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The Cuisines of Spain: Exploring Regional Home Cooking
Teresa Barrenechea

Ten Speed Press, 2005 - 337 pages

average customer review:based on 10 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





I love it

I was looking for a good book in traditional kitchen from Spain. This book is what I was looking for. The only thing I miss are more photos. The recipes are simple and easy to follow, but the best part is that the recipes I have tried actually taste like the ones I tasted back home.
If you are looking for the real cuisine of Spain, this is your book.


paella lovers...

This is the only book you will need if you want to introduce your family and friends to authentic Spanish cuisine!
Enjoy!!!











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Recipes and history make for great food book

I purchased this as a Christmas present for someone who spent his childhood in Spain and whose son who is growing up in America. I thought the photos and recipes would elicit pleasant childhood memories and provide a great introduction to the varied cuisines and regions of Spain. I wanted a book that was a pleasure to peruse and that had authentic recipes.

I have not read the book in any depth but look forward to doing so when I get a chance. My look-through revealed a book that met my expectations in a satisfying way. Beautiful photos, evocative text and authentic recipes.


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Start Your Shopping List!

Although I have travelled in Spain and loved the food there it never occured to me to cook it at home. I was recently given a copy of Ms Barrenecheca's "The Cuisines of Spain" and I'm so glad to have it. I haven't yet purchased the equipment she suggests (pg.51) the "cazuela" and a "paella" pan but if I find myself using the book enough I will. The food and location photographs are just gorgeous and had me reaching for my passport but instead I decided to just start cooking. I'm really liking the recipes, they are easy to follow and have an authentic feel to them AND the results taste good. It is interesting (to me) that I keep being attracted to the dishes from Murcia. Go figure. The two recipes I have enjoyed most so far are "Christmas Chicken" (p.242) from Extramadura which is really tasty and in my neck of the woods will be great for summer because you do it the day before, refrigerate it, then serve it at room temperature and "Baked Trout with Jamon Serrano" (p.227) from
Navarra, which is fast (high burner/hot oven) with a real nice combination of flavors. I'm looking forward to exploring this book and I suppose before I know it I'll be out shopping for "cazuela".


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Excellent Overview of Spanish Cuisine.

`The Cuisines of Spain, Exploring Regional Home Cooking' is by Teresa Barrenechea is, unlike the other prominent writers on Spanish cuisine, Penelope Casas and Coleman Andrews, a professional chef. This means here recipes tend to be just a bit more practical and interesting to eat, especially compared to Andrews, but it does not mean she will be better at putting together a really interesting book on all the regional cuisines of Spain.

Until one gets to the chapters on actual recipes, it seems as if Mme. Barrenechea has everything you need for a good survey book on a national cuisine. For starters, there is a very decent physical and political map of the Iberian Peninsula, including the Balearic Islands and an insert on the Canary Islands. She follows up on this promise by including a discussion of the culinary geography of these two important island groups in her text.

Chapter I starts out seeming like it will be giving us a history of Spanish Iberia, but turns into a survey of the culinary geography and economy of each of the main regions of Spain, which she identifies as:

Andalusia
La Ribera del Ebro
Asturias and Cantabria
Balearic Islands
Basque Country
The Canary Islands
The Castiles and Madrid
Catalonia
Extremadura
Galacia
Levante

The sections here which are the most interesting are those which are not covered well by Andrews, Casas, and in Barrenechea's book on the Basque region. Unfortunately, in those regions on which I have read a fair amount, I find Barrenechea's book a bit lacking and downright inconsistent in places. In the introduction, Mme. Barrenechea states that the Catalonian sauce, alioli is made with eggs, similar to the Provencal aioli, yet in her recipe in the back of the book (and in Coleman Andrews book on Catalonia), it is clearly stated that the classic recipe does not include egg. Barrenechea's discrepancy is probably explained by the fact that Andrews explains that while the classic excludes egg, most Catalonians actually include it anyway!

Chapters 2 and 3 are possibly the best in the book, as they deal directly with simple matters, the primary ingredients and the distinct kitchen tools of Spanish cooking. In this regard, they follow the excellent model set up in Nancy Harmon Jenkins' `The Essential Mediterranean'.

The recipes sections are organized by type of dish, with the Castilian and English names for each dish and the region from which each dish came. I find this not quite as satisfying as the organization of dishes by region, as Ms. Casas does in `Delicioso' and as Ms. Claudia Roden does in her classic `The Food of Italy'.

I also spotted some significant oversights in assigning regions. On the one hand, the author is quite accurate in describing the `tortilla espanola' as a dish done throughout Spain, but her recipe is identical to the one in her book on Basque cuisine and the photograph presents the dish in the Basque style, squared and mounted on skewers rather than the more common Andalusian method of serving in wedges. This may not have seemed peculiar except that she did not make note of the fact that the version of the dish presented was Basque.

All of this, however, is probably nit-picking, and all it means is that this book is not a definitive book on Spanish cuisine. It is certainly a very good overview of the whole subject, and a very nice complement to Ms. Casas `The Food and Wines of Spain'. But, if you wish to own more than one Spanish cookbook, I recommend you start with all of Ms. Casas titles, then Coleman Andrews' book, and then Ms. Barrenechea's book on Basque cuisine.



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reviews: page 1, 2



"It?s rare to find a cookbook that distills the spirit of a people and immerses us in the context of a particular cuisine. To cook creatively, we must uncover the soul of a place so that what we prepare has an identity. Because Teresa Barrenechea allows us to truly grasp Spanish cooking, we come away with much more than a few recipes, but with the essence of her country?s vital respect for food in our hands and in our hearts. A winner." --James Peterson, author of Sauces

"Teresa Barrenechea captures the essence of our country?s authentic regional cooking in a way never before accomplished. I am grateful to her for enlightening us with the wealth of our culinary legacy." --Ferran Adriŕ, Restaurante El Bulli

"Through Teresa's loving presentation of dishes culled from home cooks?including many recipes never before published in English--you will instinctively taste how vivid flavor and simple pleasure always have been and still are at the heart of the Spanish culinary ethos." --Maricel Presilla, author of The New Taste of Chocolate

"In an era of novelistic cookbooks and florid foodie memoirs, Teresa Barrenechea takes a refreshingly straightforward approach to her subject matter, which is nothing less than the many and varied cuisines of Spain. . . . Her main mission is to tell us how to accurately cook a great deal of honest, not overly complicated, unfailingly delicious food, and at this she succeeds superbly." --Colman Andrews, editor-in-chief, Saveur, and author of Catalan Cuisine

"Teresa Barrenechea?s love of and expertise on Spain?s traditional food is beautifully executed in this exciting book, with charming photos and delightful stories of the people, places, and ingredients." --Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, The River Café, London

With the world in a swoon over the gastronomic riches of Spain ? from the brilliant array of its traditional tapa dishes to the daring preparations of its new generation of chefs ?the timing couldn?t be better for the arrival of this long-awaited cookbook. In THE CUISINES OF SPAIN, Teresa Barrenechea, one of the country ?s most talented culinary ambassadors, showcases her culinary heritage through over 250 recipes culled from her extensive repertoire, and from friends and fellow chefs across Spain. The famed rice dishes of Valencia, the brilliant mojos of the Canary Islands, the hearty stews and braised meats of the interior ? all of the classics are here in peak form, as are many lesser-known but equally important and intriguing regional dishes. Steeped in the history of her country, Barrenechea weaves a captivating narrative of Spain ?s diverse peoples, landscapes, and ingredients, revealing how such forces gave rise to the food traditions that we celebrate today. Over 150! full-color photographs from Barcelona-based photojournalist Jeff Koehler and renowned food photographer Christopher Hirsheimer put Spain?s culinary riches on brilliant display. With such a distinguished pairing of author and artists, THE CUISINES OF SPAIN is positioned to be one of the major cookbook releases of the year.


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