Cookbook Club: Homemade

So, I’ve been a bit delinquent with reviewing the latest CBC reviews...  We're actually having a Cookbook Club meeting tonight, so I figured I should catch up on the two past-due posts.  Back in January we had a very well-attended Cookbook Club meeting featuring the book Homemade by Yvette Van Boven , released in English in 2011 (originally in Dutch) and voted one of the best cookbooks of the year.  Full review after the jump…

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Homemade

Overall Rating: 2 stars

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Ever wanted to know how to make a terrine?  How about 10 different types of terrine and terrine-like items (“TLIs”)?  Then Homemade is the book for you!  While the book has a number of gems and is a feast for the eyes, it is definitely not a book you should pick up if you are at all hesitant about eating meat and fish. 

 Our CBC meeting included pizza bianca with chickpea and sage flatbreads, goat yogurt hangop with thyme and olives, lavash crackers, cauliflower soup with stilton, lots and lots of terrines/pate, Irish soda bread, herring salad with beetroot and vodka, sardine salad, long leek pie, panettone and custard pudding, winter squash buns,  – all very good, but so rich.  There were so many rich, meaty foods that we ended up going vegetarian for the following month’s meeting (the post for which will be posted later today).

The recipes are, as promised by the title, made at home from scratch.  It’s a nice change from NY’s first girlfriend’s Semi-Homemade nonsense.  We enjoyed the aesthetics of the book and the food that resulted.  While some balked at the difficulty level (read: time commitment) of some of the recipes, there is definitely a time and place for the type of recipes found in this book.  For a home cook who is starting to experiment with different ingredients and techniques, this would be an excellent gift to help them break out of their comfort zone.  







Cookbook Club Rating System:
-3 stars: This cookbook is essential, buy it now
-2 stars: Good overall, a nice addition, but not an urgent buy
-1 star: Meh; one or two good ideas, but not worth the money
-0 stars: Would work better as kindling than a cookbook