I heart Claudia Roden...

[pantryslut]

...because she makes baklava sound so *easy*.

Comments

[anarqueso.livejournal.com]

I heart her because of the cool old photos in her books.

[jactitation.livejournal.com]

I love her for bringing my two favorite things together (history and food), but I'm not so keen on her flavoring. Bland. Whenever I find a recipe of hers that looks good, I try to find another version that kicks up the fat, salt, and/or herbs.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've never had this problem. But I pretty much routinely taste as I go and adjust accordingly, so I might not have noticed.

What I really like about her is how clear her recipes are written. She makes things seem so much more accessible than, say, Paula Wolfort, or the stern Sonia Uvezian, whom I also happen to love (and who taught me how to stuff a melon). And this is without dumbing anything down, which makes me cross.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Sonia Uvezian. "How" to stuff a melon seems fairly straightforward. Once you get the seeds out, it just sits there on the counter and asks for it. (Or you can get a melon baller and exaggerate the effect, like stuffing a tomato, I presume.) I'm wondering what she taught you to stuff melons with?

Or is this one of those inaccessible non-Euclidian techniques?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

She taught me how to stuff a melon with lamb and rice. And then bake it, which is the part that requires instruction. It was really surprisingly good.