In Her Kitchen

I've recently become an avid cookbook collector. Quite a lot of cookbooks and food books (both old and new) have made their way onto my bookshelves over the last year. The most cherished of all of these cookbooks is In Her Kitchen: Stories And Recipes From Grandmas Around The World. I loved this book as soon as I set my eyes on the cover. The cover is gorgeous, but it was the title that most grabbed my attention. I had a deep and strong connection with my Grandmother and greatly cherished our relationship. I have fond memories of spending time with her grocery shopping. After all these years since she has passed, I still have her grocery list memorized. And, I've had many wonderful relationships with incredible women many years my elder. Thus, I have a fondness and appreciation for "all things Grandma."

Before delving into the beauty of this book, I would like to say a little something about the author. Gabriele Galimberti is an inspiring Italian documentary photographer who has worked on many fascinating book projects. Some of his projects capture difficult to tackle topics and others are more lighthearted. His current project is Coffee Surfing. He will meet coffee lovers around the world to document stories of renewal and change. Pop on over to his website to learn more-I'm sure you'll find his work intriguing.

In Her Kitchen shares interesting personal stories of Grandmothers across the globe, alongside their recipes. Gorgeous photos are also shared for each featured Grandmother with their food and photos of a the recipe dish. You can enjoy cooking from this book, or simply reading the stories and taking in the beauty of the photography.

Needless to say, it was difficult to decide what to prepare from this book of mouth-watering dishes. I managed to narrow down my list to four dishes: Chinese Pork (Belly) Twice Cooked with Vegetables, Thai Stuffed Omelet, Argentinian Meat-Stuffed Pastries and Indian Chicken                                                                                                 Vindaloo.

My first adventure with In Her Kitchen was an Asian meal to include the Chinese and Thai dishes. Both dishes were incredible. I highly enjoyed making Pan Guang Mei's Twice-Cooked Pork with Vegetables (Hui Guo Rou). Pan Guang Mei is from Sichuan, China. She grew up in the countryside in a tiny house and now lives in the city of Chongqing and has one grandchild. This was my first time making pork belly, so I was prepared for a bit of an adventure. I was pleased to learn that making pork belly is very easy. As a bonus, it makes for a delectable and attractive dish. The dish as a whole was delicious. Making this dish also was an inspiration for cooking more with pork belly. This small cooking epiphany inspires me to cook more from this book. In Her Kitchen creates an opportunity for a jaunt around the world, sampling from many world cuisines.

Boonlom Thongpor of Bangkok Thailand has one grandchild. Her family has a small street restaurant and she considers herself an excellent cook. We loved her Thai Stuffed Omelet (Kai Yat Sai). This omelet is stuffed full of the savory flavors of pork, soy sauce, onions and fish sauce. I love the addition of chopped plum tomatoes to this flavor combination. I got a huge thumbs up from the family and I'll surely be making this again soon.

On to the next adventure. I have always loved empanadas and decided it was high time that I got some empanada making skills. Plus, Susana Vezetti's recipe looked pretty unique, so I felt the need to give this particular recipe a try. Susana is of Italian ancestry and from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She enjoys spending time with her children and also has a small business importing religious books from Italy. Whenever she sees her grandchildren, she brings her "Special Empanadas." They are indeed special. These empanadas are stuffed with cumin scented beef, onions, minced hard-boiled egg, raisins, red bell pepper and 1 green olive. The empanada pie dough was very good, creating the perfect crunchy atmosphere for the savory middle.

I ended my adventure in India. But, I will be back for more! Grace Estibero grew up in Goa, near the sea, but now lives in Mumbai. She is of Portuguese descent, like many who live in Goa. She shares her recipe for Chicken Vindaloo which is a dish that is an import from Portugal. This dish was really fun to prepare. I borrowed a large knife suitable for chopping up chicken from a colleague. I was not but at the chicken chopping for a first time. But, for the future, I'll probably just leave it to the butcher. How would you expect a dish to taste with a paste prepared from onions, chilies, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, cumin, cloves, turmeric, tamarind, sugar and peppercorns? Fantastic, of course! I had to go back for seconds on this flavorful dish.

I'm looking forward to continuing to cook my way through In Her Kitchen. I highly recommend this book and hope you enjoyed the blogpost.

I received this book from Blogging For Books for review.