Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 22, 1990 TAG: 9007260031
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by HARRIET LITTLE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By John Shields. Addison-Wesley. $18.95.
John Shields celebrates an area, its people and its cooking in "The Chesapeake Bay Cookbook." The book features an informative and well-written text about the area itself, along with such time-honored customs as A Chesapeake Bay Crab Feast and A Chuch Hall Fish Fry.
The outstanding recipes range from appetizers to desserts, and are clearly written for ease of preparation. A couple of favorites are Tilghman Crab Cakes, from Tilghman Island, and Miss Tootsie's Bourbon and Pecan Soft-shell Crabs, from the area bounded on the south by Norfolk and on the north by Crisfield, Md. Other extremely tempting recipes include Fried Broccoli with Hot Peppers, Curried Crabmeat, Ms. Jamie's Apple Chutney, Roast Turkey with Oyster Stuffing, Country Fried Rabbit, Brunswick Stew and Bourbon-Apple Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream. Shields also includes an Eastern Shore recipe for muskrat and two from Chestertown for deer.
Hot Links and Country Flavor: Sausages in American Regional Cooking.
By Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. Knopf. $19.95.
Each section of this book serves up precise and uncomplicated information about making various kinds of regional sausages, as well as a sampling of favorite recipes.
From the South, there is Georgia peanut soup with smoked sausage; from Louisiana, chicken Pontalba. Northeastern recipes include skewered Tuscan sausage and chicken livers. Cornbelt chowder comes from the Midwest. Southwest selections include Phyllis' wilted spinach salad with crispy chorizo; and from the West Coast there is John King's Asian Barbecue. (King is also the book's illustrator.)
Another section focuses on New American Cuisine with recipes for wild rice and pecan salad with grilled venison sausages, as well as sausage with fettuccine, sun-dried tomatoes and American chevre. Finally, there's more detailed information on making sausage at home, smoking the product and further utilizing sausages in stuffings, sauces and accompaniments. "Hot Links and Country Flavor" shows off both traditional and contemporary regional foods at their finest and should prove a joy to use.
by CNB