New Vegetarian Classics: Entrees. - book reviews

Vegetarian Times, Feb, 1996 by Jeannine Johnson Perriseau

DEVELOPING A REPERTOIRE of entries that aren't simply large side dishes is a challenge for vegetarian cooks. Mary Taylor has plenty of solutions to this dilemma, providing you have an adventurous palate, significant skill, patience and plenty of international ingredients on hand.

The 150-plus recipes in this book are diverse. They include meatless adaptations of Western classics, such as Vegetable Pot Pie and Seitan Bourguignon, and numerous dishes from India and Asia, such as Idlis (steamed grain-and-bean patties) with Tomato and Tamarind Chutneys, Tandoori-style Mixed Grill, and Tofu with Mixed Nuts and Lemon Grass. There also is an array of East-meets-West dishes, such as Mandala of Crepes with Garbanzo Sauce, Soba Noodles with Wild Mushrooms in Parchment, and Black-eyed Peas with Lemon Grass and Yard-long Beans.

The recipes are hearty, many relying on tofu, tempeh, seitan and beans, and are seasoned with an eclectic array of international flavorings. Taylor rarely calls for eggs, and gives soy equivalents whenever she calls for dairy products. Although there are no nutritional breakdowns, the recipes don't appear excessively rich. Taylor insists in the introduction that the recipes are all simple to prepare, but only chef-trained cooks would agree. Many home cooks will find the long ingredient lists a bit daunting, especially with their unusual mix of Eastern and Western ingredients. The preparation and cooking times Taylor provides tend to be overly optimistic. And because many of the recipes have names that do not easily conjure up a mental image of the finished dish, this book would have benefited from more photographs (there are only 16). The recipe for Stuffed Tofu Roll, for instance, has three different parts and calls for 39 ingredients.

While many of the recipes are original and inventive, they could use further fine-tuning. The Moroccan-inspired Wild Mushroom B'Stilla looked beautiful, but the flavor combination--cinnamon-sugar with mushrooms, garlic, tarragon and spinach--was unappearing. The Crispy Soba Noodles with Tempeh and Garlic Sauce had good flavor, but oven-crisping die soba noodles was disastrous. The oven heat made the heap of cooked noodles brittle on the outside and mushy inside. Cinnamon-Pumpkin-Stuffed Tofu had interesting flavors, but the overall texture was exceedingly soft and mushy.

This cookbook will appeal to adventuresome cooks who aren't shy of mixing a broad spectrum of flavors and cooking mediums, and have die time and patience to experiment in their kitchens. There are a multitude of creative ideas in it, but the resulting dishes aren't always as splendid as the ideas behind them. THE CROSSING PRESS, FREEDOM, CA. ISBN 0-89594-738-2. PAPERBACK, 203 PP., $18.95.