Capture Gran Cocina Latina: The Food Of Latin America Formulated By Maricel E. Presilla Shown As Script

had a some hesitation in rating this five, which I usually save for truly extraordinary books that I love, After some thought, I decided to give this five because it really fills a void in the cookbook market, namely a comprehensive OVERVIEW of Latin American cooking.
So, the empanada and ajiaco recipes are not the same ones that I grew up with, but they are a great springboard for further exploration and tweaking.
This is an encyclopedia of Latin American cooking,pages of ingredients alone, I have two minor quibbles, one is the lack of nutritional information and the other is that a fair amount of the recipes are restaurant or holiday recipes.
I'm lucky to have Latin restaurants near me so I can get an empanada whenever I want, otherwise I would consider buying this book.
this is an incredibly thoughtful, deep, and personal account of a large variety of food that has come to be known as 'latin cuisine.
' she's a great storyteller. in fact, the book could be aboutpages if it were just recipes and didn't rely so much on the history of pumpkin, sugar, every kind of pepper, etc.
it's interesting, but i wonder who the audience is, it's organized very well. whole chapters on pepper pots, squash, tamal, cebiche, etc, it's just so very thorough that you can't help but be awed, i do wonder whether the recipes are any good it's another book where each many of the recipes requires days of prep and ingredients you don't have on hand i have yet to try them.
also, it serves much better as a history than a cookbook, even my cookbook holder wouldn't be able to keep this tome atpages open for very long, While it has a wealth of knowledge I was honestly overwhelmed, and because of that I had difficulty getting into it, It's not easy being a Latin Americanist and not liking cilantro, cooked peppers, or super spicy food, The book itself would be a great addition to an Intro to Latin American culture class, with food history and anecdotes about how different foods came to be a part of Latin American cooking, and what people are doing with them today.
And despite the limitations mentioned above, I managed to flag at leastrecipes, including for two favorites from places that I've spent extended periods of time pupusas El Salvador and empanadas from Chile not to be confused with empanadas from anywhere else!.
I also flagged some sweets, like flan, and alfajores, a favorite cookie made filled with dulce de leche called manjar, in Chile.
Yes, I read cookbooks. And this one is a masterpiece, So many good recipes. Encyclopedic, comprehensive. Library checkout. Would like to own. The genius of Latin American cuisine is how it seamlessly combines the diverse flavors and cooking techniques of five different continents, The native ingredients and flavors of North and South Americas are imbued with the broad influence of European styles, especially Spanish and Portuguese cooking.
There is also a distinct influence

of west African cuisine, particularly in the Caribbean and northern Brazil, And finally the flavors of East Asia are prominent in some western parts of South America, including a strong Chinese influence in Peruvian cooking.


Latin American cuisine embraces all of this diversity, bringing together so many delicious combinations of flavors across meat and seafood, vegetable and grain dishes, and of course the amazing desserts.
Gran Cocina Latina is the most comprehensive compilation of recipes across the whole of Latin America, All regions of Latin America are well represented here, from Mexico and the Caribbean through Central and South Americas, This cookbook ispages of pure deliciousness,

Three of my most favorite recipes include a Bahiastyle fish stew in coconut milk, a dish that I enjoyed on a previous trip to the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador.
Another favorite is a beef and potato stir fry from Peru that combines the flavors of China, Spain, and South America all in one dish.
Finally, I should mention the delicious Argentine empanadas with ground beef, chopped olives, and seasoning,

Everything is so good here, and the diversity of flavors means that you can keep coming back to the same book to explore new regions and new flavors.
This is one of my alltime favorite cookbooks, Got it from the library and thought I should have it, but decided to wait, And Saturday, it was sent tome as a gift by a great pal, I am buying this book, This book deserves a lifetime achievement award, Thispage hefty tome is part cookbook, part encyclopedia, part weight lifting device, I think there was somewhere aroundrecipes not a lot of pictures, but the ones there were gorgeous, There was comprehensive Latin American factual history as well as anecdotal history, I saw complaints in the reviews that there were too many hard to find unless you live near a Latin grocer ingredients in the recipes.
Yes, there were, but she also provided acceptable substitutions from more commonly found items, Must have book of Latin Cuisine !!! Great historical facts and immensely curated recipes, Incredibly comprehensive. I have already referred to this many times, This is a foodie's cookbook, I know my love of growing food makes me insanely interested in agricultural history, There are those who say this could be shorter without the indepth on veggies, I have learned more geography and history from this than I did in any classroom! The flan recipes are FANTASTIC!! Hands down, one of the best cookbooks I have ever read.
And I read it page by page, beginning to end, I cannot recommend this highly enough, This is definitely a foodies cookbook where the difference between finely chopping and muddling the herbs matters, I haven't tried any of the hundreds of interesting recipes yet, but the food history and geography the author provides is very interesting and worth it alone.
I enjoyed the recipes and historical context of this book, But I am unable to get fresh coconuts always stale, which really limits my ability to cook the recipes in the authentic way they are presented.
Still, I was able to adapt and enjoy several recipes and would read another book by this author, I attended the Beard on Books lecture featuring author, Maricel Presilla, You can read later on my Examiner, com Food amp Drink Column, A culinary encyclopedia of Latin American cooking, . . I maderecipes from this cookbook coquitos, rice pudding and pumpkin and rice casserole, All were quite good, but I probably won't make them often, Coquitos are meant for Christmas Holiday festivities rice pudding took,hours to make ! and the pumpkin casserole was a big time commitment as well,

Ingredients for some recipes can only be found in Latin American markets, This book is definitely for adventurous cooks and eaters, .