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The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook: Seasonal Foods, Simple Recipes and Stories from the Market and Farm | 
 enlarge | Author: Amelia Saltsman
Publisher: Blenheim Press
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $17.21
You Save: $5.74 (25%)
New (20) Used (7) Collectible (1) from $12.41
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 85519
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 7.8 x 0.7
ISBN: 0979042909
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5979493
EAN: 9780979042904
ASIN: 0979042909
Publication Date: June 16, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
For more than a quarter century, the Santa Monica Farmers' Market has inspired both renowned chefs and home cooks, making it a regional market with national presence. One of the largest markets in the state, it stands at the forefront of a national trend toward cooking with local and seasonal ingredients. For more than twenty years, Amelia Saltsman has shopped its stands, talked with its farmers, and cooked its magnificent produce for family and friends. The result is The Santa Monica Farmers' Market Cookbook, a celebration of the market s excellence and its hardworking farmers. What s the difference between white and green zucchini? What are amaranth, sapote, and ramps? With Amelia as your guide, you ll learn the answers to these questions and more. You'll also find advice on how to select and store produce, stories about farmers and their crops, chef and farmer cooking tips, and more than 100 of Amelia's simple, tempting recipes including: -- Fava Bean and Pea Shoot Salad -- Classic Tomato Soup with a Goat Cheese Swirl -- Black Cod with Green Tomatoes -- Roast Leg of Lamb with Oil-Cured Black Olives and Herbs -- Seared White Nectarines with Burnt Honey -- Meyer Lemon Sundaes with Cara Cara Oranges and Tangelos With a foreword by acclaimed cookbook author Deborah Madison, a design by Ph.D and photos by Anne Fishbein.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A favorite cookbook among many December 11, 2008
I'm sure that many Amazon customers have many books and bookcases. I am no exception. I have 3 rows of cookbooks stretching several feet, but The Santa Monica Farmers Cookbook is only neatly shouldered among them occasionally. It is usually in closer proximity to the kitchen.
The emphasis is as you can guess, on the ingredients. For me (and the author) the local farmers market brings the best Southern California has to offer, which is saying a lot. She also offers suggestions for those that have to use store bought produce as well. The theme of the recipes is simplicity, letting the fresh, natural taste of the ingredients speak for themselves. For instance, the Bruschetta recipe is about as simple as you get, but the tomatoes really stand out and the flavor is amazing. This is a common occurrence with these recipes.
Not only have I made the recipes, but I have eaten them at a restaurant that hosted a book signing for the author and served her recipes. I have been able to consistently turn dishes that were as good as what I ate at the restaurant.
Not only are the recipes amazing, but the organization of the book is fantastic too. There are sections from starters to deserts and there is a section for vegetarians too. There is an index where recipes are broken down by season, as well as the crops. Other helpful sections list cooking items you might need, techniques, how to buy produce. She writes a good amount about the people that grow the various produce, which I found very interesting. So very well done.
This is a great cookbook for fresh dishes and it would also make a great cookbook to give as a gift.
A Wonderful Ode to Farmers' Market Cooking November 13, 2008
Saltsman does a fabulous job of putting the Santa Monica Farmers' Market in the golden light those of us who have lived with its fruits (and veg and milk and meat and bread and fish and good vibes) know it deserves. She does it in a way that makes the book relevant to people living with any market. I frequently refer to the book for inspiration to cook what is coming up in my local market in NYC.
A beautiful (and very useful!) book. Thank you for it.
Go bravely forth! (but take this with you!) October 27, 2008
Plainly and simply, this book is a treasure! I use it as much for the delicious recipes as I do for the tips and tricks - which are all nestled nicely in between beautiful photographs of the farmers of the Santa Monica Market.
Amelia sheds light on those wonderful farmers' market items that you always want to cook, but aren't quite sure how to easily prepare. I use it often as a quick guide to remind me how to cook seasonal items I don't necessarily cook year round. What do I do with wax beans again? What can I do with green garlic? Spring greens? Beet tops? Amelia keeps my birdbrain in order and reminds me how to trim this, preserve that, boil, bake, reduce and roast year round. If I have a general question on how to prepare an item, I generally find that Amelia has the answer!
It's a comprehensive cookbook that teaches you to be fearless in your produce selection, adventurous in your ability to actually use the items you buy, and gives you a wonderful context for the heart and community of the Santa Monica Market.
 Plain "jane" May 5, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was very disappointed with this book. The picutures used at the front of the book could have been spaced through out the book appropriately, as an introduction for each section. When persons look at a cook book they are expecting to see pictures of some of the dishes. Pictures speak volumes and make you want to recreate the dish. I will use it as a reference book only.
A treasure of a cookbook for every season! December 12, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
author of Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family
I actually DID trail "Amelia around the Santa Monica market to learn what's in peak season, and to be introduced to the farmers that grew it" (see previous review) when I wrote about this wonderful book for the Orange County Register. But there were frequent interruptions, because Amelia Saltsman - writer, cooking teacher, producer/host of her own TV show - is the undisputed queen of the Santa Monica Farmers Market and instantly recognized by shoppers and farmers alike. This cookbook is as much an homage to the farmers, their histories, and their commitment to excellence as it is a collection of fuss-less, original and artful recipes inspired by the amazing varieties they produce. Fava Bean and Pea Shoot Salad. Fresh Porcini and Potato Soup. Slow Baked Quince with Honey and Cognac. Recipes that showcase ingredients over method, with Saltsman guiding us from the familiar to the exotic, as you can see by the following excerpt from the Register:
"People are overwhelmed by choice," she said, "but don't know how to proceed. The only way farmers are going to grow these varieties is if people know how to cook them."
A delivery man whizzed by carrying mounds of bush-like, herby-looking bouquets. "Fresh garbanzo beans," Amelia informed me. "You can find unusual things at the farmers' market that you would never find anywhere else. It's not that they're so rare - they're just rare here. In Mumbai you could find them all the time. And even the very ordinary things sing with great flavor, the simplest things - carrots, potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes - it makes all the difference in the world."
Shopper Sue picks up a lavender and cream-colored, teardrop-shaped eggplant and asked Saltsman, "What do I do with this?"
"That's a Rosa Bianca - it's very creamy inside," Saltsman informed her. "Cut it in cubes and saute it - it gets tender quickly - or roast it in thick slices. It just melts in your mouth."
At Windrose Farms I'm struck by what appear to be tiny white, faintly striped melons, which turn out to be lemon cucumbers. "They are so sweet," she rhapsodized. "You can only find them in farmers' markets. Cut them, and inside it looks exactly like the juice vesicles of a lemon."
But the main reason to shop at a farmers' market is the taste, she said. "Because the ingredients are so fresh, they will keep for a surprisingly long time, because they're picked at their peak. Their entire shelf life is spent in your home, not being shipped."
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