My Kitchen My Table

Wine Country Cooking Cookbook Review

Everyone was excited to cook from Wine Country Cooking. As people started buying their books I began receiving emails with a common theme of “it all looks so good I’m going to have a hard time deciding what to make”. This is truly a cookbook for all seasons, and how lucky are we to live close to the wine country and have so many amazing ingredients readily available.

During the time we were cooking from the book, several serendipitous things happened around Joanne Weir. The first was an invitation from a friend to attend a dinner at the Left Bank in Larkspur. Joanne had provided a menu that Chef Sean Canavan and his crew expertly prepared. All recipes were from Wine Country Cooking and ironically, I had prepared the entrée for dinner with the parents the week before. It would be interesting to compare. The rest of the menu included:

Amuse Bouche ~ Asparagus Cheese Puffs (p.79)
First Course ~ Asparagus Soup with Lemon Crème Fraîche ( p.15)
Entrée ~ Pork Tenderloin with Onion, Orange Marmalade (p. 155) and Grain Pilaf with Nuts and Dried Fruit (p. 178)
Dessert ~ Warm Chocolate-Walnut Tart (p.195)

It was all quite delicious with the stand out dish being the Asparagus Soup. It was the most brilliant shade of green, (Chef Canavan shared his trick for that with the group who ate up every word), But it was really the addition of lemon to the crème fraîche that gave everyone pause after putting the first spoonful in their mouths. The lemon was so subtle but noticeable and turned the soup from good to “wow, that’s really delicious”.

The second came from a friend who I like sharing recipes with. She sent me a couple that she had been making lately and really enjoyed. Guess whose they were; yep, Joanne Weir.

As for the cookbook, the net was that while all of the recipes looked great, there were several that had liquid ingredients that were off, instructions that were unclear or cooking times that were off. We decided that the recipes were better used as guidelines and that if the book had been gifted to a novice who didn’t have the intuition of someone who cooks a lot, there would be trouble in the kitchen. Some of us also found that certain recipes required a lot of active time.

It made me wonder… at the dinner, Joanne said that she writes recipes on her computer without actually making them. She is clearly a professional and has been cooking for decades with her PBS show, teaching classes and running tours near and abroad so of course, she naturally knows what she’s doing in a kitchen, it just seemed that something got lost in translation or perhaps only some of the recipes were tested in the kitchen.

Two things I learned from meeting her – she has a hell of a devoted following of people who watch her on television and attend her classes. In fact, she knew or recognized most of the guests and the man sitting next to me had almost all seventeen of her cookbooks and could actually recall which recipes were in which book and he even threw out a few page numbers as well. I was more frightened than impressed by this knowledge. The second is that Joanne Weir is a shameless self-promoter. I think that every sentence she spoke had a mention of her PBS show, her upcoming culinary tour in Provence, one of her seventeen cookbooks, or the weekend cooking classes she teaches in her house in SF. I wonder how she has a permit for those weekend classes? But I digress and must go back to the book and our cookbook club.

The quote of the night from the table “Damn Joanne, it would have been nice to have better instructions”. We all would have liked more pictures and a couple of us had issues with the cover coming unglued.

Here is a partial list of some of the dishes we made and comments:

Asparagus, Blood Orange, and Proscuitto Salad p.33 ~ it was labor intensive to segment and peel the oranges and what does “curl the proscuitto like a ribbon” mean? It would have been nice to have a picture. The depth of flavor was good.
Risotto with Lemon Shrimp p.129 ~ a huge hit, although one person ran out of stock before the rice was “chalky” it was really creamy and flavorful.
Little Lemon Cakes p.197 ~ both people who made these said the yield was 10 servings vs. 8 as stated in the book ~ at least the yield wasn’t less! Both cooks also stated it took longer to cook than what the recipe said.
Olive Oil and Orange Essence Cake p.196 ~ orange essence can be difficult to find. It was also unclear when to take the parchment paper off, and as a result, the top of the cake stuck to the parchment and came off in pieces. This was a problem for presentation.
Wine Country Flatbread with Grapes and Walnuts p.98 ~ Easy to make, delicious, and the house smelled great.
Fennel Gratin p.171 ~ Just make sure your guests like fennel!
Gratin of Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Eggplant p.172 ~ The cook said “This is a disaster as far as I’m concerned, there was way too much liquid”.
Roasted Cauliflower Soup p.17 ~ it’s good with a little cheese on top.
White Bean and Ham Soup p.23 ~ Yum!
Polenta with Mushrooms p.88
Citrus Salad with Mint and Red Onions p.44
Gorgonzola and Tomato Pizza p.144 ~ easy and straightforward recipe.
Crostini with Fennel Sausage p.63 ~ (Joann said this is one of her favorite recipes in the book) – and it was delicious but required more cooking time than in the recipe. Definitely a good idea to double the recipe and have on hand.
Italian Mac & Cheese p.124 ~ this needed more time in the oven but what’s not to love about penne + 3 cheeses in a béchamel sauce with toasted breadcrumbs?!
Pineapple Sorbet with Olive Oil & Fleur de Sel p.209 ~ another recipe that Joanne said was a favorite. I guarantee your guests have never had this before. Be sure to use a good olive oil and with a sprinkle of salt your guests are in for a big surprise!
Goat Cheese and Green Onion Galette p.82 ~ Easy to make and yummy
Cool Mint Chocolate Cookies p.202 ~ substituted orange extract for the mint. I think they may be some of the best chocolate cookies I have ever made.

One thing that we all noticed and would have liked to make but lacked the time was the Lemoncello on the last page. It requires a minimum of 80 days of advance timing. If I make some now it will be ready for a hot August night – and how refreshing to sip some Lemoncello on ice! I won’t mention the big typo in the head note – Amalti Coast?!? That’s pretty bad.

In the end, we were all glad that we had cooked from the book and are likely to return to its recipes as the seasons change. Now we know to consider the recipes as guidelines and use our best judgment and intuition when cooking.

mkmtCOOK | Comments (7)