Customer Reviews

Simply Vanilla: Recipes for Everyday Use

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wasn't it Gordon Ramsay who wished to canonise the chef who added vanilla to a fish stock to impart a certain creaminess without the cream. Brilliant, as is this tome. Truly a cornucopia of culinary delights, yet disciplined and well structured. As a result I have run out of the stuff! As a good aide to cuisine should be; inspirational and inventive. A great reference that should be in every kitchen

This is a nice little cook book that offers time honored recipes with a new twist to them. The recipes are well layed out and easy to follow. Try the vanilla dry rub pork chops. It's our favorite!

My vanilla has set on the shelf all these years waiting to be doled out by the teaspoon in my fvorite recipes. What fun it has been to learn about this delightful little bean. Herbed vanilla oil and white balsamic vinegar are now staples in my kitchen. They are so quick and simple to make yet add new and delicate flavors to my food. From the sea bass with fennel to the spiced vanilla zucchini bread you will enjoy exploring and learning the many uses of vanilla.

Before buying this book you should be aware it is a promotional item for the author's vanilla company, and is not up to the standards of a professional cookbook. After the glowing reviews I was very surprised at extremely poor photos and editing errors. There are some interesting recipes, though some are quite experimental (for example the vanilla, avocado, and blue cheese ice cream), and I think this could be a good addition to a private cookbook collection. However, I bought it as a gift and between the advertising and poor presentation I was disappointed and will be returning it.

I was incredibly dissapointed in the content [i.e., background information regarding vanilla] as well as the associated recipes.

Examples of this book's short comings:
- page 10 [Introduction] states that "You also have to try her no-cook Chocolate Mousse recipe in the Desserts section. It is simply to die for!" The recipe is not included in this book!
- Chapter 2: Vanilla Tutorial. This section is WAY too brief, too superficial and lacks adequate pictures as well as written detail. I purchased this book anticipating that it contained this culinary detail, Instead, I found that 50% of the chapter was devoted to a culinarily useless myth and that the most valuable section [2.4 on vanilla varieties] was only a page of poorly written information.
- Chapter 3: The Basics, his chapter offers huge potential - yet completely avoid addressing what is/how to prepare "ground vanilla" referenced as an ingredient in recipes provided in supsequent chapters.
- Roughly 75% of this book is devoted to recipes, rather than true information offered thatpromotes understaning of this ingredient - and IMHO, the recipes are largerly unappealing and poorly written.

My advise is do not purchase this book if you are truely interested in learning about and utilizing this fabulous ingredient

This book opened my eyes to the vast world of vanilla and the diversity of its uses. As a lover of spicy food I never imagined being able to use ingredients like vanilla in dishes such as curry. Nor did I know that vanilla had such a complex flavor profile. This book covers it all. I have discovered so many different uses for vanilla that I seem to be including it in almost every type of dish that I prepare. In my pantry I now have vanilla infused oils, vinegars, sugars, and salt that are great for everything from marinades to salad dressings, cookies to savory cuisine dishes, and everything in between. This book is a must have for the "at home gourmet" who loves to cook with such an exciting ingredient.

Years ago I was on the island of La Digue, in the Seychelles. A local chap named Sunly drove us up into the forest on his ox-cart. He was an authority on all the local flora and fauna. In the evenings he would cook us curries made from the local reef fish and all the exotic ingredients that grew in the jungle behind the bungalow.
One day he pulled a long bean pod from a tree and asked in his patois of broken French and English "qu'est-ce qui est cela?"
One whiff and it was clearly vanilla! We gathered up a few and that evening they were used in the curried parrot fish. I think the Seycellois call it a Massale.
After reading Simply Vanilla I remembered that meal on La Digue, and for the sake of nostalgia wrote to Sunly to post me some of those Vanilla beans!
I now use these recipes from Matt Bolus on a regular basis (especially the vanilla red curry) and would consider his book obligatory reading for anyone who enjoys eating the finer things in life! Well done!!!
Kirk (New Zealand)

I do agree about the terrible editing. While it includes lots of fabulous recipes, this cookbook is organized in a rather confusing fashion.

For example, lots of her recipes call for powdered vanilla. I searched and searched for any mention of what that is. Is it just the scrapings from the pods or does it include other ingredients? Is there something in the preparation that is beyond the typical kitchen, so you'd have to purchase it in a store? No clue. If she hadn't discussed ingredients at all then I wouldn't be surprised. But there are whole chapters on the history and varieties of vanilla pods, how to make your own extract, even three ways to taste your extracts. She has quite a number of recipes for pantry preparations using it (vanilla sugar, salt, vinegars and infused oils). BTW, the recipes for how to make those preparations are interspersed through different sections of the book and there's no index. Meanwhile, for all those recipes that call for vanilla powder, no clue at all. I had to Google to find out what that is. If she does explain it somewhere and I somehow missed that, then I apologize. But I reeeeally searched for it and the fact is, the reader shouldn't have to work that hard to find something. When an ingredient is so important to so many recipes, it's the author's job to make it crystal clear. She doesn't.

Some recipes call for sauces that appear elsewhere in the book, but she doesn't provide page numbers for those sauce recipes, and yup -- there's no index. You have to hunt for them yourself. I found two recipes for carrots and raisins with vanilla, and they appear in separate sections of the book. She has two different recipes for orange vanilla butter, one sweet and one savory, but they're in different sections and they don't refer to each other. She put an omelet recipe in the dessert section, instead of her breakfast chapter, and a sauce used for main dishes in the appetizer section. Her red curry sauce recipe is in main dishes but the yellow and green curry sauces are with the side dishes. Sauces in all these sections are interspersed with vegetable dishes, main dishes, pancakes --all with no cross references or index. I saw recipes that call for ingredients like Miracle Whip or Splenda, also canned and frozen vegetables, processed sauces --surprising ingredients in a cookbook that was otherwise somewhat gourmet. BTW, another note on the editing: an ingredients list calls for "3/4 Miracle Whip". Does she mean 3/4 cup? 3/4 tablespoon? (not 3/4 jar...?)

That being said, this is a fine idea for a cookbook, and I was delighted to find it. The recipes do look truly delicious and they are quite workable, if you don't mind putting in your own notes to assist in using the book. But the fact is ... you shouldn't have to go to all that trouble. There are basic standards for editing and organization in publishing a cookbook and sadly, this one does not meet it.

Yummy! I''ll never look at Vanilla the same way again! This book offers quite the tutorial on the spice that I knew very little about. I'm amazed at how many everyday foods can be jazzed up by the use of this ingredient. From breakfast to dinner, Vanilla can play an amazing role in making a meal very memorable. I especially enjoyed the chapter on how to use and store vanilla beans. What I thought would be hard to do, is actually very easy. Well written with easy to follow recipes. Try the French Toast with Orange Vanilla Butter. It is absolutely outstanding!

Fantastic information about vanilla and some extremely creative ways to use the wonderful bean. From breakfast dishes to desserts you will never look at vanilla the same way again. The pictures are great and the recipes are detailed and easy to follow. After reading this book you will find that vanilla is not just for dessert anymore.