November Cookbook of the Month Review

I kind of feel like I didn’t stay very well rounded in my choices of recipes from this month’s Cookbook of the Month.  4 recipes – 1 was a meal, 1 a bread, and the other 2 sweet recipes!!  But regardless, I sure had fun virtually visiting Hawaii through these recipes!  In fact, now I really have a desire to go to Hawaii – I did before, but now it’s multiplied!!


There were actually quite a few recipes I would have loved to try from this book if I would have prepared ahead of time so that I could search out the ingredients.  Like the Kalua Pig recipe – it sounds absolutely amazing!!!



Cooking Times Listed in Recipes: no
You need to make sure you read entirely through these recipes first!
 
Number of Photos: noneWell, technically, there are photos in this book, but not of the food from the recipes.  There are lots of black and white photographs of Hawaii and different things in Hawaii.  This isn’t one you’re going to buy because of the pretty photos!

Difficulty Level of Recipes: medium
There seems to be some easy recipes, and some a little more advance.  In my opinion, it has a great mix of recipes.

Availability of Ingredients: medium 
I think most of these ingredients are fairly easy to find, but there are some things – like banana leaves or ti leaves, that may require a bit of searching.  I think that some of the harder to find ingredients could be found at a well stocked Asian grocer.

Shoyu Chicken – 4 out of 5

 Hawaiian Sweet Bread – 4.25 out of 5

Mango Bread – 4.25 out of 5

Haupia – 4 out of 5

Ok, I do have to say – from the information above, and if you were to just casually flip through this book, it’s not one I’d be drawn towards immediately.  But this is so much more than a cookbook.  If you want to really know about the food of Hawaii, this is a great resource.  I’d say it’s 50% information and 50% recipes.  I didn’t have a chance to read through most of the book, but what I did read was so interesting and really informative.  Usually I tend to turn away from cookbooks without photos or cookbooks that aren’t super organized (by recipe), but this is one that breaks that for me.  This is one I would definitely buy for my shelf!  

And I can’t believe that I am now revealing the last Cookbook of the Month for 2010.  I have had so much fun traveling the world through these cookbooks, and I have learned so much about cuisine around the world.  It’s going to be strange getting to choose just any old cookbook for my Cookbook of the Month starting next month!  I debated between a few locations for this last choice.  At the top of my list were Puerto Rico, Cuba or Russia.  But I got to the library and saw 2 gorgeous cookbooks on the cuisine of Spain, and I couldn’t pass them up.  I ended up checking both of them out so that I could have some more time to decide, and I’ve decided to go with The New Spanish Table by Anya von Bremzen.  I’ve already started bookmarking recipes!!

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