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    La Belle Cuisine - Cookbooks

Fine Cuisine with Art Infusion

"No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook
in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice
and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers."
~ Laurie Colwin

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Cooking

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Lotus
Bashi, Qi
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Asian Noodles:
75 Dishes To Twirl, Slurp, And Savor

Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing
from Gourmet

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Our Favorite Cookbooks

Please understand up front what a daunting task we have before us!
Our cookbook collection numbers well over 1,000. How in the world do we
narrow it down to our all-time favorites? The ones we absolutely could not
live without?
Having said that, I must add that I refuse to complicate this exercise by
insisting on a particular order. Even a simple alphabetical listing seems
too stressful at this point. And we cannot imagine having to list them in
order of preference!
So. We will simply begin by beginning with the first must-have cookbook
that comes to mind...
 

Red Lotus
Chinese
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Hundred-Corner Shrimp Balls

The Gourmet Cookbook
Edited by Ruth Reichl, Copyright © 2004 by Condé Nast Publications (Houghton Mifflin)

Makes about 45 hors d’oeuvres
Active time: 1 hour
Start to finish: 5 hours (includes drying)

“We think this recipe from Nina Simonds, the Chinese cooking authority and longtime contributor to our pages, is one of the greatest hoes d’oeuvre recipes
we’ve ever published. Thick of it as a fancy version of shrimp toast: balls of
shrimp filling are rolled in little cubes of bread, then twice-fried to a burnished golden brown. The faceted corners of the diced bread give this hors d’oeuvre an unusual and elegant shape. If the Museum of Modern Art exhibited food, this
would be a gallery draw.”

20 slices very thin firm white sandwich bread, crusts discarded,
cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 cup drained canned whole water chestnuts
18 ounces large shrimp in shells (21-25 per pound), peeled and deveined
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons finely chopped pork fat or lard
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or sake
1 1/2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons minced scallion
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
About 8 cups peanut oil or corn oil for deep-frying
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon crushed Sichuan peppercorns, lighted toasted, or
1 teaspoon sansho (Japanese pepper) plus 1/2 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper

Special Equipment: a deep-fat thermometer

Spread bread cubes in one layer on a baking sheet and let dry at room temperature for at least 4 hours.
Blanch water chestnuts in boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and rinse
under cold water. Pat dry and finely chop.
Purée shrimp in food processor. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in
water chestnuts, egg white, pork fat, rice wine, ginger, scallion, salt, and cornstarch. Beat shrimp mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon, throwing
it against the side of the bowl to combine well and compact it. Dip your hands in cold water and form a rounded teaspoon of mixture into a ball,
then roll ball in bread cubes, pressing cubes in lightly. Place on a baking
sheet and make more shrimp balls in the same manner, arranging in one
layer on baking sheet.
Heat 2 inches oil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat until it registers 375 degrees F on thermometer. Fry shrimp balls in batches of 8, turning several times, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain. (Return oil to 375 degrees F between batches.)
Heat oil until it reaches 375 degrees F again. Fry shrimp balls again in 4 batches, turning frequently, until deep golden, about 1 minute per batch. Transfer shrimp balls to fresh paper towels to drain.
Stir together kosher salt and peppercorns in a small bowl. Serve shrimp
balls with peppercorn mixture for dipping.

Cook’s Note
The bread dice can be left to dry for up to 12 hours.

Featured Archive Recipes:
Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Hot and Sour Salmon with Greens (Nina Simonds)
Salmon Rillettes
Seafood Pâté
Shrimp and Basil Beignets
Shrimp Dumplings (Dim Sum)
 

Current Cookbook Feature
Food and Art (Artist's Cookbooks)
Recipes from out-of-print (or hard to find) cookbooks

Stay Tuned!
New recipes from more of our favorite cookbooks will be featured soon.
In the meantime, why not check these out?

Julia Child (The Way to Cook)
Julia (Child) and Jacques (Pepin) Cooking at Home
Classic Home Desserts
Commander's Kitchen
The Cook and the Gardener
Country Garden Cookbook Series
Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Marcella Hazan)
Feast: Food to Celebrate Life (Nigella Lawson)
Home Cooking (Laurie Colwin)
Lee Bailey's New Orleans
Lee Bailey's Southern Food and Plantation Houses
Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies
(and any other Maida Heatter cookbook...)
Emeril Lagasse's New New Orleans Cooking
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Rao's Cookbook
Saveur Cooks Authentic American
Saveur Cooks Authentic French
Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook
In the Sweet Kitchen
Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home
Union Square Cafe Cookbook
Patricia Wells at Home in Provence
White Dog Cafe Cookbook

Index - Cookbook Features
Food Features
Recipe Archives Index