Customer Reviews

BowlFood Cookbook

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The best part of BowlFood is the fun it provides shopping for the wonderful array of ingredients I usually don't store as condiments. Rice stick noodles, black mustard seeds, corn husks and more - all easy to find in specialty markets, and those that aren't locally available are conveniently resourced in the rear of the book, telephones and websites included. Throughout the recipes, there are references to condiments on following pages that must be prepared and added. At first I groaned at the additional work, but found each one, so far in my exploration, easy to concoct and well worth the effort. My only criticism is that some dishes labeled vegetarian do include Nam Pla, a fish-based sauce, so these should serve as a warning to strict vegetarians. Tastes are mostly Asian, blended in fresh ways and easy to make - some spicy, some comfort food. I'm trying a new one weekly and am delighting my family. If your palette cries for meat and potatoes and the most adventure you'll allow is basil, then probably this isn't the cookbook for you.

Pasta salads have come and gone yet Pearl Pasta with Peas and Gorgonzola at a potluck dinner was devoured. I find it convenient to prepare and freeze quantities of stock in quart containers. I preferred tofu to the recommended eggplant in Shanghai Noodles but I am SO happy to be comfortable now with the array of asian seasonings used throughout the book. Zucchini Pancakes were great with serving sauce suggestions and I loved the inclusion of simple recipes for basil, cilanto and mint oils. The deserts and drinks are fresh and delicious. I substituted soy milk in some recipes with no problem. This book is a great resource

I've prepared several recipes from this book and the dishes have all been good, but they require much planning and preparation. The book seems to assume that the cook keeps quarts of homemade stock around, or is willing to whip up a batch for an evening's meal. For example, the recipe for Thai paella calls for six cups of lobster stock. That alone would break my food budget for the week! It doesn't seem that much care was taken to change the focus of the recipes from that of a restaurant kitchen to that of a home kitchen.

Sometimes when you meet number one you realize you need a top ten list. For now, the Bowlfood Cookbook sits in the number one spot followed by 9 soon-to-be-filled vacancies. The authors' intention was a collection of recipes that packed the most flavor possible into bowl food recipes. Along the way, they accidentally wrote a small-kitchen cooking handbook.

One way around a small kitchen is to cook a little everyday. Roast some garlic one day; make a stock or a flavored oil the next. The result is you always have the flavors you like on hand and can put together a meal in minutes. This is not a novel approach; it is how most restaurants work.

Finding the Bowlfood Cookbook a few years ago, I immediately bought several copies. It was a kindred resource since it was in sync with how I already cooked, and it reads like a one-recipe-at-a-time cooking class for beginners.

Aronson and Simon organized this book by the building blocks that go into its 200 bowl recipes. The authors share the idea that bowl food is welcoming, eater friendly, fun and infinitely improvisational. The book teaches cooking fundamentals in the same spirit. Entire bowl food dinner parties, from appetizers to desserts, can be designed from cherry picking personal favorites or following the menu planning suggestions in the margins.

The BowlFood Cookbook is evidence that sophisticated comfort food is not an oxymoron and that maybe a dinner party for six in your small flat is not so insane.

I bought this book several years ago as it had looked like it had some interesting bowl meals that I could try and modify if needed. It has quite a few good recipes involving either soup, pasta,noodles. Also has dumpling and little snack recipes as well salad bowls and little spicy bowls, desserts called sweet bowls. So there is a lot to choose from and I have tried several. Great index, catalog of sources to find foods and even a conversion table of ingredients.The spicy peanut sauce, the mango vinaigette,chili marinade for seafood/ fish, jalapeno sauce, shanghai noodles I rated all from 9.5-9.6 out of 10. So there is lots to like about the recipes.Nicely written easy to read. No photos but well laid out and the price is a good one. I think you will like many of the recipes to try according to your tastes as I did. I am still looking for more eventhough I have many in many files, on the internet and computer already.

If you cook and become bored quickly of the small number of recipes that you've mastered, this book will help you over-the-edge of the bowl and into the fun of cooking so many recipes that are eaten by the bowlful. Truly, if you count the number of dishes and bowls in your sink used to serve foods in one day...you'll easily see that bowls win out in number. Bowls of food are the nourishing, steaming and hearty dishes we cook all year 'round not just in the winter. The book will help you serve up some tasty things you never thought you'd know how to prepare. Some recipes are very simple and others are more sophisticated, but just the same your recipe repertoire will expand exponentially. Highly recommended for the novice cook or the well experienced.

who would of thought a simple ricotta/spinach dumpling would add such dimension to a meal?

i found the recipes approachable and reasonable to create. and a good read.

don't you always love a good read?

i felt encouraged and coaxed to step beyond my perceived culinary abilities. ok, the really tough ones i'll work up to, but truly...this is a book to own.

oh, and did i mention what a hit i was with one of these dishes at the garden girls luncheon?