Customer Reviews

The Great Salsa Book

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This has some excellent salsa recipes. I have tried several and have been very pleased with the results. The instructions are clear and there are color photographs of each of the dishes. However, if you're expecting recipes for traditional, tomato-based salsas, like you find in the stores and restaurants, you may be a little disappointed. Most of the book describes "salsas" that are fruit, meat, seafood, or vegetable based.

I do have a complaint about the book format. It is tall and not very wide, the cover is thick and the binding is very tight. It's not the kind of book that you can lay flat to refer to while you're preparing the dish. Luckily, most of the recipes are very short and simple so you won't be referring back to the book very often. One final nitpick - I wish they had included more information on the various ingredients. They provide some, but I had not heard of some of them and it would have been nice to read about them. Other salsa books I have read provide this information. Despite these negative comments, I can recommend this book to anyone looking for some unique recipes to spice up the meals and parties.

Great pictures and easy to follow recipes that take about 10-20 minutes. Full of all different varieties of salsas (veggie, corn, bean, nut, seafood, & exotic). The most helpful part is list after the recipe telling you what type of food your salsa would go well with. I bought the book last week and have made 3 different salsas already. I even bought a second copy to give to a friend.

This colorful cookbook has photos for every recipe! The recipes are in a simple format easy to follow with a photo showing how it should look when finished. There are a wide variety of recipes including tomato, chile, tropical, fruit, corn, bean, garden, nut/seed/herb, ocean & exotic salsas to choose from. In the back of the cookbook there is a helpful conversion chart, sources for ingredients, a glossary of terms, and cooking technique explanations. I highly recommend adding this book to your cookbook collection. Your friends & family will love all the recipes! :)

Salsa anyone? THE GREAT SALSA BOOK by Mark Miller is all about salsa. If he wanted to be cute, he could have titled his book, "Everything you wanted to know..." and not have been far off the mark. Miller's book includes over one hundred pages of salsa recipes: Tomato and Tomatillo salsas; Chile salsas; Topical salsas (Tropical mango salsa and Mango mash); Fruit salsas (Apple Pasado Salsa, Moroccan Date Salsaa0; Corn and Bean salsas; Nut, seed and herb salsas; and plenty of other exotic salsas. So you see, salsa isn't just that stuff you get at the Taco bar.

As I am trying to eat more vegetables, I find the `Grilled Vegetable Salsa' with chiles, eggplants, shiake mushrooms, zucchini squash, and asparagus, most appealing. Or, if you want something sweet as well as colorful, try is the sweet potato and pecan salsa with maple syrup and cranberries. Miller includes color photos of all his prepared dishes. This is truly a great salsa book.

This book resulting in me becoming the salsa expert among my family and friends. I was even able to impress company executives with minimal cooking experience. I apply techniques explained in this book on other recipes (such as blackening tomatos and red peppers. Many friends have purchased this book after I cooked them a dish from it.

We made 5 of the recipes for our salsa party and everybody loved it.We would definitely make them again and try some more.

I prepared 5 'salsas' from this book the first time I used it. They push the boundaries of what is a salsa to encompass a wide variety of food types. Anyone can find at least one favorite recipe in this book.

I have loved this book for a decade. The two that I keep coming back to are Avocado-Serrano (page 38) and Tejas Sunflower Seed (page 116), each of which is worth the price of the book many times over for me. I have won prizes in salsa-making competitions with both! I have also tried a number of other recipes from this book with success, though I will admit there are many recipes in the book I haven't tried. On many occasions I've used some recipe in this book as a template to make something with slightly different ingredients, rather than trying to create from scratch, and I've usually had great results.

I will agree with some other reviewers that this is not a book containing 100 variations of the standard pico de gallo that you would find at a Mexican restaurant, but instead casts the net wide for "salsas" you might eat with chips, meat, fish, poultry, etc. To me that is a benefit, not a downside. I also have tried a couple of recipes from the book where the result didn't excite me, so you might want to try a recipe before you plan to serve it for an important dinner party. Another caveat is that (as other reviewers have pointed out) the physical format of the book can make it hard to leave the book open to follow a recipe; I use one of those plastic cookbook protectors that is weighted on both ends with marbles and that has worked well for me with this and other books.

The reason I give the book 5 stars is that I tend to review based on the best I get out of the product, not on how it might have been improved; the high points of this book (the 2 recipes above, the overall breadth of recipes, and the creativity I have managed to get from using and elaborating on these recipes) make me give it 5 stars. I wish I had more cookbooks that I consulted as much as this one!

The Great Salsa Book is a must for those who think beyond the idea of salsas being a basic condiment served in Mexican restaurants. The great variety of salsas in this book tempts the cook to invent recipes around the salsa, not the other way around. The combinations of fruits, vegetables, and more traditional Mexican salsas allows the reader to explore foods from throughout Mexico, Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean. If you look at these recipes as essential side dishes, rather than something to dip a chip into, then you will appreciate the truly remarkable opportunities this book provides.

The corn and bean salsas, for example, are exceptional accompaniments to steaks or other grilled meats. The corn and green chile salsa also goes very well with grilled salmon or swordfish. Fruit salsas go very well with Caribbean food, while salsas that include seafood are excellent first courses when served with warm tortillas. In short, if you take a moment to consider all the remarkable ways these salsas can enhanced your dining experience, you will realize it is an indispensible part of your collection.

Sometimes all you need to make a food entree really "sing" is to add a salsa. No matter what kind of food you are having you can find a great one in the book called The Great Salsa Book by the great Chef Mark Miller. Several salsa types included in this book are : tomato and Tomatillo, Chile , Tropical , Fruit , corns , Bean, Garden, Nut, seed and herb , Ocean and exotic. In the book there are also cooking techniques, a glossary, sources to find ingredients and conversion scales. The recipes are not complicated, usually don't involve too many ingredients and are indeed many are not ordinary. If you don't like to experiment and try something new this book is not for you. But I love to experiment and work with new ingredients and more.

The one I tried today with breaded tilapia was the Sun- dried Tomato salsa (anchovy, garlic, basil , thyme, sun dried tomatoes and more spices) gave it nice salty but garlicy/ oniony spin. I would rate it 9.4/10. Ones that I have tried are the Tricolor salsa (9.6/10), Chipotle Tomatillo (9.6/10), Apple and Green chile salsa (9.4/10). Fabulous ones are the Corn and Green Chile salsa (9.8/10) and the Barbados Black Bean salsa (9.8/10).

BBQ and eating season is upon us. You can be sure I will try more of these amazing salsas. Find the book and try them for yourself!