Book Review - The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang

Greetings, fellow guzzlers!

So, I know that I have been absent for a few weeks, days, I don't know any more but I promise it was a temporary glitch. I now have a job, and a very exciting one at that, and am moving into a new and hopefully more stable period of my life which will allow me to blog to a regular pattern.

In other news, I am teaching myself HTML and CSS and you are reading the first blog post I'm punching out all by myself in code.

Anyway, this is all very well and self-congratulatory but I have business to attend to, the tasty business of reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook!

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is written by, surprise, surprise The Dumplings Sisters, or Amy and Julie Zhang to be precise.

The Zhang sisters are food bloggers and vloggers with a focus on the Chinese food of their roots. While growing up in New Zealand, their parents ran a food cart it is was here that they learned to cook. After completing formidably impress Oxbridge degrees, the sisters set up their blog and here we are today with their first book.

I'm a sucker for real Chinese food so I was very excited about this book, especially as only Gok Wan's Gok Cooks Chinese had so far provided me with what I was looking for.

Fortunately, this book does not disappoint! It is stuffed with recipes, ranging from classics like Sweet and Sour Pork (wookie bellows of delight)to less familiar treats such as pork stuffed aubergines and rainbow peppers.

There is even a section on Chinese baking which, coming from a tradition of believing the Chinese don't bake, was a revelation and one I am keen to pursue - sweet and salty walnut cookies, anyone?

Another really nice touch in the book is that it provides, as a side note, the option with many of the recipes to explore a more exotic side of Chinese cookery such as dried scallops or pickled mustard greens. The great thing about this approach is that you can explore using these ingredients if you can find them or, if like me you struggle to get your hands on even Shaoxing rice wine (100 brands of soy sauce but hardly any of this vital ingredient - why, supermarkets, why?!?!?), then you can omit them without any fear of degrading the recipe.

However, before floating off on a cloud of praise, I had serious recipe testing to do and so I picked out three recipes to try.

• Eggy Fried Rice
• Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs
• Spring Onion Pancakes

The Eggy Fried Rice (egg fried rice) was very nice indeed. The flavourings were unusual, inasmuch as they were very delicate and almost aromatic. Very little soy was used and the addition of fresh ginger root made the fried rice different than any I have tasted before

How the rice was cooked was also different than the method I was accustomed to. Previously, I would scramble all the egg before setting it aside to add back in once the rice was cooked. However, the Dumpling Sisters cook half the egg in this way but add the other half during the cooking of the rice. The great advantage of this method is that the rice becomes coated in eggy goodness and truly becomes egg fried rice.

Next, I tried the Lacquered Honey Hoisin Pork Spare Ribs with a little less success. There was nothing wrong with the method, it produced beautifully cooked ribs made with enormous love and attention. Nor was the sauce at fault directly. It was a lovely tasting sauce, sweet with just enough savoury to enhance the pork. For me, however, there simply was not enough of it. Half dribbled off the ribs and stuck to the pan and I was left wishing for a bit more flavour. Perhaps I missed the point and sticky ribs were really not the idea but I think in future I will double up on the quantity of sauce to create a true meaty nirvana!

Finally, I came to the Spring Onion Pancakes. I struggle to find words to describe these delights. Intensely savoury but not in a drying, salty way, the pancakes had a complex layer structure which fell apart on eating. They are an absolute perfect accompaniment to soup and were, for me, the star recipe I tried.

Turning away from the food, the presentation of the book is stunning. The recipes are well spaced out for easy reading and the vast majority of the recipes are accompany by beautiful photographs. All through the book are evocative, Chinese-style illustrations which look like these where made by a brush and the tone the Dumpling Sisters take in their prose is friendly and conversational.

The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook is a terrific guide to all that authentic Chinese food has to offer. The recipes often have quite a delicate flavour, on occasion maybe a shade too delicate, but this is still a great book well worth having in the collection.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough examination of Chinese cooking from a pair of sisters who really know what they are talking about.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely stunning visual presentation combines with friendly prose to produce a delightful cookbook.

Quality of Information * * * * - Generally fantastic. The sisters take the trouble to explain what they are doing and or what ingredients they are using. However, it might be argued that one or two recipes could do with a little more flavour.

Range of Information * * * * * - Simply comprehensive. Everything from snacks to feasts, meat dishes to deserts is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £20, this is a well priced book.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

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I have been reviewing The Dumpling Sisters Cookbook by Amy and Julie Zhang, published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0297609063

Book Review - The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson

Do you want to know about coffee? Then this book is for you.

Released in March this year, The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee does a very good job of informing the reader about the coffee making process.

Every stage from farm-to-cup is covered in copious detail. The reader is lead through how coffee is grown, processed, roasted and ground in such a way that Stephenson's expertise shines through.

The book fully explores the diverse, often confusing world of coffee drinks. Different brewing methods are demonstrated with step-by-step, illustrated tutorials and the pros and cons of each are discussed.

Milk-based espresso drinks, from latte to flat white, are also discussed and there is a really fun introduction to producing latte art which I wish I had had when I was a barista!

Coffee's history receives solid attention. The book starts with a general history of coffee and more specific information, such as the development of grinders, is included in the appropriate chapters.

Where the book is not so strong is the end chapters, focussing on coffee-based recipes, coffee varieties and coffee growing countries.

While the recipes are generally fun and it is an enjoyable addition to the book, some do make use of additive ingredients such as xanthan gum and carrageenan (lambda class). Scary titles aside, these chemicals admittedly seem fairly harmless.

However, I am personally against hurling unnecessary chemicals into things and there seems little need to include them in home cooking. For instance, I cannot see how espresso would be so destructive to the structure of a basic ice cream recipe as to require the inclusion of extra chemicals.

The chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions suffer due to brevity. Only the briefest of introductions can be given which, given the complexity of coffee, is of limited use. In fairness, these topics have huge scope and really are beyond the focus of this book, requiring one of their own to discuss properly. This being so, the chapters are a fun introduction to promote further study.

The tone and layout of the book are highly enjoyable. The tone of the prose is informal yet informed. It feels as though Stephenson is speaking directly to the reader and pertinent reminiscences from his life in coffee add to the enjoyment of the read.

Some might find annoying his insistence on the highest standards of coffee, including singing the praises of home grinders, and mildly snobbish disregard for lesser forms of the drink.

However, he goes into such details about coffee flavour and how it achieved that it is easy to understand his perspective and he is never shy of discussing the coffee he would clearly consider bilge-water, even detailing the various processes of producing instant coffee.

The layout of the book is great fun. It is exceedingly well illustrated and a blocky, cafe-style typeface printed on pages made to look like coffee bean sacking really puts one in the mood to read on.

The Curious Barista's Guide to Coffee is thorough, highly readable guide to how coffee is produced and brewed and anyone who reads it will come away with a deep respect for this most complex of drinks.

However, for those looking for a guide to coffee varieties and the character of the different growing regions, they might do better to look elsewhere - always bearing in mind that the processes described in this book will have a huge impact on the final flavour of any raw bean.

Overall * * * * * - An extremely thorough, farm-to-cup guide to producing coffee, let down slightly by average chapters on coffee varieties and growing regions.

Presentation * * * * *  - Perfectly pitched design puts one in the mood for coffee while the prose style makes one feel as though one is having an informal chat with a coffee shop barista during a quiet period.

Quality of Information * * * * * - Extremely thorough, coming from a highly knowledgeable and enquiring source.

Range of Information * * * * - Other than a thorough examination of coffee varieties and growing regions, every conceivable aspect of coffee is covered.

Price * * * * * - For £16.99, this is an excellently priced book for such expertise.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf For Reference? - Yes.

I have been reviewing The Curious Barista's Guide To Coffee by Tristan Stephenson, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2015), ISBN-13: 978-1849755634