration of one of the world's great wine regions, the people who live there, and their fabled wines. It is an essential addition to every wine library and an inviting read for any wine lover.

An unexpected, energetic look at world history on sea and land from the bestselling author of Salt and The Basque History of the World Cod, Mark Kurlansky's third work of nonfiction and winner of the 1999 James Beard Award, is the biography of a single species of fish, but it may as well be a world history with this humble fish as its recurring main character. Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtack. What was the staple of the medieval diet? Cod again, sold salted by the Basques, an enigmatic people with a mysterious, unlimited supply of cod. As we make our way through the centuries of cod history, we also find a delicious legacy of recipes, and the tragic story of environmental failure, of depleted fishing stocks where once their numbers were legendary. In this lovely, thoughtful history, Mark Kurlansky ponders the question: Is the fish that changed the world forever changed by the world's folly? "Every once in a while a writer of particular skill takes a fresh, seemingly improbable idea and turns out a book of pure delight. Such is the case of Mark Kurlansky and the codfish." -David McCullough, author of The Wright Brothers and 1776