Canal House Cooking Volume No. 4: Farm Markets & Gardens [Flexibound]

Christopher Hirsheimer (Author), Melissa Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2011

Canal House Cooking Volume No. 4, Farm Markets and Gardens is a collection of some of our favorite summer recipes, the ones we cook for ourselves, our friends, and our families. They'll make you want to run straight to the kitchen or out to the grill and start cooking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Hirsheimer and Hamilton have done a great job of capturing a theme that resonates with many right now—living, cooking, eating, and finding inspiration close to home.”—Heidi Swanson, 101Cookbooks.com

“The Canal House Cooking series, which features their rustic and seasonal cooking, publishes three times a year and has earned Melissa & Christopher a cult following among the fooderati. It sure hooked us!”—Adam Rapoport, Bon Appétit

“Wonderful, marvelous, fabulous and we love the color. I couldn’t wait to line all three books up in the bookcase. You have done it again and now I have a million things I am dying to cook.”—Peggy Knickerbocker

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

Canal House is more than just Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton's studio--it's their workshop, dining room, office, kitchen, lair, lab, and atelier devoted to good ideas and good work relating to the world of food. The duo writes, photographs, designs, and paints, but in their hearts, they both think of themselves as cooks first.

And every day they cook. In the middle of the day they stop their work, set the table simply with paper napkins, and have lunch. So it came naturally to write down what they cooked, thus bringing about the Canal House Cooking series.

This cookbook is a seasonal collection of Christopher and Melissa's favorite recipes--home cooking by home cooks for home cooks. With a few exceptions, they use ingredients that are readily available and found in most markets in most towns throughout the United States. All the recipes are easy to prepare, all completely doable for the novice and experienced cook alike. These two women believe the everyday practice of simple cooking and the enjoyment of eating are two of the greatest pleasures in life.

Product Details

• Flexibound: 124 pages
• Publisher: Canal House; Original edition (October 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0982739400
• ISBN-13: 978-0982739402
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple and elegant, helps make the most of seasonal ingredients, July 6, 2010

By 

Sarea Okelani (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canal House Cooking Volume No. 4: Farm Markets & Gardens (Flexibound)

As with the other books in the Canal House Cooking series, this book is filled with fresh ideas about what we can do with seasonal ingredients. The recipes in this volume in particular seem to tend toward the simple, focusing more on making the most of the fresh ingredients rather than innovative flavors or methods (though at times can be a bit too blase about pricier ingredients, such as lobster).

This particular book focuses on fresh produce from farmer's markets and from one's garden. This is particularly relevant to me as this year I'm growing an edible garden for the first time. This book, as with previous books, are divided into chapters that focus on a particular ingredient or a particular type of ingredient.

My favorite type of cookbook is one in which I can read like a normal book, salivating over the well-written recipes and looking at the mouth-watering photos. All the books in the Canal House series fit the bill so far, and I'm glad I decided to subscribe.

Recipes from volume 4 that sound particularly intriguing include: summer mayonnaise, chilled cauliflower soup, and two methods for preparing kipper.

Lastly, I'm a fan of the new flexibinding -- provides the sturdiness of a hardcover with the flexibility and lightness of a paperback. I wish they'd all been bound this way.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One more in a (I hope never-ending) series of sane but thrilling cookbooks, July 13, 2010

By 

Jesse Kornbluth "Head Butler" (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canal House Cooking Volume No. 4: Farm Markets & Gardens (Flexibound)

"A beautiful woman is an invitation to a happiness she alone can fulfill."

Proust said that.

And without cheapening the master, I think that can be said about beauty in a number of categories.

Like: Noirin Ni Riain singing with a purity that humbles the listener.

Like: Didier Drogba scoring in soccer (okay: football) from an impossible distance --- 82 feet from the goal.

You have your own list of "ultimates," I'm sure. Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer have now published four editions of Canal House Cooking, giving me more than enough evidence to put them on my list of the uniquely beautiful.

If you have cooked from any of their previous books --- Canal House Cooking Numbers 1-3 --- you know what I mean. For one thing, they're the most beautiful self-published books out there; Hirsheimer's in the top tier of food photography, and Hamilton's illustrations are as evocative as the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud.

But it's their recipes that put them in the Pantheon. If you're just reading their books, this seems absurd --- these are, in the main, very simple dishes. And the creators know it; in the introduction to Canal House Cooking Number 4: Farm Markets & Gardens, they describe themselves --- in the summer, anyway --- as "salt-and-pepper" cooks. That is, they buy fresh food, far from supermarkets; they focus on presenting the essence of its flavors; they use seasonings as little as possible.

They cook in Lambertville, New Jersey (just across the river from New Hope, Pennsylvania), in a loft-like space with no special equipment. They scour the local stands and farms, gather what's in season, cook lunch. And, in the late afternoon, they stop for snacks --- and drinks. Yes, drinks. As they explained to The New York Times:

"I think people don't picture women sitting around drinking together," Hirsheimer said. "But we love the flavors, the ritual, the little bite of something at that time of the day."
"I don't mind the buzz," Ms. Hamilton interjected, derailing a line of conversation that veered toward the precious.

No surprise, then, that their books begin with "It's always five o'clock somewhere" --- a half-dozen recipes for drinks. (Like the "Dark & Stormy," which is 1 and ½ to 2 ounces of dark rum over ice, topped with 4 ounces of ginger beer and a wedge each of lemon and lime. Can you say "cooling?")

This season they're in love with the Hass avocado, and there are recipes for avocado-and-crab salad, cold avocado and cucumber soup, a very streamlined guacamole, chicken tacos, and avocado, arugula and grapefruit salad. Then it's on to soups --- the chilled cauliflower soup is shockingly good --- and omelets and pasta with parsley and toasted walnut sauce. For good measure, they throw in a fish and a meat recipe.

They remind us that the tomato is a fruit and show us how to preserve it. They grill vegetables, serve roast chicken with tomato butter or smothered in chanterelles, even dare to offer a fried chicken recipe. Desserts? A cobbler. Granite. Sorry, dessert lovers.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Average content, December 8, 2010

By 

Azay Rideau "Az" (Philly, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canal House Cooking Volume No. 4: Farm Markets & Gardens (Flexibound)

Fine book, but you probably have most of these recipes already. Same goes for the other titles in the series.

By the way, there are no indexes in these books, and that's a real hassle. I often end up grabbing something else off the shelves instead because I don't want to flip page-by-page thru multiple books to see if Canal House has an interesting recipe for what I want to cook.