Oz Clarkes Grapes and Wines or From My Mexican Kitchen

Oz Clarke's Grapes and Wines: The Definitive Guide to the World's Great Grapes and the Wines They Make

Author: Oz Clark

First published in hardcover as Oz Clarke's Encyclopedia of Grapes, Oz Clarke's Grapes and Wines is newly revised and updated to provide the most current information on an even wider array of grapes. Oz covers chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, and fifteen other "classic" grapes in depth, and includes features on tradition and innovation, methods used in the vineyard and the winery, and different wine styles around the world. He also provides vivid descriptions of more than three hundred grape varieties organized in his renowned A-to-Z format, as well as a glossary of technical terms and a wine decoder that lists which grapes go into which wines. This authoritative volume by one of the world's great wine writers is all you need to distinguish among grape varieties— the wines they create and the flavors they contribute—and to make an informed choice on selecting the most satisfying wines.

Book about: Whole Foods Diabetic Cookbook or Effective Health Care Supervisor

From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients

Author: Diana Kennedy

Diana Kennedy has been called the “ultimate authority, the high priestess” of Mexican cooking, and with good reason. For more than forty years she has traveled through her beloved adoptive country, researching and recording its truly extraordinary cuisine. Now Diana turns her attention to the book she readily admits “should have been written years ago.”

Diana’s objective in From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients is simple: to provide a guide to better understanding the ingredients Mexico has to offer and how best to prepare them. Her execution is little short of brilliant.

The book is invaluable to the novice eager for an introduction to Mexican cooking, but it is equally important for the aficionados interested in refining and expanding their knowledge and skills.

From My Mexican Kitchen takes readers and cooks on a tour of the primary ingredients of the cuisine, from achiote and avocado leaves to hoja santa, huauzontle, and the sour tunas called xoconostles—which are increasingly available in the United States. Diana unravels the dizzying array of fresh and dried chiles, explaining their uses and preparation; vibrant color photographs at last take the guesswork out of identifying them!

Step-by-step photographs and Diana’s trademark instructions (peppered with her over-the-shoulder asides) lead us through the proper techniques for making moles, tamales, tortillas, and much more. Some highlights: chiles rellenos, frijoles de olla, salsa de jitomate, fresh corn tamales from Michoacán, and bolillos (Mexican bread rolls). These recipes provide a solid grounding for the new Mexican cook,and Diana then sends readers to her earlier work for more advanced regional recipes.

Brilliantly photographed, with a text at once lively and authoritative, Diana Kennedy’s From My Mexican Kitchen is the one book anyone interested in this food cannot afford to be without.

Publishers Weekly

Kennedy has often been termed the Julia Child of Mexican cuisine, and the comparison is almost inescapable in this competent, humorous and balanced guide to the techniques needed to create foods indigenous to Mexico. Kennedy, acclaimed author of three other standard-setting Mexican cookbooks, has been studying the country's food since 1957 and now lives there for much of the year. In the first part, the book focuses on ingredients, while the second part focuses on techniques, and both have recipes interspersed throughout. One of the fine qualities that Child and Kennedy share is a judicious outlook on fat: Kennedy instructs readers to "forget about cholesterol when you are next having breakfast in a Mexican market" and indulge in natas, a form of clotted cream. A comprehensive chapter on the many types of chiles could almost stand alone as a primer on the topic, and another on beans offers recipes for several types of refried beans, including Yucatecan Sieved Beans. In the introduction to a chapter on mole in the techniques section, Kennedy corrects the misperception that it's a kind of "chocolate sauce," and then she goes on to provide instructions for Mole Poblano and Mole Verde. The more complicated recipes are accompanied by useful step-by-step photographs, but it's Kennedy's no-nonsense tone that makes her both a trusted guide and a delight to read. This volume is encyclopedic in the sense that it is fantastically complete, but it is also utterly reader-friendly because it is so highly personal and helpfully detailed. (Sept.) Forecast: Kennedy is the doyenne of Mexican cooking, and deservedly so. This should become an instant classic. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Kennedy, the preeminent authority on Mexican cooking (The Essential Cuisines of Mexico), says, "this book should have been written years ago," but she was too excited then about all the recipes that she was discovering throughout the country to put together a book on ingredients and techniques. And, of course, until relatively recently, many of the ingredients essential to authentic Mexican cooking were difficult or impossible to find beyond their native regions. Here, then, is the "distillation" of Kennedy's vast knowledge about ingredients from chiles and Mexican cheeses to herbs, vegetables, and fruits, followed by step-by-step minitutorials on making tamales and tortillas, moles and table sauces, antojitos (the savory tidbits that she translates as "little whims"), and more. Dozens of color photographs provide a visual guide to the ingredients, and many more illuminate the techniques. Preparation notes and classic recipes such as guacamole accompany the ingredients, and the technique sections include recipes for traditional favorites and other regional specialties. Essential. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.