Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection: Vegetables

Great

This book is my favorite cookbook EVER. The Vichy carrots are to die for, as is the braised witlof. Amazing, simple yet exquisite. Don't be scared off by the two negative reviews. Try it.

This book contains merely 30 recipes and some are so simple, you might wonder why they're listed. For example: "Green Beans with Bacon" has only 5 ingredients, and "Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce" lists only 4 ingredients for the sauce and 2 for the asparagus. However, if you follow the instructions precisely, you will master important cooking techniques. I had never heard of tossing in salt at the same time as the green beans to maintain the green color. Most cookbooks don't tell you to peel away the outer layer fom the lower 2/3 of each asparagus stem, or how to keep real hollandaise sauce just right. Each recipe has a gorgeous photograph. If you don't know what a "baton" of zuchhini is, you can observe it in the photograph. If you wanted a collection of presentation-worthy vegetables, this is it. Simplicity, it's all in the technique. I wish I'd had this book when I did my Girl Scout cooking badge years ago. While I favor other cookbooks, this one tells me why certain techniques make a difference; it's like going back to the basics to really master the basics. (...). I gave it only 2 stars because it had so few recipes for the listed price.

We all know that the glossy pictures on the sign at the drive-in window of your favorite fastfood restaurant are far from the reality of the wilted food we actually get- but I never thought that the Cordon Bleu would stoop so low as to photograph plastic zucchini, eggplants and tomatoes in their ratatouille recipe. This is the only possible explination for after following their instructions to the letter instead of vibrant greens, yellows, reds and purples all I got out of the oven was brown mush. Now granted my ire may be enhanched by my erroneous thinking that ratatouille is just a matter of a few vegatables at a few bucks. I ventured to my local Safeway, book in hand, looking for all the necessary incredients,( casserole dish and sauté pans being just a few of the lacking items) and I somehow managed to shell out 4 Jacksons at checkout ( even with my club discount card). With the only edible addition of garlic bread I had at least hoped to create as delicious and delectable a meal as pictured in Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection Vegetables Cookbook. I allowed myself that in reading a recipe that fails to define the differences between chop , dice, or baton, I might need more then the 40 minute prep time given. I also was none too sure if I was to do the sautéing of all the various items simultaneously or sequentially as a short order cook because the directions lacking any indication of "While that is going on,,,,or after you finish that put this aside" suggest it is all up to you. Nevertheless in any troubleshooting guide I am sure it would be ascertained that I did nothing wrong but follow the directions. Not all was lost, I did learn how to blanche and successfully peel a tomatoe(though a 15 second hot plunge worked much better then the book's suggestion of ten seconds) and the garlic bread did come out perfectly proving once again, the best and most successful recipes are on the side of a box or a can and not in a cookbook, mostly certainly not this one.