Food blogger Deb Perelman’s first book The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Recipes and Wisdom from an Obsessive Home Cook will be released on October 30, 2012, and it’s a winner! Perelman, who is a self-taught home cook, has been blogging at Smitten Kitchen successfully for years “on the premise that cooking should be a pleasure and that the results of your labor can, and should be delicious.”

As someone who spends way too much time online already, I’m delighted that Perelman has put her sumptuous recipes into a form that sits nicely on my kitchen counter.

In the introduction, we learn two important facts about Perelman: She spent many years as a vegetarian, and she lives in a Manhattan apartment with a 42-square-foot half-galley kitchen. These two details heavily influence her cooking and translate effectively into a cookbook that works well for everyone. For most of us, space is always an issue in the kitchen, and healthy eating is an ongoing challenge in today’s culture of fast food.

Each recipe always begins with a bit of candid insight into the background or motivation for its creation. The recipe format is well-organized, interesting, and not too fussy.

I enjoyed cooking my way through this book and found the vegetarian mushroom bourguignon to be fabulous—I truly didn’t miss the beef. The big breakfast latkes were delicious, along with her vinegar slaw with cucumber and dill, shown below. The deepest dish apple pie was a big hit with The Saturday Evening Post staff members. And, with a husband who loves bagels, the New York breakfast casserole has landed on our list of favorites. The buttered popcorn cookies and the ratatouille sub recipes are next on the list.

Big breakfast latkes with scrambled eggs and salsa (top) and eggs over easy (bottom), with two sides of cucumber slaw. Photo by Pamela Holmes.

Perelman gives readers additional sections in the back of the book, which offer guidelines on measurements and conversions, information on setting up a kitchen, a summary of some of her favorite utensils, and an in-depth index.

As well as a happy home cook, wife, and mother, Perelman is a skilled photographer. All of the color photos in the book are her work. The dust jacket is lovely and I was pleased to find that under it is what appears to be a waterproof cover with many more of her photos arranged in an inspiring grid, front and back.

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is available for preorder on Amazon for a list price of $35.

Book Review: The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook The Saturday Evening Post

Courtesy of Firefly Books.

Most cookbooks offer little to no photography. And if there is a picture, it’s usually the finished product. Stamped in the top corner of the page with a caption that might as well say, “This is what that thing you pulled out of the oven should look like.”

The photography in the books from My Cooking Class series is different. Rather than sitting in the corner, taunting your culinary efforts, the photos in these books fill the entire page and cover the journey step-by-step from raw ingredient to dinner.

Recipes are introduced with an overhead view of artfully arranged ingredients. They appear in mismatched dishes — some still in their measuring cups or spoons, some lie directly on the backdrop. Each step in the directions is also captured on film. Almost as an afterthought, the ingredient lists and directions appear in white boxes along the bottom of the pages.

Excerpted from Indian Basics: 85 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step by Jody Vasallo. Photos by James Lindsay. © 2011 Firefly Books. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved..

James Lindsay’s photos in Indian Basics: 85 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step, one of the books from this series, reminds us to enjoy the creation of a dish.

Jody Vasallo, author of Indian Basics, introduces the novice cook to Indian cuisine with simple, uncomplicated prose. She begins with “Indian Essentials,” where traditional spices are introduced. From ajowan seeds to saffron, the spices lie against a muted pink backdrop.

Then, it is on to dals (split grains), photographed in bowls spilling onto the next two seafoam green pages. Vasallo suggests purchasing these at whole food, natural, or Indian grocery stores because their stock tends to have high turnover. She writes, “the older the dal the longer it will take to cook.”

Quick tips for six staples of Indian dishes follow the guides to spices and dals: ghee, paneer, garam masala, garlic-ginger paste, rice, and pappadams. The next six chapters expand on these essentials using one or more items from this introductory chapter to make nine different curries, six chutneys, pickles, dumplings, breads, desserts, and drinks.

In the final sections of the book, Vasallo provides more hints and tips for ingredients that may be unfamiliar to readers. She has developed eight menu plans and a short introduction to Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old traditional Indian medicine, which Vasallo has been studying for years.

Other books in the My Cooking Class series:

Cake Basics: 70 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step
By Abi Fawcett
Photographs by Deidre Rooney

Preserving Basics: 77 Recipes illustrated Step by Step
By Jodi Vasallo
Photographs by Clive Bozzard-Hill

Indian Basics: 85 Recipes Illustrated Step by Step is available from Firefly Books and at Amazon.com for a list price of $24.95.

Book Review: Indian Basics The Saturday Evening Post

Orzo Gratin

Orzo Gratin

Makes 10 to 12 servings

• 1 pound orzo
• 8 cloves garlic
• 1 cup light cream
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup mushrooms
• 1 cup minced parsley
• pepper, to taste
• 6 tablespoons dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Boil orzo and unpeeled garlin in large pot for 10 mintues or until pasta is just tender. Drain and rinse with cold water. Remove the garlic, peel and chop. Place in mixing bowl. Stir in light cream. Add orzo, broth, 1/2 cup Parmesan, mushrooms, and 1/2 cup parsley. Season with pepper and mix. Spoon into lightly oiled baking dish. Mix breadcrumbs and remaining cheese. Sprinkle evenly over orzo. Dot with butter or margarine. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Brought to you from The Saturday Evening Post Health Cookbook for Family and Friends. For available cookbooks, click here.

Orzo Gratin The Saturday Evening Post

Frozen Strawberry Pie The Saturday Evening Post