Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen Paperback – November 6, 2007

`Vegetarian Suppers from Deborah Madison's Kitchen' is, you guessed it, Deborah Madison's latest cookbook for her audience who eats everything but animal flesh. The photograph of the author in her kitchen pretty much says it all about what this book wants to do. There is no urban sophisticate among the many award placards from her `Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone' and no friendly farm girl from the spine of `Local Flavors'. This Deborah has the broad smile of someone who is about to cook me supper.Ms. Madison begins with a discourse of wordplay on the largely illusory difference between `supper' and `dinner'. Her premise, and the rationale behind her title, is that while dinner is a formal sit-down affair with courses and wine and the like, supper is much more casual, much more likely to be an ad hoc affair resulting from the casual invitation of some friends after bowling or church or a visit to the Farmer's Market. As something of a minor expert on language and a reader of quite a few cookbooks in the last two years, I simply do not find any consensus for this interpretation of these two words. Luckily, the remainder of the book depends not at all on this lexicographer's distinction.Unlike the encyclopedic `...Everyone' and the special interest of `...Flavors', this book is something of a `greatest hits' book based on the very sound premise that the amateur cook is served best by concentrating on doing a few recipes well instead of following the foodie path of learning to cook everything from guanciale (pig jowls) to Indian flatbreads. While I happen to lean more towards an interest in pig jowls than in limiting my range of recipes, I find this an excellent position for people for whom food is not a hobby, but they do like to cook well once or twice a week. This position is shared by everyone from Ina Garten to, in a somewhat modified form, Daniel Boulud. In Ms. Madison's case, the argument is at least three times stronger if you happen to also be someone who avoids eating animal flesh.All this means that the recipes in this book are expected to be better than average by either being a selection of the best recipes or average recipes rewritten to enhance their value to the average amateur cook. As an exercise, I compared the grilled vegetable sandwich recipes in this book with a similar one in `...Everyone' and found the newer recipe to be more interesting in that it replaces garlic mayonnaise with chipotle mayonnaise, replaces eggplant with zucchini, and replaces a baguette with tortillas. It also throws in some Anaheim chiles and some pepper jack cheese as options. I also compared the list of asparagus recipes in this book with the list in `...Everyone' and find no overlaps.On a personal, visceral level, Ms. Madison gets me where it counts by starting off with chapters on `savory pies and gratins' and `vegetable stews and braises', two of my very favorite types of dishes. These subjects should be a sure sign to everyone that this book is not about quick cooking. It is all about adding new `comfort food' dishes to your repertoire. The author compounds her hold on my interest by including lots of recipes with mushrooms and a recipe that combines mushrooms and Brussels sprouts. Yummy! I was surprised to find a ratatouille recipe in this `Supper' book, just as I was surprised to look back and find it missing from `...Everyone'. In her headnotes, Ms. Madison explains that she has actually not made ratatouille for years, being too busy making other things. So, I guess this left her the option to take a fresh approach in this book to a classic comfort food dish. One quick look at the recipe will confirm that this is a dish for a leisurely Sunday afternoon. It includes `Spongy Semolina Crepes', a yeast-risen pancake which takes a few hours to let the batter rise.The third chapter is `pasta with vegetables' which seems to be a bow to the low carb theme in that the recipes make liberal use of whole wheat pasta mixed liberally with low carb veggies. I gain no end of satisfaction from Ms. Madison's confessing that she is hopeless at making gnocchi, while I have sat at Mario Batali's feet to learn how to put out a half decent potato gnocchi.The fourth chapter is `crepes and fritters'. This is another low blow to things I like best to make. Does this woman have no mercy! Best of all, these are not your typical Julia Child recipes.The fifth chapter is `mostly tofu (and some tempeh)', totally understandable as this is a `vegetarian' book and Ms. Madison has written an entire book on tofu. As I have no interest in buying a book on tofu written by a gringo (as opposed to a book by an Indian such as Madhur Jaffrey), this chapter is more than enough to give me ideas on tofu recipes.The sixth chapter is `eggs for supper', another cheap shot to my favorite dishes. If you are a frittata expert, you may still find interesting stuff in here.The remaining chapters are `hearty cool-weather suppers', `supper sandwiches', and `basics'. All very sound contributions, especially the sandwich recipes.The value of the recipes is enhanced by suggestions for accompaniments, both of other dishes, wines, beers, and garnishes. The appendix on pantry items is nice, but redundant if you already own `...Everyone'.The brightest light from this book comes from the `dozen ideas for making supper good'. Any book that gives me good guidance for living on top of good recipes immediately jumps to the top of the heap for me.Unlike `Local Flavors', this book is for everyone! Very highly recommended.

This is hands-down my favorite cookbook in my arsenal of about 25, 23 of which are vegetarian or vegan. The primary reason is the percent of recipes in it I actually want to make. Most cookbooks have more recipes, but I find 1-2% ones I actually want to make, so wanting to make 40-50% of the far fewer offerings in this book make it a huge win for me. Let’s call this WELL CURATED!Secondary reason is great photos.Tertiary is my level, which is “experienced home chef” who is still always learning. This book is mostly a bit advanced for complete newbies.Last reason is everything is pretty fancy but yet still accessible. Her recipe was my gateway soufflé that got me hooked on making souffles. It’s THE book I pull out when planning a dinner party, as just about everything is a pretty unique showstopper.I had one major recipe fail, the cabbage. Everything else has been stellar and fun to modify. I make fluffier dumplings for the mushroom/Brussels stew and/or I use it as a base to make something denser for a pot pie filling. Time and time again I make the masa crepes, and they’re easily scalable and one can do without dairy.One complaint: very heavy on dairy, very light on vegan. If Deborah would put out a book that offers veganizing options after the dairy that would be stellar. For the masa crepes I didn’t know whether to use almond, macadamia, or coconut milk and if they needed ratios changed. This would be so helpful as she puts out new work.Finally, if you’re anything like me, you might have Alice Waters elevated in your mind because of Chez Panisse and the experience of eating there. I just don’t enjoy the Greens dining experience the same way. However, for cooking, it’s the exact opposite. I want to cook with Deborah far far more often than with Alice. (Though isn’t the world lucky for their contributions!!)

I own several of D. Madison's books and have gotten to know her cooking as reliably good, tasty, and easy to make. In fact, I have liked many recipes so much, that I did not hesitate to expand my collection of vegetarian cookbooks by acquiring this volume.I am sad to say that the recipes in this book do not live up to Madison's reputation.Since I am an avid cook who tries up to four new recipes every day (usually lunch, dinner, a side dish, and a dessert or breakfast), I have made it a habit to grade recipes so that I can easily access whether making them again is worth it or not. Grades, of course, go from A to F with recipes in this book averaging a rather sorry C-All recipes thus far have been easy to make while drawing on ingredients that are either staples in most households or easily found at a local food market, but the vast majority of dishes I have tried from this book have failed to come together into a delicious composition. Instead, I (and my family) find ourselves eating them simply because effort went into their creation and because we don't believe in wasting food. More often than not, we have failed to even slightly enjoy dishes from this book. Unfortunately, I have made at least one dish that went straight into the compost pile - it was simply inedible. The mere memory makes me wince.To make matters worse, the binding of this book seems to be reflective of it's recipes - it is of rather poor quality. After my first use, the glue along the spine holding the pages in place simply failed. I now own a collection of loose pages. Admittedly, I live in a fairly humid climate but still, other books survive just fine.Overall, this book is on the low end of the scale for Deborah Madison's efforts in vegetarian cooking. I'd advise you to skip it and either purchase one of her other books or go straight to Carol Gelles' 1000 Vegetarian Recipes - which is infinitely better.

I felt all warm and fuzzy reading this book. It was like curling up on a couch with a nice hot chocolate or tea and being immersed in life and the wonderful bounty that comes from it. Beth

The recipes are good but the book fell apart shortly after getting it.