Fine Cooking in Season: Your Guide to Choosing and Preparing the…

"Fine Cooking In Season: Your Guide to Choosing and Preparing the Season's Best" is a truly fabulous find for foodies. The authors of this book discovered so many tasty treasures that they had to add a fifth season to the year. Your tasteful journey begins in Spring, and continues through Early Summer, Late Summer, Fall, and Winter. Each season has its own "color tab", and each food has its own variety of recipes. I loved the fact that each food has its own pages with beautiful color photos, recipes, "other ideas", and a "Did you know?" question and answer. Learning about food helps to open your mind to trying new foods, and that is a healthy option for both mind and body. Becoming knowledgeable in how to optimize the potential of the properties of each ingredient is a fun and inspiring way to add new life to food preparation. A reason to please in each season: "Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Bacon Tart"; "Fresh Peas with Lemon and Chives"; "Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes"; "Apricot-Raspberry Buckle"; "Cherry Mousse"; "Braised Fennel with Tomato, Green Olives, and Capers"; "Roasted Onion Stuffed with Prosciutto and Parmesan"; "Fig and Anise Ice Cream"; "Sun-Ripened Tomato and Black Olive Salad"; "Carrot and Coriander Soup"; "Wild Mushroom Risotto"; "Chocolate Nut-Upside Down Cake"; "Glazed Pork Roast with Carrots, Parsnips, and Pears"; "Brown-Butter Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips"; and "Pan-Roasted Chicken Breasts with Orange-Brandy Sauce". Tempted? You should be!

Book Copy Gratis The Taunton Press ( )

This is one of my go-to cookbooks. As a gardener, I frequently find myself in situations where I have a plethora of tomatillos or more summer squash than I can fathom eating. Since this book is divided into seasons and then subdivided into type of vegetable, it makes it easy to find new ways to cook old favorites and new vegetables alike. ( )

I have a garden, love farmer's markets and try as much as I can and is tolerated by my family to eat in season. So, books and articles written towards this purpose are ones I'm drawn to. Fine Cooking in Season is an informative compendium of some common and a few off the beaten path fruits and vegetables--displayed in their glory by beautiful photographs--found at their finest in season in grocery stores and farmers' markets. It is full of tips for selection, processing, cooking and storing/preserving for each fruit, berry and vegetable, as well as recipes that highlight each and quick prep ideas.

What is not included are tips on when to gather as this book is aimed at people who do not have their own garden and who do not forage. In fact, the writers suggest leaving foraging up to the experts and buying foraged foods from the market. There is no encouragement towards learning about foraging. That felt a little like playing it safe, but as I think this book is aimed at a more traditional audience, it suits.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cooking with whole foods and would like to take it a step further by using foods at their best in taste and nutrition, not to mention the ecological soundness of this approach. ( )

Have you ever wondered what to do with fennel or parsnips? How to choose and store mangos? How to preserve Swiss chard? Or just how make the most of fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables? Fine Cooking In Season by the editors of Fine Cooking Magazine provides the answers.

This lushly illustrated celebration of seasonal produce is more than just a collection of recipes. It is a clear and useful guide to choosing the best quality produce and storing it correctly to make the most of seasonally available ingredients. Fine Cooking In Season follows the seasons from Spring through Winter, highlighting both familiar and less well-known foods available throughout the year. Each ingredient is beautifully photographed to aid identification. However, this book lacks illustrations of the individual dishes and cooking steps.

As one would expect, given the caliber of chefs contributing to this cookbook, the recipes are sophisticated and require some experience in the kitchen. The directions are clearly written, but these are not dishes for the novice cook. The recipes read well and are definitely appealing. However, the true test of a cookbook is in actually cooking the recipes, something that is not possible due to alterations in the digital galley. If the actual results match the quality of information, this book merits space on the shelf of anyone serious about making the most of the freshest ingredients available.

(Review of Digital Galley provided through Net Galley) ( )