Whether you have a CSA, a vegetable garden, good Farmer’s Market, or a well stocked grocery store, you might want to learn new ways to cook vegetables and fruits. Hugh Acheson’s book, The Broad Fork, offers two hundred recipes for fruits and vegetable from apples, to salisfy and yacon. All the old favorites like broccoli, asparagus, and carrots are included but so are a few like persimmons, ramps, and tatsoi that might just be nodding acquaintances.
The recipes are organized by season of peak production and taste starting with the apples of fall and ending with the tomatoes of summer. Four recipes are provided for each fruit or vegetable, three quick or straightforward ones, and one more in depth. The entries for sunchokes (a.k.a. Jeruselem artichokes), for example, include recipes for pickling, foil-roasting, making hash, and pureeing for a sauce over sweetbreads. Some other interesting recipes include leek fonduta, kohlrabi with lobster and fennel with curry butter, and poached shrimp over radishes with salsa verde. There are numerous recipes for purees and pickles, as well as one for liverwurst. I have never cooked fiddleheads or bamboo so especially enjoyed the recipes using those ingredients.
The whole book has a homey, approachable feel to it. The introduction to each recipe includes antidotes as well as personal thoughts, and recipes themselves are clearly written with a list of ingredients and step by step directions. There are many matte finish photographs but not one for each completed recipe but still a good choice for expanding ones repertoire of vegetable recipes!
To buy The Broad Fork from Amazon.com Click Here.
Karen Meyers