La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though the plethora of tapas bars opening in cities around the country may be a step in the right direction toward popularizing Spanish cooking, it would be a grave injustice to deny Spain its culinary breadth beyond those tasty little dishes would be a grave injustice. And while paella may be the sole Spanish comfort food most Americans can name, this may soon change thanks to Casas, who leads gastronomic tours of Spain and contributes to Gourmet and other publications, leading the way with books like this. She sheds light on a country that, culinarily speaking, has taken a backseat to France and Italy, and shares recipes for creating such previously unfamiliar Spanish specialties as Octopus with Paprika in Simmered Onions, and Batter-Fried Eggplant with Honey, Mint and Sesame Seeds. Divided into nine personally narrated chapters (plus a product source guide and introductions on regional Spanish wines, cooking methods and staples), this book will satiate those who've been searching for a savant's handbook to the Spanish kitchen. Salads and sides abound, and Casas balances the remaining menu with varied meat, grain and fish recipes, many garlic-laden and tinged with red wine. Beware, though: many recipes, though drop-dead delicious, call for ample prep time (a few take two days to prepare) and plentiful patience. The end result, however, will help cooks create a worthwhile, more profound bond with both New and Old World Spanish cuisine. Color, b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Advance Praise for La Cocina de Mamá

"The culinary innovation that the leading Spanish chefs have thrust upon the world over the past decade has been truly exhilarating. Now, with La Cocina de Mamá, Penelope Casas shows us where their influences come from—their mothers’ cooking! What a splendid and inspired work. Anyone who loves the exuberance and simplicity of Spanish cooking absolutely must have this sensational book."
—Charlie Trotter


"Penelope Casas has created a mouth-watering treasure trove of recipes straight from the heart and soul of Spain. You can not cook authentic Spanish without it."

—Frank Pellegrino, Author of Rao's Cookbook and Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood


"Penelope has long been a guiding light for anyone doing Spanish cooking in America. In this book, she reveals some of the best-kept secrets of the Spanish kitchen, those of our mothers!"
—José Andrés, Bon Appetit's Chef of the Year for 2004


“Penelope has finally opened the door to one of the most delicious lesser known cuisines—Spanish home cooking! I can't wait to cook La Cocina de Mamá for my family and friends.”

—Jacques Pépin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (March 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767912225
• ISBN-13: 978-0767912228
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #236,969 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, Inexpensive Intro to Spanish Cooking., May 10, 2005

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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`La Cocina de Mama' is Penelope Casas' fifth book on Spanish cuisine, becoming very much to Spain what Marcella Hazan and Lydia Bastianich are to Italy, in their presentations of their respective national cuisines to American readers and eaters. We do not get the high theory of Spanish cuisine as we do from Hazan with her very Italian techniques that border in sophistication on great French culinary thinking.
Unlike Hazan and Bastianich, Casas is not a native of her subject country and she does not live there full time, so we get no books about the cooking of `My Spain', as we do from Bastianich' first book on the cuisine of Istria and northern Italy. However, this book, unlike all her previous volumes, comes close to being a presentation of Spanish `home cooking'.

Her four previous books can be easily divided into two pair. The first pair is the smaller volumes on the two great Spanish contributions to world cuisine, `Tapas' and `Paella'. The second pair cover the entire range of Spanish cooking, with the first, `The Food and Wine of Spain' being a very systematic, classic approach. The second, `Delicioso', is less formal, but does follow a very useful structure based on the culinary regions of Spain, to which Casas gives some very inventive and illuminating names such as `The Region of Sauces' for Galicia and `The Region of the Casseroles' for Catalunya and the Baleares Islands.

`La Cocina de Mama' is more anecdotal than the previous four books, picking up lots of recipes from home and restaurant cooks which have great interest in themselves, but which may not have been as representative of typical cooking in Spain.

I was especially pleased to see a Foreword from the very important Spanish chef, Ferran Adria as it would have been especially curious to see a book on Spanish restaurant cooking without a not to Adria, who has been touted from here to Timbuktu as the world's greatest working chef. And yet, there are no Adria recipes in this book. One has to believe that some time soon we should see a book in English on Adria's cuisine, but we get no hints of his famous foams on these pages. Instead, true to the nature of this book, we get a recipe for a Paella done by Adria's mother. Like bouillabaisse and so many other classic dishes, I always give a little wince when I hear paella described as a `simple, peasant' dish. I confess that relatively speaking, Ferran Adria's mother's dish of rabbit, green beans, tomato, and rice is pretty easy, but it is definitely more complicated than your typical 30-minute meal. Even so, Casas takes a little liberty with the procedure for the benefit of inexperienced American cooks and finishes off the dish in an oven rather than doing everything on the burner. Casas does repeat her caution from `Paella' to bake about 10 minutes longer in an electric oven than in a gas oven.

It seems to be the season for recanting old beliefs, so just as Mario Batali recently confessed that Italians do indeed eat their fair share of pastry, Casas has discovered that pasta is a more important ingredient in Spanish cooking than a simple noodle in Catalunya (northeastern Spain, with ties to old Spanish possessions around Naples) soups. The newly discovered flagbearer of pasta in Spain is a thick soup / thin stew from the grandmother of Andalusian chef Bartolome Rodrigo Lucena. Even more unusual than the pasta dish itself is the fact that the recipe gives a recipe for fresh pasta to be used instead of the dried pasta of southern Italy. The bland fresh pasta almost plays the same role as central European dumplings by offering a bland contrast to the strongly tasting salt cod, artichoke hearts, two types of paprika tomatoes, and green peppers.

With each of Casas' books, I am again and again amazed at the predominant role of sweet red peppers in the cuisine of Spain. They seem to be in practically every dish in every region. In spite of this overwhelming presence, Casas has yet to explain the seeming connection between the paprika's of Spain and the paprika's of Hungary, halfway across Europe. The Moorish connection doesn't work because sweet peppers came from the New World a few years after the Moors were expelled from Spain. The only other connection may be the royal house of Hapsburgs that ruled both Spain and Austria-Hungary.

The book has the obligatory map of Spain (if you don't realize how important this is, try reading a book on regional dishes without a map) in the front and a very simple organization of chapters on Tapas, Salads, Vegetables, Soups, Rice and Pasta, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry and Game, Meats, and Desserts.

One new `vector' I discovered in Spanish cooking is the important role of canned tuna in the salads. While France has its classic salad Nicoise, Spain gives us three major salad recipes with canned tuna. Aside from the omnipresent paprika or fresh red peppers, there is a lot of hard-boiled egg, cooked beans, and canned white asparagus.

The desserts have their fair share of chocolate, especially hot chocolate, the favorite form of the Aztecs from whom the Spanish acquired the brown gold. There are also spicy doughnuts that are made in almost exactly the same way as you would find in New Orleans or in Amish Pennsylvania. As you may expect, custards are also a big thing, plus lots and lots of almond, meringue, and lemon. One thing I miss in all of Casas books is bread. If Ms. Casas is listening, I should mention that in none of her books is there any mention of the special tool used to flip tortilla Espanola, of which I read in Ruth Reichl's new memoir, `Garlic and Sapphires'.

Excellent, low priced introduction to great Spanish cooking and stories about Spanish food.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sound investment even if you have a Spanish mother, September 29, 2006

By	Michael T. - See all my reviews

This attractive book contains a tempting collection of recipes for robustly flavored, down-to-earth family dishes that are generally simple to prepare. The author's discussions of Spanish cooking methods, ingredients, and wines are very helpful and informative. I have only one caveat: the text is printed on different colors of paper and may be a little difficult for some people to read; however, the recipes themselves should appeal to those who appreciate homey, heartwarming fare.

Another book that offers great Mediterranean home cooking is "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen," by Sonia Uvezian, which features a wealth of uncomplicated recipes that highlight healthful ingredients and vibrant flavors.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars La Cocina de Mama: The Great Home Cooking of Spain, August 2, 2006

By	William J. Moore "bilmore" (Williamsburg, VA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mouthwatering and delicious----I haven't found a bad recipe yet and they are all well described and explained. The book is well worth the money and the food prepared from the recipes is extremely and well explained.