Is food the greatest love of your life?

Are recipe books your favorite books you purchase?.. Do you ooze over Life Style Food TV channels.. and comb the supermarkets for great food ingredients?..
Do you love to entertain friend/family often?..

Well, my latest book has consumed me!

but first a quote...

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. 

In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” – Julia Child.

 Ok.. now onto my new favorite recipe book...
Authors Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid - ISBN # 978-1-57965-114-5

Pages are filled with amazing photography..  actually they won IACP/Julia Child Award for best photography

Mouth watering recipes.. giving replacement ingredients for those not able to get the 'real' thing..

Hot Sour, Salty, Sweet - a Culinary Journey through southeast Asia 

 

 ' a breakthrough book... a major contribution - The New York Times

 I ordered my copy through Amazon.. and it was delivered to my doorstep 10 days later! Thanks Amazon.. you're amazing!

 
 a bit about the Authors..
JEFFREY ALFORD:Jeffrey is the co-author, with Naomi Duguid, of six cookbooks: Flatbreads and Flavors:  A Baker's Atlas (William Morrow, 1995); Seductions of Rice (Artisan, 1998); Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey through Southeast Asia (Artisan, 2000); HomeBaking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World (Artisan 2003); Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent; and Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China.  Both Flatbreads and Hot Sour Salty Sweet won the James Beard Award for best Cookbook of the Year.

 

Then still on food....I've just finished the Rick Stein Far East Odyssey  on the Life Style TV Series as well..

Rick Stein's Research in the Far East

Stein accompanies each recipe with a brief explanation as to how he discovered it while on his travels. He researches every dish - talking to writers, restauranteurs, TV chefs and street vendors and watching them cook. The vivid photography that accompanies recipes throughout the book helps to bring about the atmosphere of the Far Eastern way of cooking. As you turn the pages, reading anecdotes of river voyages, street markets and factories, reading the recipes and looking at the photographs you can almost smell the smoky smell of the cooking and hear the clattering of heavy woks. In the section on Vietnam, there is a recipe for Spring Rolls using extra thin rice papers and you can see the contents tantalisingly tucked inside. This all helps to capture the essence of the book. By the end of it the reader feels as if they have gone on the journey with him!

One of his MUST try out of this series recipes is Rick Stein's duck recipe..

Saute duck pieces (with skin on)  to render out the fat. Pour out, but keep that fat.. (its delicious for roasting those potatoes/vegetables in)

Add plenty of sliced garlic, and lots of sliced fresh ginger. - (he used a lot)

Add fresh orange juice, just to 'float' the duck pieces in.. (not cover them)

Add a good dose of fish sauce (Vietnamese) a bruised/bashed piece of lemon grass, 3 or 4 whole chili's.. a tab palm sugar - and a good grinding of black pepper.

Simmer with lid on until duck is tender.

Add chopped spring onions/shallots last 5 minutes. Thicken the sauce with a slaked cornflower. 

 

Enjoy with green payapa salad.. fresh and very tasty! 

I see another order coming up for Amazon...

Ok.. time for lunch prep! enjoy a good Friday..