Product Description

Increasingly, chefs today - both professional and amateur - are emphasizing fresh, seasonal ingredients, locally and organically grown. Now in the revised edition of the book Alice Waters of Chez Panisse called "indispensable," Joy Larcom presents abundant information about crops that are full of flavor, highly nutritious and easy to grow. She describes over seventy exotic vegetables that can be cultivated regardless of climate, soil type or garden size. Here are hardy leafy mustards, komatsuna, Chinese yams and cabbage, lablab beans, pak choi, the climbing spinace basella, gourds, luffas and many more. For this edition, Larkcom has added many new varieties and taken out those which are no longer available. She's updated information on such topics as pest and disease control; and added to the section that offers over 50 recipes for making delicious salads (Chinese Hot Salad), salad dressings (Lemon and Green Onion Dressing), soups (Basic Western Style Greens Soup), pickles (Pickled Mushroom Stems), and other dishes using the vegetables featured in the first section (Azuki Bean Risotto with Watercress and Grilled Tofu, Creamy Artichoke Soup, Duck with Mustard Leaves and Pasta, etc.). The helpful appendices include a glossary of gardening terms, a season/month conversion chart, a growing information chart, plant names, gardening organizations and seed suppliers in the U.S.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150115 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

From Library Journal
Larkcom, a British-based gardener and author of The Salad Garden ( LJ 5/1/84), presents a comprehensive volume on Chinese and Japanese vegetables. Over 100 varieties are listed with information on scientific and Oriental names, general background, cultivation requirements, and use in the kitchen. An additional section focuses on gardening techniques, such as "cut and come again" methods and protected cropping. The book concludes with a short collection of simple recipes. The information-dense text is occasionally lightened by high-quality line drawings and several pages of color photographs. The thorough index will be helpful for individuals interested in determining the identity of vegetables found in Oriental markets. As a whole, Oriental Vegetables focuses more on information for the "garden" than the "kitchen," and it should be a fine addition for most gardening collections, especially in such areas where interest in Oriental food is high.
- Virginia A. Hen richs, Chicago Botanic Garden Lib., Glencoe, Ill.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The revised edition of Joy Larkcom's Oriental Vegetables: The Complete Guide for the Gardening Cook will have vegetable gardeners running back to the shelf again and again. There's everything from pak choi to amaranth, with details of how easy it is to grow, and how to cook it. If you like to grow oriental vegetables at all, it is indispensable."
-The Times, June 30, 2007, "Best summer reads: gardening"

"It's a useful and inspiring book for garden cooks." - The Daily Mirror

Ingram
An indispensable guide to growing and using Oriental vegetables based on ten years of research in China and the author's own garden. Larkcom shows that many lesser-known Oriental vegetables thrive regardless of season and includes over 50 of her own delicious recipes. Bibliography, index, glossary, and seed-outlet listings. Full-color photographs.