Comfort Reads discussion

Okay, I'm a bit of a cookbook freak. Some are better reading than others and some have luscious photos. Does anyone else find reading a lovely cookbook relaxing?

Oh gosh Lee, You're liable to get me to list over a hundred of my vegan cookbooks here; so many are entertaining.

Of the top of my head (and deliberately keeping this post short!!!) are two by the same author team: How It All Vegan!: Irresistible Recipes for an Animal-Free Diet and The Garden of Vegan: How It All Vegan Again!. They're just hilarious.

But I could add a lot of entertaining cookbooks, ones that make for relaxed, enjoyable, comfort reading.

I just added two cookbooks to my read list The Cornbread Book: A Love Story with Recipes and The Wooden Spoon Bread Book: The Secrets of Successful Baking. They aren't vegan, but I think you can substitute.

Jeanette, The titles do sound interesting, and yes, I can veganize almost any recipe. (Also, I think this thread is for all kinds of cookbooks!)

Omnivores, Vegans, Chocoholics, everyone is welcome!

Lee wrote: "Omnivores, Vegans, Chocoholics, everyone is welcome! "

I'm 2 of the above! ;-)

I enjoy reading the love story part of the Cornbread book, too.

One of the most beautiful and informative cookbooks I have ever read is Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews. If you are at all interested in the food of the Middle East, this is simply gorgeous. I love the fact that there are not only exciting recipes and wonderful photos, there is also much information on Syrian Jewish culture and traditions. The recipes contain both vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare (you will find recipes for hummus, pickled lemons, tabbouleh, alongside tamarind meatballs, and fish stewed with pine nuts). I've actually managed to make some of the non vegetarian stews vegetarian by simply leaving out some ingredients and/or substituting others. However, I often just take out the cookbook to feast my eyes on the photographs.

Another wonderful cookbook that I use quite regularly is a vegetarian (not vegan) Mediterranean cookbook by Martha Rose Shulman called Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes for Everyone from the World's Healthiest Cuisine

Gundula, Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews sounds divine! There is nothing more fun than poring over a beautiful cookbook with many photos and stories. This reminds me of one I own and the authors have written many.

I have Beyond the Great Wall and love it. The authors travelled through the ethnic minority regions of China and found recipes from local markets etc. They have written similar books on many parts of Asia that I look forward to exploring.

I've just put Beyond the Great Wall on my to-read list. It sounds precisely like the kind of cookbook/culture combination that I adore.

And, Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews is divine. True, some of the recipes are quite labour intensive, but it is a visual feast (and there are also some wonderful recipes that are easy to prepare). Also, for me, the cultural information and the lovely photographs would have sold me on the book, even if I never actually attempted to prepare any of the recipes.

I just added Nanny Ogg's Cookbook to the group shelves. I have never actually cooked anything from this book, but it is very funny, especially for Pratchett fans. And it has great illustrations by Paul Kidby.

Sounds interesting! We just came home from swimming and there is a small library branch in the same building as the pool. I thought I'd see if they had any Terry Pratchett but the science fiction section was only two shelves!

Find a bigger library -- or inter-library loan!!

Well the Toronto public library is pretty huge. Just about every book I want to read comes from a bigger branch within the city. I'm thankful I can order everything online these days. My little, local branch is basically just my pick-up depot. :-)

Lee wrote: "Well the Toronto public library is pretty huge. Just about every book I want to read comes from a bigger branch within the city. I'm thankful I can order everything online these days. My little,..."

Luck-ee! Winnipeg sucks.

Ah Peregrine, I'm so sorry to hear that! Do you ever use the inter-library loan system? Or do you tend to just buy books that are unavailable at your library?

I saw this in the bookstore the other day and wanted to buy it so badly because it was beautiful and I wanted the recipe from the cover picture but I restrained myself.

[image error]

Lee wrote: "Ah Peregrine, I'm so sorry to hear that! Do you ever use the inter-library loan system? Or do you tend to just buy books that are unavailable at your library? "

I tend just to buy them.

Lee wrote: "I saw this in the bookstore the other day and wanted to buy it so badly because it was beautiful and I wanted the recipe from the cover picture but I restrained myself."
Wow, that does look amazing!

Nowhere in the same league, but I fell in love with Nigella Lawson's
Forever Summer. The recipes are all inspired by summer, having seasonal ingredients, or being the type of food one would eat in the warmer months. Summer is my favourite time of the year. And the food is beautifully photographed. After a couple of years of sighing after it, holding it in bookstores, and even having it out of the library, I happened to mention it to my niece. "Oh," she says, "I've got a copy of that - it was a gift. I never use it. Do you want it?" Thank you, Heidi!!! She did say that the condition was that I make her the chocolate raspberry pavlova, but that hasn't happened yet. In fact, I've had the book a year and a half and have still not made a thing out of it.. but the photos are sooooo beautiful!

Darkpool, what a great story. How kind (crazy) of your niece to give up such a beautiful cookbook. I don't part with mine easily!

I have Nigella Lawson's book How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking and it's quite lovely too. I like her writing style and there is a fool proof recipe for gingerbread cake in there that I adore.

One of my favorites is Marcella Hazan's (love her!) Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. The roast chicken with lemons and the tomato sauce with onion and butter are delish and very comforting!

We have a copy of Marcella's Essentials that is less than 10 years old but is broken-backed and thoroughly coated in food stains.

We cook from it at least once a week (often more) and have yet to make a dish that didn't turn out well.

The soups are wonderful and very comforting to have bubbling away on the stove all day this time of year.

Mary wrote: "One of my favorites is Marcella Hazan's (love her!) Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. The roast chicken with lemons and the tomato sauce with onion and butter are delish and very ..."

Before moving to Italy I must have cooked ever recipe in those two volumes at least 10 times... yum. My favorite and the one I still use to this day from memory is the Tuscan meat loaf with porcini mushrooms. She taught me how to do risotto too.

Risotto is my all time fave comfort food... Risi e bisi (rice and peas). Don't knock it till you try it!!

Darkpool wrote: "...but the photos are sooooo beautiful! ."

I have the same thing with Nobu:

Risi e bisi. Yum.

Oh Hayes, that Tuscan meatloaf sounds wonderful. I may need to make it this weekend!

I can taste it right now!! *cursing the diet*

Soup is another comfort food for me. The Husband makes a wonderful potato-leek potage, but adds some pumpkin to it. It is the loveliest color... it's all I can do to resist spreading it on the walls ;-) but eating it is good too!

There are some great soups in Marcella. A fabulous minestrone.

Happiness soup?!? That sounds nice.

Watermelon salad sounds delicious.

My most treasured cookbook is The Silver Spoon. It's the Italian mother-in-law gift to the son's new wife. Just try it, so many simple, and delicious things.

That soup sounds awesome!

BunWat, That soup sounds delicious, except I would prefer it with brown basmati rice.

I wonder how that soup would taste with barley instead of rice?

Gundula wrote: "I wonder how that soup would taste with barley instead of rice?"

That sounds delicious too! As does quinoa.

Quinoa, I'd love to try that. The red kind or the white kind?

Gundula wrote: "Quinoa, I'd love to try that. The red kind or the white kind?"

Well, I was thinking of the white kind, but all sorts of grains could work.

Hey BunWat, since posting about the book last week I have actually done some recipes from it - and some that were variations. Used the Moroccan roast lamb to impress my mother, also tried the courgette fritters, and today did the fattoush for lunch. Yum. I've been looking at the happiness soup, wondering if green courgettes would do (cos that's what I have in the fridge) but I think I'll try and track down the right vegetable for it. It wouldn't be the same if it wasn't so yellow! Recipe (and photo) here, if anyone is interested: http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_...

Darkpool, that's so weird, I was just looking at the same website about an hour ago because I wanted to get the recipe for the soup (and I don't have the cookbook, yet). I think I am going to try to make the soup next week, even if I cannot find any yellow zucchini. I hope that my grocery store has watermelon because I also want to try that watermelon salad.

I try to eat seasonally, because winter watermelons never taste good! Nothing like a sweet, ripe watermelon in late July!!

Can't remember is it's here: The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest or here: The Moosewood Cookbook: Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant, Ithaca, New York, but there's a great spinach salad with orange honey dressing that's to die for.

I love Mollie Katzen's books, all hand lettered. The illustrations are lovely too. I could just look at them forever.

Happiness soup may be next on the recipe list!!

*sniff, sniff*

Himself is making Pasta e Fagioli*... talk about comfort!

* We make ours with the Italian Borlotti beans in tomato sauce.

Thanks for the link to the soup Darkpool. It looks like a pretty simple recipe. I don't know if I can get yellow zucchini either but you never know.

Are those also called "cranberry beans"?

BunWat wrote: "I also eat seasonally. In part because I garden, so I tend to have an abundance of things that are in season when they are in season and am always searching for delicious ways to prepare them. "

I am not a very good gardener, but we are members of a CSA (we buy veggie shares from a local farmer each year), so I tend to eat more fresh veggies in the summer and then make casseroles and soups in the winter when it makes more sense to turn on the oven!

Susanna wrote: "Are those also called "cranberry beans"?"

Dunno... I've never heard of cranberry beans. This is what they look like still in their pods:


The red part is cranberry colored, but the colors range from white with red to light brown with red.

Thanks for that info BunWat. Interesting.

The question always comes up: before 1492, what did Italians eat? Everything that is a staple in the "modern" Italian diet came from the new world: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants/aubergines (I said courgettes, oops), corn (polenta), potatoes, borlotti beans and I'm sure a few other things which I'm forgetting about.

Pizza e fichi (Pizza and figs) is an ancient comfort food for Italians: White pizza (not with tomato and cheese), or focaccia and very ripe figs made into a sandwich. I don't like fresh figs much so it doesn't appeal to me, but a lot of Italians go weak at the knees just thinking about it.

Those look like what are sold at my local farmer's market as "cranberry beans." And very yummy they are, too.

My favorite comfort cookbook is Chesapeake Bay Cooking. Not only are there many recipes for crab cakes, but it always makes me nostalgic for my time in Maryland.