Herbs & Spices: The Cook's Reference


Jill Norman - 2002
    Herbs & Spices is an indispensable reference that shows how to prepare fresh and dried herbs, how to use herbs and spices in cooking, and details everything that other books on the subject leave out. Containing a unique collection of recipes, from herb and spice mixes to rubs, pastes, salsas, and marinades, these authentic formulas will encourage cooks to think creatively and experiment on their own. Grouped by aroma and taste, with step-by-step preparation techniques and beautiful full-color photography, this book describes 60 herbs and the benefits of using them fresh or dried, and focuses on 60 spices from around the world, with a look at the early spice trade and how cross-cultural fusion has impacted on contemporary cooking.

Made from Scratch: Discovering the Pleasures of a Handmade Life


Jenna Woginrich - 2008
    Learn a few basic country skills, she reasoned, and she would be able to produce at least some of the food and resources she used every day.Goodbye, fast food and Wonder Bread; hello, homesteading. With enthusiasm and joy for the tasks at hand, Woginrich embarked on a journey that has been sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking and always soul satisfying.From the fulfilling work of planting a garden and installing honeybees, to the bliss of gathering fresh eggs for an omelet or playing an old-time ballad on the fiddle, Made from Scratch shares the honest satisfaction of doing for oneself, and brings the reader to a deep appreciation for the value of simple skills performed well.

Michael Symon's Carnivore: 120 Recipes for Meat Lovers


Michael Symon - 2012
    But there's one thing Michael is known for above all else: his unabashed love of meat. A devoted carnivore, Michael calls the cuisine at his six Midwestern restaurants "meat-centric." Now, in Michael Symon's Carnivore, he combines his passion and expertise in one stellar cookbook. Michael gives home cooks just the right amount of key information on breeds, cuts, and techniques to help them at the meat counter and in the kitchen, and then lets loose with fantastic recipes for beef, pork, poultry, lamb, goat, and game. Favorites include Broiled Porterhouse with Garlic and Lemon, Ribs with Cleveland BBQ Sauce, Braised Chicken Thighs with Kale and Chiles, Lamb Moussaka, and Bacon-Wrapped Rabbit Legs. Recipes for sides that enhance the main event, like Apple and Celeriac Salad and Sicilian Cauliflower, round out the book.  Michael's enthusiasm and warmth permeate the text, and with 75 beautiful color photographs, Michael Symon's Carnivore is a rich and informative cookbook for every meat lover.

The Wild Flower Key


Francis Rose - 2006
    

Meat: A Kitchen Education


James Peterson - 2010
     Like well-honed knives, his books are indispensable tools for any kitchen enthusiast, from the novice home cook, to the aspiring chef, to the seasoned professional. Meat: A Kitchen Education is Peterson’s guide for carnivores, with more than 175 recipes and 550 photographs that offer a full range of meat and poultry cuts and preparation techniques, presented with Peterson’s unassuming yet authoritative style.  Instruction begins with an informative summary of meat cooking methods: sautéing, broiling, roasting, braising, poaching, frying, stir-frying, grilling, smoking, and barbecuing. Then, chapter by chapter, Peterson demonstrates classic preparations for every type of meat available from the butcher: chicken, turkey, duck, quail, pheasant, squab, goose, guinea hen, rabbit, hare, venison, pork, beef, veal, lamb, and goat. Along the way, he shares his secrets for perfect pan sauces, gravies, and jus. Peterson completes the book with a selection of homemade sausages, pâtés, terrines, and broths that are the base of so many dishes. His trademark step-by-step photographs provide incomparable visual guidance for working with the complex structure and musculature of meats and illustrate all the basic prep techniques—from trussing a whole chicken to breaking down a whole lamb.  Whether you’re planning a quick turkey cutlet dinner, Sunday pot roast supper, casual hamburger cookout, or holiday prime rib feast, you’ll find it in Meat along with: Roast Chicken with Ricotta and Sage; Coq au Vin; Duck Confit and Warm Lentil Salad; Long-Braised Rabbit Stew; Baby Back Ribs with Hoisin and Brown Sugar; Sauerbraten; Hanger Steak with Mushrooms and Red Wine; Oxtail Stew with Grapes; Osso Buco with Fennel and Leeks; Veal Kidneys with Juniper Sauce; Lamb Tagine with Raisins, Almonds, and Saffron; Terrine of Foie Gras; and more. No matter the level of your culinary skills or your degree of kitchen confidence, the recipes and guidance in Meat will help you create scores of satisfying meals to delight your family and friends. This comprehensive volume will inspire you to fire up the stove, oven, or grill and master the art of cooking meat.Winner – 2011 James Beard Cookbook Award – Single Subject Category

Simply Ramen: 70 Tempting Noodle Dishes for the Ramen-Lover in You


Amy Kimoto-Kahn - 2015
    Enjoy steaming hot pork, chicken, or beef ramen dishes. Or branch out with seafood, vegetarian, or super spicy soups. There's even a host of recipes for cold ramen and other specialty ramen meals.Looking to please a lot of people? Amy Kimoto-Kahn will help you to "build-your-own-ramen" and show you how to start with one basic soup and then add a myriad of toppings to please a crowd. You'll even learn how to use instant ramen for delicious, but quick and easy dinners.Try your hand at:- Kobe Beef Tsukemen, ramen dipping noodles topped with quickly seared kobe beef, daikon radish, quail egg, lemon and shiso leaf served with a separate Shoyu (soy sauce based) soup infused with horseradish. - Lobster Ramen with lobster shell infused Shio (salt based) soup topped with fresh lobster, spinach, arugula, shredded purple cabbage, roasted garlic and lemon zest. - Oven Broiled Karaage Curry Ramen, topped with Japanese fried chicken, mizuna lettuce, marinated half-cooked egg, charred red onion and garlic chips in a Miso curry soup - Spicy Pork TanTanMen, a no soup version of the Szechwan style Dan Dan noodle with chili oil, sesame paste, numbing spices, topped with green onions, crushed peanuts and diakon radish sprouts. - Kamo Matcha Ramen topped with tea and shoyu (soy sauce) marinated smoked duck, marinated half-cooked egg, sliced pear and cilantro in a matcha infused Shio (salt based) soup. - Crispy Greens Ramen topped with broiled swiss chard, kale, and brussels sprouts with a coconut soup, topped with a poached egg, green onions and garlic chips in a Tonkotsu (pork bone based) soup. - Slow Roasted Tomato and Miso Spinach Chilled Ramen topped with herb roasted tomatoes, miso spinach, poached egg and toasted sesame seeds with a cold noodle broth. Why wait? Simply Ramen has all the recipes to make a comforting, steaming bowl of ramen to serve for dinner tonight!

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West


Michael Moore - 1979
    A guide to over 300 species of plants geographically ranging from Baja California to Alaska.

Whole Beast Butchery: The Complete Visual Guide to Beef, Lamb, and Pork


Ryan Farr - 2011
    Dubbed a rock star butcher by the New York Times, San Francisco chef and self-taught meat expert Ryan Farr demystifies the butchery process with 500 step-by-step photographs, master recipes for key cuts, and a primer on tools, techniques, and meat handling. This visual manual is the first to teach by showing exactly what butchers know, whether cooks want to learn how to turn a primal into familiar and special cuts or to simply identify everything in the case at the market.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World


Michael Pollan - 2001
    In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?

Flour, Too: Indispensable Recipes for the Cafe's Most Loved Sweets & Savories


Joanne Chang - 2013
    Here are 100 gratifying recipes for easy at-home eating and entertaining from brunch treats to soups, pizzas, pasta, and, of course, Flour's famous cakes, tarts, and other sweet goodies. More than 50 glorious color photographs by Michael Harlan Turkell take the viewer inside the warm, cozy cafés; into the night pastry kitchen; and demonstrate the beauty of this delicious food. With a variety of recipes for all skill levels, this mouthwatering collection is a substantial addition to any home cook's bookshelf.

Southern Pies: A Gracious Plenty of Pie Recipes, From Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan


Nancie McDermott - 2010
    And behind all the mouthwatering, light-as-a-cloud meringue peaks and the sticky dark butterscotch fillings lies a rich and delicious history. In Southern Pies, some of the South's most famous bakers share recipes for 70 pies. Perfect for bakers of all skill levels, these pies are made with simple, easy-to-find, and gloriously few ingredients. Featuring such classics as Sweet Tea Pie and New Orleans Creole Coconut Pie, this tasty homage will fill everyone at the table with Southern hospitality.

The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food


Dan Barber - 2014
    Instead, Barber proposes Americans should move to the 'third plate,' a cuisine rooted in seasonal productivity, natural livestock rhythms, whole-grains, and small portions of free-range meat.

The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mushrooms


Gary Lincoff - 1980
    The 762 full-color identification photographs show the mushrooms as they appear in natural habitats. Organized visually, the book groups all mushrooms by color and shape to make identification simple and accurate in the field, while the text account for each species includes a detailed physical description, information on edibility, season, habitat, range, look-alikes, alternative names, and facts on edible and poisonous species, uses, and folklore. A supplementary section on cooking and eating wild mushrooms, and illustrations identifying the parts of a mushroom, round out this essential guide.

Radical Mycology: A Treatise On Seeing & Working With Fungi


Peter McCoy - 2016
    As culturally important foods and medicines, as well as instigators of religious practices, they have been intimately tied to the development and spread of human societies. And yet, despite their numerous influences on the history of the world, fungi are completely disregarded by the majority of people today.In 2006 Peter McCoy founded Radical Mycology, a grassroots organization dedicated to increasing awareness of the many ways to work with fungi for personal, societal, and ecological health. Nearly a decade later, McCoy has written Radical Mycology to share the wide array of skills and insights that have arisen from the organization’s international work to advance the science of appropriately applied mycology. Shattering commonly held beliefs on the value of the Fungal Queendom, Radical Mycology definitively explores the many reasons that fungi should no longer be ignored but instead honored and embraced for the many gifts they offer. The result is the most comprehensive book on mycology—the science of fungi—ever published.Interwoven with short essays on the lessons of the fungi, Radial Mycology begins with chapters that explore the uniqueness of fungal biology, the critical ecological roles of micro and macro fungi, how to accurately identify mushrooms and mycorrhizal fungi, the importance of lichens as medicines and indicators of environmental quality, and the profound influences that fungi have held on the evolution of all life and human cultures. With this foundation laid, the reader is then equipped to work with the fungi directly. Techniques for making potent fungal medicines, growing fermenting fungi for food, and cheaply cultivating mushrooms using recycled tools (and yet still achieving lab-quality results) are explored in-depth. Subsequent chapters grow far beyond the limits of other books on mushrooms. Detailed information on the principles and practices of natural mushroom farming—largely influenced by the design system of permaculture—is presented along with extensive information on cultivating mycorrhizal fungi and the science of mycoremediation, the application of fungi to mitigate pollution in the environment and in our homes. The book ends with deeper insights into the social effects that fungi present from the reflection of mycelial networks in the design of whole societies to a rigorous examination of the history of psychoactive fungi.Written for the beginner as well as the experienced mycologist, Radical Mycology is an invaluable reference book for anyone interested in Do-It-Yourself (or Do-It-Together) homesteading, community organizing, food security, natural medicine, grassroots bioremediation, and the evolution of human-fungal-ecological relations. More than a book on mushrooms, Radical Mycology is a call to ally with the fungi in all efforts to spawn a healthier world. Heavily referenced and vibrantly illustrated by the author, this unprecedented book will undoubtedly remain a classic for generations to come.

The River Cottage Mushroom Handbook


John Wright - 2007
    The handbook is completed by more than 30 simple and delicious mushroom recipes from the River Cottage team. With color photographs throughout, line drawings, and a user-friendly Key, this comprehensive and collectable guide is destined to be an indispensable household reference.