Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Ballymaloe House: Featuring 100 Recipes from Ireland's Most Famous Guest House
Myrtle Allen's Cooking at Balymaloe House, first published in 1990  and now reissued, is a modern classic. Written by the proprietor and chef  of Ireland's most famous guesthouse, the book presents a farm-fresh  cuisine miles removed from the common notion of Irish cooking as savorless  or indelicate. Most especially, it offers the voice, recollections, and  culinary wisdom of a woman who has seen and understood much since she and  her husband bought Balymaloe House in 1947. Cooks of all kinds will delight  in Allen's observations (of her refusal to put carrots in a traditional  Irish stew: "As this is a folk dish, I feel that the common practice  carries its own authority") and hasten to try such recipes as Lettuce and  Mint Soup, Baked Rainbow Trout in Spinach Sauce, and Beef with Stout.Chapters explore soups and starters through breads, desserts, and drinks,  and offer 100 or so accessible recipes for everyday and special-occasion  dining. Present are traditional Irish favorites, including Dingle pies (a  spiced mutton dish), Colcannon (potatoes mashed with cabbage), and brown  soda bread, as well as the likes of Danish Liver Paté, Mussels with  Mayonnaise, and Turnedos with Mushrooms. Readers with a sweet tooth will  want to try Allen's Almond Meringue Gâteau with Chocolate and Rum Cream and   Blackberry Sorbet, and an exemplary trifle featuring almonds, cherries, and  angelica. Illustrated with color photos throughout, the book  is a cook's treasure with delightful, sometimes provocative  thought.--Arthur Boehm