Creole [Hardcover]

Babette de Rozières (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2007

CREOLE contains 160 tasty and quick-to-prepare dishes that reflect the cultures of the many different nations and continents that have influenced Creole cooing, including Spain, France, India, and Africa, among others. It is written by a true authority on Creole cooking, the original fusion cuisine of the West Indies. Every recipe is illustrated with a specially commissioned photograph, combined with images that evoke the landscape, colors, and people of the Caribbean.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

French celebrity chef de Rozières doesn't waste any time in this sumptuous, brightly-colored collection of Caribbean dishes-a mere one-page introduction separates the table of contents from the food. De Rozières opens with a voluminous take on fish and seafood ranging from the familiar (calamari and stuffed clams) to classic native fare such as blaffs (named for the sound fish makes when added to a hot bath of water and spices) and upscale dishes such as Conch Ravioli with Crab and Lemongrass sauce. Her reliance on fresh, local food is both strength and liability; seemingly every recipe calls for something indigenous, but de Rozières provides a handy index for substituting rare ingredients like madère leaves and salt cod. Once familiar with terms and substitutions, cooks will likely dive into dishes like Mango Fricassee Parcels, puff pastry filled with sautéed mangoes; Creole Paella loaded with chicken, shellfish and octopus; as well as island versions of New Orleans standards Bananas Foster and beignets. Photographs by Akiko Ida and Pierre Javelle provide a visual feast, artfully and festively capturing native fish, ice blue seascapes and finished dishes. Delightfully different from the American approach, de Rozières' thoughtful and flavorful collection of island Creole cooking is a solid resource.
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About the Author

Born in Guadeloupe, BABETTE DE ROZIÈRES learned the complexities of Creole cooking from her grandmother, and from there began her love affair with West Indian cuisine. Now a celebrity television chef in France, she is the owner of the famous restaurant La Table de Babette in Paris, where she offers her customers the delights of Creole cuisine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press Inc. (October 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 071484814X
• ISBN-13: 978-0714848143
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 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: #445,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book, January 3, 2012

By 

Bernard Munos (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creole (Hardcover)

This is a superb book, with excellent genuine and well-researched recipes. I have a large cookbook library with over 600 volumes, and own quite a few books about creole cuisine already, including several 'classic' in French and Spanish, that I bought locally. This is one of the best. The recipes are clear, and well laid-out. They each have high-quality pictures, and there are numerous photographs of local ingredients to help you identify them at your store. The book can be purchased as paperback or hardbound in some kind of oil-cloth. For a couple of extra dollars, I HIGHLY recommend the latter. If you buy that book, you will use it! Trust me. The hardbound copy will last you much longer. Shipping was very quick, and packaging was perfect. Thanks.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I have six complaints you should know about., April 20, 2010

By 

Lady A (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creole (Hardcover)

Technically, I shouldn't be rating this book yet, because I've only tried one recipe, BUT it was possibly the worst meal I have EVER made/eaten! Oh god, the horror! It was the Pan-fried chicken breast with cinnamon and coconut milk on page 166. I followed the recipe pretty accurately, and what a mistake that was. Incase anyone decides to make this recipe, this is what you should know:

First of all... the ingredient amounts seem to be off. There's two pounds of chicken... and one sprig of parsley. And two whole cloves. Then, an entire "pinch" of cilantro! Obviously, common sense says to throw in as much herbs as one thinks will be sufficient. There's also two onions and two garlic cloves. I added an extra clove of garlic, as well. :)

Second, the entire prep work is suppose to be only 20 minutes. I would like to see Zeus, himself, break open and grate two coconuts, in less than 20 mins. Don't even bother with them, because it's only for flavoring the sauce, and eventually strained out. The recipe also calls for canned coconut milk, which has a stronger flavor, so you might as well just forgo all fresh coconut, and save about 45 minutes.

Third - After you brown the chicken in a skillet, you're suppose to add the grated coconut, the herbs, onion, garlic, and some water (I used the coconut water) with the chicken, then simmer for three minutes. There's a couple of things wrong with this. The chicken looses it's color and flavor, and there ends up being too many ingredients in the skillet for the 1 cup of water. Even if you stir everything up, it's mainly only the chicken that ends up in the liquid. So the chicken needs to be taken out of the pan entirely, before adding all the other ingredients. But an even bigger issue is the time, which brings me to number four.

Four - The cooking and prep times in this book are so far off, I'm positive they were stoned when they made this dish. Three minutes is not enough time for the onions to even start sweating. This is suppose to be made into a sauce, and poured over the entire dish to give it all of it's flavor. Yet, three minutes is absolutely not enough time for the flavors to even begin to mesh together. I went for 15 minutes, but I suggest more like 20-25, or as long as your lil' heart desires.

Number five might just be a matter of opinion, but trust me when I say I'm not a picky eater. It calls for you to sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon on the chicken after you take it out of the sauce. I was skeptical of this to begin with, so my pinch was more like three piece of chicken received a couple of freckles. Not a fan. At all. *shudders*

Six- When it tells you to thicken the sauce with flour, it says to just stir the flour into the hot liquid from the other ingredients. And I think we all know how the turns out... lil lumps of flour floating everywhere. Just stir some flour and cold water together before dumping it into the pan.

And finally, number seven is actually a number four issue, and really minor. You pour the sauce all over the chicken and pop it into the oven for five minutes. It's not really warm enough, so make it 10.

I was really, REALLY excited about this cookbook, and I haven't tried any other recipes, so I'm finding it difficult to give it a deserving 1 star. So it gets two. As bad as this recipe was, I'm positive I'll try something else from this book. And when that time comes, I'll leave another review, hopefully with more stars.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caribbean cooking at its best, June 5, 2008

By 

U. Maier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creole (Hardcover)

My wife and I love this book. Every recipe we have tried is fantastic. Every recipe has a picture that shows the final dish. The quality and binding of the book is the best I have seen.