The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking

by Susanna Hoffman

Book Overview

This is the year "It's Greek to me" becomes the happy answer to what's for dinner. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the upcoming epic Troy, the 2004 Summer Olympics returning to Athens--and now, yet another reason to embrace all things Greek: The Olive and the Caper, Susanna Hoffman's 700-plus-page serendipity of recipes and adventure.

In Corfu, Ms. Hoffman and a taverna owner cook shrimp fresh from the trap--and for us she offers the boldly-flavored Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine. She gathers wild greens and herbs with neighbors, inspiring Big Beans with Thyme and Parsley, and Field Greens and Ouzo Pie. She learns the secret to chewy country bread from the baker on Santorini and translates it for American kitchens. Including 325 recipes developed in collaboration with Victoria Wise (her co-author on The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook, with over 258,000 copies in print), The Olive and the Caper celebrates all things Greek: Chicken Neo-Avgolemeno. Fall-off-the-bone Lamb Shanks seasoned with garlic, thyme, cinnamon and coriander. Siren-like sweets, from world-renowned Baklava to uniquely Greek preserves: Rose Petal, Cherry and Grappa, Apricot and Metaxa.

In addition, it opens with a sixteen-page full-color section and has dozens of lively essays throughout the book--about the origins of Greek food, about village life, history, language, customs--making this a lively adventure in reading as well as cooking.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1563058480
• ISBN13: 9781563058486
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Workman Publishing
• Length: 589 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 8.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Fits on any bookshelf, not just in the kitchen!

Having never been to Greece, I won't even begin to comment on how "authentic" Ms. Hoffman's recipes are. They are, however, accompanied by many sidebars, articles, anecdotes and mini history lessons that make the recipes seem like illustrations in a wonderful travel book. The recipes run the gamut from difficult (exotic ingredients and complicated prep) to simple (glass of water, anyone?) and not all dishes are for everyone. But there is a nice sense of generality to the collection, from the traditional to the seasonal, as if everything you ever wanted to *sample* from a Greek table is in this book. What really makes it so attractive, however, is the conversational running commentary kept up by the author throughout. One learns why water is such a sacred inclusion at the Greek table, why Constantinoble became Istanbul, and what it takes for a foreign woman to be accepted by her Greek neighbors. Whether giving us a history lesson or just a glimpse into modern daily life, Ms. Hoffman's experiences in the Greek Isles are an invaluble inclusion here. Perhaps even enough to start a new sub-genre: Culturebooks!

A Delightful Adventure

This book is truly a winner. The recepies are just delicious and I have been serving them not only to my own family but at school meetings and community parties, and everybody wants to know where I got them and what makes them so increadibly good! But also all the little stories and facts are delightful. Each one is like a new little adventure within a greater adventure. I have never been to Greece but if it's anything like it sounds like from this book, I want to go there--and never leave! I will take this book as my guide as i move from dish to dish! A charming, lovely cookbook which has brought me many happy friends and smiles. Pasta Primavera

Snappy design, traditional food

This homage to Greek regional cooking offers snippets of history, mythology and reminiscence throughout. From the familiar Spinach Pie to the less familiar (but still traditional) Baked White Fish Fillets with Blood Orange, Sweet Wine and Bay Leaf, Hoffman offers step-by-step directions, notes on ingredients, menu suggestions and variations. Organized by course this lively, ebullient paperback includes lots of pies (Mushroom and Retsina; Lamb; Pastitsio); Mussel Soup; Eggs with Yogurt and Greek Salsa; Orzo and Beans; numerous stuffed vegetables; Beef with Olives and 100 Cloves of Garlic; Duck with Ouzo Orange Cinnamon Sauce, and Walnut Cake. Wide-ranging and snappily designed, this is as much fun to read as to cook from.

beautiful

A lovely book, with interesting history and geography, colorful photos, and recipes which a stay at home mom with two small kids can actually contemplate cooking. I take it with me to read in the "pick-up line". A super gift-giving book for the holidays, as well.

Great Introduction to Greek Cuisine. Highly Recommended

According to the preface and acknowledgments to this book, `The Olive and the Caper' by Susanna Hoffman, the author went through many more difficulties than usual in bringing this book to completion. Heading the list was the loss of the virtually complete manuscript in 1991, and its reconstruction in the following years. I for one am delighted that the author took the effort to reconstruct this volume, as it should stand as a template for how to put together a readable, useable, entertaining exposition of the cuisine of a country. I am not saying Ms. Hoffman has given us the very best treatment of a national cuisine or even necessarily the very best treatment of Greek cuisine. Diana Kennedy's `From My Mexican Kitchen' is a different approach to a national cuisine that works equally as well as a format and her content is of the highest possible quality. Similarly, Diane Kochilas approaches Greek food in `The Glorious Foods of Greece' in an entirely different manner than Hoffman, giving us a third valuable approach. While Kochilas' approach is by region, with each chapter covering a different ethnic and culinary enclave such as The Peloponnesos, The Ionian Islands, Thessaly, Macedonia, Crete, and Athens and others, Ms. Hoffman approaches her subject by ingredient or type of dish. While this seems very conventional and while it is definitely less scholarly than Ms. Kochilas book, it is done with a depth that is uncommon among lesser books on a national cuisine. For example, the very first chapter deals with the drinks of Greece, including lowly water, which just happens to have a special place in Greek tradition. It reminds us that it is Greek intellectual tradition and customs that contributed much more to the development of early Christianity than Roman customs. Most of the first bishops of the church in Asia Minor were Greek and the intellectual underpinning of theologians such as St. Augustine was Plato. If the traditions of baptism and holy water did not originate with Greek Christians, their traditions certainly reinforced these Christian ideas. Interspersed with recipes within each chapter are excellent culinary sidebars on things like Greek cheeses, olives, pickles, bread, tomatoes, saffron, and marinades, among many other topics. There are also excellent sidebars on Greek history and mythology on subjects such as Zeus, Byzantium, Cyprus, Pericles, the Olympics, Alexander the Great and so on. And, there is much here which may be new to even well informed readers. I did graduate studies in Philosophy and was an avid reader of Greek Mythology, and I find things here that I did not know. The reference to the mysterious Sythians, a culture which lived in Hellenic times above the Black Sea shows they had culinary and trade connections to the Greeks, before they were erased from world history by the Tartars. The book divides the material into three great parts. The first is Drinks, Meze, and Savory Pies. I have already discussed the drinks sec