3 books to give to the cookers this Christmas

Christmas is approaching and you have to think about gifts for family and friends : invisible friend, Santa Claus, Reyes … Today I am going to recommend 3 books to give to the most passionate about cooking or complete your gastronomic library (who doesn’t Is there a self-gift for these dates?). Do you have kitchens in the family? do not think about it any more, these books are the ones that I have right now on the nightstand and I will alternate them depending on how I had the day. The only time I have to read is at night, I don’t usually watch much TV and I take advantage of that calm moment to learn a bit in a playful way, it is the best way to have new knowledge, think of new recipes and transfer all that to the blog .

The Larousse Gastrónomica  is a renovated classic, I have both versions (normal and “luxury”), it is a book that should not be missing in any house where you like to eat and cook as it explains in detail any questions or queries. Mikel’s book, El Comidista , is a way to disconnect from a hard day at work, it always starts a smile and gives me ideas for new and original recipes and my latest discovery, Recipes with History , is a book for history lovers and that invites you to travel through time without leaving the kitchen.

The Larousse Gastronomique.

“The kitchen is not only techniques, processes and recipes, but a powerful mediation mechanism between different cultures, something that gastronomy has always favored”
Andoni Luis Aduriz

Considered by chefs, cookers, blogers and gourmets as a great unique and indispensable work in any kitchen , whether professional or your own. It has a luxury godfather: the Basque chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, whose Mugaritz restaurant has just been considered one of the three best in the world.

This classic of the kitchen appears in a luxury edition, and in its more than 1,200 pages there is room for the most interesting culinary proposals from the five continents. More than 3,000 recipes, 400 of them signed by the most important chefs around the world, appear in the work together with definitions of raw materials, processes, techniques, designations of origin or professional vocabulary.

The Larousse Gastronomique in Spanish appeared in our country for the first time in 2004, endorsed by Santi Santamaría. With recipes from the most prestigious chefs (Arzak, Adrià, Arola, Ruscalleda, Subijana …), it was a major editorial effort to bring a mythical work, designed in 1938 by Prosper Montaigne, closer to the Spanish public.

A luxury within the reach of the most passionate and demanding kitchens.

• Author: Prosper Montaigné.
• Publisher: Larousse Editorial SL (ISBN: 978-84-8016-984-4)
• Price: € 100.

The recipes of El Comidista.

I have a special affection for this book, since it belongs to one of the greats, the guru of the moment: Mikel Iturriaga, whom I consider a full-fledged gastro-friend. I have had the privilege of attending the presentation of his book and meeting his brother Juanma, a sports icon from my youth (I even took a photo with him). To recommend this classic future I leave you what Mikel himself said in his presentation and a few photos.

In this book, as in my blog, I use above all the sense of humor that I put in the introduction of the recipe, in them I put jokes, chascarrillos, something nice so that people get better. In the recipe itself I like that it is well explained, without nonsense. Humor is important to me, it is a lubricant in communication, using a simile, it is like in “The last tango in Paris” , with humor everything goes much better.

It is a book to bring the kitchen closer to everyone, the kitchen is democratic and the book is classified by theme: “For you who are poor”, “for clumsy”, “for whipping” or “for unineuronal organisms”. Include meals when you farted the day before “postcard alcoholics” and tricks to “plunder the family”, be “dick for a day”, if you hate the people at your job “humiliate your colleagues with the tupper” or “Cheat serving leftovers” … In short, a book to take the kitchen with joy and, at the same time, savor good and simple dishes. To enjoy, which is what we have come to this world.

I also include a recommendation of a disc in each recipe, they are there because I like them and that’s it, I have chosen quite audible discs that come in handy for each recipe. I recommend that you buy this book because the second one will be much worse, and that is that if I did another one like this they would call me a genius.

The paper and the internet, you, both blog, so much blog and as much as you can go to paper, eh? mopping stab. Internet is fine when you are looking for a recipe, for example, garlic chicken, you go and look for it and you find a lot of recipes. The paper and the format of the book are better when you are not very clear, when you want to find a recipe at the moment. The role of the kitchen goes through gourmet blogs, which do a great job, in which home-made cooking is disclosed. I am not a Taliban from the web, I love being on the internet, but I really like paper, I am in favor of books, I love cookbooks, and I think that in no way can they supplant all the kitchen there is In Internet.

And I’m going to finish with this phrase by John Waters: “You have to turn books back into something cool. If you go home with someone and they don’t have books, don’t throw it away ” Wise advice, never trust someone who doesn’t have books at home.

• Author: Mikel Lopez Iturriaga.
• Publisher: Plaza & Janes Editorial SA (ISBN-13: 978-8401347740)
• Price: € 17.80

Recipes with history. A culinary journey through time.

“To know what the common people ate, there is literature, which was one of my great sources”

This book is the one I am reading this week, super interesting for those passionate about History, and even more so for those who like History and cooking. It reviews gastronomy from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day, passing through the Greco-Latin world or an evocative Al-Andalus.

In this way we find the recipe for Mesopotamian bread, the aroma of green soup that was served in papal palaces of the 15th century, the salad that Marcial ate with Emperor Domitian, or the almond cake that Felipe V ate at La Granja, a delicious chickpea pate with Egyptian sesame, some sweet fritters with honey syrup and Greek walnuts, the asparagus that Madama Pompadour prepared in Versailles for her lover Louis XV, a refreshing pistachio ice cream with rose water or a stew, which are so old like Humanity “There was always a pot on the fire where you put what you had, meat, vegetables.”

Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci started a restaurant? And what was the precursor of minimalist food although in the Renaissance nobody was interested in their dishes (where the fat was in large quantities …)? This book allows us to know important moments in history and delicious anecdotes of the art of cooking . I leave you an example, the meatballs of Ashurbanipal (9th century BC), were made with a spiced meat dough, battered and fried in a fat and seasoned with fruit juice, pomegranates and ground walnuts. Think of the Swedish meatballs with berries sauce, do you notice the similarity? Where did the recipe originate? What is the true one? Ask a Swede for his famous Köttbullar, the ones that have made Ikea even more famous.

“They change the ways and the ingredients, and the way of presenting the table, but not the kitchen itself.”

• Author: Ángeles Díaz Simón.
• Publisher: Ariel Editorial (ISBN-13: 978-8434413290)
• Price: € 23.65

I hope you liked my post today, soon another recommendation of three other cookbooks. But that will be in another year, 2012. Enjoy Christmas and remember that you have to give books… and read them! There is no better gift.