Customer Reviews

Soups (101 Essential Tips)

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I checked "Perfect Soups" by Anne Willan out of the library and was so delighted with the easy-to-follow and beautifully photographed recipes that I bought two copies-one for my own kitchen shelf and one for a gift. Anne Willan has written a cookbook for beginners as well as long-time cooks. The step-by-step recipes clearly tell the cook what equipment is used, what ingredients are needed, how to master cooking techniques, what the finished product looks like and how garnishes can be prepared and used to make each bowl of soup a masterpiece. I loved this cookbook and have never seen another book of soup recipes that included such good and healthy-sounding soups.

Even though this book is so tiny, doesn't mean it doesn't have some really neat tricks to make your soups extra pretty.

One of my favorite ideas from this book is the idea of oven-toasted heart croutons. There are also ideas for cream decorations that are so easy to make, yet look so gourmet.

This book is divided into 9 sections: Super Soups, Making Stocks, Ingredients & Preparation, Creamed & Pureed Soups, Hearty Soups, Light Soups, Cold Soups, Short Cuts and Presentation.

This book is geared to new cooks and gives great advice on how to prepare the ingredients with step-by-step pictures.

Some of the recipes in this book for Fall:

Butternut Squash Soup
Pumpkin & Apple Soup
Borscht
French Onion Soup
Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup

Most of the soups contain a short list of ingredients and could not be easier to make. You will also find information on how to freeze soups (my favorite thing to do so I always have a soup ready to heat up), use your microwave to speed up preparations or make garnishes or even piroshki to serve with soup.

No difficult cooking tricks...this book is just filled with easy-to-make treats!

This book and the rest of the series are fantastic. They are small, have great pictures and meticulous directions. That said, the book tackles really good food. I recommend all of Ms. Willan's books to some degree, but the "Look and Cook" and "Perfect ----" books I particularly recommend especially if you like to see what your food is supposed to look like when it's done.

This soup book was priceles and her "Perfect French Country" book is dog-eared. In fact, the French food in that book is so good my teenaged son will eat it.

This book may be small but packs in great information and recipes. Every soup I have made from this book has turned out great. I have been very impressed. In addition to the recipes, the book has small tutorials and/or explanations of ingredients, techniques, etc. The pictures and explanations are easy to follow. I have plenty of other cook books (Fannie Farmer, Moosewood, Indian & Asian cookbooks, etc.) but I am always using this one.