Friday, December 26, 2008

Chez Panisse Fruit or Frog Commissary Cookbook

Chez Panisse Fruit

Author: Alice Waters

In 2001 Chez Panisse was named the number one restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine -- quite a journey from 1971 when Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse as a place where she and her friends could cook country French food with local ingredients and talk politics.

As the restaurant's popularity grew, so did Alice's commitment to organic, locally grown foods and to a community of farmers and producers who provide the freshest ingredients, grown and harvested naturally with techniques that preserve and enrich the land for future generations. After thirty years, the innovative spirit and pure, intense flavors of Chez Panisse continue to delight and surprise all who visit, and even those who cant get there know that Alice started a quiet revolution, changing the culinary landscape forever. Inspired by Chez Panisse, more and more people across the country are discovering the sublime pleasures of local, organic vegetables and fruits.

Now join Alice Waters and the cooks at Chez Panisse in celebration of fruit. Chez Panisse Fruit draws on the exuberant flavors of fresh, ripe fruit to create memorable dishes. In this companion volume to Chez Panisse Vegetables, discover more than 200 recipes for both sweet and savory dishes featuring fruit. Glorify the late-summer peach harvest with Peach and Raspberry Gratin, and extend the season with Grilled Cured Duck Breast with Pickled Peaches. Enjoy the first plums in Pork Loin Stuffed with Wild Plums and Rosemary. Preserve the fresh flavors of winter citrus with Kumquat Marmalade or Candied Grapefruit Peel. Organized alphabetically by fruit -- from apples to strawberries -- and including helpful essayson selecting, storing, and preparing fruit, this book will help you make the very most of fresh fruits from season to season. Illustrated with beautiful color relief prints by Patricia Curtan, Chez Panisse Fruit is a book to savor and to treasure.

Gourmet

Chez Panisse is th single best restaurant in the United States.

The New Yorker - Nicholas Lemann

Chez Panisse...[is] the most influential American restaurant of the past generation...In the...Waters way of cooking, flavor comes to the fore and technique recedes.

Publishers Weekly

The eighth Chez Panisse cookbook, which features sweet and savory dishes that use fruit, follows what has become acclaimed chef Alice Waters's patented style: a mix of rustic dishes, many exhibiting Italian and French influence, that highlight the best possible produce. Recipes are organized by fruit, and each chapter begins with a mini-essay on varieties and growing conditions, and often sounds the biodiversity alarm, as when Waters opines, "How sad, then, that well over 90 percent of the apples sold in this country belong to one of only fifteen of those seven thousand varieties." Desserts showcase flavors that may be slightly unfamiliar, either because they use unusual varieties (Caramelized Red Banana Tartlets) or different versions of a common fruit, as with Fig Cookies that are a haute substitute for Fig Newtons and use fresh figs rather than dried. Savory dishes such as Middle Eastern-Style Lamb Stew with Dried Apricots and a tasty assembly of spices skew more traditional. Some of the most intriguing recipes are the simplest, such as Pickled Cherries and Tea-Poached Prunes. At times, Waters's specificity can be exasperating. Will Cr pes Suzette with Pixie Tangerine Sherbet be just as good if the sherbet is made with some other variety of tangerine? Still, it's hard to find fault with a book wide-ranging and inventive enough to comfortably encompass Judy's Deep-Fried Lemon and Artichokes, Spring Fruit Compote with Kiwifruit Sherbet and Coconut Meringue, and a tart Vin de Pamplemousse ap ritif. (May) Forecast: As always, Waters's combination of serious writing and creative recipes will have cooks heading to the kitchen, and cookbook buyers heading to the stores. This book sticks to the tried-and-true Chez Panisse formula, which shows no signs of wearing out. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

The companion toChez Panisse Vegetables, this is another wonderful book from Waters and crew (Alan Tangren, now the pastry chef, was the restaurant's "forager" for many years, responsible for buying produce and other ingredients from local purveyors and growers). It is invaluable both as a reference and a cookbook and features unsually lyrical writing. The fruits are organized alphabetically, and each entry provides information on seasons, buying, storing, preparing, and different varieties. There are savory recipes as well as desserts, from Spit-Roasted Pork with Apple Marmalade and Green Apple Sherbet to Grilled Duck Breast with Seville Orange Sauce and Blood Orange Tartlets to Grilled Quail with Pomegranates and Pomegranate Granita. The attractive, understated design and lovely full-color linocuts add to the book's appeal. Essential. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.



Book about:

Frog/Commissary Cookbook

Author: Steven Poses

Over 100,000 copies in print! "Frog Commissary's inventive, playful food is multiethnic but often shows a distinctive Thai influence. Bright ideas spill out everywhere." — Library Journal

Illustrated



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