What's Cooking: Thai

Rating:
Summary: Dumbed Down Thai, or Vaguely Thai-Influenced Dishes
Review: Christine France's What's Cooking Thai might better be termed "Dumbed Down Thai", "Asian-like Dishes for Dummies", or "Vaguely Thai-Influenced and Intermittent Thai Dishes". This is a cookbook shamelessly cashing in on one's desires for authentic Thai cuisine. I've traveled to Thailand to firsthand experience the cuisine, eat regularly at Thai restaurants, and have made quite a few recipes from various Thai cookbooks, with fresh galangal, fresh cilantro (coriander) and lemongrass from the side of my semitropical home....

The recipes appear to have been thrown together without careful proofreading, or certainly trying them...last night I made "Roast Chicken with Ginger and Lime", and had to laugh when the recipe called one to "place the chicken halves on a tray over a roasting pan half filled with boiling water"...roast in a 350 degree oven for ~1 hour...When the chicken is cooked, boil the water from the roasting pan to reduce it to about a scant ½ cup. Blend the cornstarch with the water and stir into the reduced liquid. Heat gently until boiling, then stir until slightly thickened and clear. Serve the chicken with the sauce...Huh??

Come on, Christine, " reduce" a roasting pan half filled with boiling water down to a "scant ½ cup"? Uh-huh, sure! Why not make a rich water reduction from 2 gallons down to a "full ½ cup" for more of that rich "water reduction" taste?!

Is there no better crafted sauce to put over the chicken than Christine's bland cornstarch and "reduced water"...for shame! I hope others do not buy your book on "Sauces"...I've seen enough! Now in fairness, it can be a tasty chicken given it's ingredients, however to compensate for the addled instructions, I added all of the chicken drippings, with some fat, yielding perhaps one truly "scant" ounce and some cornstarch and water, to create a more tasty sauce! So, this book is geared for beginning cooks, who may not be able to rescue a sloppily written recipe with it's bland sauce, and improve it on the fly.

This book's drawbacks additionally include it's complete lack of corresponding Thai names for the recipes..it would have been nice (or perhaps rather embarrassing for Christine) to match a recipe with a familiar name at a Thai restaurant to see how close the ah, abbreviated "inspired" recipe comes to it's authentic cousin.

It lacks in it's forward hints on how to best obtain, approach and prepare the unique items of the Thai kitchen that appear in better books. It could give more hints than are in the recipes. I do give it credit for asking one to use mortar and pestle rather than food processor for preparation.

The book's abbreviated recipes, suitable for a 'Thai-influenced Cookbook" as it should be better termed, and nice photos, with how-to steps illustrated, and usually brief simple instructions are helpful for beginning cooks who do not have a good basis of Thai dishes to compare these simple recipes.

Such recipes as "Baked Cod with a Curry Crust" are of questionable Thai origin.

Her "Pad Thai Noodles" with tomato ketchup, whose photo certainly looks unlike the sum of the ingredients, with apparently green onion sections/Chinese chives (doubt lemongrass) tossed in by a food stylist, who never read the ingredients!

Want to make the great standard, Tom Kha Kai soup (chicken with coconut milk)? Sorry, not even an imitation recipe or authentic one in this meager book ...Settle for Christine's "Thai" Creamy Corn soup with Egg, Mushroom and Tofu Broth, or Spinach and Ginger Soup, Chili Spiced Shrimp wonton Soup, or Chilled Avocado, lime and Cilantro Soup...which are combinations perhaps more Chinese or Latin than Thai! Perhaps these recipes are inspired by Christine's visit to a Thai "Hilton" or other restaurant catering to American or British style cuisine!

Want an "Indian/Middle East- inspired" rather than Thai dessert, try Christine's Rosewater Ice! Want "Asian-influenced"? Go for Christine's Caramel Apple Wedges with (token) Sesame seeds! There's "Balinese Banana Pancakes", to fluff up this crazy quilt of a recipe book, looking pretty similar to a dish one can have at an IHOP (Innternational House of Pancakes) or Stir Fried Pork and Corn..."typical of Thai street food"...hmmm missed that street stand in Thailand!

Truly Authentic Thai, NOT here!

For Authentic Thai recipes, read the large and beautiful Thailand The Beautiful Cookbook, by Panurat Poladitmontr; David Thompson's scholarly tome, Thai Food; Nancie McDermott's Real Thai; Cracking the Coconut by Su-Mei Yu; It Rains Fishes by Kasma Loha-Unchit, to name just a few far more authentic Thai cookbooks. Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian cookbook has more authentic and tastier Asian recipes.

Christine is said on the flyleaf to have written/co-written over 20 books...if they are also possessing this questionable authenticity and so-so quality, worst case scenario, that might leave 19 other books for you to pass by, as well! I hope this is just one of her lesser quality books, and look forward to reading some others with better authenticity from so prolific a cookbook author.


Rating:
Summary: Every Recipe Is a Winner
Review: I bought this cookbook this summer, more to add to my collection than to actually learn Thai cooking. But then I tried a few recipes, and I've been hooked on the cookbook ever since...

Having grown up in an Asian household, I'm already familiar with a lot of the ingredients and techniques used in Asian cooking, but I love the fact that this cookbook explains ingredients and technique without being condescending to those who aren't familiar with Asian cookery much less with the kitchen.

I usually use post-it notes to mark the recipes in a new cookbook that I want to try. When I started marking pages in this cookbook, I realized that I wanted to try everything. While I haven't had a chance to sample it all just yet, I can tell you that everything I've tried has been perfect. Even my boyfriend, who is definitely a "meat and potatoes" man loves when I prepare something from this book. I've also found that, despite the simplicity of the recipes, my dinner guests always assume that I went to elaborate lengths to prepare these wonderful foods. My favorite is an exquisite cilantro coconut chicken dish that just knocks the socks off of anyone who tries it.

Rating:
Summary: Every Recipe Is a Winner
Review: I bought this cookbook this summer, more to add to my collection than to actually learn Thai cooking. But then I tried a few recipes, and I've been hooked on the cookbook ever since...

Having grown up in an Asian household, I'm already familiar with a lot of the ingredients and techniques used in Asian cooking, but I love the fact that this cookbook explains ingredients and technique without being condescending to those who aren't familiar with Asian cookery much less with the kitchen.

I usually use post-it notes to mark the recipes in a new cookbook that I want to try. When I started marking pages in this cookbook, I realized that I wanted to try everything. While I haven't had a chance to sample it all just yet, I can tell you that everything I've tried has been perfect. Even my boyfriend, who is definitely a "meat and potatoes" man loves when I prepare something from this book. I've also found that, despite the simplicity of the recipes, my dinner guests always assume that I went to elaborate lengths to prepare these wonderful foods. My favorite is an exquisite cilantro coconut chicken dish that just knocks the socks off of anyone who tries it.

Rating:
Summary: Great beginner's cookbook.
Review: This is one of my first Asian cookbooks. It's a great cookbook for beginners. Not only the instructions are clear and easy to follow, all the ingrediants in this book are easy to found in most grocery stores. I have tried several receipts on the day of my party, my guests were surprised and enjoyed the food very much. I am highly recommand this book for anyone who enjoying asian cooking.