Winter Pleasures: Herbs and Comfort Cooking

Greg Turko is a policy analyst at the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and
Universities.

Winter cooking can be a daunting task. Fresh fruits and vegetables are
either prohibitively expensive or of unacceptable quality, or both.
Fortunately, alternatives exist, such as those in Winter Pleasures.

Richardson’s imaginative cookbook will go a long way toward
conquering the winter cooking blahs. She relies on ingredients that are
readily available during the winter, such as root vegetables, on
ingredients that can be “put up” (instructions included) during the
summer, and on a host of different vinegars and oils. She also liberally
uses herbs and other flavoring agents that, when used judiciously, can
make most dishes much more interesting and tasty. The section on garlic
is especially useful. The recipes are not nouvelle cuisine, an
observation borne out by the “comfort cooking” subtitle. This is
very much a return-to-the-basics cookbook for the ’90s.