Cookbook reviews: April + May

I've read, reviewed, and cooked from a TON of cookbooks in the last two months. These are the cookbooks ARC's from NETGALLEY. 

I thought I knew a lot about global food. This book has taught me, I was wrong. I learned so much about foods that I never would be able to try in my city or that I need to seek out in my city. The variety of recipes is astounding. I can't wait to get a physical copy of this book so I can make more of the recipes.                                                                                                              This is a beautiful brunch book. The photographs are bright and show the reader wonderful plating options. There are many interesting recipes in here. Many, I can be honest, I will never make because they are either too time/labor intensive or they are just too healthy. I had great luck with the following recipes: French Toast with Carmelized Bananas, Crispy poaches eggs(divine), Chicken, Bacon Jame, and Cheddar Roasted Sandwiches, Pork Belly, Crispy Spring Onion Pancakes and Kimchi Scrambled eggs- this one was very time intensive, and the cornbread with chipotle and maple butter. I would buy this book for the jams and condiments sections alone. Wow, they are rich with information and variation. Overall, a good brunch book and one I will pull from regularly when I have a little more time on my hands. This is a stunning book. This is a book to display on your coffee table. It's that pretty. But, it's also one of those books you want to keep close by to cook from because the recipes are perfect no matter where you live. You don't need a lot of fancy equipment or hard to find ingredients to make delicious food. I will never be able to plate like they do in these photos, but I'm pretty happy with my results from this book. The food is simple, but elevated. You will learn new techniques and try new ingredients, but be totally happy with the results Sourdough. It is the hottest word other than Coronavirus right now. Bryan Ford does a wonderful job of explaining the craft of sourdough, how to start one, and how to use it to make a variety of tasty breads. The pictures are fantastic. The recipe directions are clear, even for someone relatively new to the world of bread making. My birote came out perfectly. I can see this becoming an instant best seller. Some of the ingredients are a little hard to source right now, so hopefully that changes as the world starts to open back up. I was unprepared for how in depth this book was going to be. The history section is very thorough. The growing and sourcing sections are incredibly well thought out and organized to make it as easy as possible. As a tea lover, I didn't think it would be possible to grow my own. I knew absolutely nothing about how tea was produced prior to this. The three keys to successfully growing tea plants are planning, patience, and persistence. This book will definitely help you source, select, and cultivate your own tea garden. If you know a tea lover who also loves to garden, this would make a great gift. We don't eat Keto but my relatives do and honestly it had been hard to cook for them. They have an air-fryer and I cannot wait to add this book to their repertoire. The recipes are easy to make, tasty, and the timing works in our air-fryer. The pickle brined fried chicken was so good. I had never thought about breading using pork rinds. I learned a lot in this actually. There are a LOT of recipes. With being stuck at home, a lot of the time I didn't want to cook, but this made it easy to throw something together that was tasty. I'm sure if you eat Keto all the time, this would be a great book to have on hand for quick and easy dinners. Even if you don't eat keto there are a lot of delicious recipes and you never know when you are going to get the Keto curveball thrown at you. Being able to pull this out and whip something up with very little cleanup is a win in my book. This is a cookbook I will be gifting often. It is immeasurably useful in a day and age where quick is king and many people are avoiding certain foods. The photos are beautiful. The recipes are uncomplicated but perfect for dinner home or a dinner party. I would buy this book just for the Instant Mason Jar Soups sections. On top of that I would buy this book for the Baked Feta recipe, the Perfect Seared Scallops, and the Microwave Chocolate Mug Cake. The author set this up to accommodate dairy free, gluten free, vegan, and vegetarian eaters. So each recipe is there, then has tips, then has ways to make each recipe dairy free/ gluten free/ vegan etc. It's incredibly helpful not to go digging through multiple cookbooks to find a recipe that is easily made allergen free. This book has it all. Thank you Pamela for writing such a fantastic and beautiful cookbook. I rarely rate cookbooks 5 stars, but this is a 5 star cookbook for me This would be perfect for a family looking to try out recipes from across the world. I really enjoyed this and look forward to having it on my shelf. I particularly liked how similar regions were grouped together for continuity. The stories behind these people and their businesses is the most interesting part of the book, A lot of the recipes you can find other places, but the people are the gold in this book, If you have ever been interested in food or food cultures other than your own, buy this book. Delicious recipes.