Spirit of the Earth [cookbook] (Book Review)

Spirit of the Earth: Native Cooking from Latin America. Beverly Cox & Martin Jacobs; STC Pub., c2001, #1584790245, 240 pages, $40.

This is not your ordinary coffee-table "Latin Cookbook". It is not really intended as a presentation on award-winning National cuisines. It is also not really an attempt to locate recipes from well-known restaurants or even those so-called "family favorites". If one were in some Latin country and shared a fabulous meal in a cafe (hard to find) or prepared in someone's home, this might well not be the book to buy to try to locate or track down that particular recipe - regardless of whether or not it came from a capital city or mountain village. The authors present the book not just as a "cookbook" but also partly as a history lesson and travelogue. While this is often a rewarding aspect of many very good cookbooks, it is more essential in this volume, given that so many staples were introduced to the world via the Americas (potatoes, corn, squash, beans, chocolate, etc.), and that the goal of this book is to relate to the modern reader the classic, and long-since adapted, recipes from the lands of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

While there are similarities between many Latin cuisines, the staples and accompaniments often differed greatly across regions. The book is fairly heavy of what makes the foods unique, and where they differ, on what really gives them their "taste" - and this means the salsas, moles (cornerstone of real Mexican cooking), recados (the flavor of Mayan cooking), and pastes & sauces (prevalent in the combos and soups of Inca cooking). Though the emphasis is on these "tastes", the foods are traditional Latin fare in the sense that many of the meals are meat-based, and this volume doesn't make any attempt to cater to vegetarians. The book is divided into three sections, Maya, Aztec, Inca, and there is a nice little (too little, really) introduction to each section. Many recipes come with a brief story of where they found them and who prepared the first such dish for the authors, etc. Each meal comes with the name in the host language, as well as a common English and/or Spanish equivalent (so, for example, "Tall-a-Kach", translated as "Guatemalan Chicken-Vegetable Soup, etc.).

The recipes focus on the use of what was and, in very select places, still is, the foods of everyday and festival and religious life. It would be truly challenging to find many of these meals on a menu in any particular Latin country. Whereas the basic soups and salsas are still common, many bastes and main portions are not so. For example, many of the meals once popular in Mayan territory would now, for the most part, only be prepared in the home, usually by an older, wealthier person - if at all. These recipes are how to make such meals "today", ingredient substitutes are often recommended (if needed), and one could easily drop some ingredients.

The recipes that stand out are those using the "flavors" now rarely seen in many Latin regions where they were originally derived, in restaurants and even in homes, regardless of income or contact with economic development and or non-Latin food infusions. Of these salsa, pastes, etc., that standout are the Mayan food prepared with pumpkin and squash seeds, and the Incan foods heavy on spices and/or peanuts. Personally, the more elaborate the recipe found here, the more intriguing the meal, and these fares stood out in the volumes: Mukbil Pollo (Chicken-Filled Tamales for the Day of the Dead), Cochinita Pibl (Pit-Roasted Pork with Recado Colorado), Onsikil Bi Ceh (Venison in Pumpkin-Seed Sauce), Lomo de Puerco en Cacahuete (Pork Loin in Peanut-Red-Chile Sauce), Pipian Rojo de Pato (Duck in Red-Chile and Pumpkin-Seed Sauce), Tamalitos de Qinoa (Qinoa Tamales with Pork Filling), Juanes (Garlic Chicken Filled Yuca and Rice Tomales), Pastel de Choclo (Peruvian Corn Meat Pie), etc.

Of course, the volume also includes recipes for basic salsas, candies, breads, pancakes, even T'Ant'A Wawas (Andean All Saints' Day Bread), and less common drinks and deserts, such as "Mayan Hot Chocolate" and "Aztec Peanut Brittle". It also includes some more esoteric offerings, such as Quesadillas de Huitlacoche (Corn Mushroom Quesadillas) and Chupe de Mani (Bolivian Spicy Peanut Chowder). Also, several recipes are for common, basic foods, though while straightfoward and simple, they are remarkably good, including Tlatloyos (Oval Tortilla Filled with Black-Bean Pure), Causa Limena (Golden Spicey Mashed Potato Salad), Chapanas de Canete (Sweet Yuca Tamales with Golden Raisins).

While not perfect, it is an interesting and worthwhile volume. The book has a very decent Appendix and Index (includes entries for most sought-after ingredients). Various sections and/or the Appendix inform readers on how to handle such diverse tasks as making tamales or tortillas, to rendering your own lard (the authors, as do many cooks and consumers, claim commercial lard, especially in the U.S., is vastly inferior to that of Mexico and South America, and that this can easily be simulated in the home). None of these civilizations knew of frying, and didn't favor it even when introduced by the Spanish, so various aspects of the meals were/are vastly different than what is usually offered today. The book is extremely well illustrated, with perhaps 20-25% of the recipes accompanied by a full page photograph of the completed meal (co-author Martin Jacobs is a famous photographer). It is an oversized volume (nearly 23 x 30cm), printed in the very best photographic paper - meaning it is heavy, and I would not want to pay to ship it abroad at 3+ pounds, unboxed. A very good book. Not as good as the sister-volume on North American Indian cooking, but still a very good effort. This same duo is also responsible for a few award-winning (they have won the IACP -The International Association of Culinary Professionals- Book Award several times) sibling volumes: "Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking" & "Spirit of the West: Cooking from Ranch House and Range". Together they have done other well-reviewed titles, including the very popular, "Eating Cuban: 120 Recipes from the Streets of Havana to American Shores".