Twelve Months of Monastery Salads is a collection of 200 garden-inspired recipes designed for each month of the year. This cookbook is an excellent resource for cooks who may have grown a little too comfortable with their usual salad combinations.
Cooking from the Garden
Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette is a resident monk at Our Lady of the Resurrection Monastery near Millbrook, New York, and a best-selling cookbook author. This most recent cookbook makes use of the freshest choices available each season, based upon the Monastery's garden. It provides a wonderful way for readers to create new concotions from their own gardens or make good use of what's available at the local farmer's market.
Salad Recipes
The recipes are beautiful, both in taste and composition. Simply reading it is enough to stir salad cravings. The selections are both new (Capered Deviled Eggs with Beets and Remoulade Sauce, Mango Salad Piquant) and familiar (Salade Nicoise, Savory Potato Salad), but all include a unique touch that reflects the author's intuitive style.
Seasonal Cooking
The seasonal choices are well thought out. Options for winter salads are just as plentiful as those in summer when ingredients are more abundant. But all salads made from this book will be appealingly fresh and economical because of timely ingredients readily available each season. A wonderful cookbook choice for gardeners, vegetarians, healthy cooks and anyone who enjoys a good salad.
Recipe Excerpt:
German Potato Salad Recipe
Makes 6 Servings
Ingredients
Salad:
- 10 medium-size red potatoes
- 2 large cucumbers, peeled, quartered lengthwise, seeded and cubed
- 1 medium-size Vidalia onion, finely chopped
- 1 dill pickle, cubed
Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (store-bought is fine)
- 2 tablespoons Dijon, Meaux, or another French mustard
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley for garnish
Directions
- To make the salad, cook the potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender when pierced with a sharp knife; start checking after 10 to 15 minutes of cooking. Do not overcook them. Drain, then rinse under cold running water. Let them stand for a few minutes until they cool off. Peel, then slice the potatoes 1/4-inch thick and put them in a large salad bowl. Add the cucumber, onion, and pickle and toss lightly so as not to break up the potato slices.
- Combine the dressing ingredients in a blender and whirl until smooth. Pour over the salad and toss gently to coat everything.
- Just before serving, sprinkle the chopped parsley over the salad. Serve at room temperature.
Book: Twelve Months of Monastery Salads
Author: Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette
Publisher: Harvard Common Press, 2004, 256 pg.
Price: $14.95
Trevy Thomas - After more than a decade of food writing, Trevy Thomas joined Suite 101 as Feature Writer for the Home Décor and Cookbooks ...
