Product Description

Over the past ten years, the number of fruits and vegetables sold in markets nationwide has more than doubled -- as has confusion about how best to prepare them. Elizabeth Schneider to the rescue! "There is no such thing as an inherently 'weird' fruit or vegetable," she states firmly. "What your mother didn't cook, someone else's did."

Schneider makes unfamiliar produce as accessible as carrots and apples. Whether it is newly cultivated in the United States, gathered from the wild, or imported from the tropics, she has studies each edible plant from the ground up and made sure that it arrives at your table in fresh, contemporary fashion.

This encyclopedic cookbook answers questions about nearly one hundred types of recently marketed produce, providing information on nomenclature, availability, selection, storage, preparation, and nutrition. Culinary, botanical, and historical details set the stage for 420 easy-to-follow recipes that capture the essence of each fruit and vegetable.

Recognized as a classic, Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables: A Commonsense Guide was first published in 1986 to a fanfare of outstanding reviews, capped by Time magazine's calling it "the timeliest and most truly helpful book of the year." More useful than ever, this visionary volume includes produce that is now relatively commonplace -- arugula, plantain, kiwi, mango, shiitake, and fennel -- as well as the more elusive passion fruit, lemon grass, carambola, morel, pummelo, and fiddlehead fern.

Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables: A Commonsense Guide remains an indispensable reference and reading pleasure for home cooks and professionals, gardeners, plant lovers, and the food-curious everywhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #510089 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 544 pages

From Amazon.com
As Elizabeth Schneider points out in her introduction, the immigrant culture of America is constantly restocking our markets and produce stores with "ethnic" fruits and vegetables that were hitherto unknown to any but the most worldly gourmets. Just as ginger, bean sprouts, and avocados were once strange, exotic substances, so Vidalia onions, fava beans, and passion fruit are becoming more common in stores nationwide.

In this magnificent, encyclopedic cookbook, Schneider discusses each of 80 fruits and vegetables, its origins, history, and appearance, its flavor, uses, and nutritional highlights. She tells how to shop for it and what to look for, how to store it and how long it'll keep, then she provides a selection of recipes (there are 420 in all) to inspire and reward your new culinary quests. Richard Sax's Hot and Sour Soup-Stew is a lovely way to try out Chinese cabbage, Sautéed Fennel with Lemon makes one wonder how one existed so long without it, and Collard Greens with Cornmeal Dumplings and Bacon provide you with the wherewithal to enjoy this ultimate comfort food in your own home, even if you don't hail from down South. Schneider's Commonsense Guide is an irresistible reference. --Stephanie Gold

From Publishers Weekly
In this delightfully chatty, alphabetical guide to the many exotic fruits and vegetables now appearing in the local market, magazine food writer Schneider likens cherimoya to a "pre-Columbian jade pine cone"; suggests you meet broccoli raab "head on"; rhapsodizes over the "delicious, promiscuous" chili-pepper; and defends "slippery, slimy" okra. She tells how to select pomegranates and loquats, describes such oddities as malangas and feijoas, and offers brief biographies of the newcomers. Her recipes, collected from across the world, are as unusual as her subject: she includes five different ways to serve nopales (cactus pads) and six taro dishes. Even the relatively ordinary spaghetti squash can be much more than a substitute for pastaSchneider suggests baking it in an herbed cheese sauce. Most recipes are simple to prepare and, aside from their uncommon main ingredient, use items found in any well-stocked kitchen. Now there's no need to quiver in fear when faced with a calabaza: lug it home and enjoy! Illustrations.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“If there were Emmys or Oscars for cookbooks, Elizabeth Schneider would surely receive one.” (Boston Globe )

“A landmark reference book.” (Vogue )

“A truly invaluable trove of culinary historical and botanical knowledge.” (Gourmet )

“Exotic fruits and vegetables have met their master in Schneider, a marvelous cook. . . . A heavy-duty classic.” (People )

“The timeliest and most truly helpful book of the year.” (Time magazine )