Recipe Testing for The Gilded Fork Cookbook

In the last few weeks I’ve been busy testing recipes for The Gilded Fork Cookbook, the upcoming book from Chef Mark Tafoya and the folks at The Culinary Media Network. After perusing the cookbook contents I sent in a list of about eight different recipes I wanted to test, and believe me it was hard to narrow it down to eight. Mark asked me to tackle the first four on my list, which you see below.

Milk and Honey Lavender Sorbet. I like using lavender in desserts, and this sorbet is delicious. Very refreshing, a perfect after dinner lift. Read more

Shrimp with Mushroom Tapas and a Cookbook Give Away

In 1985 Penelope Casas introduced U.S. diners to the world of Spanish tapas with the success of her book Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain. Casas is a recognized authority on Spanish cuisine and has published five books on the foods of the region and writes about Spanish food and travel for several major publications. She also leads culinary tours of Spain, a piece of information I have tucked away for my future (but still unplanned) trip to Spain. Last year she published a revised version of her classic book, and I was fortunate to receive a copy for review from the folks at La Tienda.

The book has over 300 recipes, of which 50 are new, and has chapters devoted to tapas in sauce, marinades and cold tapas, tapas with bread or pastry, tapas with last-minute preparation, ingredients and cookware, sources for Spanish products, and tapas menus. The ingredients and cookware section is like an encyclopedia of Spanish cooking, with detailed descriptions of such things as queso Manchego, Marcona almonds, earthenware dishes (cazuelas), and quince paste (membrillo). The menus are very helpful for planning a tapas party, and I can see us having some kind of tapas party in the next few months. The book is very thorough and the only thing I could wish for is more photos of beautiful tapas!

We selected a couple tapas to make for Michael’s little birthday dinner (Happy Birthday, honey!), and I wanted to serve one with seafood and one with vegetables. I chose the Shrimp and Mushrooms in Almond Sauce (Fricando de Langostinos) and the Stewed Zucchini, Peppers, and Tomatoes (Pisto Manchego). Both have sauces worthy of sopping up with chunks of artisan bread. Read more

Shrimp in Garlic Tapa and a Cookbook Give Away

I wish I could have visited Spain during my jaunt through Europe in 1996, but time was short and I thought a visit to Spain would come on a later trip that has yet to materialize. One of my childhood dreams was to see the horses in Andalusia, so I must do that as well as enjoy the art, architecture, food, and music. Obviously I have a somewhat romantic view of this future yet unplanned trip, and hopefully someday I will have a chance to fulfill those dreams.

Likewise, I’m afraid I’ve taken a somewhat romantic view of the latest cookbook to arrive courtesy of the folks at DK Publishing. Spain and the World Table is a beautiful book from The Culinary Institute of America which featured Spanish cuisine during the 2006 Worlds of Flavor International Conference & Festival in the Napa Valley. This is more than just a cookbook, it’s a journey through Spanish cuisine with features about the history of Spanish cooking and some of the great Spanish ingredients such as hams, cheeses, wines and sherries, saffron, fresh seafood, potatoes, rice, and chocolate (yes, chocolate, and not just drinking chocolate). The book is oversized with big gorgeous photos and many recipes across eight categories, including tapas, soups, meats, seafood, rice, salads and vegetables, sauces and condiments, and desserts. The recipes represent a range of complexity, and though the book focuses on Spanish ingredients, many are widely available in the United States. Some are more costly in this country, such as serrano ham, but substitutions are often easy to find to keep the dishes within budget.

So far we have made four of the dishes and I have a list of many more I plan to make, including a passion fruit ice cream I’m dying to try. Read more

White Grilled Pizza

First things first: there’s still time to enter the Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas cookbook give away! Visit the original post and tell us about your favorite pizza toppings to enter!

The dessert pizza with the cinnamon and ice cream was delicious, but then so were the savory pizzas we made. I chose to top one with a homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil from our indoor garden (photo below), a pizza I knew the boys would like, and the other was based on The Biancan pizza recipe in the book with a few differences. This white pizza (photo above) is brushed with herb- and garlic-seasoned olive oil, sprinkled with Parmesan, and topped with sauteed spinach, mushrooms, red onion, roasted garlic, feta, and a sun-dried tomato pesto that we make every year with our homegrown basil. The boys snubbed the white pizza, but Michael and I really liked it.

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Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas Cookbook Give Away

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, “Andrea botched up this post because that is definitely not grilled pizza.”

Guess what? It is grilled pizza enrobed in cinnamon sugar with French vanilla ice cream in the middle and chocolate sauce on top. How’s that for an insanely good dessert pizza? Yes, my hand slipped and I went a little overboard with the chocolate sauce, but it still tasted delicious!

This delicious creation comes from Chef Craig Priebe and his first cookbook, Grilled Pizzas & Piadinas, recently released by DK Publishing. I received an invitation to review the book and host a give away, and I only had to think about it for a nano second. Pizza is my favorite food and any chance to play around with my favorite food will make my day! As soon as I saw Priebe’s incredible dessert inspired by churros (photo above), I knew what we would have for our Cinco de Mayo celebration. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Read more

The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

How often do you find a cookbook that is so chock full of good recipes that you want to make every single one of them? That day? That’s how I felt when The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy arrived in my mailbox. I grabbed the package and took it along in the car when I went to pick up the boys for school, knowing I would have a few minutes to browse while waiting for them. A few minutes was not enough because I found myself pouring over the pages. Many of my cookbooks have sticky flags on the pages with recipes that I like or want to try, but for Murphy’s book I didn’t even bother because I will eventually make everything in it, and the things that I have made so far have been fantastic.

Murphy is the chef and owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie in New York City, a popular bakery considered one of the best in the city. I spent some time on the bakery’s website, wishing I had a spot in my neighborhood with food that good so I could take the laptop and hang out there on my mommy days. The menu is so tempting and her wedding and specialty cakes are breathtaking. I plan to take a trip to New York City sometime, and one of my first stops will be Sweet Melissa, especially if it has WiFi. Murphy also has a few baking podcasts available on PodCastGo.com, which are now on my iPod.

Because my favorite meal is breakfast, I started in the “Dessert for Breakfast” chapter with her Sweet Muffins recipe. For both her sweet and savory muffins, Murphy encourages variation by not specifying particular fruits or cheeses and vegetables within the text of the recipes, but saves the suggestions for tasty combinations for the end. I made the sweet muffins while Michael’s parents were visiting a few weekends ago, and added apples, cinnamon, and dried cranberries. The muffins were a hit, and it’s a good thing I made a double batch that morning, otherwise there would have been none left for me to photograph. They were perfect right out of the pan, no butter or jam required, with a slightly crispy crust and moist crumb, and the vanilla sugar on top added a sweet, aromatic crunch. Read more

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