Conscious Choice Seattle: Books That Cook

January 2005 | Kitchen Notebook

Books That Cook

Our dining critic offers up some homework

by Nora West

Every year I vow to cook more often, or better, or more healthfully, or some combination of all three. Nothing fuels the flame of good intentions better than perusing the cookbook section of a bookstore. Or wiping the dust off a book in my own collection that hasn’t been opened in a while.

I am a pushover for beautifully illustrated cookbooks. I know, I know: These cost more (someone is paying for all that photography), but I think they are worth it. After all, if you aren’t salivating at the possibilities or able to imagine how appetizing it will all be, then how do you motivate yourself to begin in the first place?

By coincidence, on my recent visit to Bastyr (see Local Food review), I noticed the university had just published a new cookbook, “From the Bastyr Kitchen” (Bastyr University Press). This is a bargain for $14.95. Chef Jeff Basom has assembled his more requested breads, salads, soups, entrées and desserts, and adapted them for smaller quantities and home use, cooking up a really sweet little book in the process. Healthful recipes, pretty pictures and simple instructions make for a great find. The book can be purchased at Bastyr or online at www.bastyr.edu/bookstore.

Another new find: “John Ash Cooking One on One” (Clarkson Potter, $37.50) This is a renowned chef that tries to take the fear and mystery out of creative cooking. Most great chefs do oversimplify things, but in this book Ash focuses on techniques and basics while answering many questions for the average home cook. He actually convinces you that perhaps the soufflé you have always thought utterly out of your league is not that impossible after all.

Ash divides chapters into categories he considers important mainstays of our culinary experience: salsas, vinaigrettes, pestos, marinades, savory sauces, soups, grilling, soufflés, pasta, chicken, salmon and on it goes. I believe that if you get one or two indelible, incredible recipes from a cookbook, ones you use again and again, it is worth the price of the book. Ash’s recipes for tuna sauce for pasta is one of those recipes. As he says, “This is the best tuna noodle casserole you’ll ever eat.”

I have lately been on the hunt for a good baking cookbook. I would not call myself a baker, but I would like to be. Baking for oneself pays. Let me explain. A piece of mediocre pumpkin pie is $3. A cinnamon twist that might as well be inedible chalk dust will set you back $2.25. A sumptuous piece of coconut cake costs $4.50. You do the math, comparing to the cost of flour, eggs, buttermilk, etc. If you have the time, the stamina and the motivation, you can really stretch the dollar, not to mention the quality!

One fun book is “Leslie Mackie’s Macrina Bakery and Café Cookbook” by Mackie with Andrew Cleary (Sasquatch Books, $29.95). It includes kitchen must-haves and recipes for favorite breads, pastries, sweets and savories.

I recently cooked dinner for some friends using Rick Bayless’ “Mexico One Plate at a Time” cookbook (Scribner, $35). I never would have had the confidence to cook Mexican food by Rick Bayless until I read his cookbook. I looked it over and said to myself, “If I am extremely organized and prep well, I can do this.” The dinner was ambitious, but it was a smash. I am extremely grateful for and impressed by the book. Bayless has written several other cookbooks, and this one is proof that if you take one step (and one dish) at a time, anyone can prepare a sumptuous feast.

These represent just a minute fraction of the cookbook possibilities out there. The “Essential Cookbooks” series is great: Vegetarian, Asian, Finger Foods and more. “The Cake Bible” (Morrow, $35) by Rose Levy Beranbaum is perfect if you are tired of ordering the obligatory birthday cake and decide to try your own hand at something heavenly. Chef Annie Somerville from Greens, the celebrated San Francisco vegetarian restaurant, offers the valuable “Everyday Greens” (Scribner, $40) and “Field of Greens” (Bantam, $32.95) to help you try her recipes at home. Decide on what your culinary focus will be in the new year and head to the library or your local bookstore; the resources are waiting for you.

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