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Gag Gifts, Occasion Gifts - Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets
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List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $65.57
Availability: N/A
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2002-06-11
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Local Flavors, bestselling cookbook author Deborah Madison takes readers along as she explores farmers’ markets across the country, sharing stories, recipes, and dozens of market-inspired menus. Her portraits of markets from Maine to Hawaii showcase the bounty of America’s family farms and reveal the sheer pleasure to be found in shopping for and cooking with local foods.
Deborah Madison follows the seasons in her cross-country journey, beginning with the first tender greens of spring and ending with those foods that keep. Recipes such as Chard and Cilantro Soup with Noodle Nests and Lamb’s-Quarters with Sonoma Teleme Cheese launch the market season, followed by such dishes as an Elixir of Fresh Peas or a Radish Sandwich. Recipes for Whole Little Cauliflowers with Crispy Breadcrumbs and White Beans with Black Kale and Savoy Cabbage illustrate the range of the robust crucifers, while herbs and alliums provide the inspiration for a lively Herb Salad, tisanes, and Sweet and Sour Onions with Dried Pluots and Rosemary.
Deborah Madison challenges the conventional view of what’s seasonal. A Young Root Vegetable Braise celebrates that early crop of delicate roots, while Braised Root Vegetables with Black Lentils and Red Wine Sauce offers an elegant centerpiece dish for the heartier roots of winter.
Superlative fresh eggs, along with handmade cheese, are featured players at the markets everywhere, and here they appear in such simple dishes as Fried Eggs with Sizzling Vinegar and Warm Ricotta Custard featuring fresh whole-milk ricotta. Because organically raised poultry and meats have an increasingly important presence in our farmers’ markets, they are included, too, paired with other market produce that highlights their flavors, as in Roast Chicken with Herbs Under the Skin.
Late summer corn and beans inspire Corn Fritters with Aged Cheddar and Arugula and Shelly Beans with Pasta and Sage. When markets are filled with squashes and melons, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, Deborah Madison shows us that they’re perfect ingredients for simple, vibrant dishes, such as Braised Farmers’ Long Eggplant Stuffed with Garlic or Tropical Melon Soup with Coconut Milk. For the happily overwhelmed cook, Platter Salads suggest how to go ahead and use all of the market’s bounty.
Fruits, another vital part of farmers’ markets, are generously featured. Huckleberries, unusual grapes, and figs; stone fruits like plums and peaches; heirloom apples, persimmons; winter citrus and subtropical fruits are all here. Fig Tart with Orange Flower Custard; Peach Shortcake on Ginger Biscuits; a Rustic Tart of Quinces, Apples, and Pears; and a Passion Fruit and Pineapple Compote are just a few of the luscious desserts. And, because the market features more than fresh foods of the moment, recipes based on dried fruits, oils, vinegars, preserves, and other long-keeping foods help the reader continue eating locally once the market season has ended.
By going behind the scenes to speak with the farmers and producers, Deborah Madison connects readers directly with the people who grow their food. Full-color photographs of gorgeous produce, mouthwatering dishes, and evocative scenes from the markets will entice every reader to cook from the farmers’ market as often as possible.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: inspiring recipes, but not always complete
Comment: The recipes in this book are amazing. I cook largely with seasonal food from farmers markets, and this book offers creative ways to make great seasonal dishes. It also has some wonderful vignettes about different farmers markets the author has visited.
Unfortunately, the recipes, as wonderful as they are, are often incomplete. I've had this book for a month now and have cooked out of it maybe 15-20 times since I got it. I'd say over 3/4 of the recipes have some step missing.
For example, when making a tart, she describes how to cook the vegetables, and then how to make the egg mixture, but doesn't describe how to combine them before popping it in the oven. I'm sure most chefs know how to do this, but I wasn't sure, so I had to go online to figure out how a tart is prepared. Answer: put the vegetables on the bottom of the tart shell and pour the egg mixture over it.
There are many omissions of the sort I describe above, and I usually have been able to go online to figure out how a "typical" tart is made, or bread pudding, etc. I'm not sure if these omissions are due to the fact that this is common knowledge among other, better chefs, or whether the book was written hastily without much testing. In either case, it's actually been a bit of a headache for me.
That said, I again must emphasize how amazing the food in here is. Last night I made an asparagus and mushroom bread pudding which was unlike anything I've ever made before. She has creative ways to cook wonderful veggies like fennel, chard and endive, which I would never had thought of using epicurious or allrecipes websites.
I think based on other reviews, I am going to check out her "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone," which seems like it might be for more novice chefs, and may also have been more thoroughly tested.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Much More Useful Than I Thought It Would Be
Comment: I am on box #3 for my CSA, and have to say this book is the book I use the most. Three great spring recipes so far, all very easy to prepare and two for ingredients that few of my other cookbooks cared to mention even in passing (nettles and sorrel). I live in Minnesota, and I was concerned buying a California based book, but the utility has been outstanding. The Greens chapter is particularly useful, as we have a CSA (Harmony Valley Farms) that loves to pile on the greens.
I agree with the other Minneapolis reviewer - this combined with "Asparagus to Zucchini" decodes many an interesting CSA box. Add in "Vegetable Love" and you are really set.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Cookbook! And really fun to read
Comment: I purchased this book after reading about it in Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I shop at our local market a lot so I thought this book would be helpful. I LOVE reading Madison's stories and I agree with her advocation of local markets. This book is great for figuring out what to do with veggies when they are in season. The book is arranged by type of food for example - Greens, Nightshades, Stonefruits, which is both beautiful and useful. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that I do find this organization a bit confusing if I want to make a whole meal. For example, the soups are spread across all of the chapters, so you need to know what your ingredients are, not that you want to make soup - but this is often how we shop at the market, so I think it will just take a bit of getting used to. Bottom line - if you love your market, you will love this book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Resource for Local Cooking
Comment: As a member of a Community Supported Agriculture program, I find "Local Flavors" (along with "From Asparagus to Zucchini...") to be a fabulous resource for exploring meal options for many of the unique produce items I receive. Deborah Madison's directions are clear and easy to follow, and the pictures are mouth-watering. As a non-vegetarian living with a vegetarian, I find that Deborah Madison's vegetarian recipes produce meals that satisfy meat-eaters and vegetarians alike.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Recipies and Wonderful Pictures
Comment: Perhaps it is unsophisticated for me to enjoy pictures in cook books as much as I do - but I find it hard to cook without them. This book is full of lush vegetable and food photos. The recipies are true to the title, teaching the reader how to use ingredients from local farmers' markets and/or farm shares. The recipies range from simple to more advanced. I've already ordered more to give as gifts. This is one of the best books I've used in years. Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets
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