We can't ever have too many chocolate recipes, can we? Since the quality of chocolate available in the supermarket has dramatically improved over the past twenty years or so, it's great to have a few more cookbooks that focus on using the most widely available products including chocolate bars, cocoa powder and chocolate chips. Here are three recent titles.

First up is a book that falls into the "I can't believe I didn't think of that!" category. The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook. Veteran baking expert and pastry chef Elinor Klivans who has written books on cupcakes, cookies and cakes has created a book devoted to chocolate chips and surprisingly there are only 6 cookie recipes in it. The book contains 45 recipes and is divided into chapters starting with Chocolate Chip Cookies and Candies, Chocolate Chip Brownies, Bars, Muffins and a Tea Loaf, Chocolate Chip Pies, tarts and Puddings, Chocolate Chip Cakes without Frosting, Chocolate Chip Cakes with Frosting and/or Filling and finally Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Desserts. There are recommendations for brands of chocolate chips to use, and happily most of the recipes come together very quickly.


One of Klivan's top picks for chocolate chips is Ghirardelli, especially in the bittersweet category. Ghirardelli has their own cookbook, The Ghirardelli Chocolate Book. A hardback book, it has 16 recipes for cookies, though not all of them are chocolate chip cookies. The book contains 80 recipes in all. The chapters are fairly similar to the chapters in the chocolate chip book, but also include Chocolate Breads and Breakfast and Anything-but-Boring Chocolate Drinks. Despite the ice cream parlor at Ghirardelli Square, there are only two ice cream desserts. The book has many classics like chocolate souffles, flourless chocolate torte, and chocolate fudge sauce plus some new ideas such as butter breakfast scones with chocolate chunks and chocolate dipped lemon cookies.


The slimmest volume of the three books is Viva Chocolate! but it is the most diverse and includes 50 savory as well as sweet recipes. Smokin' Hot Chili and Turkey Mole both caught my eye as did a recipe for champurrado, a Mexican chocolate drink with masa I've been wanting to try for ages. During citrus season, the Chocolate Tangerine Pound Cake with or without the Tangerine Whipped Cream is a great pick as well.


While each of these books are smaller format "gift" types, they are also solid choices for the chocoholic looking for easy recipes to whip up at home.


Double Chocolate-Hazelnut Biscotti

Makes 48 cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa
4 ounces Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate baking bar, finely chopped
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ground chocolate and semisweet chocolate.

In a separate bowl, combine the eggs and vanilla, and stir until well-blended. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until a dough forms (it should adhere to the beaters), 2 to 3 minutes. Fold in the nuts.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. On the prepared cookie sheets, using lightly floured hands, shape each portion into 1 1/4-inch-by-10-inch logs. Place the logs at least 4 inches apart.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the logs are firm to the touch. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Transfer 1 log to a cutting board and with a serrated knife, cut into twelve 1-inch-wide cookies. Repeat with the remaining 3 logs. Remove 1 oven rack and place the 48 cookies directly on it. Return the rack to the uppermost position in the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp. To test for doneness, remove one cookie, let it cool, then check for crispness.

Transfer the cookies from the oven rack to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely. Store at room temperature in a tightly covered container.

Reprinted with permission from The Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook Copyright © 2007 by the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company published in 2007 by Ten Speed Press.

Labels: amy sherman, biscotti, chocolate, cookbooks, recipe

We may not be in a recession yet, but you wouldn't know that from the way we're eating. According to Allrecipes, an online cooking community with over 35 million unique visitors annually, the economic downturn might just be causing Americans to cut back on food spending. Traffic to recipe pages using low-cost ingredients, such as ground beef and pasta, nearly doubled over the past three months. Searches for low cost vs. their high cost counterparts have increased significantly, 74% overall. For example, they noted ground beef had a relative increase of 24% when compared to steak.


Two recent cookbooks can help you make the most of your burger or your steak, regardless of your budget. Recipe of the Week Burgers 52 Easy Recipes for Year-Round Cooking is a fun little book with very creative recipes, for example week 6 is Curried Chicken Burgers with Chutney Mayonnaise and week 16 is Espresso Rubbed Burgers. There are Portobello Burgers, Lamb Burgers, Salmon Burgers and Turkey Burgers. While you may not actually wish to cook a burger a week, there are lots of great ideas for spicing up repertoire. You may never eat a plain old burger again.


The New Steak looks at often overlooked cuts such as skirt, flat iron, hangar and flank steak and discuses all kinds of meaty issues such as Kobe, Wagyu, organic beef and certified Black Angus. Author and blogger Cree LeFavour also pays lavish attention to the side dishes. This would no doubt please my sometimes vegetarian sister-in-law who thinks the sides are the best part of any steakhouse. Corn Griddle Cakes, Avocado Salad and Rum-Glazed Plantains are just a few of her unorthodox choices.

Recipes are divided into four chapters, American Steak, Bistro Steak, Latin Steak and Far East Steak. If you're going to invest in good steak, make the most of it with recipes like Hangar Steak with French Feta, Salsa Verde, and Mint-Zucchini Pancakes or Caribbean Spice Paste-Rubbed Top Sirloin with Lime-Cilantro Crema and Red Beans and Rice. Recipes are incredibly detailed, giving instructions for both pan frying and grilling.

Cauliflower Mash

1 head cauliflower, about 2 pounds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Chop off the stem of the cauliflower and break up the remaining florets. Put the cauliflower in a steam basket over water in a pot with a lid. Make sure you have water up to the basket. Bring it to a boil, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes , or until the cauliflower is tender. Drain and coarsely mash the florets with a potato masher before transferring the cooked cauliflower to a food processor. Add the butter and salt and blend until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Scrap the mash into a bowl and it's ready to serve.

Reprinted from The New Steak Copyright © 20088 by Cree LeFavour, published by Tenspeed Press.


Curried Crab Cake Burgers
makes 4 burgers

12 ounces crabmeat, very coarsely shredded
1/2 cup panko
1/4 cup mayonnaise or whole milk yogurt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lime, quartered

Place the crabmeat, panko, mayonnaise, cilantro, chive and curry powder in a medium sized bowl and using your hand, mix very gently to combine. Form into 4 patties, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Place the flour and salt on a large plate. Dredge each patty in the flour mixture. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and when it is hot, add the oil. Add the patties and cook until lightly browned, about 4 minutes on each side. Serve immediately with the lime wedges.

Reprinted from Recipe of the Week Burgers, Copyright © 2008 by Sally Sampson, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Labels: amy sherman, blue crab, cauliflower, cookbooks, ground beef, hamburgers, recession, steak

Whole grains. Those are the grains you are supposed to be getting three servings of a day. They are also possibly hiding out in mysterious jars in your pantry. Well, it's time to clean out the cupboard and begin again. Stop passing by the Bob's Red Mill display and grab some packages, because more help than ever is available to get you to use them. Three recent cookbooks combine accessibility with a very low earth mama quotient.

You know the whole grain trend has gone mainstream when Betty Crocker puts out a cookbook on the subject. Betty Crocker Whole Grains: Easy Everyday Recipes is a pretty good one too. There are recipes that use whole grain breakfast cereal and whole grain bread in addition to just the grains themselves. As the name suggests, these recipes have a tendency to lean toward the short and easy, this is not a cookbook for the aspiring gourmet chef. But it's actually a great choice for those times when you aren't feeling overly adventurous. Recipes like S'more Swirl Bread and Take-Along Oatmeal Bars appeal to the junk food junkie in all of us. The Best Ever Oatmeal Brown Bread could well become a staple in your baking repertoire and even if you're not a baker, recipes for quick breads like muffins and scones will con your significant other in thinking you are. All told, there are 140 recipes divided into chapters such as Better Breakfasts, Best Breads, Dinners in 30 Minutes, Slow Cooker Sides and Meals, and Delicious Desserts. A chart with cooking times, suggestions for flavor boosters and a full color photo of 20 different grains are all smart additions.

The Complete Whole Grains Cookbook: 150 Recipes for Healthy Living is a weighty tome. With 150 recipes and in-depth background material that includes nutritional and culinary profiles, general cooking times, and storage information, this book could have been subtitled, "everything you ever wanted to know about whole grains but were afraid to ask." For instance, did you know that whole grains make particularly tasty ingredients for salad? The whole grain salads in this book include such appealing offerings as Kasha and Beet Salad with Celery and Feta, Cranberry Pecan Couscous Salad, and Millet Salad with Lemony Chickpeas and Tomatoes.

The slimmest of the volumes, The New Whole Grains Cookbook: Terrific Recipes Using Farro, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Barley, and Many Others begins with descriptions and nutritional information for 17 different whole grains. Primarily a vegetarian book, there are plenty of company worthy dishes like Whole Wheat Potato Gnocchi with Truffle Oil and Mushrooms, Pecan and Wild Rice Stuffed Squash and Thai Coconut Fried Rice with Basil and Shrimp or Tofu. Over 75 recipes and 28 color photos will tempt you into trying something new and delicious. Don't be fooled by the emphasis on vegetarian entrees. The focus is on flavor too, as much or even more than health. Proving once and for all, whole grains aren't just for hippies.

Labels: amy sherman, cookbooks, whole grains

I get the feeling that parts of Australia are a bit like the Bay Area--an abundance of top quality produce and cuisine influenced by Europe and Asian settlers. There is also a lack of orthodoxy, a flexibility and willingness to experiment when it comes to food. All of this can be found in the cookbooks written by Kylie Kwong. Kylie Kwong is a television personality, celebrity chef and restaurateur in Australia of Chinese descent. While I've never seen any of her television shows, or dined in her restaurants, I am a big fan of her recipes and her style.

The first book of hers I became acquainted with was Simple Chinese Cooking. Like all of her books the photography is excellent, the recipes straightforward and the writing clear. But what really impressed me was her choice of recipes. There were some very traditional ones like Hot and Sour Soup and Dry Fried Sichuan Beef, but there were also salads! Not just Chinese Chicken Salad, but Eggplant Salad, Soy-Dipped Radish Salad, and Tofu and Celery Salad. This is simple stuff that could be done on a weeknight but is exciting and filled with vibrant flavors. And she isn't afraid to tweak the classics either, like adding a salad layer of iceberg lettuce to a "mapo" style dish of ground pork and tofu.

My favorite Kylie Kwong book of all might be Heart and Soul. Knowing the title probably tells you everything you need to know. These are the recipes the author loves the most. When you are passionate about something, anything, it shows. The book features gorgeous photos and great recipes but this time they are not just Chinese recipes, although they sometimes have a Chinese sensibility like the Roast Cinnamon Chicken with Lemon and Cider Vinegar Dressing. A more French style of roasting a bird is employed with pepperberry butter smeared under the skin but the tangy lemon and vinegar adds piquancy to the dish that feels somehow Chinese. There is also Braised Moroccan Style Baby Lamb Shanks, Italian Mushroom Ragout and some recipes using decidedly Australian ingredients like Fresh Mud Crab Salad and Crispy Skin Duck with Blood Plum Sauce.

The third Kylie Kwong book in my collection is called Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories. While it's actually the first book in publishing order, it's the third book I read and it's the most personal of the lot. It's all about Kylie Kwong's extended family and their recipes, so many of the recipes come with a story or two. It reads a bit like a memoir and having already been intrigued by her other books and recipes, I wanted to savor every page. It's particularly fun to see how each of her siblings approach a similar recipe like chicken wings. I also enjoyed seeing her mothers recipes, because we are all influenced by our parents cooking in one way or another, right? The recipes for Chris's Spicy Dry Fried Green Beans, Mum's Bread and Butter Pudding and Goong Goong's Homemade Pickles are favorites of mine from this book. With her easy style, enthusiasm for great ingredients and focus on basic techniques you are bound to find your own favorite recipes in each of her books.

Labels: amy sherman, australia, chinese, cookbooks, kylie kwong

Not so long ago it was believed that low-fat diets were the way to go. It seemed if you could just cut out the fat, you could lose weight and be healthy. But nutrition is science and science changes with the times. Fat is no longer vilified. Though for a while, carbohydrates were the enemy.

Today nutritionists tell us there are "good fats" and "bad fats." Bad fats are saturated and trans fats and good fats are omega-3 fatty acids, polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. And carbohydrates? It turns out there are good carbs too, such as the complex carbohydrates found in whole grains, as well as in many vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

The very concept of dieting has changed too. There is less emphasis on going on diets and more emphasis on changing our diets, changing what and how we eat. So now might be as good a time as any to throw away those old diet cookbooks and consider something new.

The Betty Crocker Cookbook, Heart Health Edition has over 1400 recipes, cooking tips and hints, and an introductory section on heart health. Like other Betty Crocker cookbooks, the recipes do not use Betty Crocker products. Nothing is off limits and there are recipes for dishes like Scrambled Eggs, Lemon Chicken with Grilled Fennel and Onions and Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce. Not all recipes are heart healthy, but moderation is the name of the game and nothing is off limits. Each recipe has a detailed nutritional breakdown and many have suggestions for how to make substitutions to make the dishes healthier.

I was particularly impressed with the number of recipes using whole grains like quinoa, barley and wheat berries. It's a good all-around basic cookbook with a balanced approach towards nutrition. The book is spiral bound, making it easy to use in the kitchen.

The Weight Watchers All Time Favorites cookbook is also spiral bound and the recipes also have nutritional information. Following the Weight Watchers system, each recipe has "points" assigned to it. There are 200 recipes and they range from Shrimp and Sausage Paella to Warm Chile Spiced Edamame to Pomegranate and Star Anise Poached Grapefruit.

Honestly, I was quite surprised to see how sophisticated many of the recipes are. Missing are any detailed sections on health or cooking tips, and some of the recipes are not exactly gourmet such as Barbecue-sauced Sloppy Joes, also I would have liked more recipes using whole grains, but all in all, the cookbook lives up to it's name. There are plenty of appealing recipes and they are all healthy to boot.

Labels: amy sherman, cookbooks, healthy eating

It seems to be Cookbook Week here on Bay Area Bites, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents...

I think there are entirely too many cookbooks in this world. Okay, in my world. Too many have been choking up my bookshelves collecting dust rather than grease stains, so I thought I would give my kitchen a little purge.

Before you start thinking that I'm just being a bit cranky this morning, I should state that I love cookbooks. Collecting them used to be one of my little fetishes. Fortunately, I've grown out of that little phase. Perhaps it's because I've been involved in the production of more than a few of them, catching authors' mistakes and even adding a few of my own to the mix, sometimes on purpose, just to leave my mark.

Lately, however, I've been wondering just how many cookbooks one actually needs? I don't think I need the one hundred or so in my collection. Some I shall keep for their kitsch value, like my Jell-o cookbook, others I'll let hang around because they're such a damned good read. Do I really need a book devoted exclusively to the baked potato? I don't think so. I don't even know how that one snuck onto my shelves. Out it goes. 100 Recetas Dulces by Sister Bernarda of Argentina? I don't even speak Spanish, but I'll keep the book because I think Sister Bernarda looks like a man. There is no clearly-defined criteria for this weeding-out process.

What I have come to understand about my collection of cookbooks is that there are only a few that I return to over and over again. These are the books I would take with me to my hypothetical desert island. Even if the island lacked a fully functional kitchen or access to a grocery store, these books are just plain great reading. Everyone has their own favorites and, since everyone seems to like lists, I thought I'd post my own list of favorites.

I'd like to know yours, too.

Five Cookbooks I'll Never Throw Away:

The Moosewood Cookbook by Molly Katzen



This was the first cookbook I owned. Actually, I just realized that I didn't own it originally-- it was my college roommate Craig's book. I am not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, but this is the book that hooked our attention as neophyte cooklings in college. The recipes are simple, the ingredients are inexpensive and the handwritten copy is homey and non-threatening, just the ticket for those who might be intimidated by the cooking process(es). I return to this book when I am feeling broke, nostalgic, or both.

This book holds a permanent space on my shelf for another reason: Ten years after my introduction to this book, it was Molly Katzen (and very specifically, a lovely producer-woman named Tina Salter) who gave me my first job in food media on her show Vegetable Heaven. Thank you.

The Way to Cook by Julia Child



This is my go to for "how to". Full of no nonsense photos populated by Mrs. Child's skillful old hands and informative sidebars, this is the book I bought when I decided to get "serious" about cooking. I've never abandoned it and, more importantly, it has never abandoned me. It walked me through the first Thanksgiving dinner prepared my by own soft, lily white, hairy-knuckled little hands. Fool (me)-proof choux pastry? It's in here.

The Best Recipe by the editors of Cook's Illustrated



This is the book I read for "how not to". Any group of people who takes the time to find out and report what not to do when, say grilling a steak, is okay in my book. Walk-throughs of tricky or intimidating techniques like lattice-topping a pie are well-illustrated and, of course, the examination of how one might best avoid tearing up when cutting onions is priceless. This is one of my best-stained and highest-functioning volumes.

The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher



This is not exactly a cookbook, but it has enough recipes within it to make this list. Her opinions on and recipe for oyster stew in the section entitled, simply enough, Consider the Oyster, made me get up off my ass and learn to shuck when I was younger. I've read it cover to cover at least five times and I return to it whenever I need to remind myself to stop eating Chinese food over the sink and take better care of my inner and outer self, when I am feeling sad or alone or both. Fisher's writing is thoughtful, self-obsessed and some of the best writing about food ever. Amen. My copy is quite literally falling apart, but I hesitate buying a new copy. I'd hate to get rid of this old friend.

Lunches and Brunches by the editors of Better Homes and Gardens (1963)



This book is a jewel. A gaudy paste-diamond perhaps, but a jewel, nonetheless. It satisfies all of my kitsch needs: garish, color-saturated photography, what-were-they-thinking? recipes, etc. And everything seems to have gelatin in it, like some sort of Mormon family picnic. It's a peek into the past-- a time when cream sauces were "fancy" and people drank coffee with every meal. Confetti Relish Mold? Yes, lemon-flavored Jell-o, scallions, radishes, beef bouillon, and sour cream sounds like a heavenly combination. You will have to rip this book from my cold, dead aristocratic hands..

Well, those are mine. What are yours?

Labels: cookbooks, michael procopio