REAL STEW : 300 Recipes for Authentic Home-Cooked Cassoulet, Gumbo, Chili, Curry, Minestrone, Bouillabaise, Stroganoff, Boulash, Chowder, and Much More

Presents a collection of recipes for a variety of stews that are made with beef, veal, lamb, pork, fish, poultry, and vegetables.

Wright, James Beard Award winner for Mediterranean Feast, could have subtitled this collection of recipes for one-pot meals from around the world "Comfort Foods of Many Nations." The usual international suspects are here, from Feijoada to Bouillabaisse, but with his trademark intellectual curiosity, Wright has uncovered plenty of less familiar dishes as well, such as a Thirteenth-Century Hispano-Muslim Stew with various cuts of lamb, cassia and lavender; and Piquant Mutton and Zucchini Stewed in Vinegar from Tunisia. Headnotes and sidebars are rich with etymology (Solyanka, a traditional Russian stew, means "confused") and history (the homeland of Octopus Stew from the Island of Djerba was believed to be the land of the lotus eaters mentioned by Homer). Chapters are divided by main ingredient in the stew, with selections heavy on meat there are separate chapters for beef, veal, lamb, etc., and the lamb chapter contains 60 of the book's 300 recipes. Even many of the selections in the vegetable chapter, such as Bean and Cabbage Stew from the Roussillon, are flavored with some meat. With dishes ranging from straightforward Braised Beef Short Ribs in Merlot to multilayered Duck, Sausage and Chestnut Stew from Lombardy, this is one book that can satisfy many palates.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Culinary historian Wright (The Mediterranean Feast) here offers an impressive exploration of stews-that comfort food found in one guise or another in almost every culture, from the Cordoban Farmer's Wife Stew to a Swedish Salmon Stew to an Old-Fashioned American Beef Stew. Lengthy headnotes provide culinary history and other background, and numerous boxes explore such topics as "What's a Cardoon?" or "The Cuisine of the Poor." For most collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Few aromas impart the comfort of walking into a house on a fall day like that of the scents of a stew that's been lazily simmering on the stove for hours. In Real Stew, Clifford Wright expands the notion of stews beyond customary red meat-based versions to include bouillabaisse, chowders, minestrone, chili, and more. Wright's tome covers a truly world-encompassing repertoire. He has Brazilian feijoada, Palestinian green bean and lamb stew, Croatian sausage and sauerkraut stew, Iranian fesenjan, Aruban goat stew, Mexican xonequi, and dozens more. Organized by the basic meat or fish of the stew, recipes are easy to follow and authentic without being inaccessible. There is a section of meatless stews for vegetarians. The book's comprehensiveness (bypassing only China and Japan) adds to its value. Mark Knoblauch
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