Cookbooks for gifting

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo (Chronicle)
Heft: 384 pages | Damage: $50 | Difficulty: 8 out of 10
This deluxe glossy Chinese-food primer is geared more toward full-fledged Sinophiles than stir-fry dabblers, methodically exploring the full breadth of China’s complex cuisine. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, an authority on the subject—she’s taught classes in New York since the ’70s—arranged this new book (her 11th) not in chapters but in lessons, with plenty of helpful photos and diagrams. Read it from cover to cover to fully master the cleaver, the wok and the bamboo steamer—not to mention your own fan-dried Peking duck.
We tested: General Tso’s chicken. Dark-meat chicken + corn-starch batter + wok full of peanut oil + soy/hoisin/hot chili sauce = so much better than takeout.
Buy Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis (Little, Brown)
Heft: 288 pages | Damage: $35 | Difficulty: 7
Michael Psilakis’s debut cookbook is an emotional autobiography in narrative and recipe form. It’s also an introduction to the marvels of Hellenic cuisine. Psilakis, beginning with childhood favorites, moves from simple home cooking to complex restaurant fare. The bulk of the dishes—precise and lavishly illustrated—are easy enough to replicate (although some of his Anthos creations require dozens of ingredients and could take all day to make).
We tested: Shrimp with orzo and tomato. Shrimp + orzo + tomato sauce + spinach + feta + confited garlic puree (a pantry staple from the book that adds 40 minutes to the recipe) = quick (assuming you’ve banked some of that puree), flavor-packed pasta.
Buy How to Roast a Lamb on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller (Artisan)
Heft: 360 pages | Damage: $50 | Difficulty: 9
While Thomas Keller’s latest cookbook, focused on family-style recipes, is certainly his most accessible, it’s still among the most challenging new books of the season. This gorgeous volume from the perfectionist chef delivers four-star versions of American classics—burgers, lobster rolls, prime rib finished with a blowtorch—that are well worth the extra time and equipment.
We tested: Buttermilk fried chicken. Chicken brined for 12 hours in lemon and honey + seasoned flour + buttermilk + temperature-controlled oil bath = remarkably moist, flavorful, extra-crispy fried chicken (and the impulse to open your own chicken shack)
Buy Ad Hoc at Home on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

Baking by James Peterson (Ten Speed)
Heft: 380 pages | Damage: $40 | Difficulty: 4
Brooklynite James Peterson, an instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, has made a career out of translating professional cooking techniques into language even the worst cook could follow. His new baking tome covers all of the sweet and savory basics. More than 1,500 photos help bring complex maneuvers—from rolling croissants to gilding a cake with fondant—within the grasp of folks who burn toast.
We tested: Quiche Lorraine. Five-minute custard + chunky bacon + shredded Gruyère + basic piecrust crimped on the edges = a quick, rich quiche with a crumbly crust.
Buy Baking on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot (Phaidon)
Heft: 976 pages | Damage: $45 | Difficulty: 4
Published in 1932 and available now for the first time in English, Ginette Mathiot’s home cooking bible—the French answer to The Joy of Cooking—assumes you know your way around a saucepan, but don’t want to spend too much time stuck behind one. While Julia Child tried to explain haute cuisine to the American home cook, her Gallic predecessor took a more proletarian approach. Mathiot’s recipes, pared down to the essentials, are quick and dirty—and surprisingly easy to follow. Coq au vin, distilled into two short paragraphs, takes barely more than an hour to cook.
We tested: Trout aux amandes. Whole trout + flour/milk dredging + butter frying + slivered butter-fried almonds = an elegant weekday supper in just half an hour.
Buy I Know How to Cook on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

The New Portuguese Table by David Leite (Clarkson Potter)
Heft: 256 pages | Damage: $32.50 | Difficulty: 5
Though Portuguese cuisine gets short shrift in American homes and restaurant kitchens, in his first cookbook, Portuguese-American food journalist David Leite makes an awfully strong case for squeezing it into your repertoire. His compact guide to the foods of western Iberia is packed with mouthwatering recipes—bacalao fritters, caldo verde, spicy Azorean pork—stripped down to work in even the most cramped New York apartment.
We tested: Risoto de pato. Short-grain rice + shredded duck + chopped chorizo + rich duck broth + a hint of orange = a delicious facsimile of George Mendes’s duck rice at Aldea (one of the best new restaurant dishes of 2009).
Buy The New Portuguese Table on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy (Rizzoli)
Heft: 928 pages | Damage: $45 | Difficulty: 7
An encyclopedia of authentic Italian regionality, this massive compendium features 2,000 traditional recipes from up and down the Boot. Assembled by the Italian Academy of Cuisine—a 50-year-old institution devoted to preserving the country’s food heritage—the book was first published in Italy in 2001, and translated into English this year. The pasta purist can parse out the difference between gnocchi from Piedmont and from Emilia-Romagna. The book is absurdly comprehensive—and a tad advanced (the recipes, short on detail, assume you have a working knowledge of Italian cuisine)—with dishes both practical and outrageous (anyone for donkey stew or brain soufflé?).
We tested: Eggplant parmigiana (from Campania). Tomato sauce + fried eggplant slices + basil + buffalo mozzarella + Parmigiano-Reggiano = a gooey, cheesy, meatless classic.
Buy La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

Everyday Harumi by Harumi Kurihara (Conran)
Heft: 192 pages | Damage: $29.99 | Difficulty: 3
Harumi Kurihara is Martha Stewart’s Japanese doppelgänger—a lifestyle tycoon (with TV shows, magazines and branded cookware) who masquerades as a middle-class homemaker. Her new book of “everyday” food adapts a Japanese mom’s home-cooking repertoire for the American kitchen. A detailed ingredient glossary gives way to simple, flavorsome recipes that are so easy to follow, you’ll think you’d grown up with this stuff.
We tested: Ginger pork. Sliced pork + bok choy + soy-mirin mix + grated ginger = Japanese dinner in five minutes flat.
Buy Everyday Harumi on Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

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