Customer Reviews

Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As someone who owns close to two hundred cookbooks (passion or sickness, your choice on what to call it) I've vowed not to purchase another one for the rest of my cooking days. When I first glimpsed "Falling Cloudberries" at a bookstore I had to will myself to walk away. Never again, I said.

Never say never.

First, a bit of background. Like most foodies and cooks, Tessa Kiros grew up scented by cooking smells and surrounded by people who're passionate about food. Her book is filled with recipes that represent her heritage: Greek, Finnish, Cypriot, South African, and Italian. As such, there are dishes here that challenge the American palate, especially those of pedestrian tastes, but what a delightful and tasty challenge it is.

I'll set aside the sheer beauty of this book for now and rate it on the essentials--the approachability and accuracy of its recipes, the reliance on fresh and obtainable ingredients, a balanced mix of easy, intermediate and advanced cooking methods, logical and sensible organization, practical tips to ensure success, satisfaction with the end product, and (always a consideration for me) a generous representation of everyday fare.

I've tried about a dozen from this thick book and it's, without doubt, a 5-star cookbook just basing it on the above:

(1) Finnish - Gravadlax with Dill Cucumbers; Potato Pancakes (of course, to go w/ the gravadlax); Fresh Salmon, Dill & Potato Soup; Finnish Meatballs; Stroganoff with Pickled Cucumbers and will later try the Cinnamon and Cardamom Buns

(2) Greek - Dolmades; Tzatziki; Chickpea, Feta & Coriander Salad; Calamari with Butter, Lemon & Garlic; Prawns with Peri-Peri; Lemon & Oregano Chicken; Stuffed Vegetables and will later attempt the Baklava

(3) Cypriot - Moussaka (if you can make lasagna, you can make this without batting an eyelash); Pork in Red Wine

(4) South African - Fried Chicken and Barbecue Ribs, if you can believe it!

That's it...that's as far as I got and tons to go. Everything I tried was simply delicious and none of them required tremendous labor, just the same amount of effort I put into everyday cooking. For those that are fussier, I plan to just make them in the weekends when I have more time.

The book is drop-dead gorgeous and I mean every part of it. From the spine to the flyleaf, to all the photos to the quality of bond, and it even came with a pretty ribbon bookmark (how thoughtful). It's peppered with tidbits on Tessa's family and her growing up cooking with them. There's even a penciled drawing of her family tree that I thought added an amusing and extra special touch to this very personal account of food and cooking over several generations. Really creatively executed and one can easily tell that it was a labor of love. It's too beautiful that I don't cook with this book lying as is on my counter. I photocopy the page I need or wrap it first in clear plastic before using. Even these precautions don't seem enough. Someday, when I can no longer grasp my chef's knife or intimidate a slab of pastry into submission with a whack or two, I want to look at this book and just lose myself in its pristine beauty. Ridiculous, I know, but there are cooks out there who know precisely what I mean--they're the same people who look longingly at gorgeous cookbooks and say `never again' without much conviction!

So I loved this cookbook. It's a beautifully photographed, informative read with some gorgeous, appetizing recipes and some very interesting family and culinary histories (the historical bits could have been a separate book, actually). But I was pretty upset with this cookbook because the first thing I saw that I wanted to make (based upon the beautiful two-page photo spread on pages 144 and 145 entitled Cinnamon + Roses) is not included as a recipe in the actual cookbook. How can you have a cookbook with a beautiful two-page spread of a gorgeous treat and not supply the recipe? It feels like a bait and switch which seems to be happening a lot with cookbooks these days. Cookbook writers, listen up: if you show a dish in your book, give it a beautiful two-page color spread, you should consider publishing the recipe for the people who are paying upwards of $30 for it in a bad economy. I searched every page of this book looking for that recipe - even read the index to find the page numbers because I couldn't find it. Finally, I enlisted the help of a Greek friend who informed me that the item is something called "Loukoumi" which I then re-checked in the index. Not there. Very upsetting. Anyway, I was going to go through and check for this same situation with other items since I suspect that isn't the only place this occurs in this cookbook (so that others would know before buying it) but had already lost heart over it. I really don't like to see this type of thing in a work that is so well done otherwise. I think anyone who wants to purchase this might want to check it out in a bookstore or library first so that you aren't disappointed the way I was.

How do you read a cookbook? My mother, retired and an avid reader, always has a cookbook next to her chair or bedside. She thoroughly "devours" each collection of recipes much as she does her literary works, page by page. My best friend always hones in on the Italian sections only. I, on the other hand, as a full-time professional, have been known to skip reading the cookbook entirely and resort to "index reading." This translates into searching an ingredient I have on hand in the index to come up with a recipe from the book. "Falling Cloudberries" by Tessa Kiros is a success in large part because it works with all of us! Organized into sections from all corners of the globe and related to Ms. Kiros' family, the cover invites the reader to travel through each region with splendiferous photography and artistic layouts. The pencil drawings and portraits of her family are endearing and touching. The introduction to each new country is poetic.

"Falling Cloudberries" is not only a work of art, but also a really, really, REALLY good cookbook! Recipes are clearly written for the home cook and are very reproducible. The international flavors make the preparation entertaining and fresh. My family traveled from an Italian salad of baby spinach, bresaola, apples and nuts to Finnish Hasselback potatoes (named after the Restaurant Hasselbacken in Stockholm) accompanied by a grilled steak and ended with a South African pineapple, cinnamon and allspice cake. The potatoes were gorgeous and I realized as we lifted our glasses in a toast to Ms. Kiros that my family had experienced the taste and beauty of this cookbook without ever cracking the cover themselves. "Falling Cloudberries", because of this broad appeal, would make a wonderful gift to any cook. My family is begging for more and I can't wait to work up our next culinary "itinerary!"

Tessa Kiros's cookbook, Falling Cloudberries is a marvelous trove of family recipes and photographs. Arranged by region, the recipes are lavishly illustrated and each is annotated with a small paragraph regarding its history and meaning to Kiros.

However, while the recipes are accurate (based on a random sampling), the instructions are, sadly, sometimes lacking. While this may be fine for experienced cooks, a novice may find some of the instructions difficult to follow. For example, "Cinnamon and Cardamom Buns" requires a rather tricky bit of cutting and twisting to shape the buns. Kiros attempts to make the directions clear, but an illustration (even a pen and ink drawing) would not go amiss.

The regional arrangement of recipes lends a tone of credibility to the cookbook, but the home chef should be cautious in making authoritative statements that a recipe is actually from a particular location. In particular, the South African section has a number of recipes ("Garlic Bread", "Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing", "Fried Chicken", "Barbecued Spare Ribs") that while accurate, are not necessarily unique to the region. Her few truly South African recipes (including "Milk Tart") are far better examples of true South African cooking.

These few issues may be easily overlooked, though, in favor of the lush photography, and the unique combination of Finnish, Greek, and Cypriot recipes that comes with a diverse and well-preserved heritage. The small vignettes that Kiros provides for each recipe's context are beautiful, and I often wished for deeper and longer stories to match with the family photographs.

This is a cookbook that will not go awry on a home cook's shelf, and the Mediterranean recipes will make a fantastic addition to any cook's repertoire.

I would love to see a gourmet cookbook that is beautiful, includes enticing recipes, and is formatted for someone who gets overwhelmed by small type and font that blends in with the pages. When you have time to read and sit and mull over a cookbook, this would be a nice cookbook. It includes beautiful pictures and great stories.

The one recipe I made (the potato salad) was not a hit in my family. I cook a lot of gourmet dishes and a wide variety of meals (I love cookbooks and have almost 100 of them). My husband and I do not like to eat the same things regularly. But, I'm just not crazy about this cookbook. It isn't one I will pick up very often. The ingredients are unusual and not easily substituted. But, more than that, it is the formatting that will deter me from picking up this cookbook to cook from even infrequently. When I am cooking, I need to be able to refer back to a recipe easily and pick up where I left off. The directions on these recipes were not easy to do that with.

It is a very nice cookbook to sit down, read, and enjoy with a glass of wine or cup of good coffee. It will remind you and inspire you to want to cook--just maybe not these recipes.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tessa Kiros' writing style. It seems effortless and natural, but verges on poetic. Here is an example, "I love those memories that seem so far away, yet you can hold them and carry them with you, even forget them, and then, with a single taste or hint of a smell, be chaperoned back to a beautiful moment."

The book is a joy to read, with beautiful color photos of ingredients, finished products, scenery, and the author's family. I even liked the type fonts used throughout the book.

The chapters are fairly long and are based on the region represented in the recipes (including Finland, Greece, Cyprus, South Africa, Italy and the world at large). I counted a total of 129 recipes but that doesn't include all the sauces which accompany a main or side dish. The author frequently recommends how to tweak a recipe (reduce the spices if you are cooking for children, for example) and suggests complimentary side dishes.

Some of the recipes are for somewhat standard dishes (such as garlic bread, hummus, baked ham and chocolate cake) but many are for more exotic dishes from the various regions. Finland dishes include fried stuffed herrings, long-simmered veal with cream and dill, sauteed potatoes, and pork schnitzels. Greece dishes include tzatziki, stuffed grape leaves, grilled octopus with oregano, deep-fried salt cod, spinach pilaf, and baklava with nuts and dried apricots. Highlighted Cyprus recipes include spanakopita, fried red peppers, pork in red wine with dried coriander seeds, black-eyed peas with spinach, and rice pudding. South Africa dishes include chicken wings with blue cheese dressing (I'm not sure how that qualifies as South African), barbecued spare ribs, beef with raisin sauce, milk tart, carrot cake, and a selection of lemon desserts. Recipes from Italy have several risotto and pasta dishes. Highlights include spinach and truffle pies, olive oil bread, fried mozarella- and anchovy-filled zucchini flowers with sage leaves, champagne risotto, pasta with sardines and wild fennel, coffee granita with whipped cream, and ricotta tart with chocolate crust. The final chapter is entitled, "Suitcase of Recipes" includes recipes from across the globe including couscous salad, chicken with cilantro and spinach rice, pepper steak, creme caramel, and baked chocolate puddings.

Please note that this book does not include many vegetarian recipes and some of the meats (such as octopus, shin of veal, and oxtail) are a little more exotic than the average American eats. I think that is to be expected for a book of the world's cuisine but it is worth pointing out.

I enjoyed this book so much, I ordered the author's previous book, Apples for Jam, and look forward to her book coming out later this year on Italian food.

The photos alone are worth the price of this book. Recipes are unusual and new to my tastebuds,well worth buying .

Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries might have earned itself an extra star (if not its selection for the Gourmet Book Club) because of its evocative title. Her "world of family recipes" spans more ethnic regions than do most of ours: Cyprus, Finland, South Africa. The photos (of food, people, and places) are attractive. But really, this is a collection of "stuff my grandparents made" -- which means it's a hodgepodge of recipes. Some of them are very good, but I haven't found a recipe yet that makes me say, "That makes owning this book worthwhile!"

The cookbook is organized by regions, so there are recipes from Finland, Greece, Cyprus, South Africa, Italy and "Suitcase of Recipes" (that is, elsewhere). If you don't have an extensive cookbook library, this might be a good way to get a taste of all these places. Finland, for example, has recipes for herrings marinated in vinegar with dill and allspice; gravlax with dill cucumbers; lingonberry jam. Cyprus has recipes for lachmajou (meat topping on a yeasted dough); spanakopita (spinach-cheese pie); moussaka (a ground-meat pie flavored with cinnamon and oregano topped with bechamel -- I kill for a good moussaka in restaurants). Some of the inclusions are just-plain weird; I don't think I'd have looked for a Buffalo hot wings recipe under South Africa, even if that's what people eat there. And I don't need a recipe for garlic bread. (The South Africa chapter disappointed me overall; I didn't have a sense of its cuisine beforehand, and I *still* don't.)

These recipes sound appealing until you dive into actually making them. They do make good meals, there's no doubt of that -- it's just that the instructions need some heavy-duty editing. I've tackled two recipes: salt-baked fish with lemon and parsley salad; and avgolemono, the Greek chicken soup with egg and lemon. Both dishes turned out lip-smacking great... but if I were not a confident cook, these recipes would unnecessarily intimidate me. For example, the soup has you make chicken stock from scratch, which is fine (though it'd be nice if she wrote, "You could just start with good homemade stock; don't be tempted to use bouillon here"). But it tells you to put the chicken in a pot with the onion, carrot, etc -- with no hint about whether you should chop it up, to what size, etc. I'm certainly an adept-enough stock-maker that *I* know -- but I can think of three people who would not have the first idea of what they're supposed to do. And if this is aimed at people who are looking for a lightweight introduction to regional cooking of these countries, I'd aim towards the not-yet-confident.

The fish baked in salt is, however, absolutely excellent. I didn't like the instructions overmuch (really, it comes down to stuffing a fish with parsley and lemon, and shoving it in 6 pounds of kosher salt, then baking at 400 for 40 minutes -- though the accompany salad is good). But I sure loved the fish, which is easy enough to make on a weeknight. (Just kind of expensive, for a box of salt you use only once.)

The end result is that I have conflicting opinions about Falling Cloudberries. I'm probably not its target reader, because I have such a huge cookbook collection, and several recipes made me think, say, "I think I'd use the recipe for hasselback potatoes from Nigella Lawson's book instead" or "I prefer the spanakopita recipe from the original Moosewood." If your collection is more modest (which is to say: you can exert more self-control than I do), this may be a nice way to explore some of the basics from these places. But "nice" seems so damning, doesn't it? I prefer to own things that are far better than "nice."

My immediate reaction when I received my book was: "Wow, this is a beautiful book with beautiful pictures." I was thrilled. However, I quickly had a couple of other observations. It is a heavy book which isn't so good when holding it to read and I didn't care for the layout for use as a cookbook. The design is not the most practical for the use of the reader who actually wants to cook from the book.

For each recipe, ingredients are listed first, then the name of the recipe, then a personal blurb about the recipe or the food. Directions for the recipe are given last and in smaller print then the personal blurb which make them harder to read while cooking. However, the directions are very thorough and go over to a second page in some cases. It would have been better if the second page was always a facing page but some of them finish after turning the page.

Quite a few of the foods have pictures of the finished product. Serving suggestions and variations are frequently given. I like that Kiros also encourages the cook to add a little more or a little less of some ingredients depending on personal taste.

There are many pictures. In addition to pictures of the food, some are of family members and some are scenic. Family members are identified, but the scenic pictures do not have any caption. I would have liked added information for those.

I have marked several recipes that I hope to try:
Pork Schnitzels - Finland
Hasselback Potatoes - Finland
Chickpea, Feta, and Cilantro Salad - Greece
Baked Lima Beans with Onions, Tomatoes, and Parsley - Greece
Kourapiedes - Greece
Pita Bread - Cyprus
Greek-Cypriot Salad - Cyprus
Kamut Bread - South Africa
Apple Cake with Toffee Topping - South Africa
Ricotta Tart with a Chocolate Crust - Italy

I have tried the Cinnamon and Cardamom Buns from the Finland chapter. They were delicious. I am quite pleased to have this book and add it to my library. It is a wonderful book to browse and I do hope to try some of the other recipes I have listed. Kiros has written a very nice book. My only wish would be for a more user friendly layout. Except for that, I would have given it 5 stars.

The name "Falling Cloudberries" drew me in, the beautiful photographs and poetically written family anecdotes hooked me. This is not just a cookbook, but a travelogue of memory lane.
Tessa Kiros' family tree is more a series of vines woven together. It definitely provides for a lot of variation in the family cookbook. But rather than being a hindrance, the eclectic mix makes for a wonderful book in many ways. The differences between the different cultures are primarily exhibited through the foods they eat. Tessa's experiences with her family and the various places they called home are recalled with a warmth that makes you keep turning the pages.
As far as the recipes are concerned, this is not a book to be purchased for the recipes. There is no new ground covered here, but the recipes included are definitely well thought out, derived from passed down traditions, and tested for deliciousness. I can't imagine anyone searching high and low for a recipe for pickled fish---if you like it, you probably already have a recipe for it. But the book would be incomplete without all the traditional dishes that are included.
This is a book cookbook collectors and foodies would consider "must-have". It is beautiful to thumb through, the tales are warm and interesting, the photographs fabulous. The recipes are for delicious foods, but are not likely the biggest draw here. I thoroughly enjoy owning this book, and have enjoyed the foods I've cooked using its recipes. Enjoy!