SEASONAL RECIPES GARDEN COOKBOOK

Review by

Seasonal Recipes from the Garden
(Clarkson Potter) ISBN 978-0307351081 0307351084

This seasonal cookbook provides 120 recipes for garden produce, when it is ripe and tasty. Many of the spring, summer, fall and winter recipes are for Southern cooking.

Some are P. Allen Smith's favorite family recipes, interspersed with gardening tips and illustrated with mouthwatering photos of seasonal dishes.

Seasonal cooking

P. Allen Smith organizes Seasonal Recipes from the Garden into spring, summer, fall and winter chapters. Each chapter has 30 recipes for appetizers, main dishes, sides and desserts, made with homegrown fruits, vegetables and herbs.

He introduces each seasonal recipe with gardening and cooking tips. One example? Use radish tops as well as sliced radishes to make tasty radish top pasta.

Boxed sidebars provide additional culinary advice. One notes that you can eat the green tops of turnips and beets. Another lists how many tomatoes are in a pound (e.g., eight Roma tomatoes per pound and one-half to one beefsteak tomato per pound).

Garnishing ideas

P. Allen Smith also recommends creative garnishes for seasonal recipes, like fresh chive blossoms in his spring lettuce and walnut sherry dressing recipe.

Ben Fink's food photos illustrate delicious Southern cooking made from Seasonal Recipes from the Garden recipes. Other photos by Ben Fink depict seasonal produce.

Black and white photos show P. Allen Smith and his relatives, who provided favorite family recipes for the garden cookbook.

Gardening tips

The 256-page cookbook provides gardening advice. For example, P. Allen Smith lists vegetables that you can plant in the fall, including curly parsley, mesclun greens and buttercrunch bib lettuce.

He also suggests vegetables that you can grow in containers (large pots with drainage holes), like kale, sugar snap peas and ruby red Swiss chard. Gardening tips include how to keep out burrowing animals (bury a fence in the ground about two feet).

Sample recipes for garden produce

Chilled pea soup with bacon and whipped cream. Strawberry spinach salad. Arugula pesto. Ginger sesame stir-fried asparagus. Broccoli with lemon and hazelnuts. Pineapple orange French toast. Raspberry cheese tart. Bruschetta with blue cheese and fig topping. Rosemary garlic smoked pork tenderloin. Peppered walnuts. Parmesan pecan crisps. Oregano and garlic marinated grilled shrimp. Black and white grape salad. Curly endive with dates and walnuts. Eggplant and feta salad. Blackberry pork chops. White cheddar parsnips and potatoes. Goat cheese and leek tart. Sweet potato bread. Quick fried kale. Sweet onion tartlets. Citrus honey cheesecake with hazelnut crust. Buttermilk pecan pie.

Seasonal Recipes from the Garden

Contents

Introduction
Spring / Summer / Fall / Winter
  • Starters
  • Soups and Sandwiches
  • Salads
  • Main Dishes
  • Vegetables and Sides
  • Bread and Such
  • Desserts
Resources
How to Grow Ingredients for Your Recipes
Index

Author

P. Allen Smith is the author of several gardening books and the host of the P. Allen Smith Gardens and P. Allen Smith's Garden Home TV shows.


Return to Food & Drink Index