June 2011 Cookbook of the Month: SEDUCTIONS OF RICE

[bayoucook]

Welcome to the June 2011 COTM, SEDUCTIONS OF RICE by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. We will use this thread for general discussion about the book, menu planning, and online links to the books' recipes. Please post full reviews in the appropriate threads linked below and include the recipe page number. The Chowhound Team has asked me to remind you that verbatim copying of recipes to the boards is a violation of the copyright of the original author. Posts with copied recipes will be removed.

White Rice, Black Rice, Congee: The Chinese Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787690

Jasmine, Sticky Rice, Thai Red: The Thai Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787691

Gohan, Sushi, Moki: The Japanese Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787692

Cela, Polo, Pulao: The Persian Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787694

Pilaf, Paella, Risotto: The Mediterranean Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787696

Yassa, Mafe, Debon Diem: The Senagelese Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787697

Hoppin' John, Rice and Peas: The North American Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787699

Basmati, Gobindavog, South Indian Red: The Indian Way

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/787693

[greedygirl]

It seems like participation has been quite low this month, which is surprising given the buzz generated by the book.

Get well soon, Gio!

[Gio]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts...

[LulusMom]

Please include mine! So sorry to hear about your injury.

[Gio]

I'm woefully behind this month. Had an injury to a major muscle two weeka ago and am just beginnning to feel like myself (whoever That was). Most of the ingredients for Puig's Paella, for example, have been collected and now just need the extra push to actually cook it. That one recipe was my goal for this month...but I have high hopes that I'll retuen to the book in the future.

All month long, though, I thought of Sam the Man. How he would have taken such an interest in our efforts. How much encouragement, how much information, how much advise he would have given us. He was The rice expert after all. Sam Fujisaka, Sam the Man...

[buttertart]

Indeed. He was a wonderful man doing very important work.
Hope you're soon all better, cara Gio.

[BigSal]

Gio,

Hope you are back to 100% soon. I look forward to reading about your Paella adventures.

Very true about how much Sam would have shared with us this month.

[Breadcrumbs]

Gio I'm terribly sorry to learn of your injury and hope you're on the mend and feeling much better soon. I can certainly empathize, 2 yrs ago I ruptured my hamstring at the beginning of the summer and was amazed the toll it took on me. Take good care!

[Breadcrumbs]

Well, I'm finally going to be cooking from this book in the week ahead. Don't know about everybody else but I've been finding this book to be so interesting and informative I've actually been been distracted by it and have been reading instead of cooking from it!

I've decided to approach my menu planning in a different manner than I usually do w a COTM. Normally I search (on EYB) for ingredients I have on hand, know I can get fresh or, have an interest in cooking with and then plan my meals around that. Having read through about half this book now, I've decided to use the chapter arrangement in the book to guide my menus.

If all goes well, this week we'll be dining on Thai, Indian and Chinese meals. I really enjoyed planning the menus and just hope I have enough time to execute all the dishes I've selected.

[Breadcrumbs]

Just looping back w a quick wrap up as the month is drawing to a close and I don't have any further dishes from this book on my menu for the week. All told I prepared 14 recipes from this book during the month. Most were good. I especially enjoy reading this book as it is incredibly informative and at time, my focus on learning got in the way of my cooking. I expect this will be a book that I pull off the shelf as a resource in the future and I do hope to cook more of the recipes I've flagged from the other sections of the book. I still seem to have a number of bookmarks in the Chinese, Thai and Japanese sections of the book in particular.

[gembellina]

My copy arrived today. Pretty disappointed that it has so few photos of the food :( I find it really hard to be inspired to cook something by reading the recipe title. I hope everyone posts lots of photos of their dishes!

[DiveFan]

I've come to evaluate recipes first by the Ingredient List rather than pictures - that will give me a clue that it leans toward my tastes and also if I can prepare it. Fortunately I have or can get most ingredients in this large multiethnic county.

The selection of recipes in this book is Excellent - even better than their well regarded large format (and awkward to use) book 'Mangoes and Curry Leaves'.

BTW the book title is slightly misleading - many of the recipes do Not contain rice but are intended to be eaten with some.

It also bears repeating that if you don't own the book, the amazing and Free worldcat.org can help you find the nearest library with the book. It is not infallible but always worth a try. Worldcat is also useful for maintaining lists (public or private) of anything in its catalog - once again, for free. /shill :-) ==> http://www.worldcat.org/ <==

[blue room]

If you have an interest in a recipe after you see the ingredients you can always just use Google image. Here is "gaeng ped gai"
http://www.google.com/search?q=gaeng+...
which is the Thai title for "Red Chicken Curry" in the book. Lots of pictures come up with either the English or Thai words, giving a pretty good idea of how a dish looks.

[blue room]

I'm intrigued by "Louisiana Pecan and Popcorn Rice" (page 389), will be ordering some probably.
Gio, looks like you have 6 or 7 "staples" -- that's 5 or 6 more than I can call familiar!

[The Dairy Queen]

I'm surprised. So little of the discussion so far has been about the actual rice. (Here or there of course).

For folks using rice cookers, how is that working out so far?

~TDQ

[qianning]

ditto that, and i've had a "general" question about a type of indica (long grained) rice that i'm looking for, but haven't really known where to add it/ask in the discussions, since it would conceivably fit in various chapters (or not!)

[Gio]

I've just been using the rice suggested in the serving directions for individual recipes. IOW, I've been looking for recipes we'd like to cook Then looking for the type of rice required or recommended. Right now in the pantry we have Carolina long grain, aborio, white jasmine, white and brown Basmati and wild. But those are our staples anyway. We're not going crazy buying specialty rices we probably won't use more than a few times. I do want a Thai black, the Bomba, sticky rice and maybe the French red.

Here's the on-line store I found and will order from if I can't find what I want in my area...

http://www.purcellmountainfarms.com/S...

[Caitlin McGrath]

I was surprised to find that my local market has Chinese black rice and fair-trade (Bhutanese, I think) red rice in the bulk section, along with all the others.

[oakjoan]

Caitlin: I discovered the Bhutanese red rice when I first got the first Ottolenghi cookbook. They had a wonderful salad recipe with quinoa, red rice, and some other grains, along with dried fruits, greens, etc.

There it was in the bin. I wasn't surprised, given where I was shopping. I figure it's the same place you were shopping.

[buttertart]

Which shall remain nameless...

[Caitlin McGrath]

Local Whole Foods has black forbidden rice, Thai pink rice (which is what I think they call red in the book; it is semi-polished), and some other specialty rices in the bulk bins.

[qianning]

has anyone tried the Thai red/pink semi polished rice? i'll have to go see if my WF carries it. thanks for the tip Caitlin.

[luckyfatima]

This looks great. I might not be able to get to the library any time soon, so I was wondering if anyone knows of some online recipes from this book.

[Breadcrumbs]

Hi luckyfatima,

Here's a link to the book's index in Eat Your Books. Whether or not you are a member, you are able to view the full index of the book's recipes and EYB has just recently added a new feature where they've been adding links to any recipes available online. The "Basic Rice Congee" is just one such example on this first page of the index you'll find here:

http://www.eatyourbooks.com/library/3...

[luckyfatima]

thanks!

[bayoucook]

I know the basmati link is out of order, have asked the Chowhound team to fix it for us. Have got to get to a doctor's appointment - should've done it when I got home (sorry). Paula

[bayoucook]

Okay. Saw my doctor, had my physical, all is well - except this is the temp on my deck:

It's June 1st. July and August are our hottest months. God help us and save us from hurricanes!

[buttertart]

Holy moly!

[smtucker]

And for those of you who like to look at past months:
http://www.chow.com/cookbook_of_the_m...