[net.veg] Vegetable Cookbooks I Have Known...

wmartin@brl-vgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (03/12/84)

This is an interesting book for those who want to try a wide range
of vegetables: THE UNABRIDGED VEGETABLE COOKBOOK, by Nika Hazelton
(1976, M. Evans & Co., price unknown). It is in an alphabetic 
arrangement, listing various common and rarely-encountered vegetables, 
with a number of recipes for each. (It is not specifically vegetarian,
so there might be meat or meat products in the ingredients [broth, etc.].)

(Nika Hazelton cookbooks are showing up on discount tables like mad, for
some reason -- I must have bought 4 different ones last year!)

I posted info on the following two cookbooks in another submission to
net.cooks, but I include them here, as many vegetarians specialize
in oriental-style cookery. They both have meat recipes, but they
are worthwhile enough to look at or buy even if you ignore the meat
portions, or creatively work around them with alternate ingredients:

One of the best Chinese cookbooks I've found is CHINESE TECHNIQUE
by Ken Hom with Harvey Steiman.  This is more of a "how-to" guide than
a simple cookbook. It's a large-format hardback with many B&W pictures
of products, materials, and methods of preparation. It begins with an
illustrated encyclopedia of oriental ingredients and utensils, with
specific recommendations for those the author considers best, and how
to use them in cooking. Then it takes several basic areas and runs 
through some recipes in each, with an illustrated guide to preparation.
With this and a little imagination and/or another standard Oriental
cookbook or two, you can master the techniques and expand on the given
examples to create an infinite variety of dishes. Highly recommended
not only by me, but by several friends of mine who are interested in
the topic, to whom I have shown it or given copies. Simon & Schuster,
1981, cover price $16.95 -- the nice thing is that I found a number
of copies in a local department store (St. Louis -- Famous-Barr) on
the reduced-price table for $6.00 each. (That was a year ago, sorry...)
My vegetarian friend said that this was "the best" oriental cookbook
he had ever seen, so I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Another find on the discount table (this one was $1.99!) but which 
may be hard to find, published by a small press (Strawberry Hill Press,
1980 -- original price unknown): A SURTI TOUCH -- ADVENTURES IN INDIAN
COOKING by Malvi Doshi. I haven't used this much, but the same friend,
who has spent some years involved with Indian cookery, looked through it 
and pronounced it to be definitely a good Indian cookbook. 

Hope this is of interest. Look at net.cooks for a long posting with more
info on Mexican and Italian cookbooks and other general cookbook comments.

Will Martin