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recipecommunity2024-01-26 09:40 pm
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Review: Basque Cookbook
Today we finished reading a cookbook together, which is the second toward my goal of four for the year.
Basque Cookbook: Explore the Time-Honored Traditions of Basque Cuisine in the Heart of the Spain and France
Paperback – November 12, 2023
by Virginia Mills
The categories are "Soups and Stews," "Condiments and Sauces," "Appetizers and Tapas," "Main Courses Recipes," and "Vegetarian and Drinks Recipes." It's not a very big cookbook, but recipes are crammed together rather than spaced out one per page. There are no illustrations. I find that a drawback, but if you consider pictures a waste of space, then it's an advantage. Be advised that the cookbook isn't well edited. We found places where an ingredient or amount was missing, and one where the ingredient list didn't seem to match the instructions at all.
The first thing we noticed about this cookbook is how repetitive it is. The Basque region isn't all that big, so it has a limited range of ingredients, particularly spices. You'll see a lot of the same combinations, and variations on the same basic recipe with one or two key ingredients changed. If you like variety, this is a drawback. But if you like the standard ingredients and/or enjoy riffing on a theme, it may be an advantage. Standard ingredients include onion, garlic, tomato, potato, bell pepper, lemon, parsley, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt. Protein is typically beans or seafood, occasionally something else like lamb or poultry.
One quirk is the use of bacalao, or salted cod ... which you are supposed to soak and desalt before using. Okay, I get that some people really want to maintain historic recipes, but it bugs me to waste an ingredient. I'm used to Southern and hippie cooking, where you put a small amount of a salty ingredient (e.g. ham or jerky) into a large quantity of bland stuff (e.g. beans and/or rice) so that the salt and flavors disperse through the whole dish. However, if you like salt fish, this cookbook has multiple recipes for that.
We didn't mark a large number of recipes here. Among them are "Tuna and Potato Stew" (made with fresh tuna steak), "Rice with Rabbit and Mushrooms," "Basque Sausage in Cider" (one of several sausage-in-cider recipes, and this cooking method intrigues us), "Lamb Moorish Kebabs" (one of several Moorish recipes with more complex spices), and "Lamb with Potatoes and Peas" (we like one-dish meals). The last section, however, really stands out. It includes a bunch of non-alcoholic recipes including "Sangria-Inspired Fruit Punch" (using a bunch of things to dress up red grape juice) and "Orange and Sparkling Water" (which uses simple syrup, which I'd really like to try with my Buddha's hand syrup). "Basque-Style Herbal Liqueur" is not alcoholic, other than the vanilla extract, but is rather a simple syrup infused with many herbs. You could use this to make cocktails or mocktails, soak any cake or cookie designed to be doused in flavored syrup, make Italian sodas, baste any meat you want to treat with a sweet glaze, and so on. That is a real workhorse of a recipe and it makes a large quantity. Plus you can easily riff it using different herbs. As you can see, it was that last section that got us really excited.
This is a good cookbook if you like its standard ingredients, live near a coast and want new seafood ideas, collect international cookbooks but don't have Basque yet, and/or like blended non-alcoholic punch-type beverages (especially with that herbal syrup). And it only takes up about 1/4 inch of shelf space, so there's that. Recommended.
Basque Cookbook: Explore the Time-Honored Traditions of Basque Cuisine in the Heart of the Spain and France
Paperback – November 12, 2023
by Virginia Mills
The categories are "Soups and Stews," "Condiments and Sauces," "Appetizers and Tapas," "Main Courses Recipes," and "Vegetarian and Drinks Recipes." It's not a very big cookbook, but recipes are crammed together rather than spaced out one per page. There are no illustrations. I find that a drawback, but if you consider pictures a waste of space, then it's an advantage. Be advised that the cookbook isn't well edited. We found places where an ingredient or amount was missing, and one where the ingredient list didn't seem to match the instructions at all.
The first thing we noticed about this cookbook is how repetitive it is. The Basque region isn't all that big, so it has a limited range of ingredients, particularly spices. You'll see a lot of the same combinations, and variations on the same basic recipe with one or two key ingredients changed. If you like variety, this is a drawback. But if you like the standard ingredients and/or enjoy riffing on a theme, it may be an advantage. Standard ingredients include onion, garlic, tomato, potato, bell pepper, lemon, parsley, bay leaf, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt. Protein is typically beans or seafood, occasionally something else like lamb or poultry.
One quirk is the use of bacalao, or salted cod ... which you are supposed to soak and desalt before using. Okay, I get that some people really want to maintain historic recipes, but it bugs me to waste an ingredient. I'm used to Southern and hippie cooking, where you put a small amount of a salty ingredient (e.g. ham or jerky) into a large quantity of bland stuff (e.g. beans and/or rice) so that the salt and flavors disperse through the whole dish. However, if you like salt fish, this cookbook has multiple recipes for that.
We didn't mark a large number of recipes here. Among them are "Tuna and Potato Stew" (made with fresh tuna steak), "Rice with Rabbit and Mushrooms," "Basque Sausage in Cider" (one of several sausage-in-cider recipes, and this cooking method intrigues us), "Lamb Moorish Kebabs" (one of several Moorish recipes with more complex spices), and "Lamb with Potatoes and Peas" (we like one-dish meals). The last section, however, really stands out. It includes a bunch of non-alcoholic recipes including "Sangria-Inspired Fruit Punch" (using a bunch of things to dress up red grape juice) and "Orange and Sparkling Water" (which uses simple syrup, which I'd really like to try with my Buddha's hand syrup). "Basque-Style Herbal Liqueur" is not alcoholic, other than the vanilla extract, but is rather a simple syrup infused with many herbs. You could use this to make cocktails or mocktails, soak any cake or cookie designed to be doused in flavored syrup, make Italian sodas, baste any meat you want to treat with a sweet glaze, and so on. That is a real workhorse of a recipe and it makes a large quantity. Plus you can easily riff it using different herbs. As you can see, it was that last section that got us really excited.
This is a good cookbook if you like its standard ingredients, live near a coast and want new seafood ideas, collect international cookbooks but don't have Basque yet, and/or like blended non-alcoholic punch-type beverages (especially with that herbal syrup). And it only takes up about 1/4 inch of shelf space, so there's that. Recommended.