Customer Reviews

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

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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.

"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.

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.