Salty Snacks

July 30, 2012
Nims, the president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, turns her attention to the salty side in this imaginative collection of 75 recipes for DIY chips, dips, crackers, and other appetizers. Relying on detailed though text-heavy instructions rather than step-by-step photos, Nims (Gourmet Game Night) guides readers through the process of creating duck fat potato chips, bacon-chive bread with goat cheese, sesame chicken bites, and other savory fare. While the expected litany of fried veggie chips are well represented, Nims does a nice job of expanding readers' repertoires to include roasted salami chips, cumin lentil crackers and anchovy crisps, not to mention duck jerky, tempura green beans with tapenade, curry-pickled quail eggs, and deviled bacon. Novice entertainers hoping for basic guacamole or cheese straw recipes will likely be overwhelmed by Nims' inventive assortment, but experienced cooks looking for some unique riffs should find this to be an engaging and palate-expanding collection. Photos.

August 1, 2012

Continuing in the vein of Gourmet Game Night: Bite-Sized, Mess-Free Eating for Board-Game Parties, Bridge Clubs, Poker Nights, Book Groups, and More, food writer Nims (food editor, Seattle Magazine) offers 75 recipes for savory snacks ranging from easy (e.g., Salami Chips, Cheddar Ale Bread) to moderately laborious (e.g., Smoked Salmon with Ginger and Black Pepper, Olive Focaccia with Lemon). Upscale snacks are making a comeback, and Nims has included fashionable choices such as Kale Chips and gluten-free Cumin-Lentil Crackers. The book requires little special equipment, though a pasta roller helps. VERDICT Recommended for modern hosts and entertainers. For nostalgic or wholesome alternatives, try Lara Ferroni's forthcoming Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk or Sally Sampson's 100-Calorie Snack Cookbook.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Here is a recipe collection sure to hit a homer in the never-ending quest for foodstuffs that act as preludes, interludes, or postludes to any meal, even breakfast. Seattle culinarian Nims (Gourmet Game Night, 2010, and 11 other cookbooks) provides nibbles for an array of more than salty cravings, from vegetarian and meat-seafood to true chips, dips, and spreads. Sprinkled generously among the 75 dishes are wisdom-laden sidebars on, say, the histories of popcorn and potato chips, the science of olive pitting, and the wide differentiations among salts. Prefaced with an unusually robust tools-and-techniques chapter (no, you do not have to buy a dough docker), most, if not all, the recipes, for the likes of duck-fat potato chips, mustard soft pretzels, blue cheese straws, sesame chicken bites, popcorn in many flavors (try chili-lime butter and cotija cheese), quick-pickled vegetables, and feta lemon dip, should prove hard to resist. A list of shopping resources concludes a cookbook that may quickly be well thumbed by readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)