Description:
Arabella Boxer's Herb and Spice Handbook is a valuable reference and a distinctive cookbook. Both of these aspects are easily overshadowed, though, by this book's picture-perfect, miniaturized, coffee-table presentation. (This volume is, in fact, a somewhat abridged combination of two other Boxer books, The Spice Handbook and The Herb Handbook.) In her introduction, Boxer explains that spices were used variously as medicines, incense, dyes, and cosmetics before being relegated mainly to culinary applications. The recipes show how conservatively we use herbs and spices in comparison to past eras, when a salad included comfrey and burnet along with easily a dozen other greens and herbs. And now, outside of some ethnic dishes, we almost never use cinnamon in savory recipes, reserving it almost exclusively for desserts. The first section of this book is a directory with entries for 43 herbs and 38 spices. Each includes the plant's Latin name and information on its history, cultivation, culinary and medicinal uses, as well as color photos. One discovers, for instance, that scallions are merely the immature stage of various kinds of onions and that eating them stimulates digestion and helps ward off colds and flu. Of the 100 recipes provided, most dishes are as enticingly simple as barely hard-cooked eggs served on a bed of spinach and swathed in a creamy pureed-watercress sauce that is also good with poached fish and chicken. A few choices are decidedly sophisticated, including an intriguing pheasant braised with lemon grass, juniper berries, ginger, chervil, and garlic. As a British food writer, Boxer is noticeably less conservative in using dairy products and fat than many Americans tend to be. Beyond serving as a reference for all cooks, the Herb and Spice Handbook also presents convincing examples of Great Britain's rejuvenated culinary spirit. --Dana Jacobi
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