Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference: 500 Recipes, 275 Photographs

`Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini' by food journalist, Elizabeth Schneider is easily the best reference I have found for general information on vegetables available to American consumers. On certain points, it stands head and shoulders above its closest competitors `Vegetables Every Day' by Jack Bishop, `Chez Panisse Vegetables' by Alice Waters, `Red, White, and Greens' by Faith Willinger, and `Vegetables' by James Peterson, although the last of these four is somewhat different than Schneider's book and the other three, in that it is organized more by method than by vegetable species.If you are a professional cook or food writer, a food book collector, a serious amateur cook, or simply very fond of encyclopedic books on food such as the `Larousse Gastronomique' and Alan Davidson's `Oxford Companion to Food', then you simply must own this book. There are reasons to own the other four vegetable books I mentioned, but if you can only have one vegetable book, this should be the one.The relative virtues of this book are many. For starters, it covers almost exactly twice as many commonly named vegetable species than its nearest competitor by Jack Bishop. Also, it has several separate articles on specific mushroom species instead of lumping all mushrooms together in a single article. For those of us who are especially fond of cooking with mushrooms, this is a real boon. Among the 134 articles, there are several articles on general type of vegetables, such as shelling beans (lima beans, fava beans) and snap beans (French, green Romano, Dragon Tongue). When a single species has several different cultivars or different treatments, as with green versus purple asparagus and green versus white asparagus, the book treats all these variations, including pictures of each variation, generally side by side to facilitate comparison and, where appropriate (as with avocados), the picture shows both the whole product and the product cut to reveal the insides of the edible plant part. In coverage, there are two big warnings in the midst of this wealth of information, the book does not cover very common vegetables such as corn or potatoes, in depth as there is simply so much information already readily available on these foods. Also, certain vegetable subjects which have a rich diversity such as chilies is covered by a brief mention and references to authoritative sources which will give one a full picture of these families of products.The book also does not cover herbs, spices, or plants grown specifically for sprouts. This may explain why I could not find any discussion of Mung beans, even though they are mentioned as an ingredient in a recipe. This is a very common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking, such as in the cuisines of `Indochina', the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand. And, they are commonly available in many Asian markets, although I do not see them mentioned much in treatments of Chinese or Japanese cooking ingredients. Another item missing with no explanation is seaweed, which is such a great part of Japanese cuisine. Virtually every other major Oriental vegetable appears to be covered in depth. The coverage of some Asian ingredients even improves on the coverage given to books specializing in Japanese ingredients, due to the depth of information on the foods the book does cover.Unlike the other four (4) vegetable books mentioned above, this book does not give many detailed recipes for each type of food. On the other hand, it gives general cooking advice, storage, care, preparation, and selection to a depth totally unfound in the other volumes. It includes special storage instructions for professional kitchens with walk-in freezers as well as guidance for the home cook. It gives exceptionally good pictures of every single variety mentioned in the text. In the place of a large number of recipes for each food, each essay ends with a relatively long section on references to how a very large number of major chefs cook these ingredients. Most of these references are to chefs with published cookbooks such as Charlie Trotter and Mario Batali, but often references may be based on private communications, as I found at least two references to techniques used by `Iron Chef' Masaharu Morimoto, now of `Morimoto Restaurant' in Philadelphia.Amidst all this information, I found not one statement with which I could disagree and I found many that I did not know and that will immediately improve my view and treatment of these vegetables. My three favorite items were about shittake mushrooms, white asparagus, and Brussels sprouts. It turns out that many of the shiitakes found in American supermarkets may be of a rather poor quality. The article gave pictures of plump little bundles of mycological pleasure with soft looking stems and full, fat caps. They almost didn't look like my local shiitakes, which the author states are simply inferior and should be avoided. I wish I could. The article on white asparagus says that Americans simply do not know how to harvest the white asparagus to obtain the best product. Europeans chill the stalks almost the moment they are harvested. If not, they become tough and much less pleasant than if they were handled properly. The article also points out that even if you get good white asparagus, it should be peeled completely. And, this job is so important; it is often done by head chefs in fine restaurants rather than leaving it to the prep chefs. The tip on Brussels sprouts is that all the average sized sprouts are scarfed up for freezing, so we end up with the larger or smaller samples in out supermarket bins.Aside from the very few exceptions I noted above, this book has virtually everything you may want to know about picking, storing, and cooking vegetables, even if some of the news may be a bit discouraging regarding products available in American megamarts.This book is just a tad pricy, but if you want the straight scoop on veggies, this is what you need. Very highly recommended.

The idea of buying a $60 cookbook (however much discounted) makes me gasp. At that price, it had better be awesome.Fortunately, Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini delivers... and then some.If you're interested in non-mundane foods, particularly "ethnic" foods, then you've probably had the same experience I have. You find an odd looking vegetable in the grocery store, and are intruigued. You pick it up, and contemplate bringing it home. And then you realize that you have absolutely *no* idea what you'd do with one of these (other than think, "I'm sure I read about bitter melons or chayote *some*place). So you sadly put the veggie back on the shelf, feeling as though you've missed out.VfAtZ is a perfect answer to this dilemma. In this fat book (you could squash a *huge* spider with this tome), the author goes through all the "interesting" veggies with a predictable and welcome formula. There's a clear photo of the item, usually with some indication of size and with a "cutaway" so you know what the thing looks like once you chop it open. The author explains what the vegetable is (genus and all that jazz); where it came from (i.e. originally from South America, but now most popular in Asia); the varieties you can expect to find and the differences between them. I very much appreciate her clear instructions about choosing the vegetable in the market (i.e. heavy for its size, and no black marks on it), and the "basic" method of cooking (boiling, steaming, etc.) There's always at least a few recipes that highlight the essential tomatillo-ness or chayote-hood or whatever, plus a "Pros Propose" section where she gives you recipes from chefs and other cookbooks. (The latter are intentionally vague -- "he grills tomatillos with garlic and onlon" without indication of quantities -- presumably for copyright reasons. You get the idea anyway.)In short, after reading one of her 3-4 page entries for each vegetable (they're much longer for some items, such as the range of squash and mushrooms), you can confidently stand in the grocery store looking at the aforementioned veggie and Know What To Do With It.Other reviewers criticize the book for not including EVERY vegetable (I admit I'd like more, but only because I'd enjoy anything this author wrote), and that the recipes aren't all that great. They're generally okay, but I admit that few of them are awesome. But I see the recipes as an exercise in learning about the vegetable rather than a source of "what to have for dinner." I often reach for this book because some other cookbook was too vague.Case in point: a recipe in another cookbook for a Sichuan hotpot suggested you could cook sliced lotus root in the hotpot. I dutifully picked up a lotus root at the Asian market. When I got it home, I had no idea how one slices it -- do I peel it first? What about these knobby chunks? I grabbed Schneider's book off the shelf, and five minutes later I knew just what to do. (It tasted darned good, too.)I don't grab for this book when I'm trying to figure out what to make for dinner. But I'm glad I have this book when I want a definitive answer about using a vegetable, or learning how to cook it.

Comprehensive guide to a host of vegetables including really useful preparation cooking ideas.I can see why this book was nominated for an award.

The book is of fine quality and well researched with good photos, but I do not use it.

This book is a wonderful encyclopedia - can't stop browsing!

Book was in almost pristine condition, but I was never apprised of the fact that there was NO dust jacket.

Génial! Un des meilleurs livres sur ce sujet. Beaucoup de détails. Beaucoup de contenu. Écrit en Anglais Américain.