"Three-time James Beard Award winner Leite has written a foodie love letter to a European nation. The culinary profile of the 13 historic provinces, along with a shopping guide to the Portuguese pantry, are great, but the real payoff is the 130-plus recipes that range from the veggie-rich caldo verde to such new classics as scrambled eggs with asparagus and fresh cod." —Dana Dickey, Bon Appétit
"Iberian gem. The New Portuguese Table by David Leite, a prolific food journalist who founded the website LeitesCulinaria.com, is the best book on the subject of Portuguese cooking in years. Leite, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Portugal, is captivated by the way cooks there have pointed their under appreciated cuisine in new directions. He dutifully catalogs Portugal's iconic wines and traditional foods--we learn how to make clams and chouriço in a copper cataplana--but we also get decidedly new-school preparations like cheese-stuffed pork tenderloins and Filet-o-Fish-inspired salt cod sandwiches. Trad or mod, this is some winning home cooking."
—Saveur
"Beautifully illustrated, The New Portuguese Table is a smart, delicious and highly personal travelogue through both memory and terrain." —Maricel E. Presilla, MiamiHerald.com
"In Leite's The New Portuguese Table, the author performs a multitude of feats: first, he provides [a] culinary travel guide to the country of his ancestors...introduces, with great specificity, a multitude of regional delicacies...and finally presents recipes ranging from the most remarkably parsimonious...to the more extravagant and modern. Leite's book is a stunning passport to a food and a people virtually unknown to most Americans, even though they are only five hours away from our mainland." —Elissa Altman, The Huffington...
Description:
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This is the perfect cookbook for lovers of salt cod, and it just might be the perfect cookbook for those who dislike the mild, Atlantic fish. Leite, a three-time James Beard–award winner and proprietor of the Web site LeitesCulinaria.com, offers a wealth of recipes for the brackish dried fish, including a traditional version of pastéis de bacalhau (salt cod fritters). But cod is but one of the amaazing dishes offered here. By highlighting the eclectic ingredients and modern techniques that define the country today, Leite brings the often-overlooked foods of Portugal center stage. This fully illustrated book begins with an extensive glossary of Portuguese staples, plus a port primer and an introduction to Madeira, and ends with a chapter devoted to workhorse sundries such as fiery piri-piri paste and smoked paprika oil. Along the way home cooks are introduced to a delectable jumble of dishes that range from classic to contemporary. A comforting adaptation of the fabled stone soup is enlivened with spicy chouriço sausage; simple-yet-elegant duck breasts are sauced with white port and black olives; and a dip made with anchovies, green olives, cilantro, and whole milk is surprisingly harmonious. The desserts are comparatively docile—molasses cookies, baked custard tarts—but the recipe variation for fatias douradas (Portuguese sweet bread French toast) is truly over-the-top. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"A modern classic cookbook."
—BlackBook.com
"Three-time James Beard Award winner Leite has written a foodie love letter to a European nation. The culinary profile of the 13 historic provinces, along with a shopping guide to the Portuguese pantry, are great, but the real payoff is the 130-plus recipes that range from the veggie-rich caldo verde to such new classics as scrambled eggs with asparagus and fresh cod."
—Dana Dickey, Bon Appétit
"Iberian gem. The New Portuguese Table by David Leite, a prolific food journalist who founded the website LeitesCulinaria.com, is the best book on the subject of Portuguese cooking in years. Leite, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from Portugal, is captivated by the way cooks there have pointed their under appreciated cuisine in new directions. He dutifully catalogs Portugal's iconic wines and traditional foods--we learn how to make clams and chouriço in a copper cataplana--but we also get decidedly new-school preparations like cheese-stuffed pork tenderloins and Filet-o-Fish-inspired salt cod sandwiches. Trad or mod, this is some winning home cooking."
—Saveur
"Beautifully illustrated, The New Portuguese Table is a smart, delicious and highly personal travelogue through both memory and terrain."
—Maricel E. Presilla, MiamiHerald.com
"In Leite's The New Portuguese Table, the author performs a multitude of feats: first, he provides [a] culinary travel guide to the country of his ancestors...introduces, with great specificity, a multitude of regional delicacies...and finally presents recipes ranging from the most remarkably parsimonious...to the more extravagant and modern. Leite's book is a stunning passport to a food and a people virtually unknown to most Americans, even though they are only five hours away from our mainland."
—Elissa Altman, The Huffington...