Customer Reviews

Vegetable Harvest: Vegetables at the Center of the Plate

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Timing is everything.

Patricia Wells, an American living in Paris, started her cookbook series in the traditional way --- with a book about bistro cookery. She moved up the food chain to fine Paris restaurants, then wandered south to Provence and the Trattoria cooking of Italy.

And now this book on vegetables.

Perfect timing. American cooks ---and eaters --- have come to understand what the French always knew: The way to slimness is portion size. That is, smaller helpings of fatty protein, larger servings of vegetables.

This is also the way to health. If you've read "The Omnivore's Dilemma"--- or any recent headline about food inspection and food safety --- you know you're taking a chance every time you shop at the supermarket. They say you'd never eat sausage if you saw how it's made; ditto for most beef, chicken or pork.

The secret --- saieth my wife, the one-time food professional --- is to spend more money to buy smaller quantities of the highest-quality meat and poultry. How do you fill your plate and satisfy your hunger? With vegetables, which are, at their worst, much less toxic than run-of-the-mill supermarket meat and poultry.

"Vegetable Harvest" establishes Patricia Wells as Julia Child for the new millennium. She's not a frothing New Ager, telling you to heap your plate with vegetables because meat is sinful --- she's just a close observer of traditional French cooking. That is, meat/fish/poultry prominent on the plate, just cooked with vegetables or surrounded by them.

To that good sense, she's added some welcome information: nutritional data about the dish: Tomato and Strawberry Gazpacho, for example, is 27 calories per serving, with 1 gram of protein and 6 grams of carbohydrates. And she's not above serving up the odd fact about her subjects (did you know that, in the 16th century, Europeans considered the tomato as an aphrodisiac?).

"Vegetable Harvest" is an encyclopedia of recipes --- it's 300 pages, with almost no commentary. Most are simple, requiring few exotic ingredients or advanced techniques. I'm particularly excited about the soups, but judging from the recipes I've tried and the pages I've turned down, there's a lot here to love in every category.

And I certainly look forward to loving the healthier, trimmer me.

`Vegetable Harvest' by the prolific culinary expatriate journalist and leading contemporary chronicler of the French `cuisine bourgeoisie' Patricia Wells is anticipated by foodies with about as much glee as the fans awaiting the next Harry Potter installation. At least at my house, that is true. So, imagine my surprise when I discover I am not immediately impressed by the book's realization of the premise promised by the title and subtitle. In the end, I find this a typically rewarding Patricia Wells cookbook. It's just that Ms. Wells happened to hide her best light under a basket this time.

This is NOT a book all about vegetable recipes! Rather, it is a book which, like all her other books, celebrates everyday French cooking, and in doing so, underlining the fact that vegetables are central to much of what is great about French cooking, and shows us how this is so. Overall, the book covers all the bases that any typical cookbook does. It has some recipes with no vegetables in it at all, and some where the only vegetable is an herb or some garlic. But what Madame Wells does with vegetables is really a joy. The book is something like a movie where a traditionally great supporting actor such as Harvey Keitel or Joe Panteleone (Joe Pants!) steps into the leading role, with Jack Nicholson or John Travolta playing the supporting role.

The part about hiding her virtues under a basket refer to the fact that there are two facts given for almost every recipe which are enormously useful for using the recipes for good nutrition or entertaining. The amazing thing is that these features show up with no fanfare in the introduction. The first is a nutritional analysis of each dish by serving. For example, the Roasted Chickpeas, Mushrooms, Artichokes, and Tomatoes on page 146 has 235 calories, 3 g fat, 12 g protein and 47 g carbohydrates. Thus, if you are limiting your intake of total calories, fats, or carbs, you know where you stand! This eminently useful feature did not appear in her previous book, `The Provence Cookbook' or in any earlier work. The second feature is a wine suggestion for each of the more substantial dishes (Some appetizers and some desserts have no suggestion.) This feature does appear in Ms. Wells' earlier books, and like her earlier books, it is aimed at the dedicated wine connoisseur. The recommendations are extremely specific, citing particular vintners such as the Mas de la Dame from Les Baux de Provence for Guy Savoy's Tomato Coulis with Asparagus and Mint.

These wine choices are consistent with the tone of the entire book, which is clearly written for the foodie, especially the dedicated Francophile foodie. A second symptom of this targeting is the fact that Ms. Wells does an excellent job of specifying the kinds of special equipment one will need to prepare a dish, and a survey across all recipes reveals that one will be limited if you do not have a food processor, a blender, a 12 inch saute pan with lid, a good sized pasta pot with colander, a fine mesh sieve (chinoise), a food mill, an ice cream maker, and a very sharp knife (with excellent knife skills) or a good mandoline. This book is so engaging that it may even convince me to go out and buy an ice cream maker in order to try the recipes which require it (In truth, it's only a small minority of them, but they are enticing).

Since the book is all about FRENCH vegetable cooking, the stars of the show are artichokes, asparagus, eggplant (aubergines), avocado (I know, not a vegetable, but Ms. Wells treats it and tomatoes as veggies) basil, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, chickpeas, cucumber, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, mint, olives, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, rosemary, spinach, tomatoes, and truffles. In fact, the recipes for Brussels sprouts, radishes, and spinach are so interesting that if, like me, you are a fan of one or more of these vegetables.

Not only are the ingredients classically French, but the methods also are truly French, including braising, sautéing, and pureeing. In fact, so many dishes are pureed (hence the importance of the food mill and blender) that it reminds me of the observation that French cooking was developed to accommodate the French aristocracy's bad teeth. But, there are other valuable hints as well. My favorites are the dish where Brussels sprouts are broken down to their individual leaves before cooking, the beef pot roast with carrots (another of my favorite veggies), and the tomato sorbet (ice cream maker!). I was also very pleased to find some excellent bread recipes, most of which feature a vegetable ingredient such as pumpkin, dates, walnuts, artichokes, capers, tomatoes, and lemon. The only breads which do not incorporate vegetables within the doughs are the flatbreads coming to Paris by way of former French colonies in the Madgreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and the Levant (Lebanon).

A cursory check confirms for me that there is practically no overlap of recipes with her previous `The Provence Cookbook'. The current work appears to take its material from all over France, however it is no surprise that the most common sources are Provence and Paris.

Like `The Provence Cookbook', there are many little stories, proverbs, and `bon mots' sprinkled about the text. My favorite concerns Ms. Wells' purchase of Julia Child's oven from the Childs' Provence cottage (with the understanding that Wells' replace the appliance with a brand new unit.) This was comparable to a psychiatrist's obtaining Sigmund Freud's couch!

I must note also that not only are the photographs in the book exceptionally good and appropriate, but that the author took them all herself! All in all, this is both an excellent foodie read, education, and cooking resource.

I pre-ordered this book on a whim, and am so glad I did! The recipes are easy and accessible; the ingredient lists are short and often include what I already have kicking around the kitchen, the prep and cooking times tend to be on the short side, and the cooking techniques used are basic, but fun. The nutritional information given for each recipe is very helpful, and Ms. Wells' comments on French culture and "things she's learned" from her past experience are both useful and diverting. In a culture that perceives a balanced meal as a giant hunk of meat and a blob of potatoes on a plate with a smattering of vegetables on the side, it's a challenge to make a shift to eating more vegetables. This cookbook makes it easy to start planning a meal with the vegetables. Many of the recipes have a short enough prep time that I cook them on weeknights after work, where in the past I would get take-out or eat cereal, because real cooking didn't fit into my schedule. I have been cooking much more since I got this book, and have easily doubled my vegetable intake. I feel lighter, more energetic, and generally better about what I'm eating, and everything tastes so good that I can't wait to dig in! I haven't tried any of the breads yet, but just purchased a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook so that I can begin to tackle them too! This cookbook will almost certainly be a Christmas gift to several of my friends!

Patricia Wells has outdone herself. The recipes are easy, the directions are clear and the calorie count and other nutritional information is very helpful. Every recipe I have tried so far is delicious. Don't miss the deceptively simple corn and lemon zest recipe.

My all time favorite cookery book is 'Patricia Wells at Home in Provence' - the balance of everything was perfect - the demonstrated connection with Provence, the recipes, the stories about local producers and their products , the photos that took the reader into Patricia's own house, but more importantly those of local people like M. Henny, the butcher. There was also a great font.

The whole book gave a flavor of Provence , and had a warmth which this book lacks.

Instead of having the author's photos of produce, it would have been far more satisfying to have seen the finished results, dishes ready to go into the oven or on the table, and producers and their products.

I really don't need to see any more photos of vegetables in their raw state - I already know what they look like - a total waste of time, colour and space.

I've found the last few books by Patricia Wells to be lacking in the quality and depth of 'Patricia Wells at Home in Provence'

My goodness! Some of the gushing reviewers sound like they're working for Patricia Wells's publisher! I've always liked her cookbooks; my copy of "Bistro Cooking" is full of cooking stains. And I have a thing for cookbooks. But this one is not worth the money. There's little new here, except for an annoying tendency to stick "piment d'espelette" (try finding THAT in the supermarket) in everything. I have a huge vegetable garden, but I'm much more likely to reach for books by Deborah Madison or Marion Morash or Mark Bittman. Some have called this a "foodie" cookbook, which I call damning with faint praise. There is a certain kind of cookbook that is fun to read in bed (this one is very pretty, with clearly written recipes and nice photos), but doesn't lend itself to constant use in the kitchen. This is one of those.

You can't go wrong with Patricia Wells' books on food. "Vegetable Harvest" is no exception. This not a vegetarian cookbook, but the emphasis is on the use of fresh vegetables, fruits, etc. in a decidely French context. If you don't have a cookbook with this focus, give "Vegetable Harvest" a try. It's also a good companion for Wells' "Italian 101" or "Italian Trattoria Cooking," which are both superb.

How many pictures do we need of vegetables, even French ones? We know what a leek looks like but we NEED to know what the finished dish should look like. Recent cookbooks persist in this dreadful habit of glossy photos of bowls, whisks, eggs and landscapes when we want to know what we are cooking.
These recipes are great but there is nothing in the photos, colourful as they are, to tempt me to make any of them. One day I guess I'll have a glut of something, open this book, find a picture to make sure I know my onions and actually cook comething.

This cookbook by Patricia Wells will make you think differently about about vegetables and introduce you to whole new group of delectable recipes. If you are tired of steamed and boiled this is for you. The recipes are easy to prepare and have the nutritional data so you know what you're getting. Every recipe I tried I have liked! Buy this book and enjoy!

At a time when we're all being told to put more vegetables in our diets so we can live longer, Patricia Wells' book couldn't have shown up at a better time. Quite frankly, I've been worn out on steamed brocolli and stir fried vegetables for a long time. Now I've got some really good ideas --- and ideas about the perfect meats, etc. to go along with the veggies! So glad I have this one on my shelf. Pamela D. Blair, Author, The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond