Cookbooks

Zarela’s Favorite Cookbooks

Q: You haven’t updated your favorite restaurants section in quite a while, have you stopped going out to eat?

A: If you’re a frequent visitor to my web site, you know that I haven’t been going out as much as I used to, so when I do go out, I tend to go to old favorites. Instead I’m cooking at home almost every day and having an early dinner with my honey before I go to the restaurant where I dine two days a week.

People are always surprised to learn that I don’t cook Mexican food every day. I like international fare, particularly Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, and work from several favorite cookbooks that I’d like to share with you and add to when I make exciting discoveries.

NEW! Most restaurant cookbooks are impossible to cook from because cooking at home is a totally different experience and these translate well to a home kitchen.

The Babbo Cookbook (Hardcover)
By Mario Batali, The Babbo Cookbookis so good that it is difficult for me to order when I go to the restaurant because I can recreate many of his dishes at home. I particularly like the roasted shitake mushrooms and his chickpeas with balsamic vinegar and olive tapanade that they serve as an amuse bouche at Babbo

I often use Alice Water’s Chez Panisse and Vegetable Cookbooks.
- Chez Panisse Café Cookbook (Hardcover)
- Chez Panisse Vegetables (Hardcover)

Talking about vegetable cookery, I think The Gourmet Cookbook has fabulous recipes and I can honestly say that I’ve cooked at least half of them.
The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1,000 Recipes(Hardcover)

by Ruth Reichl (Editor), John Willoughby (Co-editor), Zanne Early Stewart (Co-editor)

I’ve cooked almost every single recipe in this book written by my good friend, Peggy Knickerbocker, and brilliantly photographed by my comadre, Laurie Smith. The recipes are very au courant and easy to prepare. I like it so much that I’ve given it to at least 50 people!

Olive Oil: From Tree to Table
Peggy Knickerbocker, and Laurie Smith
Chronicle Books

The New Joy of Cooking
I always feel like a traitor to my co-author, Anne Mendelson, when I turn to the latest edition of the Joy of Cooking. Anne is fiercely loyal to the original Joys and feels that all the character was taken out with the updating. I agree to some degree but I find that it has all the answers to questions dealing with ingredients, recipes, and techniques not available or popular in the sixties and refer to it frequently. But even Anne now admits that she looks thing up in it often and can see why so many people find it useful.

The New Basics Anne and I also disagree on another book by now gone  good friend, Sheila Lukins with her then-partner Julee Rosso, that I’ve used often and given to many. However, I think you have to be of a certain generation to fully appreciate just how accurately they captured the food and spirit of the eighties.

The Cooking of Southwest France
Harper Collins
My favorite cookbook author is Paula Wolfert and her book, The Cooking of Southwest France is marvelous. Mind you, the food is rich and can be time-consuming to prepare but the results are usually scrumptious. It’s the perfect winter cookbook. Try the lamb with anchovies some time.

She has brought out a new edition that I do not like at all so this one might be hard to get but worth the trouble.

Paula has recently published another wonderful book that I’m cooking my way through and just loving:

The Slow Mediterranean: Recipes for the Passionate Cook
I love her Herb Jam, Pimientos with Capers and Pine Nuts, and Tunisian Halibut with Tomato and Olive Sauce.
The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean: 215 Healthy, Vibrant and Inspired Recipes
I had a Turkish boyfriend for many years and learned to love Turkish food. You’ll find many delicious Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese recipes in The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean: 215 Healthy, Vibrant and Inspired Recipes

Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco
Another Paula classic is her first book: Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco
Warning: Some of the recipes can be a little involved so I tend to adapt rather than remain true.

World Vegetarian
We tend to eat a lot of grains and vegetables and I find myself turning to Madjur Jaffrey’s brilliant World Vegetarian

The World of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York
I decided to do a Passover dinner for the fun of it two years ago and I discovered a treasure of Sephardic recipes from Egypt, India and other exotic places in Claudia Roden’s The World of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York
I have many more favorites that I’ll post in the coming months.