Hardy Gingers: Including Hedychium, Roscoea, and Zingiber (Royal Horticultural Society Plant Collector Guide Series)
Author: T M E Branney
Flamboyant members of the family Zingiberaceae — including Hedychium, Curcuma, Roscoea, and Zingiber — are once again on the wanted list as people discover their intricately constructed flowers, beautiful perfumes, and lush foliage. Although the majority of gingers originate in the tropics, a substantial number come from temperate zones or high altitudes and are perfectly at home in the temperate garden. These hardy gingers are the primary subject of this book. In the wild, gingers fit a variety of ecological niches, and diversity is the key to their success in the garden. They make dramatic focal points in tropical-style plantings but can look equally impressive in traditional herbaceous borders, woodland settings, rock gardens, water gardens and containers. Branney charts the history of gingers from their 19th-century heyday through modern-day hybridization programmes to the latest introductions of new species. A comprehensive plant directory ranges wide in its coverage. Valuable cultivation advice includes techniques for breaking dormancy, maintaining soil nutrition, and understanding individual plants' hardiness requirements. Captivating photographs complement the descriptions and convey the distinctive charms of these irresistible plants. This book brims with new finds that will tempt newcomers, delight enthusiasts, and ensure hardy gingers a place in every 21st-century garden.
New interesting textbook: Walking or The Tao of Healing
Spago Desserts
Author: Mary Bergin
Mary Bergin's fabulous desserts have helped make Spago, winner of the 1994 James Beard Award for the best restaurant of the year, a landmark the world over. Now, in these pages, Bergin tells us her secrets. First, start with basic recipes: Chocolate Chiffon Cake, Buttermilk Cake, Cheesecake, Brioche, Shortcakes, Puff Pastry, and Pie Dough. Then, as Bergin shows us, you can vary these basics to produce such wonders as Austrian Chocolate Cake, Lemon Buttermilk Cake, White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cheesecake, Apricot Rolls, Peach and Berry Cobbler, Apple Pear Tarte Tatin, Fresh Cherry Lattice Tart, and many, many more.
The unique ability of Mary Bergin and Judy Gethers, Wolfgang Puck's longtime collaborator, to break down even the most complex recipes into simple basics makes this book perfect not only for seasoned bakers, but also for enterprising novices. To aid beginners, the authors include an extensive glossary of ingredients, equipment, and techniques, as well as numerous practical illustrations that clarify and complement the written text. The instructions are clear and simple, replete with helpful tips and advice.
In Spago Desserts, you will find everything from Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies to Cherry Clafouti. Great Spago staples, such as the sumptuous Opera Cake, are intermixed with simple pleasures — Brownies, Spago's Old-fashioned Apple Pie, muffins of all shapes and sizes — and not-so-simple pleasures, such as Tiramisu, Fresh Berry Napoleon with Caramel Sauce, and Chocolate Truffles with Brandied Apricots. For those who wish to indulge less sinfully, the authors have also included a few superb fat-free recipes, such as Grapefruit Vodka Sorbet andStrawberries in Port Wine.
Bergin and Gethers have worked for years with Wolfgang Puck, Spago's chef and owner, and have mastered the rare blend of classical teaching and innovative spirit that have made Spago in Los Angeles and the new Spago in Las Vegas among the best restaurants in the world. Spago Desserts is a brilliant addition to the Spago line of cookbooks, and, like its predecessors, it is sure to become a modern classic. Now you can make these desserts, whether fat-free or sinfully delicious, at home, exactly as they are prepared in the Spago kitchens.
Library Journal
Bergin is the executive pastry chef at the Las Vegas branch of Wolfgang Puck's acclaimed Spago restaurant. With coauthor Gethers, a food writer, she presents the favorite Spago desserts, from Austrian Chocolate Cake to Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles. The authors have made a real effort to make even their most complicated recipes accessible to the home cook, with thoughtful explanations of various techniques, clear recipe directions, and substitutions or adaptations when necessary. Puck's cookbooks (most recently, Adventures in the Kitchen, LJ 12/91), like his restaurants, are popular, and this one from his pastry chef is likely to be too.
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