I've recently given gifts of ethnic cookbooks, and I'm wondering if anyone here has favorites that you've

- given
- used
- browsed
- owned

Maybe you've even adapted recipes from this or these cookbook(s) for your own Individual diet.  
Tell us about...

E-X-T-R-A-O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y

cookbooks, if you don't mind.

Quite a few years ago I received a free cookbook through the purchase of a full home school curriculum. It was simply named "The Sonlight Cookbook" named after the curriculum. Anyway, it is a cookbook filled with LOTS of different ethnic recipes that represent the many different areas and cultures of the world studied in the different Sonlight units. Since Sonlight is very history and literature based, many stories referred to foods commonly eaten during those particular times in history and often times you could find a recipe to make that exact food.

One of our favorites was "Hasty Pudding" which was simply adding cornmeal to boiling water, and then adding a sweetener such as maple syrup. However now, since we know corn is a big avoid for the O's and B's in my family, as well as myself because of my joint pain issues, we basically make the same thing with brown rice grits for breakfast a couple times a week since it is blood type/genotype friendly in our family. We also add compliant nuts, fruits/berries, and carob or cinnamon.

I found a cookbook when in college that is "A Permanent Collection of the World's Best Recipes".  In every section, there is a Table of Contents with the recipe and country of origin.  The only real disappointment is that there are no recipes from India/Pakistan...  

The best use I have gotten from this book is comparing similar dishes from different areas to see which sound better and then making it.  Some of the recipes are very easy and some are much more complicated with terms that (obviously) mean something to the originating countrymen, but not much to me, so I had to "fake" it at the time...  Now I can look up terms very easily on the Internet and learn more.

I do like that many of the dishes are pictured so you can see what you are attempting to make, so you know if it came out close to what was expected, visually at least...

http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Permanent_Collection_of_the_World_s_Be.html?id=cYFXHQAACAAJ
I guess it's this?

How about cookbooks covering one cuisine in depth?

My absolute FAVE is "Bombay Palace" by Stendahl.  I have had it on and off a few times, giving it away or trading it and re-buying it.  I have modified my fave recipes numerous ways over the years and have never been disappointed!  

The Bombay Palace:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Bombay-Palace-Cookbook-Treasury/dp/0396085776

For Christmas I gave my DH a book by Claudia Roden titled "The Food of Spain"...it is the most gloriously beautiful book...with amazing accounts of the various regional foods and recipes of course...they can all be adapted to suit particular blood types...I baked the Walnut Cake which went down a treat...unfortunately I used brown sugar in the absence of any substitute!

I now want Arabesque by the same author!

Quoted from rosa

For Christmas I gave my DH a book by Claudia Roden titled "The Food of Spain"...it is the most gloriously beautiful book...with amazing accounts of the various regional foods and recipes of course...they can all be adapted to suit particular blood types...I baked the Walnut Cake which went down a treat...unfortunately I used brown sugar in the absence of any substitute!

I now want Arabesque by the same author!

Oh, yes -- she's very thorough, a real scholar who has covered the whole Mediterranean region.  

I'm not really a big fan of cookbooks- I usually prefer to peruse recipes online (or in a cookbook borrowed from the library) for general ideas and then put them together in my kitchen with compliant ingredients. I do follow recipes for baked goods, as the precise ratios of flour/oil/baking soda can make a big difference.

About the only cookbook I use regularly is The Spice and Spirit of Kosher Cooking. It includes many traditional recipes from both Ashkenazi (eastern European) and Sephardic (Jews from the middle east, southern Europe, and north Africa) traditions. It also explains a lot about the basics of keeping kosher- which can be an essential guide for a Jewish cook or just an interesting read for non-Jews or for those Jews who don't keep kosher.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I'm not really a big fan of cookbooks- I usually prefer to peruse recipes online (or in a cookbook borrowed from the library) for general ideas and then put them together in my kitchen with compliant ingredients.

Yes, the internet has definitely put a dent in cookbook sales!
Yet there are many very beautiful cookbooks being published all the time, such as the ones named above. One can really get an education about a region and its culture, through and in addition to its cuisine, from such tomes.
It's fun to peruse them, in a non-directed searching-for-one-recipe-in-a-hurry way.

I so agree. I read cookbooks as often as I do novels, etc.
They are teaching tools/story/picture books....and fun!   
My Mom must have passed this habit on to me as her collection fills one entire wall unit in her country type kitchen! Mine fills 4 shelves in my pantry and 3 in my library.
Interestingly though, we use family recipes the most, and I have had to adapt many to BTD. They are scrawled on browned pieces of paper, note cards, and backs of envelopes in my Greatgrandmere's, Grandmere's, Aunties, and Mom's handwriting ...usually not exact measurements, either!!! I am quite nostalgic..and it can be time consuming!
A few of my favorites:

The Art of Greek Cookery/St. Paul's Greek Orthodox church
1961 .....includes sources of Greek food products

Mediterrnean Food of the Sun.... by J. clark and J. Farrow
1999...beautiful pictures and scrumptious food

The Food of France...2000
and
Culinaria France...2004

Both of these have gorgeous regional photos/history/recipes and are large, heavy books

I do have a California favorite from the McEvoy ranch in Marin county...
The Olive Harvest...2004
Warm goat cheese salad with lavender honey
Mixed winter squash soup with honey and sage
Salt cod with leeks and saffron
Fresh tuna salad with avocado and black olives
Walnut-olive oil cake.........

I've typed up most of my favorite recipes, rather than relying on little scraps of paper. I print them out and keep them in a binder; I have a separate binder for my Passover-appropriate recipes. And if I lose a piece of paper, it's easy enough to print out a fresh copy. It's also convenient to  email a recipe to a friend or a PTA cookbook project.

I have most of my recipes either posted here or in an online cookbook on my work computer. I've still got a lot of cookbooks though.

For anyone with an iPad, check out the Pepperplate app.

Great organizational tool for anyone with piles of paper and scraps, or who constantly tweaks and edits recipies.

Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook

http://www.amazon.com/Chez-Jac.....363632998&sr=1-7

A beautiful cookbook.  Very personal.  Almost like you are invited into his life.  I was able to adapt a handful of the recipes.  It is in a coffee-table format with lovely photos and personal back-stories to many of the recipes.  Adapted his Beef in Red Wine as a Teacher-compliant Ostrich in Red Wine and it was delicious.  Jacques Pepin is a such a warm, caring, and intelligent cook.  He has many videos on Youtube.  Highly recommended.

Thanks, cajun, for your sharing of ethnic cookbooks you find inspiring.

While cookbooks that are not particularly ethnic also figure strongly amongst appreciated literature in this house   , I was really hoping for that ethnic emphasis. So this was less a question such as
"Which cookbooks do you use?" or
"What's your favorite cookbook?" or
"Which cookbook best reflects your dietary philosophy?" or
"Where do you store recipes?"

but more the evocation of a place and its culture via its cuisine.

Adam,
My Mom gave me a cookbook by Jacques Pepin years ago. I agree, he is one of the best!   I will check out this book, thanks!

Quoted from Adam

This man taught me everything I know about cooking authentic Indian cooking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq9rHij2z20

Adam: You had this to say on the Spice thread.
It reminded me that today folks look less for the sit-back-and-read-about-a-cuisine approach, opting for the "Just Gimme A Recipe" fix with a good teacher.
I know this fellow's videos and find them upbeat and instructive, too.  

I've had this cookbook for years, and I love it. The recipes turned out to be very adaptable to the BTD, I still use it regularly.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Turk.....rds=turkish+cookbook

Everything by Elizabeth David , italian and french provincial cooking especially.

I do love Claudia Rodens Arabesque at taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon

If you want to get a good look at Scandinavian Cooking I can recommend Camilla Plum
http://www.amazon.com/Scandinavian-Kitchen-Essential-Ingredients-Authentic/dp/1906868476

Quoted from Henriette Bsec

Everything by Elizabeth David , italian and french provincial cooking especially.

I do love Claudia Rodens Arabesque at taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon

If you want to get a good look at Scandinavian Cooking I can recommend Camilla Plum
http://www.amazon.com/Scandinavian-Kitchen-Essential-Ingredients-Authentic/dp/1906868476

ATTENTION:
Henriette's post is, IMO, wonderful.
I've just spent a little time at Amazon perusing Elizabeth David's work, as well as the Camilla Plum book on Scandinavian cuisine, and it was time well and enjoyably spent, to say the least.

Henriette: I love the style of both (all, incl. Roden) of these writers.
Elizabeth David deserves to be far better known here in America, though she is recognized for what she was to Britain.

Thank you for sharing Camilla Plum with us.

This all led me to wonder about cookbooks in the Danish language; are these all translated into Danish for your countryfolk, or is everyone so fluent in English anyway that it doesn't matter?

Well i have read Elizabeth David and Roden in English , most people with a degree understands english quite well so some  cooking books are sold in english but others like ED, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson are translated.

Camilla Plum is THE grand old lady , she is sometimes a bit sloppy and too much = straight forward for some people but she knows what she is speaking about,
I have visited her farm several times and it always a great experience the taste and quality of food is her focus .. Not fancy food. Here is a very good  description of her
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8147421/Plum-role-for-a-great-Dane.html

We have several other good cooks in Denmark
Claus Meyer is very popular as well.
http://www.newscancook.com/meet-our-chefs/claus-meyer/
He is one of the guys behind new nordic kitchen  and the very hyped resturant Noma.
I find it interesting but somhow a little too much

Quoted from Henriette Bsec

Well i have read Elizabeth David and Roden in English , most people with a degree understands english quite well so some  cooking books are sold in english but others like ED, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson are translated.

Camilla Plum is THE grand old lady , she is sometimes a bit sloppy and too much = straight forward for some people but she knows what she is speaking about,
I have visited her farm several times and it always a great experience the taste and quality of food is her focus .. Not fancy food. Here is a very good  description of her
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/8147421/Plum-role-for-a-great-Dane.html

We have several other good cooks in Denmark
Claus Meyer is very popular as well.
http://www.newscancook.com/meet-our-chefs/claus-meyer/
He is one of the guys behind new nordic kitchen  and the very hyped resturant Noma.
I find it interesting but somhow a little too much

Thanks so much for all of this, HBS.
I've learned a great deal.
Just watched a YouTube of Camilla - wasn't crazy about her style/delivery, though her spread there looks wonderful. The kale salad was...not all that interesting either.
Claus Meyer is a man with a vision. I bookmarked his lecture, because I am so jazzed about his visionary quality. I, too, see the bigger scope here, that the Mediterranean has, for various reasons, dominated the Culinary Arts for the past few hundred years, and the polar climes have been neglected, which neglect is no longer necessary, in the Age of Information and Transportation.
There is no reason, for instance, that the food of Scandinavia and Britain need remain hidden in shame. I, like you, don't know if I need to learn to eat Noma-style creations, but the whole latitude of global taste could stand, IMO, to increase, showcasing the meats, fishes, roots, herbs, creams, cheeses, etc., of these regions a whole lot more.
Many great culinary minds dedicated to the elevation of these cuisines to world class expression, without going all precious, is, to my mind, something to be encouraged, and I suspect Claus Meyer will have mentored enough enthusiasts that, in the generations to come, we'll see some heretofore unknown ingredients and flavors becoming better and more widely known and loved.

Thanks again, friend.  
Keep educating us!

I don't own any of Lidia Bastianich's cookbooks, but I have always liked her TV program, Lidia's Italy.
She showcases multiple regions of that country and cooks in a down-home style -- the way I do, the way, I think, most chefs do -- in our heads, without measuring. She explains/teaches the way I do, making the choices I tend to make, and ends up with just the kind of food I enjoy eating, so much of the time.  

If I had to learn, all over again, how to cook, I think I'd really like her easy-going, natural style. I'd feel comfortable with her explanations; I know I'd love the food!

So, I'd say her show qualifies as a video "cookbook"!