Red Beans and Rice from Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread

Typically, prior to the potluck for each DCCC cookbook, I post a set of questions to stimulate discussion and to make sure we don’t forget to cover some of the most basic discussion topics at our meeting—such as, “Which recipes does everyone like best?” and “Will members likely cook from this book again?”, and so on. Except this time I forgot. Argh. Summer fun and weeding tasks got the best of me. I’ve decided to post them anyway in the off chance that one day someone may like to discuss this very same book and find this list of questions useful. These questions are meant to be used by anyone or any club that has been reading and making recipes from Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread.

Crescent Dragonwagon is chatty, making this book as suited for the kitchen as it is at the bedside reading table. She gives you the reader and cook lots of information about food, life, cooking, and gardening, with much practical guidance. Do you enjoy this amount of text in a cookbook? (more…)

Here are some discussion questions for DCCC’s first potluck on December 5th. If anyone has questions they’d like to add to the discussion, please comment on this posting or drop me an email.

• Entice with Spice started its life as a binder of recipes collected from the author’s mother and mother-in-law. Does that inspire you to try to get your own binder of recipes published?
• Did you find the author’s tone reassuring and her explanations of recipe steps and Indian cooking techniques clear and easy to follow? Is there anything in the recipe instructions that you think could be clearer?
• Did you enjoy the author’s introductory sections and stories about the recipes?
• Was cooking from Entice with Spice your first foray into Indian cooking? If so, do you think it was a good introduction for someone new to cooking Indian food?
• What did you learn about Indian cooking that you didn’t know before using this book? Were you familiar with the terms curry and masala as the author uses them?
• In general, what do you think of the food? Did you enjoy it? How does it compare to other Indian food you’ve eaten, either prepared by you using another Indian cookbook, prepared by other home cooks, or that you’ve eaten in Indian restaurants?
• Have you been to India? If so, how does the food in Entice with Spice compare to the food you ate while there? If not, do you feel inclined to visit after reading and cooking from this book?
• Of all the recipes you tried, including those prepared by others at the potluck, do you have a favorite (or favorites)?
• Do you think you will cook recipes from this book again? If not, why not?
• If the club were to do another Indian cookbook one day, is there a particular aspect or regional style of Indian cooking that you’ve like to delve into in more detail?