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 - How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't) by James Morton

This week, I am reviewing another book, James' Morton's new(ish) How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't).

I have been using it for the last few months and I have to say it is utterly fantastic. As the title suggests, the book attempts to teach the reader basic recipes and techniques and how to sort out problems ranging from hard shortbread to soggy puff pastry.

Morton's chocolate and orange cookies

Morton takes a highly methodical approach to the book's layout, with each chapter tackling a different type of bake. Cake, sponge, brownie, muffin, torte, biscuit, short pastry, sweet pastry, choux (bless you!) pastry, puff pastry, meringue and macaroons all receive their allotted space.

He is not hidebound by his principles, however, and slips in a few odd recipes where they seem most appropriate rather than leave them out. For instance, a rather excellent recipe for chocolate fondants finds its way into the brownie section.

An introduction covers "basics", a collection of need-to-know sauces and dressings such as caramel sauce, jam and the best crumble topping you will ever experience.

Morton's chocolate fondant

It also reveals a unique selling point of medical practitioner Morton's books, his scientific approach to the subject. He is far less of a "it's all an arcane mystery we must feel our way with" than a "everything is there for a reason which can be explained" kind of baker.

His introduction features a description of the key qualities of the basic ingredients of baking, sugar, eggs, flour etc, and their importance to the baking process.

This style carries on into the later chapters, where he scientifically explains the why behind each style of bake's basic process and how things might have gone wrong.

For instance, he explains the purpose of chilling shortbread before baking (it firms the butter up to prevents spreading in the oven and allows the gluten matrix to relax to produce a crumblier shortbread, since you ask).

I suspect this reason-based approach may also be due to the cheerful blokeishness which suffuses the book. There is nothing fussy about is recipes. Most measurements are in simple multiples or divisions of 100 and he has a casual disregard for scrimping and scraping to make "healthy" bakes (his advice for soft caramel is "Butter. And lots of it.").

Morton's friands (financiers)

The style of the book is very much in this vein; simple, unfussy, cheerful. The prose is conversational, as if he is speaking to the reader, and the layout is clear and simple with plenty of photographs.

I am not entirely sure about the quality of binding. I may have been unlucky but a section of pages has already detached from the spine and is hanging by the thread binding - just the sort of thing to really annoy this book-lover!

As I say, I may just have been unlucky and it is certainly not a reason to avoid buying the book. In fact, I would very much recommend you do and I'm sure Morton would roll his eyes and tell me to stuff the pages back in or glue them down.

How Baking Works is a fantastic book for a baker of any level but especially for a beginner. All the basics anyone could want are in here along with ten skip-loads of advice on how to dodge common problems and take ones baking to the next level. This book is an indispensable jewel in my collection.

Overall * * * * * - A peerless guide to baking, one could not wish for a clearer or more thorough companion.

Presentation * * * *  - A simple but clear and effective layout is enhanced by Morton's cheerful prose.

Quality of Recipes * * * * * - Outstanding, solid basics to set you up for life.

Range of Recipes * * * * * - Every basic style of baking is covered while a few more experimental recipes are included among them.

Price * * * * * - At £20, this is really good price. With this much advice it is worth £25.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.

I have been reviewing How Baking Works (And What To Do When It Doesn't) by James Morton, published by Ebury Press (2015), ISBN-13: 978-0091959906

Book Review - Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham

This week I'm kicking off the book review section of my blog. I'm starting with my latest acquisition, Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham.

Unsurprisingly, it's a book about Mexican food. Cruz and Fordham run Benito's Hat, a chain of Mexican restaurants in London which aims to serve up authentic, modern Mexican food.

This approach translates to the book. It feels AMAZINGLY authentic. This due to more than the use of the occasional vegetable I've never heard of (chayote, since you ask). The book is littered with little boxes explaining various ingredients' relevance to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a little story attached to it, shedding light either on the history of the dish or the life of Cruz, the head chef.

The recipes themselves feel authentic. They feel timeless and unfussy, enduring classics, while there's a certain rugged, rustic quality to them too. The soups are chunky and the refried beans are mashed, as opposed to blitzed with some modern gadget which would looked laughably anachronistic in a Zorro movie.

My attempt at scrambled eggs with chorizo

The book is beautifully presented. Achingly so. The cover is a riot of green, magenta and gold and every pages is a different colour. The photography is fabulous, setting the food off with a careful selection of side dishes and Mexican-style tableware.

It's a perfect size, a little smaller and squarer than most recipe books, meaning it sits beautifully in the hand.

My attempt at a chicken quesadilla

I would have to criticise the book on the number and complexity of its recipes. At under 150 pages and with plenty of photographs, it is hardly extensive. There is only one burrito and one quesadilla recipe and no recipes for red or green rice.

The recipes tend to be on the simple side. To call it bish-bash-bosh cooking would be unfair, particularly as Mexican food veers that way anyhow, but some of the dishes really did not require vast imagination to construct.

That said, they are still lovely and some of the spice mixes required skill to conceive.

My attempt at an oatmeal and cinnamon drink

To road test the book, I tried three recipes. I made scrambled eggs with chorizo, a chicken quesadilla and an oatmeal and cinnamon "drink" (this served very nicely as an evening meal!).

First, some caveats. I had to adapt all the recipes slightly to suit my specific purposes. I used taleggio for the eggs, because I was out of cheddar, used quorn instead of chicken for the quesadilla because I couldn't afford well-looked after chicken and used honey instead of agave syrup for the drink because I didn't want to shell out for a bottle of sweet stuff I was unlikely ever to use again. Oh, and I forgot to put garlic in my quesadilla's marinade.

However, if there is one thing the friendly style of the book's prose encourages it's a flexible attitude to ingredients so I don't feel too bad. Besides, quorn is awesome.

The recipes worked out great. Each one was full of flavour and deeply comforting. Nothing required a fire extinguisher to the mouth yet compromised nothing in terms of taste, especially the wonderful marinade for the chicken quorn.

Real Mexican Food is a lovely book. Authentic, attractive and friendly, it is a great guide to a fabulous world cuisine. However, the book could have done with more recipes to make it truly great.

Overall * * * * - A good introduction into Mexican cooking but not without a couple of flaws.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely fantastic photography, design and prose style.

Quality of Recipes * * * * - Delicious and comforting, the recipes work well in the kitchen and feel extremely authentic.

Range of Recipes * * * - The book covers most of the basics but is hardly a thorough and rigorous examination of Mexican food. Could have been longer and some of the recipes were really quite simple.

Price * * * * - At £18.99 RRP I don't feel cheated but neither to I feel like I found a bargain. A fair price.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.

I have been reviewing Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2012), ISBN-13: 978-1849752589