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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite cookbook, August 17, 2002
This review is from: China Moon Cookbook (Paperback)
The China Moon Cookbook introduced me to high end cooking ten years ago and I've never looked back. Barbara Tropp manages to draw in complete novices with detailed step-by-step instructions of what to do and what not to do, dosed out with a good humored, you-can-do-it-too manner. This cookbook would be a worthwhile addition to anyone's set just for its instructions on how to buy and prepare fish or poultry, or for its instructions on making double chicken stock. Barbara Tropp's recipes are Chinese influenced in the way of ingredients, so make sure you have a supply of good sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sichuan peppers, red chilis and ginger. In case you don't, the sidebars provide an introductory course in how to find, buy and store such ingredients, with brand recommendations. The main emphasis in each case is the notion of extracting a pure flavor in each dish. Rather than producing the kind of heavy, integrated sauces more typically associated with the Chinese kitchen, China Moon cranked out light, spicy, and brightly acidic dishes like my all time favorites, clear-steamed salmon with corriander pesto and gold coin salmon cakes. The real strength of this book lies not in its excellent recipes, which can be adapted in numerous ways once you understand their principles. It's in the preparation of a pantry full of such goodies as ma-la oil ("ma" for the numbing spiciness of sichuan peppercorns, and "la" for the traditional burn of red pepper), and pickled ginger that takes 10 minutes to make and leaves you forever wondering why you hadn't done this sooner. There are recipes for stocks, sweet and sour dipping sauces, mustards, and other staples of the Chinese kitchen, that once created, allow the preparation of amazingly flavorful dishes in short order. Each dish has excellent instructions on what can be done in advance and held, and what needs to be done last minute. Even if you just make the pickled ginger and hot chili oils on pages 8 and 10, you may share Barbara Tropp's sentiment, "The day I made my own hot chili oil, I swear I grew a foot as a cook!". Along with these recipes, you get the first two of her passionate sidebars, the first on selecting and peeling ginger, the last step of which she was shamed into by her Chinese-Vietnamese prep staff and grandmotherly Chinese-American pastry chef. As a historian by original training, her text is salted with quotes backing up her obsessions about 1/16 vs. 1/4 inch dice for stir-frying timing, and quotes "a character in an official history of first-century China: 'When my mother cuts the meat, the chunks are invariably in perfect squares, and when she chops the scallions, they are always in nuggests exactly 1 inch long.' What can I say? History centuries-old supports me in my obsessions!"
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favourite, Least-Used, Essential Cookbook, December 6, 2002
This review is from: China Moon Cookbook (Paperback)
No contradictions, there. I read this book cover to cover in one sitting, and loved it. I also learned the techniques of modern Chinese cooking in detail, including how to shop. The book's problem is that the recipes are designed for a restaurant kitchen, with staff on hand. I have made exactly one dish from it. It took me half a day, and contained endless steps that could easily be shortened or eliminated if you didn't happen to have, say, a staff of 5 on hand. The result was wonderful, and I've made an equally-good version of it many times since, but not before going through the recipe with a LARGE pair of pruning shears. But buy it anyway. The advice in the side columns alone is worth the price of entry, and the pantry section... The pantry section is where the fifth star comes from. The infused oils are amazing, the pickled ginger (right down to the brand names of the vinegars -- and don't even THINK about substituting!) is sublime... The firmament of cooking lost a bright star when Barbara Tropp died.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tasty Food, Informative Sidebars, Clear Explanations, June 8, 2000
This review is from: China Moon Cookbook (Paperback)
This is one of my top three cookbooks of all time. I have cooked dozens of recipes from it, and they are all raves. My copy is so stained, used, and worn out that I think I have to buy a new one. Barbara Tropp does not cook "traditional" Chinese food, so if that's what you're looking for you will be disappointed. Also, her recipes are not for a cook in a hurry, or the faint of heart. LONG ingredient lists and exacting standards for everything from green onion rings to chopped ginger take a while to get used to. But, it is really worth the effort. In no time you will find yourself whipping up batches of flavored oils and making some truly fabulous food. Some of my favorite recipes include the Cold Chicken Salad with Mustard and Pine Nuts (her method for "No-Poach Chicken" is now the only method I use when making chicken salads), Stir-Fried Curried Chicken Slivers with Onions, Tomatoes, and Eggplant (a really yummy Chinese style curry), Gold Coin Salmon Cakes (people beg me to make these for them), Stir-Fried Scallops with Summer Squashes and Thai Basil (a nice fusion dish that's perfect for summer entertaining), Steamed Buns with Chicken and Oyster Sauce Stuffing (native Chinese friends describe these as the best steamed buns they've ever had!), and the Light Style Peanut Lime Noodles. The desserts are also fabulous, especially her signature tarts and tiny bite-size cookies like Lemon Ginger Shorbread. As you can tell from the above list Barbara Tropp is the Queen of Asian-California Fusion and with good reason. You will enjoy and learn a lot if you buy this book
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