Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking
Author: Susanna M Hoffman
This is the year "It's Greek to me" becomes the happy answer to what's for dinner. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the upcoming epic Troy, the 2004 Summer Olympics returning to Athens--and now, yet another reason to embrace all things Greek: The Olive and The Caper, Susanna Hoffman's 700-plus-page serendipity of recipes and adventure.
In Corfu, Ms. Hoffman and a taverna owner cook shrimp fresh from the trap--and for us she offers the boldly-flavored Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine. She gathers wild greens and herbs with neighbors, inspiring Big Beans with Thyme and Parsley, and Field Greens and Ouzo Pie. She learns the secret to chewy country bread from the baker on Santorini, and translates it for American kitchens. Including 325 recipes developed in collaboration with Victoria Wise (her co-author on The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook, with over 258,000 copies in print), The Olive and The Caper celebrates all things Greek: Chicken Neo-Avgolemeno. Fall-off-the-bone Lamb Shanks seasoned with garlic, thyme, cinnamon and coriander. Siren-like sweets, from world-renowned Baklava to uniquely Greek preserves: Rose Petal, Cherry and Grappa, Apricot and Metaxa.
In addition, it opens with a sixteen-page full-color section, and has dozens of lively essays throughout the book--about the origins of Greek food, about village life, history, language, customs--making this a lively adventure in reading as well as cooking.
Publishers Weekly
Traditional Greek cuisine favors sour tastes: lemons, capers, vinegar, wild herbs. Cooking with these pungent ingredients takes a sure hand or, failing that, a good recipe. Hoffman's book supplies the latter in abundance; it attempts nothing less than to capture the whole of Greek food culture between covers. That includes side notes on language, myth, literature and botany; details of regional specialties; lists of native greens; and an explanation of why we say "Greek" instead of "Hellenic." Like many warm-weather cuisines, Greek food relies on an abundance of grilled meats and fish and dressed greens. Hoffman presents them in dazzling variety, alongside familiar exports like Dolmadakia (stuffed grape leaves) and Tzatziki. Hoffman, an anthropologist and cook, includes recipes that might be challenging or improbable for American home cooks: Retsina-Pickled Octopus, Thyme-Fed Snails and "Greek-inspired ice creams" made with mastic or olive oil. There are labor-intensive recipes, too, showing how to make filo pastry and homemade sourdough noodles. Desserts-Semolina Custard Pie; Yogurt Cake with Ouzo-Lemon Syrup-go far beyond Baklava. With its fascinating trove of information, this work will please armchair cooks and traveling foodies. For those willing to surrender to its searingly bright palate of flavors, it's a boon to the kitchen, too. Photos, illus. (July) Forecast: With the Olympics in Athens next month, interest should be strong. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Table of Contents:
| Introduction: The Olive, the Caper, and the Legacy of Greek Food | xiii | |
| Part 1 | Honored Drinks, Small Dishes, and Savory Pies | |
| From water to wine | 5 | |
| Water | 7 | |
| Wine | 8 | |
| Ouzo | 13 | |
| Tsikoudia | 14 | |
| Brandy and Sweet Liqueurs | 16 | |
| Beer | 18 | |
| Coffee | 18 | |
| Tea | 20 | |
| Fruitades and Other Drinks | 22 | |
| Meze: The Grand Array | 25 | |
| The Simplest Mezedes | 27 | |
| The Glorious Cheeses of Greece | 28 | |
| The Many and Varied Greek Olives | 30 | |
| The Salads and Spreads | 32 | |
| The Eggplant Urbanization of Miltiades | 34 | |
| The Cyclades and the Scent of Lemon | 44 | |
| Two Famous Vegetable Mezedes | 47 | |
| Inviting Meat Mezedes | 52 | |
| Zeus, King of the Gods | 56 | |
| Mezedes from the Sea | 59 | |
| Tart and Tantalizing Pickles | 72 | |
| The People, Provinces, and Culinary Specialties of Greece | 76 | |
| Savory pies: From Filo Pastry | 83 | |
| Filo Finesse | 87 | |
| The Shapes of Filo Pies and Pastries | 90 | |
| The Trail of the Olive | 98 | |
| Opulent Byzantium | 110 | |
| Part 2 | The Banquet of Dishes | |
| Bread: The Staff of Life! | 119 | |
| The Bread Man Cometh | 123 | |
| Greece's First Bread Bakers | 126 | |
| Cooking Bells and Beehive Ovens | 144 | |
| Cyprus: the Coppery Island | 148 | |
| Soup: For Hard Times and Good Times | 151 | |
| Fava Stories | 158 | |
| The Mycenaeans and Their Bill of Fare | 183 | |
| Salads: A Veritable Bounty | 187 | |
| The Tomato Revolution | 194 | |
| Pericles, the Father of Democracy | 202 | |
| The Sarakatsani, Greece's Roving Shepherds | 211 | |
| Eggs: The Daily Gift | 215 | |
| Oregano, Dill, and Mint | 218 | |
| The Greek Diaspora and the Denver Omelet | 224 | |
| Sustaining grain: Barley, Wheat, Rice & Noodles | 227 | |
| An Island Harvest | 234 | |
| The Sin of Opsophagia | 236 | |
| Saffron | 240 | |
| The Olympic Games | 244 | |
| Whence Cometh Trahana? | 248 | |
| Alexandria, Greek City by the Sea | 254 | |
| Alexander the Great and the Spread of Hellenism | 258 | |
| The vegetable parade | 263 | |
| Simmered, Sauteed & Fried | 265 | |
| The Herbs of Greece | 272 | |
| Stewed Vegetable Stand-Outs | 282 | |
| Apollo, the Sun God | 284 | |
| Crisp Croquettes and Fritters | 292 | |
| The Welcome Party | 294 | |
| Stuffed Vegetables | 300 | |
| The Renowned Casserole | 313 | |
| Two Greek Cooks, Two Great Moussakades | 314 | |
| Classical Greece--A Time of Philosophers and Farmers | 318 | |
| Fish and shellfish | 323 | |
| The Foufou | 328 | |
| Salt Cod, the Fish That Feeds in Hard Times | 336 | |
| Poseidon | 340 | |
| Where Did the Name "Greek" Come From? | 344 | |
| The Aegean and the Ionian--The "Fishing Ponds" of Greece | 350 | |
| Archestratos and His Fish | 354 | |
| The Minoans--Inhabitants of Greece Before the Greeks | 356 | |
| Meat: Of Every Sort | 361 | |
| Grilling | 371 | |
| The Caper Family Bush | 378 | |
| The Warp and the Weft: Sheep and Their Wool | 382 | |
| An Easter Journey on the Sea | 396 | |
| Who Were the First Greeks? | 402 | |
| Birds: From the Coop | 407 | |
| Chicken and the Changing Squares of Athens | 410 | |
| The Jews of Greece and Their Joseph's Coat Cuisine | 432 | |
| Wild game: From the Woods and Sky | 437 | |
| Aesop's Wild Kingdom: Morals with the Meal | 452 | |
| Savces, toppings, and marinades | 455 | |
| The Sauces | 457 | |
| Souvlaki Stands and the Best Tzatziki | 466 | |
| The Dodecanese Islands--Gateway of Many Sauces | 476 | |
| The Toppings | 477 | |
| Rhodes and the Crusaders | 480 | |
| The Marinades | 482 | |
| Greece's Saucy Minorities and Their Foods | 484 | |
| Fruit as the finale | 489 | |
| Greece's Fruitful Choices | 491 | |
| Part 3 | Confections Dulcet as Ambrosia | |
| Sweets: In Profusion | 499 | |
| Time-Honored Syrups | 500 | |
| From Beehive to Oven | 503 | |
| The Nuts of Greece | 504 | |
| Tsikoudia and the Moor | 508 | |
| A Final Validation | 522 | |
| How Spices Got to Greece | 530 | |
| Luscious Puddings | 531 | |
| Sweetness by the Spoonful | 535 | |
| Croesus and His Golden Coins | 540 | |
| Plato, the "Cool" Philosopher | 544 | |
| Seven Innovative Sweets | 548 | |
| Night Wine, Day Wine, and the Barefoot Compressor | 550 | |
| Cyclades Village Wedding | 556 | |
| Ceremonial Sweets | 557 | |
| The Ottoman Rule and the Greek Fight for Independence | 562 | |
| Conversion Tables | 566 | |
| Bibliography | 567 | |
| Index | 572 |
Look this: Hacking Roomba or Perfect Digital Photography
Food Journal of Lewis and Clark: Recipes for an Expedition
Author: Mary Gunderson
Awards Received Spring 2004
* Gold Medalist, 2004 Ben Franklin Award's Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book, Non-fiction, Publishers Marketing Association
"[The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark] "…fulfills an affection for both cooking and history," stated a judge for the Benjamin Franklin/Bill Fisher award.
* Most Original Concept, 2004 IPPY's -- Independent Publisher's Ten Outstanding Books of the Year
* Best of Show, Best Cookbook, and Best Interior Design, 2004
Midwest Book Review
A unique and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal cookbook shelves and community library Food History collections.
January 2003 - ForeWord Magazine
recipes capture the progression from a rather rustic civilization into the wild, dangerous, and unpredictable...
Booklist - Mark Knoblauch
Just in time for the bicentennial celebration of the start of the famous wilderness expedition, Mary Gunderson has brought out The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark. Through a series of recipes supported by entries in the expedition's journal, Gunderson offers a unique view of the westward journey. Beginning with a Jeffersonian dinner at the White House, where French cooking was in sway, Gunderson follows the party upriver as their stores begin to run out and Lewis and Clark are gradually forced to live off the land and the kindness of its inhabitants. Culinary oddities such as Portable Soup (a precursor of the bouillon cube) and primitive wild game recipes support quotations from the duo's journals. Gunderson's recipes are easy to follow, and anyone interested in historical cuisine can duplicate them, from sophisticated cooks to students looking for practical programs on the Lewis and Clark expedition and its era. A bibliography leads to further sources for early-nineteenth-century frontier cooking.
FoodSiteoftheDay.com
"If you're a history buff and into food, this book's a "gotta have.
Healthy Exchanges - JoAnna Lund
one of the finest [books] I've ever read when it comes to combining food and history
Fearless Reviews, December 9, 2003 - Patrick Miller
The rare cookbook that belongs on the shelves of civic and public school libraries, college history collections, and American history museums, this Food Journal is a prime example of an indie-press 'labor of love' - the kind of book that's very unlikely to be produced by a mainstream publisher these days, and probably wouldn't be done half so well if it were.
Food Spot" for WCBS-Radio, December 2, 2003 - Anthony Dias Blue
a fascinating new book…Gunderson is probably the world's only "paleo-cuisineologist" - in fact, she invented "paleo-cuisineology," the discipline of re-creating foods from historical periods and lifestyles.
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