Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts

Exotic Tastes of Sri Lanka Review

Exotic Tastes of Sri Lanka
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This book is a must have cookbook for those craving for traditional Sri Lankan food. For someone like myself who was intimidated by traditional cooking, this book has made it simple. It has numerous Sinhala and Tamil recipes that are well described in step-by-step process. This book contains sample menus (wonderful idea), explanations on spices, utensils and measurements, which are of great help for a novice.
Traditional thosai, pittu, idly, yellow rice, dhal curry (parippu), cabbage mallum, kale mallum, crunchy carrot salad, spicy chicken curry and vara (fish), are all included in my meal rotation (delicious recipes). There are many more recipes to try out...and I am getting there!!!!. :)
Read the recipe till the end before beginning to cook. There are hints and alternatives that may save you time.
A must have book.

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The breathtaking island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, separated from southeastern India by a mere 30-mile chain of shoals. This proximity to India has had an inevitable effect on Sri Lanka's cuisine, as did the successive Portuguese, Dutch, and British occupations. However, over the centuries the majority of these dishes have been modified to suit the local palate. Exotic Tastes of Sri Lanka highlights the gamut of flavors of this cuisine, which runs from hot and spicy to comforting and mild. The chapters of Exotic Tastes of Sri Lanka are devoted to short eats (appetizers), salads, staples, vegetarian dishes, poultry, meat and egg recipes, seafood preparations, desserts, and sweetmeats (treats). An array of exotic ingredients that is key and integral to Sri Lankan cuisine enhances the dishes. For instance, gambooge, with its uniquely sour flavor, is often used in traditional seafood preparations like Fish Ambul Thiyal, while either grated coconut or coconut milk intensify most recipes, including Pumpkin Kalu Pol Curry. Local staples are delectable works of art, such as exquisite Stringhoppers, Hoppers, and Pittu. Since the entrées revolve around the nation's favorite ingredient, rice, the loosely coined term "rice and curry" best describes Sri Lankan cuisine. Other staple ingredients include coconut (milk, oil, grated), as well as aromatic herbs and spices such as curry leaves, mint, coriander and fennel seeds, and cloves. Sri Lanka offers a particularly impressive repertoire of vegetarian and seafood preparations. Sample menus, explanations of spice uses and availability, typical cooking techniques, and descriptions of traditional utensils complement the 157 recipes, all adapted for home cooks.

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Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean Review

Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean
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What an amazing, generous book. This is a text dense book that manages to be clear and informative but never boring. I had heard that the recipes were complicated, but this is not true unless you are very new to cooking or don't want to purchase a few simple spices. There are many, many great vegetarian recipes to go along with a fine and unusual variety of meat and seafood ones. I love the spice mixtures, they are perfectly balanced, immensely flavorful and come with many helpful suggestions for their use. I haven't tried to make my own string cheese - yet - but I'm grateful for the recipe. I can't recommend this book highly enough, it is one of those rare cook books that's great to read and great to work with.

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On a trip to Turkey as a young woman, chef Ana Sortun fell in love with the food and learned the traditions of Turkish cooking from local women. Inspired beyond measure, Sortun opened her own restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the award-winning Oleana, where she creates her own interpretations of dishes incorporating the incredible array of delicious spices and herbs used in eastern regions of the Mediterranean.

In this gorgeously photographed book, Sortun shows readers how to use this philosophy of spice to create wonderful dishes in their own homes. She reveals how the artful use of spices and herbs rather than fat and cream is key to the full, rich flavors of Mediterranean cuisine -- and the way it leaves you feeling satisfied afterward. The book is organized by spice, detailing the ways certain spices complement one another and how they flavor other foods and creating in home cooks a kind of sense-memory that allows for a more intuitive use of spice in their own dishes. The more than one hundred tantalizing spice categories and recipes include: 
Beef Shish Kabobs with Sumac Onions and Parsley Butter
Chickpea and Potato Terrine Stuffed with Pine Nuts, Spinach, Onion, and Tahini
Crispy Lemon Chicken with Za’atar
Golden Gazpacho with Condiments
Fried Haloumi Cheese with Pear and Spiced Dates


Absolutely alive with spices and herbs, Ana Sortun’s recipes will intrigue and inspire readers everywhere.


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