The Rustic Table; Simple Fare from the World's Kitchens

Countries all over the world have their own kind of"rustic" food -- simple, thrifty, hearty, unpretentious, and full of flavor. Earthy and tantalizing, rustic is the kind of food that memories are made of, passed down through generations of grandmothers and aunts to daughters and sons.In The Rustic Table, IACP Award-winning author Constance Snow re-creates flavors from more than twenty-five different countries with more than 200 recipes for starters, sides, entrées, and desserts.

For breakfast, try West African Spice Doughnuts, Vietnamese "Happy Pancakes," or Swiss Fruit and Mixed-Grain Porridge. Lunch and dinner possibilities include light entrées like Asian-Style Noodle Salad with Spicy Sesame Dressing and French Vegetable Soup with Basil and Garlic, as well as hearty dishes such as Korean Grilled Beef, Native American Planked Salmon, and Greek Lamb and Bulgur Meatballs with Cucumber Yogurt Dip. And there's no dessert like a truly rustic one: Creole Praline Bread Pudding with Warm Whiskey Sauce, Thai Sticky Coconut Rice with Mango and Mint, or Shaker Lemon Pie.

The Rustic Table is a real taste of really easy rustic food. This is a cookbook for home cooks who enjoy using ingredients as close to nature as possible and who want to prepare food with ingredients that are easy to find and recipes that involve just a few quick steps.

Constance Snow has been a freelance writer for more than fifteen years. She is the author of five books, including Gulf Coast Kitchens: Bright Flavors from Key West to the Yucatán, which won a 2004 IACP Cookbook Award in the American category. Her food and travel stories have appeared in numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, National Geographic Traveler, Bride's magazine, and Country Inns. Since 1995 she has written two weekly cooking columns for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. She lives in New Orleans.