A review by bob_muller
Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking by Bonnie Frumkin Morales, Deena Prichep

5.0

This is the best "Russian" cookbook I've seen, and I'm seriously considering scheduling a trip to Portland to eat at the restaurant! The best part of the cookbook is of course the food, but the narrative and notes run a very close second. The index makes for heavy reading, but everything else in the book is so well written and coherent that I read straight through it in a few days. The recipes are detailed and thoughtful and include weights as well as volume, and the details on constructing a meal (and the zakuski table in particular) are wonderful. I love the graphics that wipe away the complexities of the myriad variations on things like all the dumplings. I love the flavored vodkas and the recipe for kvas. I immediately went online and bought a pelmenitsa, which was new to me. I would have liked a more thorough grounding in soups, but that's probably a book by itself (hint, hint). And another book on an even bigger array of zakuski!