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Learn to COOK - Real Stew: 300 Recipes for Authentic Home-Cooked Cassoulet, Gumbo, Chili, Curry, Minestrone, Bouillabaise, Stroganoff, Goulash, Chowder, and Much More
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List Price: $18.95
Our Price: $12.89
Your Save: $ 6.06 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harvard Common Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.823
EAN: 9781558321991
ISBN: 1558321993
Label: Harvard Common Press
Manufacturer: Harvard Common Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2002-10-25
Publisher: Harvard Common Press
Studio: Harvard Common Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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In this book, the author takes cooks on a culinary voyage around the world to discover the favorite comfort foods of nearly 50 countries.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Standby in our kitchen
Comment: Our library has a "new books" section, and we walked in on a cold day when this book was in front. The cover picture looked just perfect for the weather, so we took out the book. I think we tried one recipe, then bought it on Amazon.
Since then, we've used it quite a bit. The shortribs in Merlot is easy and it's one of my son's favorites. There are certainly some complicated ingredient lists (and we don't make those recipes), but there are lots of simple ones. Sometimes we just look at our current leftovers and can find something to make. Everything has been good, a few are exceptional.
We're pretty basic cooks, and this is one of our better purchases.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the more well-used books in our collection.
Comment: I generally do not review cookbooks, but I felt obliged to review Real Stew after seeing so many questions raised about its practicality.
I have owned this book for several years, and both my partner and I cook from it regularly. We give it as a gift to our friends and recommend it often and wholeheartedly. A number of the recipes are on very high rotation with us (the Austrian beer stew comes to mind) and it is never put away for very long in the colder months.
Wright is clearly interested in the history of these recipes as much as he is in the practical side of cooking. That is one of the things that I enjoy so much about it as a cook book. The historical side bars are fascinating and fun, and I really liked the chance to try out some of the ancestors of family favorites. Readers should use their common sense about how far they want to follow him down the road of some of the more historical recipes-- some of them are clearly included for the fun of it. I found that even the less practical entries added texture and humor to the work.
It is true that this isn't the book if you are looking for quick one-pot recipes which you can make in a half an hour and toss into the oven. This is more the kind of book for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon cooking together as a family.
As to the ingredients, it is also true that while some of them may be hard to pick up in the local supermarket, most of them should be able to be found with no real difficulty. You will need access to a good butcher and to a market or organic store which has some of the more out-of-the way vegetables. I live in Amsterdam, very far from the source and target market of most of these recipes, and I have still been able to locate most of the ingredients. (I almost expect to need to substitute with US cookbooks.)
In short, if you are someone who likes to cook and enjoys taking your time and making a bit of a ritual out of it, then this is a book that I would highly recommend.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not-So-Real Stews
Comment: This book reveals just how precious and convoluted the process of cooking has become for the self-consciously culinarily sophisticated. As a previous reviewer has mentioned, many of its recipes require obscure ingredients or time consuming procedures which when closely examined would appear to have been included for the sake of sheer novelty. Case in point: the author asks the cook in several of the recipes to braid a "rope" from flour and water which is then placed inside the lid of the cooking pot, ostensibly as a seal. After cooking, this "rope" is discarded. Since most well-made casserole dishes or large stewpots include tight-sealing lids, this extra maneuver can only be viewed as the sort of one-upsmanship beloved by upscale cooks with too much time on their hands. Likewise, complex steps such as rendering one's own lard (which the author requires the cook to do in more than one recipe) or tracking down expensive, obscure spices which will in all likelihood be used only once, and then in minute quantity, simply do not justify the time or effort involved. The basic idea of a stew is to create a tasty, satisfying one-pot meal from available ingredients. When it takes weeks to assemble the ingredients and more than a day to prepare the dish, somebody is definitely missing the point.
Another problem with "Real Stews" is its seeming obsession with the exotic over the familiar. All cultures have delicious culinary traditions -- well, at least most of them do -- but to insist that American cooks precisely duplicate the ingredients and cooking conditions necessary for ethnic verisimilitude smacks of snobbery at best and condescension at worst. A little more emphasis on user-friendly and, dare it be said, familiar recipes would have made this book considerably more useful. As it is, for most home cooks, it's likely to gather considerable dust.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great addition to any cook's shelf
Comment: I have owned this book for about a year now, and it's fantastic. The recipes are not instant, but if you have the time and inclination to make wonderful, authentic tasting (vegetarian and non-vegetarian) food, buy this book. My particular favorites are the chicken and sweet potato curry, spinach bouillibaise, and the full-length traditional bouillabaise. However, I have never made a recipe from this book that I didn't like. After buying loads of seasonal vegetables at the farmer's market - this book is one of my first stops in finding ways to use the vegetables. I'm buying a copy today for my brother; I'm sure he'll love it. I'm also looking forward to using Mr. Wright's Meditaranean cookbook which I'm buying.
Customer Rating:
Summary: THE ULTIMATE COMFORT FOOD BOOK--THE WRIGHT STUFF
Comment: This book, like all of Clifford Wright's books, is a pleasure and a treasure. The man is a genius. Most of the recipes are extremely easy and extremely delicious, like the Hungarian Smoked Sausage and Prune Stew, which has a total of 4 ingredients, including water (a garnish/enrichment adds 2 more). Wright makes the recipes easy by giving authentic ingredients but including substitutes that you can find in any market. For example, he says to use a prosciutto bone or a ham bone; goat milk or cow milk plus cream, etc. Many of the stews have only 3 or 4 ingredients after water and salt and pepper; many include ingredients that are just throw-ins that require no preparation, like olives, capers, tomato paste, nuts, or raisins. The more adventurous cook can try recipes that include things like preserved lemons--Wright tells you how to make them. He also makes the book idiot-proof with the organization: "Stews With Beef," "Stews With Pork," "Stews With Vegetables"--you get the idea. If you don't like some of the ingredients, you can substitute what you do like. You can't go wrong with Wright.
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