Product Description

Maria's recipes combine her grasp of world flavours with her ingenuity in the kitchen-using the classic baklava, for instance, filled with European-flavoured butternut squash and ricotta. Maria's recipes will also encourage you to improvise-her recipe for sweetcorn polenta can easily be turned into corn blini if you don't like polenta. The 'Textures of' recipes will give you a selection of different cooking ideas for her favourite ingredients-peas, plums, coffee and so on-so that you can do more than just steam peas and poach plums. An aubergine, for example, is more than the chief ingredient for moussaka-why not smoke it over a gas flame and then use it in a curry. Or mash it and mix it with potato. Or griddle thin slices, roll them in dukkah and wrap around mozzarella. Or simply blitz into a Mediterranean salad. With this book, you will never run out of ideas.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3911 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Review
In this exciting and inspiring new book, the vegetable is king. But this is not simply a book for vegetarians, as the recipes have enough flavour, balance and even dose of decadence to keep meat-eaters interested and fulfilled too. --BBC Good Food Magazine

Bag a copy of Maria Elia's 'The Modern Vegetarian' which has more than 120 recipes to wake up your palate. --The Times

The menu is that ubiquitous modern English that has colonised every dining room East of Tottenham Court Road: short and well made, and austere with treats...we were happy with the food. --A.A. Gill (The Times Restaurant Review) on The Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room with Head Chef Maria Elia

About the Author
Brought up under the stove at her Greek Cypriot father's restaurant in Richmond, Maria's love of cooking has grown into a passion that has led her to travel the world. She has worked in Italy, America, Australia and Spain, and these international influences are reflected in her cooking style, which she demonstrated to great acclaim as head chef at Delfina's in London. Maria is a contributor to Food and Travel, Olive and Waitrose Food Illustrated.

Customer Reviews

Haute cuisine goes vegetarian
A really excellent vegetarian cookbook that I fear will only appeal to a very limited minority - those who want to cook vegetarian food and have also got the talent, ability and desire to cook complex, sometimes difficult dishes using a large number of ingredients.

First off, it should be said that the recipes in this cookbook are really pretty remarkable.

Beautifully photographed, this book is a joy to read and I would happily leave it lying around on my coffee tables for everyone else to skim through with hungry appreciation.

Some of the recipes that particularly appealed to me were Watermelon Gazpacho in Thai Style; Lemongrass and Sweetcorn Soup with Creme Fraiche; Mushroom, Beetroot, Mozzarella with a Lentil Cartouche. I wasn't so keen on the idea of the Griddled Radicchio and Strawberry Risotto, but maybe it is amazing too. Hopefully this gives you a sense of the adventurous, exotic nature of the recipes in this cookbook!

With that said, personally I found the recipes so complex that I don't think I will be attempting to cook from this book often. They are the kind of food I would be absolutely delighted to be served in a restaurant, but which I probably wouldn't get around to preparing myself unless it's for a very special occasion where I want to wow my guests. For example, the opening dish of Carrot Pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad looks delicious but there are 36 separate components! Don't be put off - it's not that the recipes involve difficult techniques, and they are explained clearly and well. It's more the quantity of ingredients involved - just not things you would have hanging around in your kitchen cupboards. For me, getting all of the ingredients together would involve a lot of time and expense.

I am sure I will come back to this book a lot, but maybe more for inspiration and reading pleasure than for actual use. I'm not sure that I'm the type of cook it's intended for. I would actually recommend this to any vegetarian cook in any case, simply because it has such beautiful flavour ideas and makes for a great read. A brilliant cookbook - but make sure you are up to the challenge!

Delicious but complicated !
This is a very inventive and imaginative book, with some wonderfully original and mouth-watering ideas. The only criticism I would make is that many of the recipes are very complicated with lots of stages involved - it is definitely not in the "quick and easy / supper in 30 minutes" category !

Really I wish that somebody else would take the trouble to make these lovely recipes for me ! However I will certainly use this book when having a dinner-party or any time when I want to make an effort for a special occasion

An innovative and tasty new addition
I have bought a LOT of vegetarian cookbooks and love cooking vegetarian food. This is a great addition to my collection. Wonderful spicy flavours and new ideas - not just a re-hash of old ideas as many vegetarian cookbooks (in particular) seem to be. Got the book and within the first two weeks or so have tried at least 10 dishes. I now turn to this on many occasions as it covers simple to cook weekday suppers as well as more complex dinner party dishes. I would recommend it to any aspiring and/or experienced vegetarian cook.