Los Isleños Cookbook: Canary Island Recipes [Plastic Comb]

Los Isleños Heritage & Cultural Society (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2000

More than 800 recipes reflect the flavorful cuisine of Louisianaís IsleÒosómodern-day descendants of Canary Islanders who immigrated in 1778.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Located in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, Los IsleÒos Heritage Cultural Society maintains a museum and sponsors annual IsleÒo Fiestas, with attendance increasing each year. El Museo de Los IsleÒos has been designated an international museum by the Canarian government and has received the honor of being named the North American capital of the Canary Islands.

Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 480 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing; 1st Pelican Ed edition (April 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565547608
• ISBN-13: 978-1565547605
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #718,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Spanish

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mild Deception but a Fair Cookbook, by fermed, December 20, 2001

By 

Fernando Melendez "fermed" (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Los Isleños Cookbook: Canary Island Recipes (Plastic Comb)

I came across this book while browsing Amazon[.com], and it amazed me that there could be a 426 page book devoted to the recipes of the Canaries. The Canaries: beautiful islands off the Atlantic coast of North Africa, impeccable weather, incredible beaches, fantastic people, on and on I could sing the wonders of these islands; but the one thing I could never say is that they have a native cuisine. You eat very well there, of course, but the food is either prepared in the Spanish or the Continental manner. There are a few "ways of doing things" that are typical of the islans, such as cooking "wrinkled potatos" (small potatoes cooked in their skin, which wrinkle) and certainly there are a variety of "mojo" sauces into which you dip your morsels of meat or fish.But a cuisine? There is no native cuisine.

So this book, subtitled "Canary Island Recipes" is mildly deceptive; but have heart. The book itself is very fine and I am glad I got it. After all, some day I may be given some meat from the tail of an alligator, and I will immediately consult the book for the Swedish Alligator Meatballs recipe and go to work. But please note that the closest alligator to the Canaries is probably more than 4,000 miles away.

Very well, people from the Canary Islands settled in Louisiana in the 1770's, and eventually they and their descendants populated the Parish of St. Bernard. In recent years Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society of St. Bernard has flourished, made contact with the Canary Islands, and in general blossomed forth with great pride in their distant origins. I suspect that dozens, if not hundreds of residents took on the project of creating a cookbook for sale that would bring some cash with which to fund their cultural projects, and thus this book. The editor states in the introduction: "While the title [of this book] may be misleading, it was not intended to be." Well, OK. There are 800 or so recipes here, and many, perhaps the majority, are unprofessional. The ingredients, more often than not, include frozen, canned, packaged, dehydrated, or otherwise abused food stuff. Exacly what your granny uses, don't kid yourself. I would be remiss if I didn't include a typical recipe from the book (this one contributed by Genelle Armstrong).

YUMMY POTATOES

2 lb bag of frozen hash brown potatoes
16 oz sour cream
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup onions, chopped fine
2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

salt & pepper to taste
2 cups cracker crumbs, crushed
1 stick butter, melted

Mix first 7 ingredients and spoon into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 until bubbly, then top with cracker crumbs and butter. Return to oven and bake until topping is crispy.

Surely a pre-coronary repast using mainly off the shelf ingredients. This is a people's cookbook, one from (if not for) the heart, as rich and varied as the great state of Louisiana. It has little to do with Canary Island cooking. Count your blessings and enjoy the book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Isleno in the middle, August 8, 2007

By 

Dianna G. Mahony "Dianna Gonzales Mahony" (Picayune, Mississippi United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Isleños Cookbook: Canary Island Recipes (Plastic Comb)

I don't normally do reviews, but the last two for this product inspired me to do so. I am a descendant of the immigrants from the canary islands who settled in St. Bernard Parish, specifically Delacroix. I was a part of the Los Islenos Society throughout my youth and my grandmother submitted her receipe for Caldo to this book. The receipe, I assure you, was handed down to her from her ancestors. As with any transplanted culture, ingredients for traditional receipes are substituted with those at hand when necessary and native cultures influence and change these as well. The title is Los Islenos because that is the unique title we have aquired in the area over the years and signified us as an ethnic group in particular as louisiana settlers from the canary islands. As with any group of people, there has been a great variety of influences on our culture. An effort was made to get as wide a sampling as possible from our group for the cookbook, so you will find cajun, irish, italian, german, and creole influenced receipies as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars About the Louisiana Canaries, not the Atlantic ones..., October 20, 2005

By 

Marianne Perdomo Machin "mariannep" (MONTE LENTISCAL, Gran Canaria 35310 Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Isleños Cookbook: Canary Island Recipes (Plastic Comb)

I hesitate to enter this review as I don't have access to the book in question. But I thought the previous review got a bit misleading in some points (in others he's actually quite helpful).

I am a native of the Canary Islands, and live there still. Having lived for some time in the US and Scotland, and visited several other countries, as well as relatives in mainland Spain, I must heartily disagree with the reviewer: The Canary islands *do* have their own native cuisine. It may be easier to find it in the lean stews and the fried pork that people consider everyday food than in the beach-side restaurants, but it's there. And then, ok, like most on the planet nowdays, we all do fry potatoes from time to time...

Now the book in question... I wouldn't say it's about Canary Island cuisine, but about Canary Louisiana cuisine. Why? Because there are a good number of things I've never seen anyone in the islands cook other than as a novelty (if at all): pumpkin bars, chocolate chip cookies, home-made crock-pot chilli, ... the list gets quite long (there *are* lots of recipes). Certainly the recipe extracted by the reviewer doesn't strike as anything a normal canary islander would cook. However, it does make sense that these are recipes of the Canary people who went to live in Louisiana - their canary heritage enriched by meeting people from other cultures, running into other foodstuffs and, why not, by keeping also alive dishes from other regions of Spain (like paella, of Valencian origin but beloved by most Spaniards of every region).

I'd say, take a look at the index of recipes and see if it all sounds yummy or interesting. And remember this is from Canary Louisiana, with its unique history. Just like today's Canary Islanders may proudly serve Venezuelan food (a knowledge got from the many islanders who had to seek work there), this cuisine has taken a bit from here and there, and (I guess) made it its own, and there's nothing wrong in that :)