Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious!, 28 Oct 2003
While pondering what to feed 2 visiting vegetarians last weekend, I came across an article featuring the recipes of this author. I tried her sweet onion ricotta cheesecake with cranberries and sage, followed by chocolate truffle topped with strawberries dipped in white chocolate. I was impressed by the simplicity of preparation and the great results and my guests were bowled over to be served something unusual and delicious.
|
|
|
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining Vegetarians, 22 May 2005
As I was browsing through the Amazon pages, I was horrified to find how few stars this book received. To get to the bottom of this, I went on to read the reviews, and I must say that the one-star reviewer has a lot to answer for.While I consider 'fish-eating vegetarians' pescatarians rather than vegetarians, I find this debate about what makes a model vegetarian, completely immaterial to the quality of a cookbook.
What matters to me is whether the recipes are reliable and tasty, whether the recipes are original (because I have already a great number of cook books, and therefore am covered for all the basics), nice pictures and presentation are an added bonus (though many of the greatest books are conspicuously plain), and compelling prose can turn a good cookery book into a great one.
I admit, that C. Brooks-Brown's prose, whilst perfectly pleasant, is not on par with that of Elisabeth David for example, but then again, I don't think that she is aiming for that.
The quality of the recipes are quite outstanding, however. It's one of my most frequently used cookery books, because I have not found a single recipe that didn't work. Just to name a few: the potato strudel is delicious, so are the 'sugar beans', and the wholewheat cheese pancakes have become a weekend staple.
In addition, there are plenty of ideas for vegans, and you can mix and match many of the dishes to suit your needs. The pictures are extremely generous and captivating.
The recipes are easy enough for beginners and every-day use, but original and tasty enough for entertaining, and the more experienced cook.
It's easily one of my top three vegetarian books, so I am going to give it a much-deserved star booster.
|
|
|
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Innovative vegetarian recipes, 3 Mar 2005
I disagree with the reviewer who gave this book one star for including fish recipes. I am a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, but I do understand that some people do. Plus, the idea of the book (as I read it) is that it's written for non-vegetarians, to give them inspiring recipes to cook for their vegetarian friends and relatives, and they would hopefully know whether the people they are cooking for eat fish. The author goes into detail in introducing the 'Pescatarian' chapter about her decision to include fish recipes, and it takes up a small part of the book.Anyway, the rest of the book is packed with delicious and inventive recipes. I particularly liked the Cranberry Torte with Toffee Sauce, and the Apple Marzipan Muffins. There's good advice about catering for large groups as well. Celia Brooks-Brown steers clear of the roasted peppers/goat cheese vegetarian recipes that are omnipresent, and for that alone I'm grateful. I'd rather my meat-eating friends bought this book for inspiration and instruction than Delia's Vegetarian book before I was coming to supper. I still can't work out whether the 'Entertaining' in the title is a verb or an adjective though...
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Aravind Adiga
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home