Customer Reviews

Cooking from the Caucasus (A Harvest/HBJ book)

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This wonderful cookbook by Sonja Uvezian ("The Cuisine of Armenia" and "Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen") is a true gem. It focuses on the food of the Caucasus Mountains and the former Soviet Republics of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Even today, after the publication of books by Paula Wolfert and Darra Goldstein, the cuisine of this area is relatively unknown in the United States. That's a shame, because it's truly wonderful, alternately hearty and light, and always full of flavor. The Middle Eastern influences are there, but the combination of ingredients is uniquely Caucasian.

Uvezian does a very good job conveying the pleasures of this cuisine. One of the good things about the cookbook is that she often provides alternative ingredients or ways of spicing a dish. I've cooked a number of recipes from this book, and my one of my all-time favorite chicken recipes, a plain roast chicken with a knock-out walnut sauce, comes from here. Her lamb and fruit stews are good too.

This book was originally published under the title of "The Best Foods of Russia." If you see a copy under either title in a used book store, snap it up. You won't regret it.