(Part 2) Best international cookbooks according to redditors

We love ours so much that we bought a second one. I can cook food that I like better than what I can get in a restaurant, and that together with Alternate Day Fasting has lead to 30 pound weight loss since August.

I really love the Indian Instant Pot Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/

Get a slow-cooker at the thrift store. Slow-cooked pintos require very little prep but a lot of time - get a bag for $nothing$, wash and soak the night before, set to low when you leave and come home and there's lots. They also freeze very well.

Whole chickens are infinitely cheaper than boneless skinless and easy to cook. You can feed two people for three days on a chicken; take the plastic off, wash it, pat it down, stuff some veggies in it for flavor (celery, half an onion, an apple) and bake it in the toaster oven (uses less juice than your range). The bones and such will make stock, but I find that I never really need "stock." That may change...

Rice cookers make rice trivial and cheep. You can get a 10lb bag of rice for 12 bux. 10 lbs of rice will last you and a friend months.

Ground turkey in bulk (5+lb) is very cheap. Buy it, take the plastic off, cut it into 1/2lb chunks, pick them up in ziploc baggies like dog poop, push out all the air and huck 'em in the freezer. Try and keep them ball-shaped if you intend to thaw them in the microwave or thin and flat if you intend to thaw them on the counter.

Any vegetables you buy at your local farmer's market will be fresher, healthier and cheaper than what you get at the supermarket. Not only that, chicks dig farmers' markets. Go every week. Find your local farmer's markets here.

Successful cooking is a blend of two important things: good ingredients and careful, light-handed preparation. Chances are you're naturally inclined to over-season the crap out of things; most people are. You will find, however, that a good cut of meat with a little salt and pepper will beat the shit out of a mediocre cut of meat slathered in K.C. Masterpiece. I recommend Edouard de Pomaine's 1930 classic French cooking in Ten Minutes not so much for the recipes but for the philosophy. Most every preparation in it is "take something, do something to it and eat it." Pomaine demystifies cooking in ways Erma Bombeck and Betty Crocker never could.


Ask at your local nursery what herbs grow easiest where you are and try and cultivate them yourself. That chicken? A sprig of fresh rosemary will make it awesome. But maybe bay or dill or rosemary or something will grow better near you. I guarantee you can grow mint where you are. Mint makes any savory dish better.

Finally, learn to appreciate the art of cooking and eating in and of itself. It's always cheaper to cook for four or six than it is for one or two if everybody chips in; inviting friends over to cook and eat makes for a cheaper meal as well as an evening of entertainment. Always seek out especially good produce, poultry, fish or meat and make it a focus of your cooking. Believe it or not, you can entertain a houseful of people for an evening over the simple fact that the raspberry harvest is in.

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(...and if that fails, you can do what my uncle did in college - he went down to the feed store and sampled. If it was palatable, he'd buy 50 lbs of it, pick the rocks out of it and chow down. If I recall correctly, there's a certain type of buffalo feed that's mostly rolled oats, molasses and vitamins. And rocks.)

(Be sure to pick out the rocks.)

Generally, recipes in Western cookbooks and food blogs are watered-down versions of Indian food -- maybe that's your problem?

I've seen recipes for tikka masala that ask for a single onion, just a few teaspoons each of powdered spices, and no mention of ginger-garlic paste or essential things like fenugreek leaves, curry leaves, desiccated coconut or ghee, and rarely any mention of blooming spices (frying them in oil/ghee to release their aromatic oils).

Then they ask you to throw in a whole can of tomatoes and sometimes even water. Of course it will be flavourless.

Look into cookbooks that tell you how to make a base gravy (a highly concentrated, finely blended onion/pepper mixture that often uses things like cabbage and carrots, and acts as a flavour enhancer and thickener), how to make your own garam masala, how to make your own ginger-garlic paste etc.

The best book I've encountered for this is The Secret to That Takeaway Curry Taste. It's a somewhat ramshackle e-book, but it's written by a working chef who runs a small British-Indian takeaway restaurant, and the techniques are exactly right.

The base gravy is similar to the mother sauces in French cooking. With the base gravy you can make a lot of different dishes. They typically start with blooming some spices in ghee or mustard oil, adding meat or vegetables, then adding the gravy and other flavour elements like yogurt and coconut, and then cooking this in the sauce. For even more concentrated flavour, consider making the sauce separate from the protein, then blending the sauce until it's velvety smooth. Marinate and cook protein separately (e.g. chicken pieces or paneer on skewers), then add to the sauce.

You don't write where you are from or price range so it is a bit difficult to answer your question.

Juhls in Bergen is an internationally acclaimed and excellent jeweller and designer. This is where I got my wife something for our 10yrs anniversary a while back. See http://www.juhls.no

For something more tasty but not as lasting... good quality smoked trout or salmon, or dried cod for bacalao (klippfisk). Specialties like cheeses ("brunost", "gamalost"), or meats like smoked cured lamb (fenalår) or reindeer are also an option. Artisan quality jams, flours etc are an option too. Meny, Mega, Ultra are three of the higher end grocery chains that typically have a broader selection of foods.

Cheese slicer, for hard cheese? We like to think it is unique... http://www.bjorklund-1925.no/index.php/en/

Waffle iron? Just kidding. But do try waffles with sour cream and jam. Or Svele with butter and sugar. Or flatbreads. And fårikål, lapskaus, grandiosa (uh, no, skip that last one), well prepared fresh fish at a high end restaurant, traditional rice porridge, Skillingsbolle (mandatory in Bergen, it is a spiral bun with cinnamon).

We have a couple of michelin star restaurants that are worth a visit. And some that are close. See the slightly more inclusive http://www.whiteguide-nordic.com/ Look up the place you are going to before eating, Norway has just too many crappy restaurants.

Not sure about what to recommend regarding bread, as too many bakeries in Norway are crap, but if you get to Lom, there is some really nice eating to be done...

The Nordic Cook Book, or something by Andreas Viestad, Ingrid Espelid Hovig or Eyvind Hellstrøm om Norwegian or Nordic cuisine should be available in English.

High quality woolen mittens, caps, sweaters. Wool underwear/longs are probably the best you can get anywhere, but get them where the locals go (sporting stores). Dale, Oleana, Devold, Aclima are some brands of various quality and purpose.. ("Pierre Robert" on the other hand is supermarket imported stuff.)

All weather and rain gear ... in Loen, Olden and Stryn and a couple of other places you have factory outlets of major Norwegian brands for outdoor apparel. Skogstad for example have outlets that have some good deals (e.g. minor defects major discounts). Look up factory outlets (fabrikkutsalg) on google.

There are a few Norwegian artists of international acclaim, like painters, illustrators and such.

Most of all do try to get the experiences, the nature and sights are our best "goods" to offer.

One of the biggest reasons I got the IP is for Indian food. Highly recommend Instant Pot Indian cook book

From a Chinese perspective, I think that Fuchsia Dunlop's books are very much on point as far as Sichuan cooking is concerned.

Eileen Yin Fei Yo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking is an excellent generalist work, with a slightly Cantonese bent.

Grace Young's Breath of a Wok is another excellent generalist cookbook.

Talk About Good!!!

One of the best cookbooks with some fabulous Cajun and creole recipes. The Lafayette and Baton Rouge junior leagues had a friendly rivalry and both put out some of the best selling junior league cookbooks.

For those interested here’s an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029

And here’s a great article in the Washington Post about it: How a 50-year-old community cookbook became a mainstay in almost every Cajun kitchen

Source: from Lafayette, LA. Mais cher dat cookbook good good yeah.

https://andrewzimmern.com/2013/03/28/fuchsia-dunlops-fish-fragrant-eggplant/

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/the-food-lab-vegan-experience-best-homemade-falafel-recipe.html

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/03/israeli-style-extra-smooth-hummus-recipe.html

https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/pita-bread/

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/samosa-recipe-punjabi-samosa/

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/lemon-rice/

And stuff from these:

Thai Vegetarian Cooking (Thailand)

Real Vegetarian Thai (Thailand)

Teff Love (Ethiopia)

Kansha (Japan)

The Lotus and the Artichoke (Malaysia and Sri Lanka are my two favorites, but also has India, Mexico, and Ethiopia)

Decolonize Your Diet (Mexico)

Tahini & Turmeric (the Middle East)

http://thegreekvegan.com (Greece)

https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/topics/chinese-recipes/chinese-vegan-recipes/ (China, especially Sichuan)

https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-vegetarian-recipes/ (China)

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/recipes/vegan/ (India)

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com (India)

https://georgianrecipes.net/category/vegetarian/ (Georgia)

https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/vegetarian/ (Japan)

https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/category/all-recipes/meatless-recipes/ (Thailand)

http://www.phamfatale.com/cat_25/tag_vegetarian/ (Vietnam)

https://thevietvegan.com/recipes/vegan-recipes/ (Vietnam)

I got The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine by John Folse last Christmas, every recipe has been amazing in it. He even goes into the history of Louisiana and how all the different cultural influences makes the cuisine unique. He goes from the basics of making a stock and roux to the advanced techniques like blackening.

There is literally a plant-based Mexican food cookbook titled Decolonize Your Diet.

If you want to continue it past 30 days, I highly recommend this book!

"The Nordic Cookbook" by esteemed Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson seems pretty definitive. It's a massive tome with 700 recipes from all over the Nordic countries. I haven't read it myself so I can't vouch for it personally, but it's the first book that comes to my mind when I think of Swedish and/or Nordic cooking. I've seen a few documentaries about Nilsson and he's...let's call it devoted to his craft. Opened a Michelin 2-star restaurant in northern Sweden, far away from the bigger cities that normally house our Michelin star restaurants, just to be close to the produce he uses in his cooking. He's a bit of an odd duck, but one who does seem to know what he's doing in the kitchen.

When people assume veganism is for colonizers, I like to "expand their circle of compassion" with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Decolonize-Your-Diet-Plant-Based-Mexican-American/dp/1551525925

Buy this:
https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029
It’s Junior League of Lafayette’s cookbook originally published in the 70s or 80s. It’s basically everybody’s grandma’s best recipes

EDIT: first printed in 1967 now in it’s 30th printing

Ok, so I'm a student at USC and I've just started cooking chinese food this summer. For a recipe book, you want anything by Fuchsia Dunlop. She's got three books out: Land of Plenty (四川菜), Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (湖南菜), and Every Grain of Rice (a compilation of the other two). Hands down the best authentic Chinese cookbooks that are written by a westerner, while remaining true to the original recipes.


Finding a good Chinese market has actually been my biggest problem, which is a little ridiculous because it's Los Angeles and I know all the old 阿姨s have to shop somewhere. I'm not sure what the situation is over in Westwood, but the only chinese grocery store that I've found that really has everything is the Ai Hoa market, just a block away from the Chinatown metro station (Cluttered and unorganized, just like the markets over in China! But they really do have everything). I've also heard good things about A Grocery Warehouse. But I haven't really explored K-town or Little tokyo, so there may be some good grocers there. Please share if you find some, and report back if you find some Korean/Japanese grocers that also sell Chinese food!

Asia's a big, ancient place. Even within each nation there are unique styles of regional and ethnic fare.

With that in mind, I'd love to see some recommendations here for awesome Indian, Filipino, Hmong, Uzbek, etc. cookbooks.

Japanese

Lets get beyond sushi and hibatchi.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is a great starting point. If you want to get technical you should check out Ando's Washoku or Hachisu's Preserving the Japanese Way.

If you want to start simple, Hachisu also has a great book on Japanese Farm Food. Ono and Salat have written a great noodle slurping opus in Japanese Soul Cooking.

Chinese

What we've come to think of as Chinese food in the US is a natural part of human appropriation of food styles, but with all due respect to Trader Vic's, crab rangoon and other buffet staples really aren't the real deal. Food in China is extremely regional. You don't have to go very deep to see the vast differentiation in spicy Schezwan recipes and Cantonese Dim Sum culture.

For your reading pleasure:

Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Breath of the Wok by Grace Young and Alan Richardson.

Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees by Kian Lam Kho and Jody Horton.

All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China by Carolyn Phillips.

Some people might freak out that I'm placing Erway's The Food of Taiwan under the Chinese category, but I'm not going to get into a political debate here. Taiwan has had a lot of different culinary influences due to migration / occupation and that is really the take away here.

Go forth, make bao.

Korean

Korea is having it's moment right now and if you want the classics, Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall's Growing up in a Korean Kitchen is a good baseline. It has all the greatest hits.

You also can't cook Korean food without kimchi. The only book I've read is Lauryn Chun's The Kimchi Cookbook which is kind of underwhelming considering the hundreds of styles of Kimchi that have been documented. The process of making kimchi (kimjang) even has a UNESCO world heritage designation. With that in mind, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a English book on the subject that has depth.

Given the cuisine's popularity, there are several other cookbooks on Korean food that have recently been published within the last year or so, I just haven't gotten around to reading them yet, so I won't recommend them here.

Thai

David Thompson's Thai Food and Thai Street Food are both excellent. /u/Empath1999 's recommendation of Andy Ricker's Pok Pok is excellent but it focuses on Northern Thai cuisine, so if you want to venture into central and southern Thai fare, Thompson's the other farang of note.

Vietnamese

Nguyen's Into the Vietnamese Kitchen provides a nice survey to Vietnamese cooking. Charles Phan also has a couple of cookbooks that are quite good but I'm sure that there are zealots out there who would bemoan authenticity in either Vietnamese Home Cooking or The Slanted Door, but seriously, who gives a shit, the dude has Beard Awards under his belt for fuck's sake.

TL;DR OP means well but its long past time to bury "Asian" as a catch-all for such a large and diverse part of a continent, no?

I think you mean "definitive".

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

Hand-hammered carbon steel woks.

Trust me, this is what you want. And as far as I know, this eBay seller is the only way to get them without making a trip to Shanghai.

You can read the other posts for why thin, carbon steel woks are the best.

Why a hammered wok though? The hundreds of dents provide grip, which is extremely useful in wok cooking. Often, after the first ingredient (usually meat) is cooked, it is temporarily moved out of the intensely-hot center of the wok to the sides while one or more other ingredients (usually vegetables) are cooked. After the vegetables (or whatever) are just about done, the meat (or whatever) waiting on the walls of the wok is returned to the center with the other stuff. Smooth, machine-made woks suck for this; textured, hammered woks destroy.

Also they're sexy as fuck.

The woks sold by Taost on eBay are hand-hammered by a pair of old Chinese dudes in Shanghai. As far as I know, these two dudes (the Cen brothers) are the only people in the world who still do this by hand, and Taost is the only one sourcing their woks outside of Asia. If you can know someone in China or wouldn't mind visiting, you can get 'em for a lot cheaper at their house/workshop located at 214 Baoyuan Lu, Shanghai. You know you're close when you can hear the extreme hammering. I visited about a year and a half ago; they work in their side yard banging circular sheets of carbon steel with hammers for hours until they take the proper shape.

Here's a neat book with of one of the Cen brothers' woks on the cover.

Happy wok'ing!

Edit: Also, if you want a different sized wok, I know the Cen brothers make them. You could try asking Taost, or even better buy one from them directly.

Edit #2: Dang! Just clicked your links, I see the second one is for a hand-hammered carbon steel wok. It doesn't look like Cen brothers, either! The hammer marks are too big. Well, I guess there are at least two producers of hand-hammered woks in this world--take your pick!

this is my mom's favorite gift to buy for my ex's: https://www.amazon.com/Whos-Your-Mama-Catholic-Make/dp/0925417556

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i think she's bought 3 of them so far.

> And fyi I'm not clicking on your gore-porn. Which I am assuming is what you've posted based on the title of the hyperlink.

Sounds like you care so much about animals being alive that even just looking at a dead one scares you this much. (The photo is live dogs living in a cage.)

>To you maybe. But morals are not fixed. Morality is not a constant in the universe. And applying your morals to others people's or cultures is basic colonialism.

Glad to see a critique of colonialism! This should appeal to you, then: https://www.amazon.com/Decolonize-Your-Diet-Plant-Based-Mexican-American/dp/1551525925

I can highly recommend either of Fucshia Dunlop's books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook and Land of Plenty, as excellent recipe and instruction books for Chinese cooking. In the front matter she lists the equipment you'll need to get started as well as goes over the techniques. I cook out of both of them several times a week.

I purchased my wok and cleaver from the Wok Shop and was very happy with their prices and service.

The last apartment I lived in had an electric stove so I picked up a cheap butane stove from the local asian grocery store for ~$20 that worked fine. It's nowhere near as powerful as a high-end gas stove or a turkey fryer burner but it gets the job done. An electric stove will not work for Chinese, you need something with a flame.

Edit: I also own a rice cooker which is well worth the $20 I spent on it. I'd pick one up if you're serious about Chinese.

Aight girl-

Foreign Cuisine-
How to Eataly - Oscar Farinetti - We made the most AMAZING brisket meatballs and a super simple yet completely delicious red sauce out of this book
Around My French Table - Dorie Greenspan - Where the Cornish hens and gougeres came from.
Real Korean Cooking - Maangchi - Korean Fried Chicken. We've made them twice now because they're so good and can't wait to do more.
Mexican Everyday - Rick Bayless - Learned how to make perfect guac from this book and so far we've made these v tasty chorizo/mushroom/potato tacos. The recipe is SO cheap and SO voluminous that we had it as a taco filling, a quesadilla filling, and we're making a hash with it for brunch this morning.
Every Grain of Rice - Fuchsia Dunlop - We haven't tried anything out of here yet but there are sooooo many good-looking recipes in here.
Entice with Spice - Shubhra Ramineni - Likewise, haven't made anything out of here yet but looking forward to trying it all out soon.
Jack's Wife Freda - Dean & Maya Jankelowitz - This is actually a book from a restaurant that my fiance and I LOVED when we last visited NYC. It's got a lot of fusion recipes. Mediterranean/Israeli/South African/etc. Really unique flavors and also v comfort-food based. We're making rosewater waffles out of this book tomorrow!


Baking-
Rose's Baking Basics - Rose Levy Barenbaum - This book is incredible. She has tons and tons of step-by-step photos which is SUPER helpful. We made the dark chocolate caramel tart out of this book, but pretty much everything in here looks amazing.
Modern Baking - Donna Hay - I mean... There is some INSANELY decadent looking stuff in here. We haven't tried any of these recipes yet but I can't wait to!


Misc-
Cook Like a Pro - Ina Garten - It was really hard to pick just one Ina book but I liked most of the recipes in this one. She has this ridic recipe for a dijon mustard chicken that is INCREDIBLE. Also, this bitch knows how to cook some veggies. Big fan of this one.
The Food Lab - /u/j_kenji_lopez-alt - I just love this guy, tbh. We've made a really fantastic beef tenderloin out of this book and an incredible red wine sauce to go with it and of course, his famous roasted potatoes which are now my holy grail recipe for roasted potatoes. This book is like a science textbook only instead of boring stuff it's FOOD science, which is my favorite kind.


Those were all the ones we purchased ourselves (though technically Eataly was a gift BUT we love it and plan to use it often.) We have other cookbooks in our stable that we've received as gifts, which is what resulted in my fiance and I deciding we wanted to embark on this journey. We kept being given cookbooks and never doing anything with them. But man, do people love it when you send them pics of stuff you cooked out of a book they gave you. If people give you cookbooks, use them!! It will make their day to see it's being used. Here's what else is on our cookbook shelf-


The Forest Feast Gatherings - Erin Gleeson - This is a vegetarian book my fiance's mom gave us a few years ago for Christmas. We have a bunch of veggie friends (and friends with a lot of different allergies) so we turn to this book to have a few things that are edible by all of them when we have them over, as we often do. This book has a really delicious salad that has pomegranate seeds, pear, and hazelnut that is out of this world good. I also got my HG salad dressing from this book.
The Salad Bowl - Nicola Graimes - Another gift from my fiance's mom. Is she trying to tell us something?? Honestly haven't looked much into this book yet but it sure is pretty.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz - This was a gift from the assistant in my office. Everyone in my office knows me as the Harry Potter girl because I have a lightning bolt tattoo, haha. We haven't made anything out of this yet, but we probably will have some sort of epic feast with recipes from this book when GoT starts back up later this year.
Talk About Good - Louisiana Lafayette Junior League - My boss gave this to my fiance and I as part of an engagement gift. My fiance went to school in New Orleans. It's primarily New Orleansian/Cajun food. Haven't made anything out of it yet, but we are looking forward to it.

And that's what's on our cookbook shelf for now.

edit also omg thanks for the gold!! <3

I won't be much help with this, but Indian food is insanely varied. It's not just as simple as "North Indian/South Indian" or "Vegetarian/Meat". I think one of the challenges with finding great "authentic" Indian recipes, is that each family has their own adaptation, and these are passed down through each generation through sharing the love and need to cook quality food in the home.

I guess what I'm saying, is that regional authentic dishes often don't make it onto paper.

I've had great success making Vikram Vij's recipes, he's from Vancouver, BC.

https://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1510071514&sr=1-1&keywords=vikram+vij&dpID=41J5kSp1EuL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

That was no Google search for a jambalaya with shrimp; I am familiar with Folse's work and legacy (I own a copy of his 10 lb. Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine and read it on the couch sometimes), and I knew I would find a proper Creole jambalaya on his site.

Gonzalez (so named the "Jambalaya Capital of the World" as a publicity stunt by McKeithen in '68 to promote the first ever Jambalaya Festival) is in Acadiana, so I would not expect them to cook Creole jambalaya at their festival; I would be an idiot to do so.

Don't get me wrong--I prefer Cajun Jambalaya, and spent a summer in 1996 working with 400 qt. batches in BR using that style. It's just that claiming that one style is "authentic" while the other is not makes us both look dumb, which everyone already assumes about us because we're from Louisiana, and we don't need that. Solidarity, brother! Gumbo can be thickened with okra, roux, or filé; and jambalaya can be made with or without tomatoes and/or shrimp. It doesn't mean that your mother did anything wrong, it just means that Louisiana cuisine may be more diverse than you ever imagined. Did you know that andouille is popular in red beans in some areas, but not so popular in others? Even hot sauce choices (Tabasco, Louisiana Brand, Crystal) can vary regionally--or even intra-regionally!

I'm no expert in Indian cuisine, but I have this book and I really like it. Great variety in the recipes and tons of pictures. I think it represents most of the regions cuisines.

https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

For Indian cuisine, try Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking.

Here's some background on the author as well.

So a few people have recommended this book to you: http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC

Well, you're in luck, because I've found a couple of videos on Youtube made by the author of that book that explain how to make Tikka Masala.

Here's the video showing how to make the sauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLfhMF2WaZw

And here is the video showing how to cook the dish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wjyOdNdSw

You got cheated. It's only $2.18 on Amazon.

I cook mostly Asian food, although I'm not Asian. Here are several cookbooks I couldn't live without...

Real Thai (McDermott)

I have David Thompson's epic Thai cookbook, but that's more for special occasions. McDermott's book has excellent recipes from many regions of Thailand. The homemade curry pastes are really worth the effort.

Chinese (Sichuan): Land of Plenty, Dunlop

Chinese (Hunan): Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, Dunlop

I can't recommend Fuschia Dunlop's cookbooks highly enough. You will have to search for some ingredients, but these days this is pretty easy.

General Asian: Complete Asian Cookbook (Solomon)

Charmaine Solomon's book is hit or miss sometimes, but it has so many recipes in it that it's worth it, from Sri Lanka to the Philippines to Japan, etc.

My favorite new, specialty cookbook is

Cooking at Home With Pedatha (Giri & Jain)

which has delicious Indian (specifically, Andhran) vegetarian recipes.

I'm a bit of a cookbook junkie, so I have a bunch to recommend. I'm interpreting this as "good cookbooks from cuisines in Asia" so there are some that are native and others that are from specific restaurants in the US, but I would consider these legit both in terms of the food and the recipes/techniques. Here are a few of my favorites:


Pan-Asian

• Asian Dumplings - the masterpiece on all things dumpling
  
• Asian American - Dale Talde's (Top Chef) book with lots of Asian cultures' food in the US
  
• Asian Pickles - pickles and fermented foods from throughout Asia
  
• Lucky Rice - recipes from the Asian festival of the same name
  
• The Asian Grandmother's Cookbook - traditional cooking passed down to American cooks
  
  Burmese
  
  
• Burma:Rivers of Flavor - good focus on difference in Burmese cuisine from other regional
  
  Cambodian
  
  
• Num Pang - Cambodian sandwich restaurant in NYC
  
• Cambodian Cooking - GREAT book on Cambodian cuisine, supporting refugees
  
  Chinese
  
  
• Ken Hom Complete Chinese Cookbook - great primer for cooking Chinese food using ingredients commonly available in US
  
• China Moon - classic SF Chinese restaurant food
  
• Feeding the Dragon - modern culinary journey through all of China
  
• Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking - omnibus focused on the home chef
  
• Breath of a Wok - focus on wok technique at home
  
• Every Grain of Rice - wonderful Sichuan food for home cooks
  
  Indian
  
  
• Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking - actually, any of her cookbooks are wonderful for Indian cooking
  
• Savour Mumbai - looks at Indian cuisine as a melting pot in Mumbai
  
• The Indian Family Cookbook - modern South Indian food
  
• Indian Harvest - Vikas Khanna's family cookbook
  
• Made in India - classic Indian food, from street to home
  
  Indonesia
  
  
• The Food of Indonesia - everything you need for a rijstaffel!
  
  Japanese
  
  
• Japanese Farm Food - authentic rural Japanese cooking
  
• Preserving the Japanese Way - how to make awesome Japanese pickled vegetables
  
• Sushi Chef - not strictly speaking a cookbook, but "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" book in English
  
• The Japanese Grill - authentic hibachi and Japanese grill recipes
  
• Japanese Comfort Food - lots of traditional Japanese recipes
  
• Nanban - Japanese "soul food"
  
• Tokyo Cult Recipes - hip modern urban food from Tokyo
  
• Yum Yum Bento Boxes - updated modern take on bento boxes
  
• Ivan Ramen - traditional ramen for a Western audience
  
• Izakaya - traditional Japanese pub food & small plates
  
• Nikkei - emigrant Japanese food culture in South America
  
• Donabe - traditional Japanese hot pot recipes
  
• Kyotofu - very unique Japanese dessert cookbook
  
  Korean
  
  
• K Food - modern take on Korean street food
  
• Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking - great resource for Korean cooking in a non-pro kitchen
  
• Traditional Food - omnibus of four regions of Korean food
  
• Koreatown - authentic, approachable guide to Korean food in a US context
  
• Smoke & Pickles - Edward Lee's fusion of his Korean heritage and southern barbeque
  
• The Kimchi Cookbook - many, many recipes for kimchi...
  
  Malaysian
  
  
• Malaysian Cooking - good overview of Malay cooking
  
  Middle Eastern
  
  
• The New Persian Kitchen - modern Iranian food
  
• Ottolenghi - Israeli-Palestinian collaboration
  
• Persiana - dynamic modern recipes from throughout the Middle East
  
• Zahav - modern Israeli food
  
• Sweet Middle East - traditional and modern desserts
  
  Philippine
  
  
• Filipino Homestyle Dishes - good intro to classic Filipino dishes
  
  Russian
  
  
• Mamushka - focus on Ukraine
  
  Sri Lankan
  
  
• Hidden Kitchens of Sri Lanka - beautiful photo-cookbook on Sri Lankan cuisine
  
  Taiwanese
  
  
• The Food of Taiwan - um... food... from Taiwan
  
  Thailand
  
  
• Nong's Thai Kitchen - she beat Bobby Flay in pad thai
  
• Pok Pok - Portland's most AWESOME Asian restaurant
  
  Turkish
  
  
• Istanbul:Recipes from the Heart of Turkey - lovely focus on urban Turkish food
  
• Anatolia - wonderful approachable approach to Turkish cuisine
  
• Essential Turkish Cuisine - focus on history and evolution of Turkish food
  
  Vietnamese
  
  
• The Slanted Door - great Vietnamese restaurant cookbook
  
• Vietnamese Market Cookbook - focus on simple Vietnamese from fresh ingredients
  
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen - traditional Vietnamese home cooking
  
• The Banh Mi Cookbook - the greatest sandwich in the world!
  
• Vietnamese Home Cooking - another great overview
  
  (edit: screwed up a couple links)

A few from different regions:

Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition for Yucatecan / Mayan food. It is the best one for this, period.

Sicilian Food

The Nordic Cookbook for Scandinavian food.

Cuisine of Hungary.

Churrasco: Grilling the Brazilian Way

On the left is Bear's Paw Tofu from Every Grain of Rice and on the right is Peng's Home-style Bean Curd from Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.

Nothing formal, really! Throw a bunch of onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and whatever other veg you like (broccoli, green onion, summer squash, carrots, that random bunch of whatever needs to get eaten ASAP from the back of your fridge) in a cast iron skillet with some oil, salt and pepper, cumin, and garlic. Cook it until it looks delicious. Serve with black beans, rice, avocado, cilantro (if you're not the kind of person who's genetically predisposed to hate it), fresh lime, pico de gallo (or just tomatoes if you can't be bothered) and warm tortillas. Or whatever suits your fancy. We make our own tortillas at home, but throw some store-bought ones in the microwave or a warm oven with a bit of lime juice sprinkled on them and they'll do just fine.

If you're into this kind of thing, The Taco Cleanse is a tongue-in-cheek cookbook made up entirely of plant-based taco recipes. It's hilarious and very tasty as well!

Decolonize Your Diet is vegetarian rather than vegan, but also has amazing Mexican and Mesoamerican recipes.

I might own too many cookbooks. :D

The only cookbook I can find is Kansha. I have no idea of the quality but amazon reviews say its pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0925417556

Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make A Roux? (Book 1): A Cajun / Creole Family Album Cookbook

You should read John Folse's cookbook. It has a detailed history on South Louisiana and how it influenced the food. You are sort of right about the Acadians, but they flocked mostly to the area what is now Acadiana. There were some settlements in the New Orleans area and even around New Roads.

YESS. My father in law gave me The Best Recipe cookbook almost 20 years ago and it is STILL my go-to. It opens automatically to a few recipes, the cover is worn, some of the pages have stains; it's clearly loved.

A local Indian chef here, Vikram Vij, has produced a couple of cookbooks with his wife. I really like this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847

Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux?

I would highly recommend John Folse's The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine. It's very expensive but it's enormous (850 pages and 700 recipes) and worth every penny because it also includes a lot of history and information on the cajun and creole cultures.

Best cookbook -- https://www.amazon.com/Whos-Your-Mama-Catholic-Make/dp/0925417556

This one is more just baked goods, but Magnus does have a Nordic Cookbook that's also worth a look through.

If you're a gamer at all, the book that brought me to this sub to learn more about mead was The Elder Scrolls Cookbook. Fun recipes, even if you're not trying to recreate something from the game world.

Anything by Madhur Jaffrey. Here's a good one to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-Jaffrey-Indian-Cooking/dp/0764156497

Get the WWE Cookbook

https://www.amazon.in/Essential-North-Cookbook-Hoihnu-Hauzel/dp/0143030272

Also https://www.amazon.in/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028

There’s a really good bourbon brown sugar carrot recipe in this cookbook. On mobile now but will try to find the recipe later.

This is an oven-adapted and expanded from the recipe in Pushpesh Pant's India: The Cookbook. It's a common deep-menu item in westernized restaurants, very tasty. Sweet and aromatic. As I mention in the post, I don't recommend hand-mashing the eggplant; it's a pain.

• Microplane graters if she doesn't have one yet. Accompany the super fine grater with a few nutmeg nuts so she can grate her own fresh nutmeg.
  
• Digital kitchen scale
  
• America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated cookcooks or magazines. I have The Best Recipe and I love it for when I want to make the "perfect" version of a recipe. All the recipes have an accompanying article about how they modified/perfected the recipe. Warning: don't get this unless she enjoys slaving for hours on a recipe!
  
  Those ideas aren't super creative, but they are good staples that she will use constantly if she doesn't already have them.
  
  Personally, I am too particular about my cooking stuff... I have to pick it out myself. What about getting her a gift smaller gift that you are comfortable with, and then get a gift card to a local foodie store? This way you can shop together and she can pick exactly what she wants.
  

https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com is a great resource.

As for an Indian cookbook: this is regarded as the bible: India: The Cookbook, it has everything you will ever need (it has over 1000 recipes!). It’s wonderfully designed, to look like a bag of flour like one would buy in India.

Breath of a Wok by Grace Campbell. You will learn everything you ever needed to know about the wok, as well as the best ways to cook with it. She recommends a 14" carbon steel flat bottomed wok for the Western kitchen. Wok Hay Baby!

You need to get a good veggie cook book. Get an old hippie book for the stand-bys (hummus, tempura, veggie chili, lasagna, tofu stir fry, curried chick peas, burritos, etc..) then find a good new one for some interesting fusion recipes. My all-time fave is the Rebar which features tex-mex minestrone, bhangra burritos, and potato crust pizza with goat cheese and onions caramelized with balsamic.

Ask vegetarians you know for recommendations. I have been a veggie for over two decades and I eat better than any carnivores I know.

Is she Catholic?

Edit.

Hey there. Came into this thread for other reasons, but saw the mini-discussion on Indian food and felt compelled to chime in, lol.

A lot of great Youtube chefs exist that focus on the cuisine; VahChef and Manjula in particular stand out. Also sites like ShowMeTheCurry and VegRecipesOfIndia are great, too.

I hear a lot of good things about Madhur Jaffrey's cookbooks, though I don't personally own one.

It's a really fascinating and diverse cuisine, since it covers many different regions of the Indian subcontinent with very different cultures, agricultural heritages, religious beliefs, etc., that all influence the food. From super healthy ultra vegan stuff to deep fried goodies, it's got it all :-D

Good luck learning more, and if you wind up with any specific questions, always feel free to shoot me a message :)

Wok pr0n, featuring a hand hammered wok from Shanghai on the cover.

While I'd be happy to follow along and maybe provide photos of woks in use in Shanghai, I'm no expert either and I don't consistently have the time or posses the temperament to be a good mod.

There are lots here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes
https://www.google.com/images?q=Instant+Pot+keto+recipes

Here are just a few others that are either keto or low carb (which could have ingredients left out or modified), some of which are groups at Facebook with lots of recipes:

Keto Instant Potters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1700398993513578
Low Carb Instant Pot Recipes:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1434534513230508
The Paleo Instant Pot (Paleo or Primal, or not)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/paleoinstantpot

I Breathe I’m Hungry:
http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2017/03/35-best-low-carb-paleo-instant-pot-recipes.html
Nomnompaleo:
https://nomnompaleo.com

Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/shariweiner55/low-carb-instant-potpressure-cooker

twosleevers --blog & cookbooks (mostly keto because she and her husband eat keto or very low carb):
https://twosleevers.com/recipe-index/?fwp_dietary_consider=keto
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF
https://twosleevers.com/product/instant-favorites-easy-delicious-mexican-pressure-cooking

cookbook...looks good, but haven’t gone through entirely:
Instant Pot Cookbook: Delicious Asian Inspired Ketogenic Diet I.Pot Recipes (Kindle)

Thanks for the recommendation! Here's a link to buy Talk About Good! from the Junior League and it appears Amazon carries it, as well.

I picked up this book, which taught me a bunch about different methods for stir frying. It's a good read and every recipe I've made from it had been delicious.

If you decide to do a New Orleans cookbook like /u/PlumLion suggested, I highly recommend River Road. It's a classic around here...a lot of people give/get this as a wedding gift :) My parents still use the one they got when they got married! There's a Vol. II that's also fantastic.

https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029/

https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682

here you go. I still have mine back when i bought it at WWF NY in 2001. I still use it occasionally, it's pretty awesome.

River Road Recipes is a classic of old-school homemade Baton Rougue cooking and encyclopedic (granted, it's from the '50s, so there are also some just awful concoctions but they're obvious).

Also John Folse, John Besh, Paul Prudhomme, Donald Link, (early) Emeril Lagasse

I bought "Indian Instant Pot: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast". I guess the author is kind of famous in Instant Pot circles?

https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook-Traditional-ebook/dp/B075HHYXWF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1522776004&sr=8-3

Cajun here.

Check this out: River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine Brand: The... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0961302682/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_SwmEAbG7DCHRD

There’s like five of these. Award winning and list topping for decades. I give them away as gifts for Christmas.

Decolonize your diet is my favorite for authentic Mexican food that is plant based.

Start with recipes for vegetable curries, and just add some chicken if you want. Just filter out the creamy/heavy ones.

My currently-favourite Indian cookbook, which has plenty of suitable vegetable curry recipes you could start with (and maybe suitable chicken curry recipes, too, but I'm at work and can't check), is https://www.amazon.com/India-Cookbook-Pushpesh-Pant/dp/0714859028 (doesn't have many pictures, so if you want photo-heavy cookbooks, this might not suit you).

Indian food: Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast

Braised meat... hmm i'd probably look at How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Though the recipes tend to be under-spiced for my tastes, but that shouldn't hold you back, it's a solid technique book.

I decided to buy it because it was $4 on Amazon the 2nd book is $3

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-That-Takeaway-Curry-Taste-ebook/dp/B008N2B0OC?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_

Have you seen Magnus Nilsson's Nordic Cookbook? The introduction is hilarious, he basically says "I was approached to do a general overview of Nordic cooking and I told them it was a stupid idea, there is no such thing. But then I thought about it for a while and decided, they will just find someone else to do it and it will be worse than if I did it, so I might as well do it myself".

https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Cookbook-Magnus-Nilsson/dp/0714868728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492508514&sr=8-1&keywords=the+nordic+cookbook

The Nordic cookbook by Magnus Nilsson was the cookbook that got me into cooking, and I can highly recommend it.

India: The Cookbook by Prupesh Pant is probably the most comprehensive Indian recipe book you could ever hope to find.

This ebook would be fantastic!

How many dogs do you have? I'm currently a 3 dog household and its been rough! Still trying to get them all to get along.

Pooper Scooper

Any of the Thomas Keller books, French Laundry, Ad Hoc at Home, Bouchon, and Bouchon Bakery. The only one you'd probably want to avoid is Under Pressure.

Also, Heston at Home and In Search of Perfection are great books.

If you're into southern food, check out Sean Brock's Heritage and Ed Lee's Smoke & Pickles.

Finally, I'd suggest Modernist Cuisine at Home if you're up for splurging.

The true shizzle

Hello is it this?

https://www.amazon.com/Kansha-Celebrating-Japans-Vegetarian-Traditions/dp/1580089550

What level difficulty would you say the recipes are?

Got one Asian store and one Indian resto in this burg. The store's pretty good, and the resto survives because -- only one in town.

Here's what I did:

Shop online, and learn how to make a base gravy like THIS BLOKE does and take it from there into the higher orders of Indian cooking. It's BIR, not Mumbai, but you take what you can get and BIR ain't exactly chump change for Small Town, USA.

You can order just about any of the basics for Indian cooking, and cooking appliances (karai for example), online.

Indians are fantastic at blogging and putting up YouTube videos; there's a real opportunity to learn from that as opposed to when this older Redditor was expanding horizons.

The online purchases won't be cheap, but when you have a craving for quality food, you have the budget to get it.

Talk About Good by The Lafayette Junior League

Original edition of 1967 now in its 26th +/- printing. Same one my parents use. Has many base items that are foundations of other dishes.

Also my dad has used Pots, Pans, and Pioneers by Telephone Pioneers of America. Large collection of authentic recipes. Biscuits, breads also meats.

I use both of these; the recipes therein are classic.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/Kansha-Celebrating-Japans-Vegetarian-Traditions/dp/1580089550/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505363078&sr=8-1&keywords=kansha

You're welcome.

//thread

Does she cook? Maybe get her some cookbooks from here. https://www.amazon.com/Plantation-Cookbook-Junior-League-Orleans/dp/0963192507/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1479912019&sr=8-12&keywords=new+orleans+collectible https://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Recipes-Textbook-Louisiana/dp/0961302682/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=KM7MPAB810FP5DHMCQ4K https://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Louisiana-Lafayette-Junior-League/dp/0935032029/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=EQXGKS2CW7MJ03X3BB39

THIS. You are going to want to get a burner that puts out crazy heat. I really like THIS model. 64,000BTU is on the low end for wok burners (pro burners are 120K plus) but is more than serviceable for a home cook. If you are unwilling or unable to get a high output gas burner you would be best served by listening to tsdguy and getting a nice heavy saute pan as trying to use a wok on a home stove is going to be a disappointment.

I also highly highly suggest you pick up Breath of Wok it has been invaluable for my wok cookery.

I'll be honest, this is sort of off the wall, but I read Edward Lee's Smoke & Pickles a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was outstanding. It's a combination Southern cookbook and memoir about the child of Korean immigrants who grew up in the Bronx, was briefly an annoying Brooklyn hipster, but ended up being a chef in Kentucky. It's basically a cookbook (and not one for entry-level cooks either), but each section starts with a long, thoughtful, engaging essay about how his life journey ended up with him being a good old boy who works buttermilk and bourbon into every dish and occasionally hangs out at slaughterhouses or goes pheasant hunting. I dunno, it's just cool and really, really well-written.

The bourbon jalapenos and caraway pickles were both from Edward Lee's Smoke and Pickles book. I found a lot of inspiration in it.

For me it was French Cooking in Ten Minutes. Before it, I was fumbling through recipes. It is so brief, lacking detail and had such attitude that it gave me the confidence to just try.

They had a cookbook....


CAN YOU TAKE THE HEAT?: The WWF Is Cooking! https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060393785/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_FZUevb0S27F8D

Just picked up this book, it might be what you're looking for: Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees: Essential Techniques of Authentic Chinese Cooking

Vikram Vij's cookbook is excellent, there are a ton of super easy curries easily made with spices that are available in most North American supermarkets. There's one made with eggplant and green onions, and another that combines chicken thighs cooked in coconut milk with a raw cilantro, onion, garlic, ginger chutney at the end...spectacular! Can't recommend this one enough!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1553651847/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20

Buy a good vegetarian cook book. Go through and cook all of the recipes that appeal to you.

My favourite book is the Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook

https://www.amazon.ca/Rebar-Modern-Cookbook-Audrey-Alsterburg/dp/0968862306

There are a lot of good ones and some crappy ones. Just find one that you like.

I bought an Instant Pot and have been cooking Indian recipes from Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. I think you could make it work in a dorm with a small set of kitchen items (knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, utensils) if appliances are allowed in your room. A lot of the ingredients don't require refrigeration (lentils, spices, ghee, rice, etc) or can be canned (e.g. tomatoes). I can get most of the non-perishable ingredients online, and just buy the fresh ingredients as I use them.

The food is healthy, affordable (I used to eat out a lot but now rarely do), and leftovers have been delicious!

Instant Pots do cost a bit, but I'm certain I've already saved money and I'm eating much healthier. I'm not really tracking my calories (yet) but I lost 4 pounds since I started cooking this way a month ago.

Rebar Modern Food Cookbook

It's a mix of easy and medium recipes from a legendary vegetarian restaurant in Victoria, British Columbia. The book has been a staple across Canada since it came out in 2001. It's incredible.

Though the book is mostly vegetarian, most of the recipes have foolproof instructions for veganizing.

Best V tortilla soup ever.

I'm sure you can use this as a guide/inspiration

Not the menu from this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_%28WWE%29

Maybe a few recipes from this: http://www.amazon.com/CAN-YOU-TAKE-THE-HEAT/dp/0060393785

you should consider picking up Grace Young's two wok cookbooks, Breath of a wok and Stir frying to the sky's edge. I like her earlier book better but they are both great.

> the most flavorful cuts of meat are the ones that scare you and you'll never purchase them

This. In some of my favorite recipe books, several potentially great meals are skipped because they're calling for unorthodox cuts that scare the shit out of me. Half the time it takes days to find a place where I can get it. Two butchers will tell me they don't sell that, one will tell me they can get one for Thursday. With some luck I can find a frozen specimen. Truly, it feels like I'm hunting for some piece of extraterrestrial belly.

Bones, fuck even bones can be complicated to get. Lamb bones for stock. Sorry, we throw them away unless a customer asks, come by Thursday. No problem, please cut them in 3 inch pieces, I'm making stock, not a marimba, thanks! As for what body part or appendage those bones from are (legs, ribs, shoulders) I never dared to ask.

Fish, I hate shopping for fish. Hello, do you have sable fish? No we rarely do, except sometimes at the end of the season. Well thanks good sir, how can I subscribe to your newsletter? I'd feel like an ass to call and ask what fresh fish they're carrying today so I can select a recipe accordingly BEFORE going out shopping. The short shelf life of fish creates an egg or chicken dilemma: do I choose a recipe and hope to find the fish, or go get some fish and go back home to find a recipe and again back to the store to get other ingredients.



> most (not all) restaurant cookbooks dumb down recipes for you

That's strange, my best cookbooks are from restaurants. I find that most non-restaurant cookbooks (rachel ray stuff, cooking the italian way) contains a multitude of beginner meals I don't care about. If I want to mix pasta and pancetta with some vegetables, I can do it myself thanks. And thai cookbooks that calls for "store-bought green curry paste" goes directly to the trash. Googling recipes works just as well.

On the opposite side, you you have the classical hardcore style "French Cooking" stuff that calls for killing and brining a living rooster in every other recipe. That sounds fantastically rewarding, but I have a day job.

For fine, modern, complex and layered yet approachable recipes, locally oriented & world-inspired restaurants seems to be where it's at. I'm not sure how dumbed down those recipes are from the real thing (as I've never been to them), but those 2 from Vancouver have provided quite fantastic culinary learning and experiences for me:

• Warren Geraghty's West, The Cookbook
  
• Vij's Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine
  
  If anyone has recommendation of great restaurant cookbooks, I'd love to hear them.

I've got around 50 cookbooks and The Encyclopedia of Cajun Cuisine by John Folse is my favorite. I've cooked about 20 recipes out of this book, all entree's, and every single one was absolutely spot on. If I know someone doesn't have a copy I usually get them one for Christmas or a birthday.

You said Southern Style but I really like Ed Lee's collards + kimchi served at MilkWood which is technically Korean-Southern fusion. I love it so much so that I quit using my grandmother's recipe and adopted his. Recipe here: http://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/collards-kimchi/ basically the entire restaurants menu is in this cookbook https://www.amazon.com/Smoke-Pickles-Recipes-Stories-Southern/dp/1579654924

I've been having a blast lately with Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. It focuses a lot on technique and has few enough recipes you could probably make it through in a reasonable amount of time.

Fuchsia Dunlop's books are quite good as well.


Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking

Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking

I came here to say the same thing. Here is the other one. Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine

There's only one thing I have to say to you ...

I've been cooking recently from Kian Lam Kho's Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. Super delicious recipes, lots of basic instruction and techniques - a great intro to Chinese cooking.

http://www.amazon.com/CAN-YOU-TAKE-THE-HEAT/dp/0060393785

I used to own a copy back in the day.

There are loads of dishes that you can cook a pile of that will last several days, but keep it interesting by varying them. Just pick a country at random and google some of the dishes. You won't always have the ingredients at hand (you'll struggle to create an authentic Burmese dish, for example) but Spain, Italy and France all have cheap regional dishes that are easy to make and tasty.

Sounds obvious? Maybe it is, but there are a lot of dishes that are under the radar. So don't do spag bol, knock up Tagliatelle Amatriciana - tomato, bacon, onions and a bit of garlic. Bing bong.

This is also a great source of easy meals: http://www.amazon.com/French-Cooking-Ten-Minutes-Adapting/dp/086547480X

And don't overlook less obvious countries! Finland, for example, has a ton of nutritious and awesome food: http://thedomesticman.com/2014/09/16/nakkikastike-finnish-hot-dogs-in-sauce/

This?

Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin

or possibly

Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen

they both look like a lot of fun.

Ingredients are important. I suggest purchasing Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, and vinegar to start.

Looked at a few recipes from this book and it seems pretty legit.

yes, how true, but Joy is like the annotated reference manual for every other cookbook. Personally, the most influential cookbook for me has been the classic French Cooking in Ten Minutes for its attitude and severe lack of detail.

that's why i cook my own or go to china town.

this is one great source for recipes:

http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Chinese-Cookbook-Recipes-Province/dp/0393062228/ref=la_B001IGLRVG_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343350265&sr=1-2

that sounds wonderful. I have seen and liked the ones by Madhur Jaffery. She almost holds your hand and guides you in the kitchen in her books on Indian cuisine. And the curries turn out great too.

Edit: Is this the book you are referring to?

One of my favorite books out there is Best Recipe.

This book has a great compilation of recipes, but also goes into great detail as to why things are done certain ways historically and how different methods during the cooking process give different results, even down to methods for selecting the best produce for certain dishes.


(I linked the more expensive hardcover edition, because it's that good.)

*Edit: Read the reviews on Amazon. They tell it better than I can.

I have been doing the same thing (I am into the better part of the learning curve now :)

I highly recommend this cookbook by Vikram Vij. Everything in it I have cooked has been dynamite. What I think is more important is that there is much information about the various methods (for example how to make ghee, garam massala etc) and a lot of insightful suggestions in the recipes themselves about certain pitfalls to avoid etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Vijs-Elegant-Inspired-Indian-Cuisine/dp/1553651847/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451415907&sr=8-1&keywords=vijs

Decolonize Your Diet - Vegan Mexican with an emphasis on pre-Columbian ingredients

Bought, Borrowed, and Stolen - Interesting recipes from the around world and a lot of talk about the most basic cooking tool, the knife. That + the broad style of cooking included might make it a good starter book.

The Family Meal - Actually useful recipes from super obnoxious-fancy chef Ferran Adria but with step-by-step pictures that are really helpful.

Moosewood Cookbook - Classic cookbook of vegetarian dishes.

I love the Rebar cookbook. (Also available on Amazon).

Some of the recipes are a bit more labour intensive, but many are easy and the authors have developed some very creative recipes. They also give tips for altering recipes to be vegan, and occasionally include seafood as an option (like in the wild rice waffles with smoked salmon... yum yum!).

Check this out as well!! Its a great Veggie book!

I could dig out a cookbook and transcribe my favorite...

If you're curious about what sort of variations have positive results, this is one I think your collection should include... though its more aimed at quality than cost awareness.

If you don't find yourself drawn to meat dishes, and you've got the basics of French technique down, why not try exploring Indian cuisine? Obviously, they have a whole different take on spices --- it's a whole different layer in your cooking that should teach you how to draw out different flavors from the same ingredients, learn new flavors, and different ways of combining them -- there was an interesting study recently suggesting that in contrast with most Western cuisines, which tend to put complementary flavors together, indian cuisine tend to combine contrasting flavors, balancing them against each other. The thing with a lot of that California farm-to-table style is that a lot of it's about finding great ingredients and doing as little as possible to them, but if you're finding yourself bored with that something that's a little more sophsticated and layered might be an interesting challenge.

There's lots of places to start -- Madhur Jaffrey, of course, or Manjula on youtube, but I've always liked this cookbook, myself --- 50 Great Curries of India. has a solid introductory section on spices and really showcases a huge variety of stuff from differnt parts of the continent.

For home-cooked type recipes, check this out:

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=talk+about+good+cookbook&tag=hydsma-20&index=aps&hvadid=242657455351&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15051017321800423911&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9025385&hvtargid=kwd-350708428779&ref=pd_sl_72rvjd38rt_e&gclid=CjwKCAjwwbHWBRBWEiwAMIV7E2QTz_6vMSnYohxX0fhYV2ipSk3kjfvnyVGPBGZ1fX5HHJ63rrkMehoCrJIQAvD_BwE

It is a book of recipes compiled by the junior league of Lafayette.

Another great resource is this
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0970445717/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523361538&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=john+folse+encyclopedia&dpPl=1&dpID=51aeIbcYrnL&ref=plSrch

The problem with this thread is that if you make a couple of these, the GF will continue to want more! I invested in a cookbook a long time ago, and it's literally changed my life. You can buy the one I use for under $6. Now we make a different recipe every night and they all taste amazing.

Since it's from a cookbook, I don't think it's OK for me to post the recipe. It came from Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. https://www.amazon.com/Phoenix-Claws-Jade-Trees-Techniques/dp/0385344686/

I found this recipe, which is extremely close.
https://omnivorescookbook.com/lions-head-pork-meatballs