Keep It Seasonal or Rosalind Creasys Recipes from the Garden

Keep It Seasonal: Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches

Author: Annie Wayt

In our increasingly busy lives, meals need to be fast, healthy, and light. In Keep It Seasonal, acclaimed chef Annie Wayte offers 100 recipes, each with a spectacular color photograph of the finished dish, for simple soups, salads, and sandwiches organized by season so that home cooks can make the most of fresh, available produce. Keep It Seasonal is the ideal cookbook for those who shop at farmer's markets, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats.

Why purchase asparagus out of season when the prices are sky high? Why buy strawberries in winter when they are tasteless and full of water? Not only is produce more affordable when it is in season, but its quality and nutritional content are at their peak. In Keep It Seasonal, chef Annie Wayte awakens cooks to ingredients that are truly fresh, local, and in season, and explains why buying locally grown foods is better than buying organic food trucked in from thousands of miles away.

Within the four seasonal chapters, the recipes are organized into three sections: soups, salads, and sandwiches. Home cooks can mix and match with recipes such as Fresh Pea Soup with Morels, Crispy Prosciutto and Leek Salad with Mustard Dressing, and Grilled Spicy Lamb Sandwiches on Flat Bread with Pistachio Relish (spring), or Squash Soup with Roasted Chestnuts and Pancetta, Pomegranate Glazed Quail with Cinnamon and Raisin Tabbouleh, and Gorgonzola, Pear, and Honey Open Sandwiches (autumn). The recipes are simple and easy to prepare because the fresh ingredients speak for themselves, and each includes a full–color photo of the finished dish.

Publishers Weekly

Wayte has an upper-crust chef's taste for the finest, freshest ingredients, and it's nicely matched to the three kinds of food that show off their flavors most effortlessly-soups, salads and sandwiches-though the recipes she includes are not all as undemanding to assemble as she claims. For each season, Wayte, executive chef of 202 in New York's Chelsea Market, provides creative dishes from each of the categories, all revolving around foods that are abundant and in season. She strives to let the produce shine, especially in minimalist takes like basic but rich Spiced Parsnip Soup with Crunchy Parsnip Chips, and the satisfyingly complex flavors of Roasted Autumn Vegetable Salad with Maple-Cider Dressing, where she recommends that cooks "retain [the vegetables'] natural shape as much as possible." Wayte takes a freewheeling approach when describing preparation and tosses in measures like a "smidgen" and a "handful," and some cooks will appreciate Wayte's green light to expand on her innovative ingredient combinations. Interspersed throughout are helpful sidebars that expand on the possibilities for using some of the ingredients, as well as brief profiles of artisan food producers who share Wayte's passion for all things fresh and local. Photos. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Wayte, who was executive chef of Nicole Farhi's flagship restaurant in London, opened Nicole's in New York City in 1999 and is now also chef of Manhattan's 202, a more casual venue. Seasonality has become something of a cliche in the restaurant world, but Wayte's bright, imaginative recipes show what respecting the seasons can mean in the hands of an expert. She has focused on soups, salads, and sandwiches because these are what many of her customers prefer to eat, and she has organized them by category within each season: Wild Salmon, New Potato, and Asparagus Salad with Sorrel Dressing in spring, for example, or Chilled Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Cucumber-Herb Salad in the height of summer. She also includes simple recipe ideas for the various seasonal ingredients, along with profiles of some of the farmers, growers, or other purveyors she relies on, and there are striking color photographs throughout. For most collections. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Book about: Software Engineering or Totltxt

Rosalind Creasy's Recipes from the Garden: 200 Exciting Recipes from the Author of The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping

Author: Rosalind Creasy

Luscious, perfectly ripe tomatoes; crisp, sweet melons; sharp onions and mellow garlic-nothing tastes better than freshly picked food right out of the garden.

This collection of mouth-watering recipes from Rosalind Creasy, a pioneer of the edible landscaping movement, will help you celebrate the incredible flavors of the garden-fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs waiting in your backyard. Feast on delicious, fresh salads ranging from the classic-Basic Garden Salad, Tangy Mesclun Salad and Creamy Caesar Salad-to the extraordinary-Crab and Asparagus Salad with Fancy Greens and Sorrel Dressing, Watermelon Spicy Salad and Flower Confetti Salad. Indulge with Rhubarb and Strawberry Cobbler, Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce, Gardener's Spring Lamb and Savory Bread Pudding with Sorrel and Baby Artichokes.

Featuring delectable recipes perfect for both vegetarians and meat eaters; for family breakfasts, solo lunches, and grand, celebratory dinners; this indispensable cookbook will broaden your food horizons and inspire countless delicious and healthy meals.

Publishers Weekly

Landscape designer Creasy's cornucopia of recipes using ingredients plucked fresh from a garden should appeal to the growing number of people interested in eating locally. After all, nothing is more local than a garden in one's own backyard, though unfortunately, unlike the books in her Edible Garden series, she provides little guidance on getting started with gardening after recounting her own impressive endeavors. Still, even cooks who lack time or a green thumb can enjoy most of the recipes if they have access to a good farmers' market or organic vegetable supermarket section. Her creamy succotash may not taste quite as fresh without corn that has been picked after the water has already been put on to boil, and the stuffed zucchini blossoms might not look quite as elegant with ingredients bought elsewhere and toted home, but apart from the extravagant flower petal-filled salads most of her ingredients are widely available. With many of the recipes contributed by Creasy's friends and chefs she has met, the book has a very personal feel that is augmented by her enthusiastic descriptions and detailed instructions. Color photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Judith Sutton - Library Journal

Creasy's Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, originally published in 1982, is a classic in the field, and she has written many other books and cookbooks since. Her latest includes an eclectic mix of recipes highlighting her garden's bounty, from Riot of Color Salad (garnished with pansies and other edible flowers) to Pea Shoots with Crab Sauce. Some of the recipes are unusual; others are as familiar as New England Boiled Dinner. Most are shown in color photographs; unfortunately, the food styling seems somewhat amateurish. For larger collections and others where Creasy's books have been popular.