Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine

I've now cooked from both Molly Stevens' _All About Braising_ and Boulud's _Braise_. None of the five recipes from Stevens were tasty or interesting enough for me to want to cook them again. So far I've cooked four from Boulud (Tender Beef with Horseradish, Parsnips, & Celery Root; Chicken Basquaise with Artichokes; Red Beans with Bacon & Chorizo; and the one referenced below), and I will definitely make all four again. Some friends were over the other night for the Tamarind Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Okra, and they couldn't stop raving about it. Boulud's reputation as a master is wholly justified by his careful attention to every flavorful detail in these recipes. They may take a bit of time (many call for overnight marinating) and a great knife (veggies cut into 1/4" dice, for instance) to prepare. And you'll surely have to make a trip to a specialty grocery for some ingredients. But the superb results wholly justify the time and effort. I really can't recommend this book highly enough for those who love to cook, and to eat, truly great food. Now it's time to make that Cubano Chicken with Tomatoes, Peppers, & Citrus......

This book is complete with photos and detailed methods. It gives even a novice at cooking the information needed to prepare what I consider the most flavorful dishes imaginable.

More years ago than I would like to remember my mother would start to cook something every Sunday morning. She would put meat, potatoes, veggies into a great cast iron pot and set it to cooking very slowly. We would go to church and when we got back it would be done. I didn't realize it at the time, but what she was doing was braising. She is long gone now, but I wish I could have given her a copy of this book. Here are about a hundred recipies cooked this way. The variety, the spices -- it seems that every type of cooking has dishes that are braised. Here the dishes come from Thailand, Italy, Mexico, Turkey, Lebanon, France, Russia, China and many other places. There is the distinctive flavors of each of these cooking type, but each dish has been thought about, modified, tested and made Boulud's own. Tonight I'm serving Ropa Vieja, a Cuban braised flank steak with peppers, tomatoes, and onions. I started it marinating last night. I started it cooking a couple of hours ago. It smells wonderful.

`Braise' by leading New York restauranteur and chef, Daniel Boulud and leading culinary writer for hire, Melissa Clark is high on my list of books I look forward to reviewing for both the authors' track records and the importance and value of the subject. The fact that another recent book, `All About Braising' by Molly Stevens covers the identical territory makes reviewing this book even easier than usual for a book by someone of Boulud's stature. The very first observation I must make about Boulud's book is that Stevens' book contradicts the comments on Boulud's back jacket which suggest Boulud and Clark have written the last word on the subject, as there are many things about Stevens' book which make it a superior first book on braising, and even give one grounds for passing on Boulud's book, if money or bookshelf space is tight. Being simpleminded, I first check the size and recipe count of the two books. While Boulud / Clark has 228 pages, Stevens weighs in at 480 pages, over twice as much for a similar list price. Another simpleminded comparison shows that while Boulud / Clark give us nine (9) pages of introductory material on braising technique, Stevens gives us 33 pages, including some superb illustrations of the variety of braising pots. Boulud / Clark speaks about these briefly, but offers little illumination on the great range of pots used for braising. They say enough, but certainly don't cover the field thoroughly. And, in the appendices on sources, while Boulud / Clark give us only sources for their wide range of ingredients, Stevens also gives us sources for braising cookery such as Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma, Lodge Cookware, and Big Tray. I am surprised she doesn't give a reference to Le Creuset. I am very happy that both authors use a very simple `by principle ingredient' table of contents and I am doubly happy that both authors list the titles of all recipes in their tables of contents. If I were to choose one over the other, I like Stevens' breakdown of chapters for four meats, Beef, Veal, Pork, and Lamb over Boulud's one chapter on `Meat'. The only area in which Boulud and Stevens don't cover exactly the same territory is in Boulud's final chapter on braising fruits with nine (9) recipes. Stevens includes no fruit recipes. On the other hand, on every other subject, Stevens has over twice as many recipes as Boulud / Clark. For example, Stevens has 34 recipes for vegetables while Boulud / Clark has but 13. And yet, even though both authors focus on the same few vegetables such as eggplant, artichokes, cabbage, broccoli rabe, and other members of the cabbage family, there seems to be practically no overlap in recipe names. Stevens does give us a lot more on white potatoes, however, Boulud does give us the insight that sweet potatoes work well with a much different range of spices (especially citrus and the cookie spices) than do white potatoes. Of the recipe writing style in the two different books, there are some importan