Roots: a book review

I am a very easy person to buy for. Any one who has known me for more that 20 minutes has it figured out that getting me books is almost guaranteed to make me happy. If it's a cook book, even better, especially if it has lots of pretty pictures!

One of the things about being Canadian is that you are probably quite familiar with root vegetables. The thing is, you could say that about just about anyones nationality; it would seem that almost every culture has some sort of root vegetable, be it a taproot or a tuberous root, a rhizome, corm or stem tuber, at the base of its indigenous cuisine. Now, don't get me wrong, potatoes are great, but sometimes it would be nice to shake things up a little. This would where "Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes" by Diane Morgan ( DianeMorganCooks.com ) can come in handy.

Firstly, it is a beautiful book to have. A wonderful reference guide that gives you a bit of history, scientific classifications, varieties, preparation and how to use, yield references, basic nutritional info as well as availability and storage tips. The contents are located at the front of the book in alphabetical order of which ever 'root' is being featured, and while some roots have more recipes available, you get a range of options for each. Plus, so far, all of the recipes turn out looking like the picture provided!

Some of the 'roots' I am well familiar with, carrots, beets, radishes, etc; some of them I have heard of though not used personally like lotus root and yuca, and some of them I've never heard of (crosne, also called Japanese artichoke and a member of the mint family, looks disturbingly like larvae of some kind and I have set All my friends to looking for it for me!), giving you a lot of options. You can stick with things you are familiar with, or totally introduce something new!

I'm also really enjoying some of the modifications she's suggested; recipes I am familiar with, but using a different 'root' for it. Instead of carrot cake, why not a parsnip cake? Leave off the potato fries and give yuca fries a try - NOTE: these have become my favourite!!! Potato fries are boring in comparison, and I suggest seasoning them with a little ground cumin and sea salt... Heaven!

Okay, so the three recipes that we picked to test out used Rutabaga, Celery Root and Jerusalem Artichoke, and all three of them have made it to our "do that again" list. We made the Rutabaga Hash with Onions and Crisp Bacon (pg. 273) for a quick dinner one night, and while we only used one jalapeno and added a red pepper, we followed her suggestion of adding a poached egg to the top of it. I think it took us about 30 minutes to get it on the table, and the rutabaga gave a nice sweet contrast to the jalapeno (though next time we will use 2). The celery root got turned into Celery Root Remoulade (pg. 95) and considering that my husband hates celery, this was good stuff and I think he ate most of it. You will need to use a sour cream alternative to keep it dairy free, and I probably would have cried if I didn't have a mandolin to slice the celery root with (you want match stick sized slices for the remoulade since the root isn't cooked), but the work was worth it in terms of taste.

The third recipe, Jerusalem Artichoke and Artichoke Heart Linguini (pg. 166), is of course the only one I have pictures of. Sorry... Crunchy jerusalem artichoke with tender pasta and artichoke hearts; a little bit of spice in red peper flakes and garlic balanced out with fresh mint; some lemon juice and a little olive oil and it made for a dinner that was familar but new at the same time. Bonus points if you need to feed a vegan friend and wanted something that could be done up a little fancy (though I think the next time we do this if we don't toss some bacon in it, there will be some spicy Italian GF sausage). This goes together really qickly, so I was very glad that I had sliced and chopped everything before starting, but being able to put a nice meal on the table quickly is not something I am going to complain about!

It also only requires a pot to cook the pasta in and a large fry pan where you will toss everything together before serving.

This is definitely a book that I am very glad to have, and am looking forward to trying out some of the other 'roots' and recipes in it. Now if I could only find some crosnes....

Rating: 4 out of 5 simply because it is not a book I would give to beginner cooks who still think Kraft Dinner is food, but there are a number of people on my gift lists that I can cross off for the rest of this year!