Charlie Trotters Vegetables or The Maple Sugar Book

Charlie Trotter's Vegetables

Author: Charlie Trotter

The dynamic follow-up to the bestselling Charlie Trotter, this sensational celebration of vegetables presents some 100 seasonal vegetable recipes. Each dish is pictured in the same lavish style that so distinguished Trotter's first book. Organized by month, each chapter offers four or five savory dishes and one sweet course. Full color.

Publishers Weekly

Chef Trotter's fancy, multi-ingredient, almost-vegetarian dishes are as rich and extravagantand as fussy and specializedas those featured in his renowned Chicago restaurant and presented in his first book, Charlie Trotter's (1994). The 82 recipes here are arranged by month, and in name alone, the recipes are a mouthful: January leads off with Baby Carrot Terrine with Shiitake Mushroom Salad, Carrot Juice Reduction, Dill Oil, and 50-Year-Old Balsamic Vinegar. The preparation of Arugula Noodles with Smoked Yellow Tomato Sauce, Black Olives, and Roasted Garlic Pure requires the cook to make arugula pasta and arugula oil and, for the sauce, to smoke the tomatoes over hickory chips lit with a propane torch. Wine Notes for each recipe are helpful, as is a glossary that defines terms like "kashi" (it's the mixture of seven specific grains called for in Cold Kashi Salad with Dried Cranberries, Celery, White Pumpkin, Pumpkin Seeds and Pumpkin Seed Oil). While a few suggestions for substitutions would have allowed the home cook some welcome flexibility, flexibility is not in the exacting spirit of this chef. Trotter offers highly specific instructions (even to calling for hazelnuts from a certain farm in Oregon) for constructing complexly flavored, architecturally beautiful dishes. So long as readers are not misled, this volume, which is expensive in both in price and effort, delivers.(July)

Library Journal

Charlie Trotter's is a top Chicago restaurant with a national reputation, known for its stylish and imaginative cuisine. Trotter is a serious (his introduction opens with a quotation from Dostoyevsky and moves on to Goethe) and obviously very talented young man; unfortunately for home cooks, the recipes in his cookbook are real "chef's recipes," many requiring hours of preparation and access to exotic ingredients (the first recipe calls for two different reductions as well as two sauces, one involving three different subrecipes, to garnish plum tomatoes that must be roasted for ten hours). For area libraries and other collections catering to foodies.

BookList

Renowned Chicago restaurateur Charlie Trotter has produced another volume documenting his highly personal and refined approach to contemporary American cooking. Increasingly, nutrition-conscious eaters have become more aware of the importance of vegetables, and their attention has been matched by an explosion in both the variety and the quality of vegetables now available. Seasonality used to dictate vegetable choices, but an expanding worldwide market has made good produce available just about anywhere at any time. Trotter's rigorous attention to absolute freshness and full flavor, however, has resulted in a month-by-month arrangement of recipes emphasizing locally available ingredients at their flavor peak. As a document of the chef's culinary intelligence and prowess, the book astonishes with every turn of the page; but the home cook is not likely to find it easy to locate such ingredients as Marcona almonds and Ennis hazelnuts for duplicating Trotter's results. The really skilled and undaunted cook will find inspiration in Trotter's book to adapt the chef's unusual combinations to more homely seasonal vegetables. For specialized, professional, or regional collections only.

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The Maple Sugar Book: A Good Life Center Book

Author: Helen Nearing

A half-century ago, the world was trying to heal the wounds of global war. People were rushing to make up for lost time, grasping for material wealth. This was the era of "total electric living," a phrase beamed into living rooms by General Electric spokesman Ronald Reagan. Environmental awareness was barely a gleam in the eye of even Rachel Carson.

And yet, Helen and Scott Nearing were on a totally different path, having left the city for the country, eschewing materialistic society in a quest for the self-sufficiency they deemed "the Good Life." Chelsea Green is pleased to honor their example by publishing a new edition of The Maple Sugar Book, complete with a new section of never-before-published photos of the Nearings working on the sugaring operation, and an essay by Greg Joly relating the story behind the book and placing the Nearings' work in the context of their neighborhood and today's maple industry.

Maple sugaring was an important source of cash for the Nearings, as it continues to be for many New England farmers today. This book is filled with a history of sugaring from Native American to modern times, with practical tips on how to sap trees, process sap, and market syrup. In an age of microchips and software that are obsolete before you can install them, maple sugaring is a process that's stood the test of time. Fifty years after its original publication in 1950, The Maple Sugar Book is as relevant as ever to the homestead or small-scale commercial practitioner.

Booknews

Originally published by J. Day Co., New York, 1950, with a couple of subsequent reprints, this classic volume provides the small-scale commercial practitioner or homesteader with clear instructions on the production and marketing of maple syrup. Includes previously unpublished b&w photographs of the Nearings at work on their Vermont homestead. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)