Weekend Cooking: Vegeterranean

This book was actually on my wish list for quite a while. But because of the price I rather borrowed it from the library. Read on to see what I thought of this Italian themed vegetarian book!

Title: Vegeterranean/The Vegeterranean: Italian Vegetarian Cooking
Author: Alberto Musacchio and Malu Simoes
Publisher: Karakter (Dutch edition)
Release date: November 2008
Length: 302 pages

Summary:
From Waterstones:
"This collection of the best vegetarian recipes from the kitchens of the Country House Montali is truly inspirational. Here, the Italian classics calzone, ravioli, gnocchi and lasagne are transformed into stylish, contemporary dishes, while Fagottini di Pasta Sfoglia Farcite con Couscous (Puff Pastry Envelopes Filled with Couscous) or Cappucini di Asparagi (Asparagus Cappuccino) reveal just how exciting vegetarian cuisine has become. Recipes are divided into chapters mainly corresponding to courses. The first chapter - Basics - encourages you to make your own sauces, stocks, pesto and other essentials. This is followed by Breakfast recipes that include wonderful fruit dishes and muesli. The 'Antipasti' section has a variety of dishes that stand alone or can be mixed together to make a fun platter. 'Primi', 'Secondi' and 'Dolci' chapters all include unusual and outstanding recipes, including soups, risottos, pasta dishes, tarts and pastries and wonderful desserts. Chapters on Sides and Breads finish the book off with more inspiring ideas. It has recently been announced that Vegeterranean has been voted best UK vegetarian cookbook in the prestigious Gourmand 2008 World Cookbook Awards. it has been nominated for the 'Best in the World' award to be announced in May."

Personal opinion:
First of all this is a very pretty book! There is a lot of eye candy. Also there is a lot written about the views and life of the authors. There are a lot of tasty looking recipes in this book. First there is a basic recipe and techniques chapter which contain recipes of sauces, dough and seitan for instance. This is very useful if you want to make things from scratch. This all sounds very good, but the main problem that I have with this book is that it is too much for me personally. Most recipes are really time consuming and elaborate. It does fit the atmosphere of the book, so it is not a bad thing, but just not practical for myself because I simply don't have the energy to spend hours in the kitchen. This will surely be a good book for people who love to cook and spend a lot of time in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon. It has a lot of original recipes that sound delicious. The recipes are clear, but one course often has several dishes which go together for the whole meal. There are some easy and tasty, which I will make from this book, but personally I won't buy it.

Purchase links: Amazon
Challenges: Foodies Reading Challenge
Other reviews: None yet
If you have reviewed this book and want your link here, please leave a comment with the link, and I will add it :)

I choose this time to make an ice cream recipe. Mainly because I used my ice cream maker way to less but also because the ice cream recipes were not time consuming and easy.

Picture by: roboppy

Coconut Ice Cream:
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 150 ml cream
- 150 ml milk
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1 vanilla pod

First cut the vanilla pod in half and scrape the vanilla out. Mix this with all the other ingredients. Sift and add to the ice cream maker. Mine took an hour to make ice cream out of it. But this is different for every ice cream maker so just follow the instructions from your machine. Freeze it overnight and take it out 20 minutes before serving. The ice cream can be stored up to a week in an airtight container in your freezer.

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Make sure to check out the other posts :)

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