My new cookbook

I have added several new cookbooks to my collection. Today I want to mention the one I was anxiously awaiting and which arrived a couple of days ago.

I found out about this cookbook from Jennifer, our gifted chef from Vancouver's "Roast Chicken Reasoning". If you remember, her entry for "Taste Canada" was Gambas al Ajillo, a specialty from Chez Piggy, a Kingston Ontario Restaurant. Jennifer actually worked in the kitchens of this restaurant one summer. I enjoyed very much reading her post and checked this book at Amazon.ca. The more I read the more I felt I had to have the cookbook. I was not disappointed.

Gambas al Ajillo is definitely a dish I want to try. Leafing through the book other dishes begged to be tried, for instance Curried Carrot Soup with Coconut Milk, Cashews & Coriander, Moroccan Chicken Salad with Couscous, Pollo Verde Almendrado, and others.

The book also includes recipes from their bakery Pan Chancho. The bread usually takes three days to prepare. For whole wheat bread, rye bread, multigrain, or even regular white bread on day 1 they prepare the starter, on day 2 the continue the starter and finally on day 3 they bake the bread. I would like, one day, to give this a try. Please don't tell, but I've really never been very successful with the breads I made entirely by hand. No matter what I did to help rise the bread (cover the whole thing with blankets, put inside the microwave, put in the oven with the pilot light on) the truth is, my dough never doubled-up within one hour as most recipes read. That's probably why I was so proud of my recent success with bread-maker-prepared, oven-baked bread. I finally felt like a pro in the bread making department.

I was hoping to try a recipe from the book before posting about it but with time at a premium it was unfortunately not possible. I will have more time during Fall and Winter, once the renovations and the garden do not command so much of my attention.

Before long, I also plan to make a trip to Kingston, Ontario.

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