In the past, cookbooks have been bought, a dish or two tried, and then the book(s) collected dust on the shelf until they were given away as Christmas presents. If I invited a friend for dinner and they said they were vegetarian, alarm bells would go off in my head, my brain would freeze, I would go hot and cold; we would eat out!
I knew that my problem was how to compile a meal that was not centered on meat. For someone who loves to cook my vegetarian reportaire is awful: pasta with a sauce, Macaroni with Three Cheeses, fish cakes and baked beans and Seafood Lasagna. Later I learned that vegartarains don’t eat fish either.
In Early December, a friend suggested I attend the Boston Vegetarian Society's Holiday Vegan Dessert Party at Fiore's Bakery in JP. I then remembered what a friendly organization they were and I joined.
This was a positive step in the right direction. Then I went looking, yet again for a cookbook but one this time, that I would actually use. I first checked the “best of “ lists for vegetarian books. The most oft repeated was Mark Bitman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Veganomicon: the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook, and a couple of books by Deborah Madison. Armed with this information I went to a bookstore and started browsing.
Cookbooks are a very personal thing. It is the feel of the book, the layout of the recipes, the connection that you make to the book even before you start looking for recipes. I ended up comparing Bitman’s book to Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I thought that Mark Bitman’s book felt too large, to overwhelming for me and I had the sense that I would not use it. However, I checked the Mole recipe in both books and immediately decided on Deborah Madison’s book as the list of ingredients was smaller. I also liked the feel of the book but I did not want another book just sitting on the shelf so I left it where it was.
A week later, I looked through it again and some days later yet again. Finally I bought it. Some of the aspects that “sold” this book to me was that Madison explained how to compile a vegetarian meal (a problem previously mentioned), and what wines went with what type of vegetarian food. In addition, every recipe I read where I was not sure what she meant, such as what was ricotta salata in the Beet Salad with Olives and Ricotta Salata recipe (p150); or what was roll-cut carrots for the Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry (p.274), were located in the index. Other questions answered were “what type of breadcrumbs should I be using, fresh or dried? Madison clearly specifies which. The side bar notes giving additional tips on the dish being cooked are very useful. Lastly, there is are terrific chapters on sandwiches and soups.
The dishes range geographically across the world without you ever realizing that you just left the geographic area that you were most comfortable in. I highly recommend this book which is so much simpler than her Greens cookbook which I purchased in 1988 …oh my! The soups in that book would take half a day to make.
I am very pleased with the book as I never think "Oh! today I am being vegetarian, I just think what good, interesting food I'm eating." Now to me that is success. It is also extra special to me as it was Deborah Madison who first encouraged me to join the Slow Food organization and who also encouraged me to work with others in my town to get a farmers’ market started. Thank You Deborah!
Photographs courtsey of Randall Collura, a BVS member. His work can be seen at http://www.allrandall.com/
www.slowfoodboston.com
www.bostonveg.com
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